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Coding Adventure: Ant and Slime Simulations

Sebastian Lague · demo · Watch on YouTube

Creative coding & generative artComputer graphics & rendering

What it is

Sebastian Lague explores an ant-inspired algorithm and simulates ant and slime mold behavior, using compute shaders. Source code for both simulations is available.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it as a beautiful example of what simple rules and compute shaders can produce, and many commenters were inspired by it.

  • 6 people recommended it
  • 5 different months
  • 3 strong recommendations
  • first 2021, last 2024

What HN commenters said

  1. “this recent video Coding Adventures video was pretty mind blowing”

    Mind-blowing ant and slime simulation, especially part two.

    ehsankia, 2021-04 · Strong recommendation · in “Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years”

  2. “Sebastian Lague made an excellent video”

    Explores path-finding via trails and gradient signaling.

    Udo, 2023-05 · Strong recommendation · in “Ze Frank True Facts: The Smartest Slime”

  3. “reminded how beautiful coding can be”

    Reminded commenter how beautiful coding can be.

    Risord, 2024-08 · Strong recommendation · in “The secret inside One Million Checkboxes”

  4. “replicates slime molds in Unity”

    Replicates slime molds in Unity with high-res results.

    theossuary, 2021-03 · Recommendation · in “Show HN: Play with Shaders Inspired by Slime Mold”

  5. “can recommend it to those that want to see a bit of what is possible with compute shaders”

    Sparked interest in compute shaders and shows what is possible.

    Berg0X00, 2021-06 · Recommendation · in “Compute Shader 101 [video]”

  6. “You might like these projects”

    Ant behavior replicated in code, with source available.

    Nezteb, 2023-05 · Recommendation · in “Orb Farm”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: slime mold, ant simulation, compute shaders, unity, emergent behavior

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