Virtual Creature Evolution Sequence 2 - Flat Back

[MuslimRationalizer]

Dude what in the world is that creature, it looks like a mentally retarded minecraft character.

[TheRealLaugh99]

its.. its... its beautiful!

[kjlg74]

@TheRealLaugh99 Thanks :)

[MuFu23]

How do you make more than one creature appear on-screen at once? :o

[kjlg74]

@MuFu23 It's a bit complicated. PM me if you like, and I can explain. Unfortunately, it's only really useful for recording videos - once there are several creatures moving at once, the frame rate drops down to a super-slow slide-show. I speed the result back up to normal when I create the YT video.

[AankerStoneshield]

What are the possibilities of implementing an energy consumption mechanic, i.e. where the creature attempts to gather energy by, for instance, hunting other creatures, and then consumes that energy by moving its limbs?

[kjlg74]

@AankerStoneshield I've often considered some features like that. I might try to make an improved version one day, and add that feature (and many others).

[TriKri]

It flapped six times for each jump on the moon; one time to leave ground and then five times in the air :P

[god0fgod]

There needs to be a Mac version for this. Also creating some sort of distributed computing network could make this really interesting.

[kjlg74]

@god0fgod Good ideas! Thanks for the suggestions.

[Diabolka666]

really great work, thanks

[kjlg74]

@Diabolka666 Thank you :)

[hercion]

keep on pushing. this is great work!

[kjlg74]

@hercion Thanks a lot :)

[astrophil79]

Amazing! Great work. -a

[kjlg74]

@astrophil79 Thanks :)

[snaveedimran]

Thanks for sharing nice work.

[kjlg74]

@snaveedimran Thank you! :)

[snaveedimran]

Nice simulation. I'm wondering why only the blocks are used in the simulation, why not spheres ...and irregular shapes.

[kjlg74]

@snaveedimran That's a feature I'd like to add some day. Especially irregular shapes. It's not there now just because I was in a hurry back when I wrote this. I was just happy to get something up an running.

[tostrong4you]

Awesome presentation! I have been making mine for a while now but I seem to have a problem with having it run while im working with other programs, I tried that "temorary ignore keyboard" and then pressing alt+tab but at the end of the day, it hasn't changed. Plus the screen is bigger than my screen so I cannot see the edges, I think I will reinstall it. Will I lose the saved data?

[kjlg74]

@tostrong4you When the little message window shows up telling you that keyboard input will be ignored, are you clicking the OK button before you press alt-tab? If not, that's probably the problem.

Reinstalling won't do any damage as long as you know where you saved your .evolution file. Wherever that file is, it will have a folder with the same name (example: first_try.evolution would be next to a folder called first_try). As long as you don't delete those things, you'll be fine.

[Aoitetsugakusha]

I noticed, as in the creature at 1:50, some pieces seem repeated in apparently unrelated areas of the organism. Is there some sort of generative encoding being used for this population of creatures?

[kjlg74]

@Aoitetsugakusha Yes. You're right. The genome codes for a number of types of body parts and each part can sprout branches. Each branch can be made from any of the types of body parts in the genome, so it's quite possible (it happens often) that the same type of body part appears in several places on the body. Sometimes smaller, sometimes larger, sometimes as a mirror image for two-way symmetry.

[keysle]

lol, "No pun intended"

I'm still watching ur vids dude

[kjlg74]

;D Thanks, keysle!

[steffankaizer]

aparently kontaktsensors and the corresponding brainwireing are not a big hit. thats a loss for effitiency maybe you should provide the selection with chainging gravity once i a while

[kjlg74]

Yes, the contact sensors often don't get used. Unpredictable gravity might help encourage their use. That makes sense.

Another method that seems to work, based on some creatures I've seen from this program, is to remove sine-wave generators from the list of available components used to build the "brains". It makes mindless repetitive movements harder to evolve and forces creatures to actually respond, moment-to-moment, to their environments through the sensors.

[TheRealShadowBrain]

Could you PLEASE release some kind of update to the program?

It hasn't been updated since 2007...

[kjlg74]

I hope so. I will try, but in my current situation I just can't make any promises or set any deadlines. I very much want to write and release updates.

[AndrewKulcsar]

If you pardon my bluntness... I think I just had a brain-gasm.

[kjlg74]

Thanks! ..I think! ;D

[kiml42]

Interesting creatures, and excellent commentary.

[kjlg74]

Thank you :)

[TheReasonWhyGuy]

I like when you speak over the videos :)

[kjlg74]

Thanks :)

I'll probably try some more like this sometime.

[TheReasonWhyGuy]

@kjlg74 And I'll enjoy them... as I think more people would too :)

[kjlg74]

I hope you're right. Thanks again! :)

[belliebum12]

You should narrate more of your videos, because this video completely outclassed your normal virtual creature videos. Good job. :)

[kjlg74]

Thanks a lot :)

I might do that, provided there's something interesting to say for the creature I'm recording.

I recorded the audio first and then cut, trimmed, and spliced the footage to fit with it. I think it forced me to keep the video shorter. Without narration, I probably would have filled a whole ten minutes on this one.

[Houshalter]

It just shows how rapidly evolution can change a form and then keep it that way for thousands of generations.

[kjlg74]

Just about all the runs seem to come out that way - rapid change early on followed by slow gradual refinement of a more-or-less fixed body plan.

[Houshalter]

And creationists arugue there should be transistional forms...

[kjlg74]

Yes, and deny the transitional status of those that have been found.

[newcoleco]

A very good climber, and moon explorer, I'm so proud of it.

Very interresting. So, its head was its foot at some points. Do you think its head evolved more to help climbing the rough terrain or to gain in stability?

Thanks for the extra ending, poor creature! ;-)

[kjlg74]

I'm not sure why it made that direction change. Maybe it was easier to just use the available limb instead of modifying the larger one. By generation 150 the large limb was kicking so hard it would often land badly, tip onto its back, and become stuck. Before generation 150 that didn't matter, but afterward maybe it was just easier to make use of the weaker kicks from the small white limb than to reduce the kick strength on the big one.

[1GOD1JESUS]

they jump like kangaroos