---
title: "Getting started with Chaos Studies"
source: https://chaosstudies.app/docs/getting-started
---

# Getting started with Chaos Studies

## What Chaos Studies is

Chaos Studies is a real-time 3D visualisation of chaotic dynamical systems: strange attractors drawn as animated point clouds. Nine mathematical systems, each with its own visual character, respond to your hands and play a soundtrack placed in space around you.

It runs on iPhone, iPad and Mac from one [App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chaos-studies/id6758313363) purchase, and on Playdate through the [Playdate Catalog](https://play.date/games/chaos-studies/), bought separately.

## The attractors

Each attractor is a set of differential equations that produce deterministic but unpredictable motion. Points trace the attractor's shape in real time, building up a cloud that shows the underlying structure.

1. **[Lorenz](https://chaosstudies.app/attractors/lorenz)**: the classic butterfly. Two lobes connected by a narrow bridge, the system that started chaos theory.
2. **[Rössler](https://chaosstudies.app/attractors/rossler)**: a single-wing spiral that folds back on itself.
3. **[Aizawa](https://chaosstudies.app/attractors/aizawa)**: intertwined loops with a dense, layered structure.
4. **[Burke-Shaw](https://chaosstudies.app/attractors/burke-shaw)**: compact and tightly wound, with fine internal detail.
5. **[Halvorsen](https://chaosstudies.app/attractors/halvorsen)**: three symmetric wings around the centre.
6. **[Chen](https://chaosstudies.app/attractors/chen)**: a Lorenz-like system with wider, more distinct lobes.
7. **[Nose-Hoover](https://chaosstudies.app/attractors/nose-hoover)**: the default. Smooth orbital paths with deceptive complexity.
8. **[Sprott B](https://chaosstudies.app/attractors/sprott-b)**: energetic, spray-like motion in a tight pattern.
9. **[Dadras](https://chaosstudies.app/attractors/dadras)**: fast-moving and multi-layered, with a flowing character.

The [field guide](https://chaosstudies.app/attractors) has the equations, parameters and history of each one.

## iPhone, iPad and Mac

### Controls

- **Drag** to orbit around the attractor
- **Pinch** to zoom in and out
- **Tap** to trigger an explosion: the points scatter and reform
- **Tilt** the device for parallax depth (iPhone and iPad, not Mac)

Release a drag and the rotation carries on with its momentum.

### Settings

The menu screen has buttons in the top right for music and speed settings, help, and dark mode. On iPhone and iPad, shaking the device opens more settings:

- **Dark mode**: white points on black, or black on white
- **Show grid**: the geodesic wireframe overlay
- **Haptics**: tactile feedback on interactions

### Music

Chaos Studies has seven spatial audio stems placed around the listener. As you rotate the camera, the mix shifts: each stem pans and gets quieter or louder with its position relative to the view.

Five presets set the mix:

- **Calm**: tings, pad, drone, cello. Ambient and relaxing.
- **Crisp**: tings, pad, percussion. Brighter and rhythmic.
- **Cine**: tings and cello only.
- **Driven**: all stems.
- **None**: silence. Pick your own stems in the settings.

Each stem can also be turned on or off on its own.

## Playdate

On Playdate the same nine attractors are drawn in 1-bit: thousands of points on a 400 × 240 screen. The [Playdate page](https://chaosstudies.app/playdate) has more on how this version differs.

### Menu screen

- **Up and down**: choose an attractor
- **A button**: start the visualisation
- **Left and right**: add spin
- **B button**: open the instructions

### Visualisation

- **Crank**: rotate vertically around the attractor
- **Up and down**: zoom in and out
- **Left and right**: add horizontal spin with momentum
- **A button**: restart, with the explosion
- **B button**: back to the menu
- **Tilt**: a subtle parallax depth effect

### Settings

In the Playdate system menu:

- **Dark mode**: invert the colours
- **Crank hint**: show or hide the crank indicator when the crank is docked
- **Music**: choose Calm, Crisp or None

## The explosion

Tapping (iPhone, iPad and Mac) or pressing A (Playdate) starts a multi-phase animation: the points implode toward the centre, a ripple scatters them outward, then the attractor explodes into a starfield before it reforms.

Use it to reset the visualisation, or just to watch it.

## Next steps

- [The field guide](https://chaosstudies.app/attractors): the equations, parameters and history of all nine systems
- [What is a strange attractor](https://chaosstudies.app/what-is-a-strange-attractor): the ideas behind the app, with a live simulation
- [Chaos Studies on Playdate](https://chaosstudies.app/playdate): the 1-bit original