Evolutionizer

The Evolutionizer is a computer simulation with the aim of creating an environment in which the concept of biological evolution is emulated. The software was written as a school project for Biology, and I have decided to release it under the GPL.

The simulation is currently very simple, consisting of a command line interface where "organisms" move around while reproducing and eating. Each one has a "genetic code", somewhat similar to DNA. For time reasons, the execution of this code is very primitive, but it still gets the point across and yields interesting results.

Evolutionizer is written in C++, with the design highly influenced by the AP Computer Science Marine Bio case study project, but completely rewritten from scratch. There was also plenty of influence from Michael Ash's Creatures for MacOSX, which although is highly sophisticated, is not free software, and only runs on Mac.

Download

• 0.1 source code (evolutionizer-0.1.tar.gz)
• Summary paper accompanying the assignment
• quick genetic instruction reference

Other packages

• slackpackage, for slackware 10.1
• Windows EXE, with a very primitive graphical interface. WARNING: this is rather slow, and tends to behave unexpectedly. You can try to figure out the interface if you really want...

To compile the source package above, follow the normal procedure (untar, ./configure, make, make install), then run it with "evpre1". The summary paper above should provide enough information for usage. Also, keep in mind that these instructions do not apply for above file ev_gui.exe, which has a hybrid command line/clickable interface.

Screenshots

• Command Line Version - This shows the console interface.
• Windows GUI version - Here you can see a somewhat graphical representation of the "environment", where the green dots indicate food, blue dots indicate organisms, and magenta dots indicate barriers.

If you find this software in any way interesting or useful, I'd appreciate an email at <mdek.ev@mdekDOTnet> (change "DOTnet" to just .net).