Herding in an Artificial Life Ecosystem Evolution Simulation | Boids Algorithm Implementation

Long in the making, it's finally here.
Today, I present the inner workings of how I added Herding in The Bibites Simulation based on the boid algorithm. The Bibites are now free to evolve complex behaviors using their dynamic and evolution-based neural networks, as well as a few new genes to control and tune that new functionality.
I now present a few interactions I observed, especially in interaction with the last features I presented in my last video.
And finally, a big announcement!
Links :
Video about the basic simulation: • How I created an evolv...
Video about Viruses: • How I added Viruses i...
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Follow me on Twitter : / tbibites
Support the project on Patreon : / thebibites
Join the community on Reddit : / thebibites
Download and play the game : leocaussan.itch.io/the-bibites
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Credits:
Intro song + Transition card tune: Fireballme
music playing at (3:30)
Inscencer Long (1 hour) by P C III
Downloaded from freemusicarchive.org/music/P_C...
#evolution #AI #devlog #simulation #ecosystem

[@EdgedPixie]

I have a suspicion that this project is gonna be super well-known in like a year.

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks 😁 I sure hope so

[@pvic6959]

pshhh dont even need a year

[@pollo_frito22]

That's completely right. I had interest in this kind of proyects and I don't know how I didn't discover this awesome project before!

[@angryaromatisse1801]

This comment has aged very well :)

[@mollthecoder]

1 year milestone

[@n8programs733]

I was skeptical of the bibites ability to develop behaviors more complicated than simply going after food - so the advancer herd dynamics and conditional behavior in this video really shocked me! Best of luck developing this - its some of the most advanced artificial life I have seen :)

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks a lot :) Yeah, I'm always impressed by what behaviors pops-up some times! Especially that kind of parenting behavior I've shown, can't wait to develop this further

[@n8programs733]

@@TheBibitesDigitalLife Yea that parenting behavior - mind blowing. Super cool to see some interaction beyond predator-prey between bibites. Best of luck developing!

[@Finnie1203]

Its weird to me. I was running a simulation on 12 times speed. After like 24 of in game time almost nothing evolved, it was still just bibites going forward randomly. how long does it take for you to have your bibites evolve?

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Depends a lot in the simulation settings you chose. Different settings will result in different adaptations. Some settings combination even make it too hard for life to develop so you're stuck with generations 0. If you just want to see a population stick you can use the "Helpful Initial Connections" setting to 2 or more, they should have an easier time sticking around

[@n8programs733]

@@Finnie1203 For me, my bibites are always competently getting food around the 50th generation.But that's just on default settings.

[@TodePond]

The herding behaviour looks amazing! So many possibilities!

[@tylerroyb2585]

Aye

[@person4579]

And its probably more advanced then most virtual creatures

[@nathanwi1147]

I'm your 69th like

[@SpunkyMcGoo]

The infection pheromone evolution was super cool!

[@Graverman]

can’t wait for bibites to be smarter than me, not like that’s a huge advancement but still

[@user-cd4bx6uq1y]

69 likes lol..... I liked this comment like 2 weeks ago and here we are now

[@whannabi]

They can't write a comment yet so I guess you can feel superior right now

[@kanapken1447]

@@whannabi 'right now'

[@TheYeetedMeat]

They’re handfed the ability to see, meanwhile you have the capability of interpreting and figure out arrangements of light without directly being told that it’s an object. You’re smarter.

[@akiamini4006]

Its impossible to see that happen on this engine and this amount of brains put into the subject .

[@niklasneighbor6726]

You should give them the ability to build dens where they store food! Would be interesting to maybe see them form colonies of multiple bibites sharing dens where they cooperate to search for food. An interesting behavior could emerge if they left a pheromone train when searching for food and following it back when they want to return home. Maybe they could leave a separate trail for others from their colony to help guide them to larger batches of food.

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Good ideas all around!

[@martinbasille3935]

I think it would be amazing if the pellets were also alive, as plants. They wouldn't have the ability to move, but would be able to spread seeds away. Some parameters for these plants can be an ideal tempeture for spreading (may be a way to implement biomes, with variable tempetures), spreading distance, or toxicity, which would make some species more dangerous than others. You can take the ideas that you think are good, if there are some. I think this project is incredible !

[@connorhaley3190]

I think plant pellets are more similar to algae

[@thoseoneguy9554]

Suggestion: add a graph that shows the population/infected population, and how sick someone is, and/or a family tree that you can open, I think that would be super cool

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Most of those are planned at some point !

[@SalreixVonOtsuu]

i've never heard of something like this before, and the concept of behaviors you can't predict naturally occurring (IE the babies following the parents) very unique

[@nicolaromano4065]

Thats probably the most intresting life simulation project i v ever seen, gg

[@craycrayjames]

I am so happy to finally be able to catch a stream! I have been working on a similar project inspired by the Bibites for a long while now. You have been a big inspiration for me throughout my undergrad! :)

[@hobrin4242]

Same here. However not for a long while.

[@fiona9891]

this is really cool and very impressive, i've been following evolution simulators on youtube for a while and this is possibly the most interesting one i've come across so far

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks! Means a lot 😁 Hope it'll be enough to get you subscribed 😏

[@antonstezhkin5991]

I like that moment with bibbits rotating. Looks like a disco party!

[@criszis]

This is so cool, can't wait.

[@genericytprofile852]

They're moving in herds...they do move in herds! Btw glad to see you're doing what you really enjoy in life. But don't ever feel like you can't do a part time job, or some sort of supplementary income. It'll take a while for this project to support you but that's ok. Can't wait to see what comes next!

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks a lot 😁 And yeah absolutely, I'll see how it goes

[@eleanormaraal5402]

Honestly if you had to stop for a year I’d be happy to wait. The bibites are awesome.

[@imconfusednow]

Hype hype hype

[@ebrahimmomin7518]

triple hype

[@silvertheelf]

Hype hype hype 2.0

[@TheMagicalNam]

Hype hype hype 3.0

[@erellggbg8744]

AHH yes, i've waited so much for this video ! I hope you know how much means to some of us :D

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks a lot 😁 I put in a lot of efforts too, I hope I'll meet expectations

[@Kram1032]

Evolutionary BOIDS is super interesting. I'm surprised this is the first time I see somebody attempt this. Makes a lot of sense!

[@goatfood1504]

This is one of the coolest projects I’ve ever seen.

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks a lot 😁 I hope to make it even cooler

[@connorhaley3190]

@@TheBibitesDigitalLife you sure did, and you’ll surely will.

[@shatandv]

Hey, I love what you’re doing with the life simulation! You can for sure be more confident in the project :) I’m gonna support you in this. By the way, I believe that a simple environment simulation would be a good addition earlier on. Since evolution is a process of adaptation to survive and reproduce in the environment, that seems to have a lot of potential for the complexity that will evolve. That would be very fun! As well as more realistic Take care!

[@luciangg1553]

I wood like to see you adding plant evolution and digestive evolution, and stuff like that For example Plants can have different vitamins And bibits would need difrent digestive systems in order to eat them

[@mozarteanchaos]

that'd be super neat! if i may add on to it, it could be interesting if some plants could evolve to be toxic, and some bibites could then evolve to tolerate or even repurpose that toxin for their own uses

[@luciangg1553]

@@mozarteanchaosinteresting ideea, If I can add some more to it : carnivore bibits would evolve to tolerate the poison too, and if a bibit evolves to tolerate poison and use it for himself, non poisonous food will not give them alot of nutrients , since they are getting used to the poisonous food, and they will lose there poison if they won't eat poisonous food for a while

[@mozarteanchaos]

@@luciangg1553 oh, very cool ideas o: i don't have a lot to add to that one, but it's definitely neat

[@iv9753]

This project is truly amazing.

[@dean8100]

This is really cool! I've always been amazed by these types of video's and you nail it, keep it up!

[@cretarius729]

I really enjoyed the "examples" segment. You should consider making a nature documentary style video where you explore the behaviour of specific species (after running the simulation for a while).

[@markfriese5970]

If one day, this is some amazing extremely complex AI system, I'd gladly pay for it on steam!

[@LuxFuxx]

Algorithm Gods, I beseech ye! Please, bless this video! I don't know how I stumbled across this channel but I'm glad I did. A lot of this is way above my knowledge level, but you make this so easy and pleasant to follow. I like your humor and editing, it ads a lot of personality to the Bibites as a whole while they're still learning. Great job with this project, it's super interesting. I hope a lot more eyes can see this and help support you and the Bibites. Thanks for the great content.

[@zacharyip5769]

I've been wanting to do a project like this for such a long time, but never knew how to approach it!! Seeing your progress is very impressive and inspiring! Can't wait to see more!

[@yiannchrst]

Cool ideas: day-night cycle, weather, temperature. Love the project, keep up with the incredible work!

[@Betruet]

I just started making a project like this and thought I was doing something special... yours is so cool hahaa I hope one day to have a complex system like yours. Thanks so much for sharing so glad youtube made your original video pop up in my feed. Great work!

[@jamie7472]

Its great to see the Bibites still evolving and I wish you and the channel the best. Looking forward to what comes next for the Bibites.

[@nathanwi1147]

How does this comment have zero likes

[@connorhaley3190]

Digestion

[@connorhaley3190]

@@nathanwi1147 I liked this comment just now.

[@YellowEllo]

Wishing you the best of luck!

[@nodrug2]

All the best, I really like this project and I'd like to see it continue.

[@TheMagicalNam]

You must continue! Its great!

[@arcisle5162]

Awesome work!

[@beaub152]

I'm so excited, this made my day

[@rafikoman3245]

Love seeing this project evolve like the bibites !

[@SeanCMonahan]

This is fascinating. The diminished fitness of herding behavior in the presence of viruses is quite relevant to the real world at the moment unfortunately. Instant subscribe. I am going to watch the rest of the series!

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks a lot 😁 Your words mean a lot. You'll see that my precious videos diminish in quality pretty quickly tho 😅 Hopefully I can start reaching at least the quality of this one from now on

[@amplifiedroboticz2672]

Looking forward to seeing this project evolve!

[@LeRoiPapayou]

Nice, looking forward for the next video!

[@axisodepeople1658]

Keep up the work.

[@TitanLordofPizza]

looking great

[@kshinji]

This is a really awesome advancement. The hard coded behavior helps see and study interesting behaviors without waiting until (and if at all) they emerge on their own as would be the case if you made inputs and outputs more fundamental. I can't support financially right now, but I hope others will because this is pretty awesome.

[@kshinji]

...do you have a black eye? :o

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

No black eyes, just very big dark circles 😅

[@mountvalleymusic5335]

absolutly amazing. i wanted to program something like this myself for years! ANd now it's here

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

I would encourage you to try it yourself as well 😁! It's an extremely rewarding process to bring your own lifeforms to life

[@russianred128]

Good luck and thank you

[@The007FossilReturns]

Love your work man!

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks 😁!

[@aryaparvizi8755]

I am so in love with your work and also so Inspiring work... it's like the thing I always wanted to develope myself. truly great job and keep it going. I hope I can support this project in the future as soon as I am able to.

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks a lot 🥰 I would en outage you to still give it a go and try your hand at coding an Artificial Life simulation! It's extremely fun and rewarding 😁

[@Alex53296]

Good luck my man

[@andreybiryuchinskiy1055]

It’s a very cool project, man 🤞

[@eggking8130]

You might want to consider starting a Discord server as a hub

[@fireballme1153]

There is a reddit

[@MudakTheMultiplier]

He's got a discord server available to patrons as well.

[@tylerroyb2585]

Mind blowing

[@davawen9938]

Welcome back !

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks a lot, it's a pleasure !

[@antonstezhkin5991]

Yey! More bibbits!

[@fredericnadeau5198]

tu me fais bien rire avec cette vidéo :P J'adore ta série sur les bibites, ca m'inspire pour essayer de faire un projet similaire! merci!

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Merci! Et je t'y encourage c'est définitivement une expérience très enrichissante 😁!

[@Somfic]

the amount of outfit changes is amazing

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks a lot, I am a true artist 🦸

[@TheBookDoctor]

Hi. I only discovered this project a few days ago, so this comment is late, but hopefully it's helpful. I don't thin explicitly implementing herding behavior as shown here is in keeping with the philosophy of the project as a whole. If herding is a beneficial behavior, then it should arise naturally through the structure of their network. You shouldn't have to have a specific "herding" output that is connected to code. It should be sufficient only to give the bibits the sensory inputs necessary to drive the herding rules, but the rules themselves should arise naturally as the emergent behavior of the neural networks. You shouldn't need extra code for it.

[@fireballme1153]

I love this!

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks again for the tunes 😁❤️

[@keksmember]

The bibites shall rise

[@jeanneboudreau1053]

Pure genius

[@alexanderplatek4496]

I just wanted to comment to help with the algorythm and say have a good day! :D

[@joops110]

Finally!!!

[@mateoconnelly4315]

This channel is so cool!

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks!

[@MaxPicAxe]

I wish you the best of luck!

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks!

[@pureay2700]

Love it

[@creepercraftytT99]

6:10 hey!, that's actually really useful!, they're saying "Hey, i'm infected, be careful" and the other ones just go away

[@moonandstars1677]

I would like to see how these react in different environments. When I get home and have some spare time I'll look into helping support this project.

[@pigizoid9924]

i feel like the mindustry soundtrack would fit in perfectly with the bibites simulation

[@ita-or8ze]

Let’s gooo 🍾🍾

[@TheVRSofa]

stunning....really. i downloaded it and wow.....cant wait for more. subed and shared

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks so much ☺️ Next video is coming with the next week

[@TheVRSofa]

@@TheBibitesDigitalLife im gonna donate at some point when I can. This is clever stuff. Congrats!

[@TAP7a]

New here - don’t know if it’s something you’ve considered already, but one of the driving forces behind evolution on earth is that between the eaten and the eater - plants evolving in responses to being eaten by animals, hosts evolving in response to their parasites, and prey evolving in response to their predators, and vice verca. I wonder if there were some behaviours or properties that plants could select for that would sythesise well with the Bibites? Maybe some plants would evolve in a manner to prioritise being eaten and spread, maybe some would prioritise never bring eaten at all. Then maybe some Bibites would specialise to pursue those more difficult ones and occupy a niche with little competition, or stick with the easy ones but actually end up adapting to best spread undigested seeds or similar. Now that’s an awful lot of complexity, but I’m sure you’d be able to distill out a couple of interesting parameters that could be played with

[@zacharydionne2516]

J'adore ton projet, Bravo! Pour augmenter le gameplay, on pourrait ajouter le pouvoir de contrôler les bibites. Durant qu'on le contrôle, la bibite apprendrait de notre comportement pour évoluer son cerveau. Je ne connais pas la complexité de ce que je propose, mais ce serait cool à implenter. :-)

[@siavashmohammady9095]

real genius

[@dmarsub]

Hope this projects stil inspires you, looking forward to the next update!

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

It really much does 😁 Still actively working on it!

[@Jkauppa]

training gets you the set of genes that are required to survive in your conditions

[@crescentgemini9093]

je sais que je suis en retard pour le party, je ne fais qu'alimenter le monstre qu'est l'algorithme youtube. j'adore ton concept, continue comme ca,c'est hot en asti!

[@legobil_]

Very cool ideas! It would be interesting to see some kind of queen (hard coded maybe?) to simulate hive mentality like ants or bees!

[@ccaranha]

Hey, this was really cool! I'm happy to see your videos again. Are you considering going to the ALIFE conference again this year? I think people would be very excited about your idea of connecting the neuro-evolution to the herding parameters/behavior.

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Do you know if the submission process is still open? And if yes until when? I thought I would maybe skip this one and present something amazing next year 😯

[@gandalfs284]

what a cool bibite thing cool! I wish there were more bibite thing.

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

There's at least going to be more in the future than so far in the past 😁

[@sokagames0114]

Interesting...

[@MaxTheMuffin]

- The comment for support -

[@spyral00]

It would be nice to see them evolve in 3D and reacting to more complex environmental constraints!

[@connorhaley3190]

Sounds nice, but what about the theming?

[@timhaldane7588]

I even got the classic green color. :)

[@MyDude199]

Its really funny looking back and yeah, one of those weird behaviors is that natural predators are all based on herding node.

[@David_Box]

I suggest that instead of the viruses just simy hurting the Bibites, they should instead be able to change their neural structures, be it for better or for worse. This would actually make it more accurate to real life, as there have been many cases of animals and viruses forming simbiotic relationships. The mechanic of viruses hurting Bibites wouldn't be lost either, as changes a virus produces in an individual that are beneficial to a species may actually hurt other species. This is why viruses even injure animals irl in the first place, viruses jump species and act in ways they weren't supposed to, so changing it would also have the added benefit of making it more realistic. I see however that you already have plans laid out for the future of the project, so I understand that changing it now may be an issue.

[@valentingigena6058]

I left this guys over night and at generatios 900 they reached a point when everyone is producing hormones that keep everyone else far and each one is farming pellets in their own zones

[@Laezar1]

The youngs following their parents is so cool!

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Agreed 😁!

[@ianhogben3472]

Hope everything works out for you

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Thanks! I hope too 🤔

[@kammyatorkonnator4809]

Ok so if this man is quitting his job in order to nurture this project i think we should support him.

[@legendgames128]

3:19 "violent tendencies" Yeah I think that is an understatement here. Also, seeing the herd tear itself apart made me lose my composure.

[@KGI704]

I don't know if you read ideas here or not, but what if they could trophallaxis. With herding, they could actually develop multi-bibite organisms, with them even having the possibility to have each part evolve differently! This could lead to so many differences, and if they developed this behavior in scarce food worlds just a theory, a few of them might develop to have themselves more productive is trophallaxis. And in a world with many predators, they could develop a shell even! This is just an idea, but it could lead to so many cool things.

[@user-cd4bx6uq1y]

1 weeks ago, pro tip: be human when talking about those things........ the subscribing things. Just don't make a big thing out of it and don't bombard with positive (whatever the descriptive words in English are called) just say it naturally without going too far. Just, like: this is a big project and I really want to continue expanding it, but if nobody knows it's kind of a problem. You can subscribe if you want to and it will help the whole thing a bit. Also, if you have any ideas, please do share them in the comments because I want to account for things. So that was the video. If you want to, you can subscribe and all the other things. I will read and even try to answer some comments. That's it. The end of the video.

[@user-cd4bx6uq1y]

Also try to make videos more of something that is complete on it's own. I know it's not 2016 but people watching older videos is still a thing.

[@Iamwolf134]

Viruses in reality, have so much more potential than people think they do. For instance, one could have most viruses be completely ineffectual for the bibites, while having a few bad ones, and a few viruses with surprisingly beneficial mutations.

[@opheliayoung1122]

good

[@roderik1990]

I wonder how the behaviour would change if they could distinguish between bibits while calculating the herding vectors? Like perhaps distinguishing between smaller or bigger bibits and following the biggest, or shunning the infected, or all sorts of behaviours.

[@Peter-vv1sb]

I don't know if you're already doing this, but a good way to grow a channel is to put your shorts on tik tok. my friend gets the majority of his viewers from those tik tok videos, so it could help.

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

I'll do that! Thanks for the idea :)

[@Peter-vv1sb]

@@TheBibitesDigitalLife also a twitch stream for coding sessions would be nice ;)

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

I did that on my discord some times. But I figure its pretty boring 😅 Mostly me googling stuff ahahah

[@apersonthatsucksatnames1133]

its interesting how the babies followed their parents like that. I think this is because naturally if they are on their own they are more likely to get eaten or not be able to see food as easily as a more grown bibite

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Yep, agreed! That surprised me too, I found it very interesting!

[@apersonthatsucksatnames1133]

@@TheBibitesDigitalLife :)

[@apersonthatsucksatnames1133]

ive just encountered a bibite with the nodes of time alive and herding connected in a way basically saying the older it gets the less it wants to herd. very interesting

[@Zedryx69]

yes

[@lauchlanbagley1934]

Comment for the algo after the utter decimation

[@biggiecheez6879]

Yeah KZbin fucked up with this one

[@morgandavies2534]

It's exciting to see Unity's DOTS migration on your roadmap. I've struggled to work in DOTS for 2D. Have you seen something that makes you think this is ready for your project?

[@TheBibitesDigitalLife]

Not really, and their development seems kind of rocky. Among other things they say that you have to stay on 2020.3.x for the coming year if you want to use DOTS. But in the end I already started playing around with it and I figure that some parts can easily be converted to DOTS gradually. That somewhat reduces the risk. But I don't think DOTS would be at the right point now to develop a full game from scratch

[@riccardoformenti4332]

Wow