Thread: Evolution Software

I just finished a project I've been contemplating for quite some time. Its a simple program with little creatures that evolve over time and I've been able to evolve a few interesting creatures. Things that evade other creatures, find food, avoid walls etc, however it takes time. Not quite as much time as real world evolution but enough to make me wish there were a few more instances of the program running. I was wondering if anyone with some knowledge of actual evolutionary processes wanted to give it a try and some feedback?

The software can be found here: Home


Thanks!

Not quite as much time as real world evolution


Ha ha, good job!

I was actually looking for a similar program recently. Played around with it for a bit there for the last half hour. I was trying to limit food to create a selection for more mobile creatures that could seek food, I turned all the food sliders to 0 but it still kept generating more after I killed a lot of creatures off by limiting old age? A magnifying-glass-type zoom function would be good, it was a bit cumbersome to have to zoom then move about to try and find what you wanted to zoom to. And the carnivore:herbivore ratio, what does that refer to?

The creature themselves are food when they die. Also, for the same reason as you, I wanted to make food harder to get to. I kept winding up with a field of food and creatures that just sit there. The workaround solution is that food groups together, you can set the size of the groups and the speed at which it groups together. At higher numbers it does have a negative effect on processing time and slows the simulation down.

Also, once you set the variables you might want to walk away for a time as it can take a few dozen generations to see any true changes.

Carnivore has an effect on the creatures total ability to hurt another creature and the energy it gains from killing it.
Herbivore changes how fast a creature can absorb food. Its random at first and evolves over time, so a creature with a very high attribute either way probably survived more because of it.

You can just double click the screen to zoom in and double right click to zoom out. Also if you select the track checkbox it will follow whatever creature you are interested in.


You may also want to check out: skullsprout dot com: home for another take on the same type of software. Adam & I collaborated on the two projects simultaneously, his is quite elegant. He is much more of a purist than I, his has a lot more physics and looks nicer too!

I have seen a few hudred downloads and am very pleased with the feedback, thanks!

There is a new version of the software at Home that uploads your best creatures to the internet and downloads other best creatures after one of your creatures reaches the 10th generation.


I am hopeful that this will increase the genetic pool and make the simulation more interesting.