Don't tell anyone I did this.
Sorry about the long delay between updates. A couple of weeks ago I was all set to update you to say that the genetics system is finished, when I had an idea about the chemistry and thought "It'll only take five minutes, so I'll do that first and include it in my update." Of course we all know how dumb it is to say "it'll just take five minutes" out loud where the pixies might hear us...
So anyway, genetics is finished and chemistry isn't.
Getting genetics out of the way is a pretty big deal, even though there's not much to show for it yet. The bain of my professional life has always been that the way I write code means that nothing much appears on screen at first, then it all comes together in a burst at the end. So all you can see right now is Gollum standing on a turntable (a block I can swivel to find out how easily he overbalances, etc.) in the Body Plan Editor, plus a lot of buttons and sliders!
Nevertheless, there are now 67 classes in about 7,000 lines of code. The body plan editor is written, but more importantly, so is all the creature code that it manipulates (joints, muscles, organs, sensors, colliders, masses). A basic gene editor is also written and working, so I can create, edit and translate between gene character strings and more understandable forms of data. The genetics system itself is now complete apart from reproduction, which is easy and will come later. It's a pretty powerful, flexible and extensible system, I think. The genes are the fundamental infrastructure from which everything else springs, and they're tightly integrated with the body physics and stuff. Soon they'll be tightly integrated with the chemistry too. And then finally the brain.
I'm quite excited about the chemistry - it will be far more powerful and realistic than that in norns, with potential for real medical investigation and intervention. But it's turned out to be surprisingly hard to come up with a system that's both powerful enough to do what I need and simple enough for my addled brain to actually design working digestive, hormonal and neurochemical systems with. Let alone one that's efficient enough to run in real time. Chemistry isn't just there for effect - it's a fundamental analogue computing system, just as it is in our bodies - so it's important to get it right. Chemical interactions control just about every aspect of the system, from powering muscles, through controlling reproductive behavior, to modulating learning and other aspects of the brain. Last night I think I came up with a solution to a problem about energetics that had been blocking progress, although I have to think it through further yet to be sure. My living room floor is strewn with paper, covered in arcane reaction diagrams!
I'll write up what I know about the chemistry soon, and maybe put aside some time to make a video of the editors in action.
Just wanted to let you guys know that it's still alive. Keep circulating those tapes!
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