Life Simulation
Games
artificial life simulation
SHOW HN2021
How HN took it
8 positive, 10 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 2 critical, out of 20 comments about the project. Thread score +0.21.
Idea: 4 for, 0 againstExecution: 1 for, 1 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Fascinating emergent behaviour from simple rules
From 3 comments
This is super nice: I sat for nearly 10 min observing how the numbers go up and dow and how they consume each other.
cosmodisk on HNMuch more interesting than Conway's game of life! Thanks for sharing.
bschwindHN on HNI had to close the tab because I know I will stare at it for a while and I'm at work. Really interesting. Is the "biot" name a reference to Rendezvous with Rama?
ASalazarMX on HN
Easy port to the web with Macroquad
From 2 comments
Macroquad is great, it does make that virtually effortless. Nice work!
jacobmischka on HNI made this simple 2D simulation of life using Rust. I find it fascinating to see how complex patterns can emerge from simple rules, and how well natural selection works! The…
joelthelion on HN
Objections
Performance drops badly once biot count grows past 3000, especially on phone
From 1 comment
This is neat! The simulation didn't remain "stable" for me for very long though; biot count pushed over 3000 and I dropped to just a few fps. I'm on a phone and I'm also a bit…
krisrm on HN
Hard to tell colour and shape meanings and colour blindness makes it harder
From 2 comments
This is neat! The simulation didn't remain "stable" for me for very long though; biot count pushed over 3000 and I dropped to just a few fps. I'm on a phone and I'm also a bit…
krisrm on HNQuestion - it seems you explained what all the colors do, but what do the different shapes mean (squares and circles)?
SkyMarshal on HN
Requests
Run as an XScreenSaver or Linux screensaver
From 2 comments
This is extremely cool! I wonder how much work it would be to bundle it up into an XScreenSaver-compatible binary. Edit: It looks like running it locally on X11 is trivial, so…
woodruffw on HNNeat. Is there a way I can use this as a screensaver on linux?
8589934591 on HN
Keyboard shortcuts to skip generations
From 1 comment
Could you add some keyboard shortcuts to make it skip a few dozen generations?
lloydatkinson on HN
Port to wgpu and run simulation on GPU
From 1 comment
Awesome! Now you gotta port it to wgpu and run the simulation on the GPU!
nynx on HN
Questions
What do the square and circle shapes mean
From 2 comments
Question - it seems you explained what all the colors do, but what do the different shapes mean (squares and circles)?
SkyMarshal on HNSquare indicates intelligence, which allows them to move non randomly towards the nearest edible biot (it’s on the page right after the bullet points).
alexeldeib on HN
Is this a specific algorithm like Conway's Game of Life
From 2 comments
Is this a specific algorithm, defined like conways game of life? I have never read any Rust source code, so I would like to unterstand it generally...
la_fayette on HNThis is closer to real life than Conway's algorithm. Biots are able to move freely, have a very simple genome that gives them unique characteristics, and natural selection does…
joelthelion on HN
How was Rust compiled for the web
From 2 comments
That looks really cool! What graphics library did you use or did you make your own? Also how did you compile rust code for the web? And were there any challenges with it like…
worldmerge on HNAnswer to both questions: https://macroquad.rs/
jacobmischka on HN
Alternatives named
Conway's Game of Life
From 2 comments
Much more interesting than Conway's game of life! Thanks for sharing.
bschwindHN on HNThis is closer to real life than Conway's algorithm. Biots are able to move freely, have a very simple genome that gives them unique characteristics, and natural selection does…
joelthelion on HN
Substrate screensaver by Jamie Zawinski
From 1 comment
That would be great. Another awesome screensaver is called substrate and included in the set 1) by Jamie Zawinski ( among the founders of Netscape and Mozilla ). 1)…
Datagenerator on HN