~4Dgifts/toolbox/src/exampleCode/games/IndiZone/gold README
This is the README file for "Plasm: A Fish Sample", an updated version of
the synthetic fish bowl simulation, shown at SIGGRAPH '85 and '86 and
winner of the "Walt Disney" award at the First Artificial Life conference.
The original program is the work of
Peter Broadwell, Rob Myers, and Robin Schafler
and was placed in the public domain in 1986. This updated version is all
Peter's doing. He takes the blame for any errors introduced.
To run type:
% gold
at the command line prompt or double-click on the goldfish icon on a
workspace window.
usage: gold [-bceflmv]
-b don't display the bubbles visible by default
-c don't show the controls visible by default
-e prevent sexual reproduction from taking place
-f keep fish from eating each other (mightn't work--old debug cruft)
-l don't display the landscape visible by default
-m enable's malloc debugging
-v open as 640x480 NTSC video-sized window w/large cursor
By default it comes up full screen because it is designed to be a stand-
alone Art piece (capitol A intentional).
It can also be run as a smaller window by invoking it as:
% gold -v
or alt-double-click on the workspace icon. This brings it up as a
640x480 NTSC video-sized window. It also makes the cursor larger so it
will show up on video tape etc. (The text doesn't look so good at this
size but it never shows up on video tapes anyway so I let it be.)
There are many other possible flags as well, these are detailed in the
source code near the top of gold.c.
NOTES:
* The "Sophistication" slider changes the "Style" of the display
from "Cartoon" to "Abstract".
* Back in '85 the machines didn't have Z-buffers so this code was
written to use a painters algorithm and color map tricks to get
acceptable performance. Low and behold, today's low-cost machines
have much the same restrictions, and the same techniques still pay
off. The inner workings of the code depends on genetic algorithms
for variability and an object-oriented message passing scheme
complexity managment.
* gold is not a high-adrenaliin type game, there are no explicit
goals and no one is keeping score. Instead, it is a more
medatative experience--one can reach in and fiddle with the
behavioral attributes of one's chosen fish. Then sit back and
watch how this affects the overall evolution.
* Back in 1985 the world wasn't populated with fishy screen-savers.
Even now one doesn't get to directly manipulate simulation
attributes in real-time in many simulation programs I know of.
Also the User Interface for adding behaviors by clicking on the
colored, moving bubbles is yet to be imitated to my knowledge.
* Designed to be easy to use--simply launch it. All the mouse
buttons behave the same (the SIGGRAPH version had a custom mouse
with only one button).
* There is no Training needed. The more one pokes around the more
one might discover, but many people are quite satisfied to simply
watch it run without doing much of anything.
* Understandable interface: because it was designed for use by the
general public, we tried for extreme simplicity. At the same time
we wanted to have several levels of engagment possible--one can
change viewing parameters, modify fish behavior parameters, or
add/delete behaviors for individual fish. While none of these are
hard to do, they will take some experimentation to find out
directly for oneself. We consider this part of the charm of the
program.
* User friendliness: there is no Help available or needed. It
conforms to the demo standard of using the <ESC> key to terminate.
* 100% WorkSpace integration.
* Bug Content: How many bugs found? None. Been shaking this code
down for over 9 years. Hopefully there are no bugs left - of
course I know that there probably are some. Let me know --
peter@3do.com -- and I will fix them.
* Implements sample playback audio. This is a major enhancment over
the 1985 original.
* Implements Indy's Video - Can be run at the correct size for video
taping.
% gold -v
or Option-Double-Click from desktop.
* Since I am shooting at Indy only with this version, I have
optimized for that platform. The code will run on other models as
well (in fact with some compile flags set right, it might still run
on old IRIS 3000's) but it doesn't exploit the high-end features.
* This is a single machine program - no network trafic.
* Think of the program always being in demo mode - or think of it as
modeless. Anyway it always seems to attract plenty of attention
anythime I set it up. It is important to get into the Zen of
watching a fishbowl.
;;peter
aka Peter Broadwell
former SGI emplyee #90
now 3DO employee #55
peter@3do.com
Dedicating my professional life to Interactive Art.
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