100x Gravity Snail - Evolved Virtual Creature

This creature is from a population evolved in 3DVCE with the gravity settings increased to 100 times the default value. At this gravity strength many, if not most, creatures die right away from a joint breaking due to the torque produced by the weight of their own limbs. But early on in a run those creatures are weeded out and the survivors reproduce and vary.

The movements almost certainly have nothing to do with the 'muscles' (servo motors) at the creature's joints, and have more to do with forces being generated by the physics engine itself to compensate for the extreme gravity (objects intersecting and repelling and such). Still, it's interesting that the population can evolve to make use of the physics engine in this way.

This creature was kindly evolved and sent in by Nathanael Plapp.

Want to evolve unique creatures of your own? Visit the project web site at:
http://www.stellaralchemy.com/lee/virtual_creatures.html

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• 3D
• virtual
• creature
• evolution
• genetic
• algorithm

[manrayer88]

I hope one day we can have all these creatures evolving in a minecraft-like world we can explore

[kjlg74]

@manrayer88 Me too! It could be quite fun to explore such a world. Maybe one day.

[TheReasonWhyGuy]

honestly, I wish twitching as a form of movement could be prevented :(

Hell, I think I've tinkered around with servo speed, and that only seemed to make it a little less common :|

[kjlg74]

@TheReasonWhyGuy I agree. I think your suggestion about taking energy consumption into account might be the best way to thwart it.

[Yumminess0]

lol when you made a bunch some fell over but they didnt die, which is surprising =D I wonder how many times as much gravity than usual they can resist? Also, do they actually walk in normal gravity? it would be proof as to whether it moves on its own or not. well... I dont think it could move at 100x gravity even if it could at normal gravity, now that I think about it...

[kjlg74]

The user who made this creatures also tried to put gravity as high as he could. I still have a creature or two from him, meant for even higher gravity. Eventually I'll record and post those. With gravity this high, I think movement has almost nothing to do with muscles (well, servo motors), and is all about "abuse" of the physics engine.

[ratelslangen]

@manrayer88 you can mod them!!! theres a programm. you must place the blocks in the right place and add the movements

[iamsandwich]

smart one

[MediaFilter]

Happy Snails!

[ScientificExploits]

Why did they evolve shells?

[ehhhhhhhhhh]

Love this one.

[WhisperShift]

@klg74 What would be awesome is if eventually you could not only take energy consumption into account, but have little energy cubes available, such as having lots of low-value energy cubes easier to get with higher value cubes harder to reach. You could then see if they evolve methods to harvest small cubes quickly or work harder to get the high value cubes. (ie grazing vs hunting). Creature that has the highest energy stores in the end wins.