i'm not looking for a heuristic approach. anyway, i think this is the one you remember: http://alteredqualia.com/visualization/evolve/. but it actually uses a form of simulated annealing and it uses polygones (not rects).
But in fact i did something using rectangles and a genetic algorithm (inspired by the above): http://kallaballa.soup.io/post/466848221/Again-im-trying-to-approximate-pixel-art
On Mon, 03 Nov 2014 18:36:24 +0100, Metalab General Discussion List <metalab@lists.metalab.at> wrote:
This sounds a bit like the "genetic algorithm approximating the mona lisa with rectangles" a few years back. Depending on what you're using it for, there may be some original research involved :)
can't wait to see the result tbh