Messages

31

Off Topic / Offending avatar?

« on: April 13, 2006, 09:47:42 PM »

 Is my avatar offending to you... It is really important to know...


(ps. I suddenly got really bored... sorry   )

32

Evolution and Internet Sharing Sims / Survival of the flattest

« on: April 13, 2006, 09:41:43 PM »

I know that they have been much talk about this, but it wasnt enough for me, and didnt really explain why the less fit bots didnt got lesser ...

Well then, now we have a name for the "to high mutation rates"... Survival of the flattest, interesting article by the way.

33

Evolution and Internet Sharing Sims / Survival of the flattest

« on: April 13, 2006, 08:56:01 PM »

Okay I will make it short because it is really late at my location...

I read something interesting on the net about the survival of the flattest, if that rings a bell.

My main concern on DB was always that highy fit hand written bots always did de-evolve into something less fit, and thereby the new less fit bot got the overhand in the sim and outcompeted the hand written bots, and in the end the end all bot became extinct. Which for me always seemed very strange. But some research in avida seems to indicate that this is possible when mutations rates are to high.

In short:
that low-performance individuals can outcompete high-performance individuals if they are more robust to mutations. Were robust means, that the DNA (code whatever) are more likely to get mutations which are not fitness decreasing.

Mmmhh, dont really know if we can but something like this onto DB. But somehow it seems to fit better into my DB view. I mean it is perfectly likely that the highly tuned hand written bot will continue to get degrading mutations, often because they have so much interaction between the genes and they are so compacted and structured vs. normal evolved bots, were the code often is in a messy state....

Just some random rabble... Hope I manage to get something meaning out of it.

34

Suggestions / Regarding the enviroment grid!

« on: April 12, 2006, 01:01:59 PM »

OK sounds good to me....

35

Suggestions / No GUI

« on: April 12, 2006, 12:46:29 PM »

Mmmm, I see you point. Believe you in the the GUI dont slow down the sim, but some testing is worth a shot or so I think.

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Suggestions / Regarding the enviroment grid!

« on: April 12, 2006, 12:32:16 PM »

Multi-threaded bugs are a bitch to find sometimes...

Oh you bet. I have just made an exam project about diskscheduling in C on linux/unix machines, with thread, mutex' you name it, I have used it.
My program compiled perfectly etc., but when run I got an error ---> killed (in 1 out of 10)! The program just returned the text "killed" instead of some error or something!!!! I were able to track it down to just one line of code, a free()! When I removed this single line the program did run fine, excepted that the program then had a memory leak then... It took me well of 6 hours to track this shit down.... But I settled for some mixed approach, indicating it in my paper... Well back to topic... right

37

Off Topic / The frustrations of a returner ^^

« on: April 12, 2006, 12:21:14 PM »

Hi Welwordion.

I personally havnt really tried (ever) to make a bot. Mainly becuase of I more interested in evolution and not direct bot making, so even that I reguarly check the forum, "playing" a little DB , I still wait for my original idea to emerge.  

You are not behind, wait for the C version (but dont leave us in the meantime) and I think that the tutorials will be as numerous as bots them self....

38

Newbie / HazD

« on: April 12, 2006, 12:16:28 PM »

Welcome HazD, nice to see more people dropping in.

39

Suggestions / No GUI

« on: April 12, 2006, 12:15:17 PM »

I just want to ask you if the final (oooohhh many lines of code to be written before that happens) C version, will include something similar to avida command line? I mean no GUI what so ever just the program running in the background dropping data files and saving once in a while. I am asking this, 'cous the GUI will get the program running much slower (and there is no idea in having a GUI if it should just run over night or something, you know, and so a lot of CPU cycles will be spared). I tried something like this in VB, but it is not really possible, or so I think.

Just some random thought again.

Okay I am not sure it was avida, maybe Tierra, doesnt matter really.

40

Suggestions / Regarding the enviroment grid!

« on: April 12, 2006, 11:58:38 AM »

EricL that might just be true. About the UI (GUI) I already hinted that Num had incorporated a secondary therad, but it was just some random thoughts shooting wild. I really hope to see a nicely implemented enviroment grid w. diffusion etc., and I really hope that Num will succed.

Regarding the algorithmic approach I cannot agree more, and Num have already found numerous ways to improve both eye-recognition and the collision detection. But w/o some miracle, the improvements in this area (which alone, threads will not improve at all) will do nothing, unless we settle for some less than perfect approach regarding the grid. However this might be the case (f.ex. we just update the grid every 10th cycle or something like this) we will end up with, and I think all (including me) are more than happy to get the grid going, with a more interesting DB as a result.

Btw. DB is not entirely CPU bound. Some autosaving can be switched on, and here threading will do. Maybe we could implement both, I dont know, only time will tell.

41

Suggestions / Regarding the enviroment grid!

« on: April 09, 2006, 04:15:06 PM »

Geee I have "easter free" as I might put it. It will think a little more about it, but maybe I come up with nada!

42

Suggestions / Regarding the enviroment grid!

« on: April 09, 2006, 04:00:21 PM »

Okay I have thought about the environment grid, and under all circumstances we need it.

What is the problem:
To CPU expensive, will slow down the simulation a lot! (Just to update others)

So what can we do? I have read on our wiki about this, and I recently had a course at uni, about OS' and Multiprogramming, so a simple idea started to form in my tiny head. In the VB version it will be nearly impossible to add threads (the timer being the best bet), but I the C version, it should be no problem, or so I think (but I do not known how we do it exactly). We could have a main thread with as it is now, and a secondary environment grid thread. Still this needs some more considerations, as is, but right now the C version is threaded, by the one main and the GUI.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

43

Off Topic / Happy Birthday...

« on: March 30, 2006, 11:40:51 AM »

A little late, but happy birthday.

44

Suggestions / Codules

« on: March 30, 2006, 11:32:24 AM »

I did just read the first 5-10 lines of your first post Num, and I think GREAT idea, I really like it alot.... Open up for alot of possibilities....

45

Suggestions / Metabolism and Metabolic DNA

« on: March 03, 2006, 10:33:49 AM »

Supporting Henk & Num... Indeed the DNA should 'evolve'