Cell Swarming

Theorist Posts : 87 Reputation : 26 Join date : 2014-09-07

Taking this video as inspiration here is some very naive swarming mechanics.

Swarming is quite an important part of the game because it's the mechanism by which you get to the next stage so it has to be good.

Watching it made me think a lot about how fast the game is going to be, right now it's very leisurely but that ecoli video is bonkers. (It may well be sped up).

Finding the right speed is going to be difficult.

Also it would be nice if there were organisms which wanted to be close together but sat mostly still (though maybe that's just them going very slowly in this fashion).

Code:: import pygame
import math
import random
from pygame.locals import *

#setup

background_colour = (255,255,255)
(width, height) = (600, 300)

screen = pygame.display.set_mode((width, height))#,pygame.FULLSCREEN)
screen.fill(background_colour)
pygame.display.set_caption('Swarming')
pygame.font.init()

myfont = pygame.font.SysFont("monospace", 20)

def distance(i,j):
return math.sqrt((i.x - j.x)**2 + (i.y - j.y)**2)

class animal:
def __init__(self):
   self.x = random.randint(-100,100)
   self.y = random.randint(-100,100)
   self.dx = 1
   self.dy = 1
   self.angle = random.uniform(0,2*math.pi)

def display(self):
   pygame.draw.circle(screen, (255,0,0), [int(self.x + width/2), int(self.y + height/2)], 5)
   endx = self.x - 15*math.cos(self.angle)
   endy = self.y - 15*math.sin(self.angle)
   pygame.draw.line(screen, (0,0,255), [int(self.x + width/2), int(self.y + height/2)],
      [int(endx + width/2), int(endy + height/2)], 3)

def think(self, mousepos):
   bros = []
   for i in animals:
      bros.append([i,distance(self,i)])
   bros.sort(key = lambda bros: bros[1])
   if bros[1][1] <= 20:
      self.dx += 0.1*(self.x - bros[1][0].x)
      self.dy += 0.1*(self.y - bros[1][0].y)
   if math.sqrt((self.x - mousepos[0])**2 + (self.y - mousepos[1])**2) <= 50:
      self.dx += 0.1*(self.x - mousepos[0])
      self.dy += 0.1*(self.y - mousepos[1])
   for i in bros:
      if i[1] <= 100:
         self.dx += -0.0002*(self.x - i[0].x)
         self.dy += -0.0002*(self.y - i[0].y)
   if abs(self.dx) >= 5:
      self.dx = self.dx*0.9
   if abs(self.dy) >= 5:
      self.dy = self.dy*0.9

def update(self):
   timestep = 0.3
   self.x += self.dx*timestep
   self.y += self.dy*timestep
   if self.x >= width/2:
      self.x += -width
   if self.x <= -width/2:
      self.x += width
   if self.y >= height/2:
      self.y += -height
   if self.y <= -height/2:
      self.y += height
   self.angle = math.atan2(self.dy, self.dx)

animals = []
for i in range(50):
animals.append(animal())

running = True
while running:
for event in pygame.event.get():
if event.type == pygame.QUIT:
running = False
elif event.type == KEYDOWN:
if event.key == K_ESCAPE:
running = False

screen.fill(background_colour)

mousepos = [pygame.mouse.get_pos()[0] - width/2, pygame.mouse.get_pos()[1] - height/2]

for i in animals:
   i.display()
   i.think(mousepos)
   i.update()

pygame.display.flip()

pygame.quit()

Subject: Re: Cell Swarming Wed Apr 08, 2015 9:47 am

Huh. That's not how I pictured swarming. Interesting video.

The first one should definitely not be used for gameplay. It's far too fast for gameplay, even if it is realistic. Although I guess that's obvious. (And by the way, I don't think it's sped up, as the seconds in the top left must be there for some purpose. This is unless they were trying to fool viewers.)

I would even go so far as to say the second is a bit quick too. Plus, I would assume that the numbers would have to be less than this or the computer might explode, especially if there are multiple swarms. Also, can you even zoom out enough to get this view. It would be closer up and so the microbes would flit across the screen even more.

Theorist Posts : 87 Reputation : 26 Join date : 2014-09-07

I hadn't noticed the timestamp, I guess it looks fast because it's micrometers.

If the gameplay is to be unrealistically slow then how slow? How should it feel?

At first I thought a swarm of that speed was madness but then I thought about bison stampedes in old west films.

Maybe there could be microbes whose strategy is to trample anyone in their path.

Subject: Re: Cell Swarming Wed Apr 08, 2015 10:45 am

I don't think those buffalo in that bullalo video move as fast as those microbes. I think that speed would be accecptable. It's not unmanageably fast, but it's not slow either. It can't be too fast to be uncomfortable to view. I think your version is just a bit too fast.

I'm not sure that microbes trampling microbes would be an effective method. They could, however, surround the microbe preventing an escape...which would probably require a complex signal agent.

Edit: Sorry, I misread something. I think the buffalos are a fine speed.

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