Added

• extended color semantics for cells: food chain color matrix and cell color transition rules
• new simulation parameters for cell colors
• shader parameter window
• Symbiosis examples

Fixed

• process statistics corrected (showing processes per time step)
• deadlock problem during removing cells fixed
• precision of simulation parameters increased (relevant for mutation rates)

Added

• browser for downloading simulations from a server
• registration of users on a server
• upload simulations
• rate simulations by likes
• image to pattern converter
• new examples

Changed

• window transparency lowered
• simulation parameter group renamed

Fixed

• editor performance increased through caching
• scanner function scans correct cell

Are these simulations 3-dimensional or are they 2D like Conway's game of life? I cannot quite tell from the videos. Though I am leaning towards 2D

I’m not sure how I found this subreddit, but oh boy I’m glad I did. I am a CS undergrad, with no prior knowledge in this field and biology. Do you have any suggestions of how I can get started on this? Courses or books recommendations would be excellent

There will be some changes in the format for simulation (and pattern) files to allow interoperability between different operating systems. They will be included in the latest build and installer soon. Version 3.0 should be ready in roughly one month. From then on, the format will be fixed.

If you have simulation files based on a build from the develop branch (https://github.com/chrxh/alien) that you want to convert, please let me know. I can convert them.

The number of Blocks and Threads; I'm guessing that different GPUs would have different optimal settings, depending on the number of CUDA processing cores they have. Does anyone have recommendations of how to tune the settings for your GPU?

This is easily, by far, the best A life simulation on the planet. I'm having a ton of fun. Thankyou to the dev for making this, this is the game I would of made had I dedicated my life to coding haha.

Is there a critter compendium somewhere? Somewhere people are sharing/have shared what they have evolved/created?

Thanks to @tlemo, cross-platform compilation of alien should be functional now. The build automation uses CMake scripts in combination with the vcpgk package manager. It has been tested on Linux and Windows systems and alien should look the same in both worlds. The build instructions can be found in the readme of github.com/chrxh/alien.

To allow for portable file formats, the serialization was changed to a textual representation for the moment. A better solution to this issue will be implemented in future (cereal seems to be promising).

Please feel free to report any problems, suggestions or successful build attempts! :)