Strange Buil-ups

[Testlund]

I'm not sure what to think about this, but this is how version 2.36.7 looks when it works the best. On the picture you can see bots getting stuck and multiply, slowly building up towards the top of the screen. The green are veggies (of course) and the purple-grayish are either Triangulus Patavinus or Animal Minimalis (started with the two species, don't know wich survived. When trying to find information about the species by clicking on 'Robot Options->Robot data->Dna' it crashed. Run-Time error 91), the white are dead bots.

It's unnatural that the bots get stuck in nowhere without moving, but one can also pretend they attach themselves to the glass of the bowl. Reminding me about my own aquarium where different aglea grows on the glass. lol. Haven't tried any other bots. I like to start out with the most primitive and see it evolve. I guess the above mensioned species are the most primitive here, right? So, maybe they are too primitive to swim around but may evolve to more advanced swimming cells later. MAYBE!

Note that the version on the picture says 2.36.5 when it's actually 2.36.7. ..or maybe you just changed the filename for this version. hehe.  :P

[Numsgil]

Haha, that's pretty cool.  A couple other people from time to time complain about "levitating" veggies.

In this case it may be that the veggies are fixed.  See if you can open the robot console for one of the veggies and type "? .fixed"

If it returns 1, they're fixed.

[Griz]

Testlund ...
would you attach your setting file for this ...
so I could explore/duplicate what you see?

last time I tried to attach a xxx.set file ...
was told I couldn't upload that type ...
so had to alter it to xxx.txt

Nums, PY ...
could we use a space like the beastary to stash setting files?
someplace folks could go to download and explore what others are doing?
the author could describe the version used and what bots or unusually settings
were used ... even what they are attempting to explore.
then others can pick up the ball and run with it.
in the process we may learn what does/doesn't work in various versions ...
or learn to avoid the mistakes others make ...
you know ... we're all I this together ...
so might as well evovle together. ;)

tanks

~griz~

[Testlund]

I've thought about that too that it whould be interesting what settings people are using. Personally I want to have the settings as close to mother nature's rules as possible. Maybe you could add default buttons on all settings tabs for that in future versions, cause I'm not sure what values to chose. Here are the settings file I use:

(Note that you have to manually put check marks in Enable Corpses and Boyancy and lower the waste Threshold to 100. That doesn't get saved in the settings file.)

[Numsgil]

The best way probably would be to save a simulation like 1 cycle in, so all the bots, etc. are guarenteed to be there...

[Griz]

The best way probably would be to save a simulation like 1 cycle in, so all the bots, etc. are guarenteed to be there...

problem is ... sims can run 1.5MB

tanks Testlund ...
will check it out.

[Numsgil]

Generally not if you zip them.

So much of the save data is repetitive that zipping it saves upwards of 90% file size.

[Griz]

Testlund ...
re: your Darwin2367 settings:

are you running the sysvars2.21 from 2.36 or has it been overwritten by sysvars2.21 from ver 2.44?
I'm still trying to sort out the differences this can make ...
I AM using the 2.44 sysvars so just want to see if we are on the same page.
noticed this is in pond mode ... light intensity 50, sediment .2 and day cycles enabled.
veggies constraned to 100, repop under 20.
and a MASSIVE field size of 24000 x 18000!!!
I fully expect to get some sort of runtime error here as population increases.
if so, I'll do it with a more standard field size ... I try to stick to FI setting whenever possible.
what thoughts have others on field size ... any problems there?

tanks

[Griz]

  Generally not if you zip them.
So much of the save data is repetitive that zipping it saves upwards of 90% file size.

ah ... ok.
so perhaps we can build a directory here on the forum ...
for saving settings and/or sims ... with a description of what we are doing.

onward

[Testlund]

Testlund ...
re: your Darwin2367 settings:

are you running the sysvars2.21 from 2.36 or has it been overwritten by sysvars2.21 from ver 2.44?

I make sure to use the right sysvars for the right versions, so the sysvar is for the 2.36.7 version.

[Numsgil]

Newer sysvars are generally backwards compatible, so as long as you have the newest, your version will work like it always did.

I've created a simulation emporium for zipping and saving simulations/settings.

[Griz]

Newer sysvars are generally backwards compatible, so as long as you have the newest, your version will work like it always did.

what does 'generally' compatible mean? ;)
well ... that hasn't been my experience.
it seems to make a difference ... but it's difficult to tell for sure as
I get so many errors that I can't really do any real troubleshooting
or isolation of any one problem.
but things appears to happen differently with different sysvars.
now that I can actually run a few different versions ...
perhaps I can come up with a simple test sim to check it out.
and one must also remember to designate/force a 'seed' ...
to eliminate that as one of the variables.
 

I've created a simulation emporium for zipping and saving simulations/settings.

great.

[Numsgil]

Gnerally compatible means that as long as the number of entries in sysvars2.21.text is <= 200 they're 100% backwards compatible.

I don't think we're there yet, but we're awefully close.

[PurpleYouko]

Sysvars 2.21 was created because sysvars.txt couldn't get any bigger without making it impossible for the older versions of the program to load it. They could only hold 100 sysvar labels internally.

When we finally exceed 200 then we will introduce a new sysvars file and tell the newer programs to read from it instead. Until we reach that point just use the newest sysvars file that you have and all versions will run happily with it.

All the sysvars does is to provide the program with a list of labels for memory locations so that it can decipher bot DNA code. Ironicaly if you run a very old version of DB with a very new sysvars and a very new bot DNA file, it will see all the DNA values as labels in the DNA window but a lot of them won't actually do anything in the program.