Shadows???

[jknilinux]

That's what I meant by know... Of course the plant isn't sitting there philosophizing as the years go by... LOL

Anyway, you just said yourself the point I'm trying to make: ...because sunlight slows the production of a certain hormone...

So, you both agree that plant cells DO "know" how much light they receive; sunlight affects them. In DB, the best way to let the cells "know" the amount of light they receive is through a sysvar, since bots can't have hormones. That's my point.

Peter-
What does *.sun do?

[Peter]

What does *.sun do?

It returns a true if the plant is facing upwards/towards the sun. The amount of energy you receive can also be readed by reading the negative of the sysvar *.pain.
A hormone like you suggest can that way be selfmade.

[jknilinux]

What does *.sun do?

It returns a true if the plant is facing upwards/towards the sun. The amount of energy you receive can also be readed by reading the negative of the sysvar *.pain.
A hormone like you suggest can that way be selfmade.

Why should they face upward in order for *.sun to be true? So long as they're in the sun, it doesn't matter which way they face... Maybe *.sun should instead be orientation insensitive and return a true if it's not under a bot vertically. Or maybe an analog value from 0 to 1 depending on where in the sim a veggy is, switching instantly to 0 if another bot is overhead.

[Peter]

Why should they face upward in order for *.sun to be true? So long as they're in the sun, it doesn't matter which way they face... Maybe *.sun should instead be orientation insensitive and return a true if it's not under a bot vertically. Or maybe an analog value from 0 to 1 depending on where in the sim a veggy is, switching instantly to 0 if another bot is overhead.

They have to face upwards becouse that is *.sun. Further the bot would need some direction anyway. Altrough that can also be done by using the condition ''314 *.aim ='' instead of ''1 *.sun ='' anyway I think that is what sun is supposed to be doing. Anyone who can correct me.
As sun is then pretty useless if you think about it. And there are (almost) no bots that use it. You could put it inside you starters suggestion.
This is what you're meaning right.
if bot-out-shadow = true {sun = true}

Or maybe if a bot is for a half part receaving sun. Probably not always reaceaving everything, well yes I like this better.
percentage light bot receaves = sun

The sysvar could pretty easy be inplented extra if shaddows where made.

I was more thinking on the way that a bot can see how much nrg they receaved. That is equal to a amount of light. And that way a bot could think on themself. If the light is stronger, they would be growing less becouse they already receave enough. Where light would only a percentage, or do you want an exact number there?

Anyway the *.sun sysvar is pretty useless right now, it may be changed. (who made it up anyway?)

[jknilinux]

Yup, that's what I mean.

And yeah, a veggy could just detect how much energy it's getting once we finally implement that shadow/ray-casting feature, but the real reason why I think we should have a light-detecting sysvar is so predators can use it, like to follow it up to where it's brightest to get to the most veggies... or go away from the sun to attack the veggies' "roots" or "trunk" if the sim has gravity turned on, so all the top veggies come tumbling down. It would be pretty easy for evolution to utilize it, too...