Coding Adventure: Ant and Slime Simulations
A small exploration of an algorithm inspired by ants, and some little experiments into simulating some of the behaviour of ants and slime moulds. I hope you enjoy!
Source code (slime): github.com/SebLague/Slime-Sim...
Source code (ants): github.com/SebLague/Ant-Simul...
If you'd like to get support the channel, and get early access to future projects, you can do so here: / sebastianlague
Links to some learning resources and cool videos / projects:
Slime pattern paper uwe-repository.worktribe.com/...
Slime write-up and cool examples sagejenson.com/physarum
Ant simulation video by Pezzza • C++ Ants Simulation 1,...
Slime video by Deep Look • This Pulsating Slime M...
Physarum project by Michael Fogleman github.com/fogleman/physarum
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:17 Traveling Salesperson Problem
1:36 Ant Colony Optimization
4:37 Creating a Visual Ant Simulation
9:15 Unleashing the Ants!
10:16 Side-tracked by Slime
14:07 Single Slime Experiment
16:02 Multiple Slime Species
Music:
Forest Overture by Yehezkel Raz
Honey Bee Waltz by Kadir Demir
Newborn by Roie Shpigler
Joking by Kadir Demir
Joyfulness by Kadir Demir
Wakeup Call by Ran Raiten
Anthill by Kadir Demir
Synesthesia by Michael FK
A New Horizon by Cloud Wave
Selfless by Eleven Tales
Reel by Anbr
"This ant is too indecisive and not making much progress in its life" felt like a roast ngl
I had just spent an unproductive few hours agonizing over some small tweaks to the script when I wrote that, so even though I took it out on the ant, it was more of a self-roast to be honest :P
@@SebastianLague GAGAGAGAGAGAGA this is wonderful! PRANK! IT is terrible! I looked in the mirror and saw something UNPRETTY: my face. GAGAGAGAG! But I am happy agayn because I have TWO HOT GIRLFRIENDS and I make cool YT videos with them! Good evening, love and peace, dear seb
@@AxxLAfriku Haha didn't expect to see you here tbh. :D Happy for you mate!
@@GK-dw1fo wait, is he a troll or not?
@@CommissarChaotic Not sure, but I'd say probably. I just see him in peoples' comment section all the time. He does make videos tho lol.
"Come to think of it, I could have just taken two minutes to draw this in paint but... anyway..." - Spoken by a true programmer!
Why do something in 10 minutes, when you can spend 10 hours to automate it.
Why keep it simple when you can make it complicated ?
"I have a strong aversion to my old code" Yeah hes a programmer alright
So true, there's this one siple thing that I check once in a blue moon, but last time I decided to automate it. And for some reason, the naive me then thought it would be cool to use C as it should have resulted in a fast and native code (as I wanted it to run at startup, I wanted it to be as light as possible). A week later, I got it working, but at what cost...
I do this everytime, automating is the best!
Ants: "haha that's cute they sometimes make little loops" Slime: ＊in awe before the grandeur of existence and the universe＊
Ants looping 💀
@@zenith_tetris😅😊
The Slime simulations has to be one of the most amazing things I have seen in a long time. I got goosebumps when the first one broke off and started expanding.
Yea and it was a little bit sus
At first, it looked like water bubbles to me on a glass surface. Pretty impressive stuff
the question I'd like answered is: Why did they break off though?
@@ozfresh the random kicked in
Me too!
Sebastian Lague video starter pack: - "I just whipped this quick & simple thing together" - compute shaders - darkmode theme - video ends before you want it to
Sebastian would find a way of simulating the entire universe with compute shaders if he wanted to
The worst part of his videos is the end
@@fractal5764 And the best part is just before the end, which the whole video is building up to.
- Piano/Classical music
I was genuinely mesmerised by those slime shaders, it’s incredible how complex, beautiful patterns can be made from seemingly simple rules. Emergence really is a universal phenomenon
simple rules but a LOT of processing power
@@jupahe6448 surprisingly not, it's just a couple images and some math. sure it can be a lot with a million or so agents, but it's all quite simple at that level
@@TheAechBomb Many iterations or instances of the object running those rules are needed, though.
The beautiful thing about emergence is that it can build upon itself as well, resulting in all these layers of emergent phenomena building off of each other, increasing complexity along the way. Atoms interacted with atoms with simple rules, resulting in molecules. Molecules interacted with molecules, resulting in chemistry. Chemistry taking place in different environments with different external stimuli and repeating patterns likely gave rise to organic life through abiogenesis. Life interacting with the environment and the simple rules of evolution resulted in more complex life. And so on. One could also consider civilization as an emergent phenomena of humans interacting with other humans. All of this makes me wonder what the next possible "layers" are or could be.
@@CrashingThunder Look inward, my fellow iterated particle system ;)
Anyone else also wishing we could keep the slime patterns for wallpapers :D It looks amazing!
Lively can have shaders as backgrounds. Someone could probably make this in an afternoon easily
im making one for opera gx rn
@@cacto1680 SEND ME DA LINK
i have finally managed to code the slime mold simulation myself like sebastian did after being inspired by this video after ive seen it about 1.5 years ago! always wanted to try to recreate this mesmerizing simulaiton myself and got it working in the end!
Q-Q ok
Nice!
Is it possible to make it into a screensaver?
@@itzmedb8290 ive thought about that as well… the way i have it working is with a unity compute shader and i suspect sebastian has it in a similar way tho im not sure. my pc is ramping up considerably when running the simulation so it wouldnt be much of a screen saver really
How long have you been coding?
I need a Netflix series that is basically this level of production and explanation for various algorithms.
Good lord my algorithm classes could be so so so much better. They are horrible as is.
@Victor Joseph As a self taught code and in industry can I ask what resources you used. I am having difficulty finding any good resources they are either too easy or so out of my depth that I give up. So a link or two would be greatly appreciated.
Sign me up I will binge that entire season in a single DAY.
Shut up and take my money! 🧠
yes
Probably my favourite series on youtube. Keep up the great work!
Thank you :)
What do you mean “probably”?
Yeah definitely my favorite
@@nix3l_ Yeah i know right! i mean it is my favourite series
I'm sure that Sebastian Is the Most creative Content creator
16:58 this looks like some sort of organically grown future display technology up close. So cool!
A neural network computer with RGB bioluminescent mycelium display screen is something I now really, really want, and probably will never have.
Ive thought the exact same thing
Currently re-watching all these old Coding Adventures videos, and I can safely say this is one of, if not my favorite KZhead series ever. Amazing work!
Thank you, I’m happy you enjoy the series!
@@SebastianLague Of course! It really inspires me to work harder on my projects, and even try to follow along in Rust, I've been working on a Chess engine for the past few months, (it's about 2000 on lichess right now) and I the ant simulation looked really fun, so I might try to make that as well! :D
Fr, this is the only channel I’ve ever consistently rewatched videos on
@@raphaelthorp5997 Yeah, I love how he makes them approachable for non-programmers, but also gives enough technical information for programmers as well
When Sebastian says "there's much more to explore here" I cry everytime
He's like the Bob Ross of progrmming.
I know, my heart sank when I heard that, I didn’t want the video to end 🥲
“This ant is too indecisive and not making much progress in life.” ....
its me :((
Oh so like us
*and I took that personally*
i am ant. ant is me
change your personal rules and you will get interesting patterns in life
4:04 The attention to detail in your videos is just breathtaking. Timing that to the hit in the music is incredible
what about 14:41 then?
For real, I could cry with the 14:07 experiment, it was so beautiful to watch and see it evolving with the music, very touching!! I just admire you my friend!
Wow, just wow. The second I finish this deadline at work I'm dusting off my compute shader knowledge and making slimes, maybe I'll try it in 3D. Thank you for the ongoing inspiration!
Good idea, I'd love to see how it looks in 3D!
How is it 19 hours ago
@@ippo_bhai i think patrons get an unlisted link
Thanks
good luck,compute shaders can be so satisfying yet also frustrating
So surreal to think how one can make such beautiful slime effects with just some seemingly simple rules.
Reminds me of Conways game of life
@@alejandrorosales2863 oh yeah, that's true I better check that out too
Maybe because slime molds are relatively simple organisms
@@bbjygm so are neural networks. They’re nodes with weighted edges yet they can produce exceedingly complex results. Sometimes u don’t hv to be complicated to look complicated
Conway's game of life: -_-
*Literally creates the beginning of existence and forms the universe* "So, these have been pretty interesting..."
Devoting hours to develop a complex solution to something that already had a simple solution ready to go, and completely rewriting your existing code to produce a different version of imperfection are the hallmarks of a programming mind!
Before: "Oh look a new Sebastian Lague video" After: "I should really learn compute shaders..."
Every time i watch one of his videos
Wow, absolute mesmerizing work!
It seems as if the magic words 'cabbage' and 'merchant' brought you here.
Thanks! I remember watching one of your devlogs a year or so ago. Was looking cool back then, but just had a look at the latest one and it's looking phenomenal now -- awesome work!
there is also visions of chaos where you can mess around with the slime simulations and others, assuming you can even run it
@@SebastianLague Thank you so much Sebastian!
@@SebastianLague Any chance you could release the Single Slime bits as potential screensavers?
Yeah please definitely come back to this. Specifically on your observation about how organic all of this. I love your videos, especially your coding adventures. Keep it up!!
I cannot say how often I've come back to this video. It might (in my eyes) be your best. The (audio-)visual spectacle you treat us to in the end is simply grandiose. Thank you.
"A merchant, who travels from town to town, selling . . . cabbages, perhaps." I caught that reference
No! Not my cabbages!
My CaBbAgEs
i dont know the reference help
@@taureon_ It's from Avatar the Last Airbender :p It's actually an amazing show, I'd recommend checking it out even if it's just to see the cabbage merchant~
@@taureon_ I second the recommendation to check out the show :)
Boss: Make an efficient short path search algorithm Sebastian Lague: Done, here's an ant and a slime simulator Boss: ...
You're fired!
Don't do it like that! They'll hire you for my job!
Boss: Make an efficient short path search algorithm Some random Researcher: *Runs off into the forest*
@@blinded6502 YOU CANT FIRE ME I QUIT
The coding and simulation work are awesome, but what really ties it together is the brilliant editing! Your curiosity is inspiring :)
This stuff is so cool. I just discovered your channel, and it's like looking in a mirror to my thoughts about what I'd do all day if I didn't have to work.
Now I'm just imagining flying my submarine-spaceship-plane around a procedurally generated planet, over procedurally generated mountains topped by procedurally generated clouds, and procedurally generated undersea caves full of procedurally generated fish feeding on procedurally generated slime mold. Then night falls and the procedurally generated sunset fades to reveal a night sky full of other procedurally generated worlds. This entire series leaves me lost for words.
You need some procedurally generated words
@@DanielAbeleira
It would be really cool to see some kind of coding adventures mashup game/simulator, but alas that would take quite a long time for anyone to put together
@@OrangeC7 Gimme like $100,000 and I'll do it.
nms
Sebastian: _literally creates life in a computer simulation_ Also Sebastian: I got other stuff to do. I'll just leave this here.
"I got other stuff to do. I'll just leave this here." - I reckon that's what God said too
LEL, him in 2049, Coding adventure: creating parallel universe
@@Greedygoblingames... Seventh day!
comes back a few days later to check on the simulation and finds an entire civilisation trying to communicate with their god...
@@bookend2002 lol
By far, one of the best and most interesting videos I have watched, your voice, music, introduction, etc in this video is just amazing.
This is absolutely fascinating! You reminded me of why I love programming, and I love it even more after watching this video!
This is absolutely stunning
Hi
@Solve Everything q
You're stunning!
Music is adding a lot to these! "Coding pretty slime mould isn't possible" "No... It's necessary" *zimmer vibes increase*
@Bolt verse 14:26 to 12:36? Are you watching in reverse?
@Bolt verse I can totally see how you typo'd 14:41 to 12:36 - common error... /s
yes.
Interstellar, eh?
I love that you brought the traveling merchant problem into this video off the rip and proceeded to blow my mind with ant colony optimization. I didn't know the problem could be solved in this way, and it gave me inspiration for some other ideas to try out for myself.
I used to watch carefully your blender tutorials, which brought me quite far, and nowadays, years later, I'm fascinated by your coding videos.. Keep your great work up, your content is so pleasant to look at !
This should definitely be imported into Wallpaper Engine
YES!!!!!!!
nice pfp
that would be terrible, wallpaper should be just 1 color without images, if it's not then you can't see the icons good
@@celebezz my desktop wallpaper is an image and i can see the icons perfectly well.
@@celebezz Well the people that use their desktop actively can just choose another wallpaper. I have everything i need either in Launchers or in my Taskbar. My desktop is empty, it's very peaceful and emphasizes the wallpapers i use.
"I'd like you to imagine that you're a merchant, travelling from town to town, selling cabbages, perhaps" **Avatar Aang wants to know your location**
I was wondering why that was familiar
"My cabbages!!!!"
@@NedJeffery it was my immediate thought.
@@lordfelidae4505 same
Up until finding this channel, I'd only been watching "how to create x" coding videos. Now I've just been watching this guy understanding about 3% of what's happening but being crazy impressed with what he achieves. With such a relaxing voice and audio scheme.
Instant subscriber! Beautiful simulations! I really appreciate the way you break down your thought process and method in a clear and easy to understand sort of way
If we were still in the era of Screensavers being popular, you'd probably considered royalty in that domain.
Exactly what I was thinking!
i really like dark mode it's way relaxing for the eyes
there's still wallpaper engine
I'm still using xsreensaver to have a screensaver, just because they are so many nice ones. There is even a Covid-19 Screensaver.
@@joshix833 of course there's a covid screensaver
"Imagine that you are a merchant going town to town selling cabbages" I'm getting some weird ATLA vibes and I have the urge to scream "MY CABBAGES!!"
That's actually exactly what I was thinking of when I wrote that! :)
Good to know i'm not the only one
@@SebastianLague I half expected you to say that a group of 4 kids are ruining your business so you have to be as quick as possible
I thought I was just making irrelevant connections again, apparently not!
@@nitrogamer8222 Yes, the optimal cabbage route is the most optimal route to avoid the 4 kids...
This work is gorgeous and intriguing. Thanks for posting it and including clear references.
you just sound so darn pleased by yourself and your work all the time. you sound like you're smiling, it really captures my attention!
The dramatic music was not overly dramatic at all, this was incredibly beautiful to watch
@4:50, terribly wrong? Sebastian that is stickbug! lol
Nah dude, that was The SlendermANT.
Did Sebastian just RickRoll us with stick bug??
@@Inertia888 stickbugged*
/-------\ \ | O O | / ___ \__ | \/ | ___/ ___ \_____ | ____ | _____/ _____ | ____ | _____ / _ / \ _ \ __ / \ __ / \ _/ \_ *The SlendermanANT will take your soul*
Hey Jabrils, I will wait for your version!
First video I've seen from you and you got a new subscriber because I loved this video. Those patterns by both the ants and the mold were mesmerising. Keep up the good work! ♡
This man takes me on a journey every time on his coding adventures. This was nothing short of beautiful. The visuals, the score, everything! Cheers mate. You’re amazing!
I love the fact that you probably spent half a day (or more) coding a procedural map generator instead of just drawing the map in paint. Yep, you’re definitely a developer
Hence, coding adventure. ;)
not to mention the terraforming feature
"I have a strong aversion to my old code so instead of reusing that project like a reasonable person, I began reimplementing it all from scratch." -- So it's not just me!
"I could have taken 2 minutes to draw this in paint" - We all have been there 🤣
What an excellent programmer and what a gorgeous video, I'm in awe with this video and its results
15:10 to 15:23 looks like the big bang creating the known universe, if you've ever seen those purple renderings of what people think the universe looks like
yeh sure cool but when are you uploading a bhop tutorial for half life 3
Nice to see you alive
Ayoo what about that camera of yours that looked like the purple patterns in the vid?
ugh gross another evolutionist
How did you end up here
I want a 2 hour version of those visuals, please oh please
That video was a fantastic journey, thank you for putting such an effort into its production.
Those slime simulations are amazing. I find them super satisfying and relaxing to watch. Plus, in my humble opinion, they are very artistic. I really want you to profit on this work, you deserve it.
What a beautiful adventure this was ☺️
I‘m awestruck. This has got the be the best produced video of yours. Truely amazing.
The level of production quality combined with the amount of interesting things I learned is off the charts, I’m an engineering student and this has really inspired me to look into coding on a deeper level. Thanks :)
This is absolutely engrossing. A combination of relentless curiosity, code skill, and top-shelf production values. 9:02 "come to think of it, I could just taken 2 minutes to draw this in Paint, but, anyway..."-- spoken like a true hacker. Please keep these coming.
Fantastic. A work of art
Thanks!
Sebastian's videos make me feel like an incompetent programmer and relaxed at the same time...
HAHA, just learn from them and apply this to your own creation.
He has one of the most relaxing voices on the whole internet.
Imagine how this looks to someone who's never done programming at all
@@thomaspalmer5188 pretty amazing, and interested
You literally make interesting computer science videos and make them into master pieces of art with the music and your voice. Amazing stuff
The production quality of this is absolutely amazing!
The single species slime simulation had to be the coolest thing ive ever seen in my life
I love this video, I have been wanting to make a video on ACO for the longest time.
Ooh I'd love to see an ACO video from you, hope you do it some day! Happy you enjoyed the video btw :)
@@SebastianLague oooh yeah me too!
Hi Jabrils!
crossover Love your work
I love you both
Fascinating. I wish we were able to hold exhibitions of dynamic paintings as such in actual museums.
Simulations like these are absolutely amazing and they could possibly explain a shit ton of stuff about evolution
"I then imported it into unity but something went terribly wrong" is just "I moved stuff from blender to unity" in a nutshell
so true
I don’t often comment on YT videos... but yours are really resonating with me. I feel like I’m back to engineering school learning how to program and having tons of fun doing it. It seems like you took the “toy simulation example” concept from back then and ran with it, and never got lost into the usual grind of what programming usually is in the industry. It’s absolutely awesome to watch, and your soothing voice, artistic touch, and skilled editing+music bring it to the next level. Truly, thank you.
My thoughts exactly.
On point, perfectly put.
My favourite video of yours so far. Loved the ant animation that really visualizes perfectly how ants work. And the slime stuff is indeed fascinating. They are indeed fascinating creatures. They don't even know if they should be classified as unicellular or multicellular creatures. Great stuff.
For me this was the most impressive KZhead video I ever saw up to date. It feels like you decoded nature.
One day Sebastian is going to accidentally create a simulation of the entire universe and treat it like it's no big deal
"I think that looks pretty cool, but let's move on ..."
@@fetterkeks2796 :D:D
Absolutely fantastic. Good choice, supporting you on Patreon. Only problem is that each video makes me want to quit my job to try and reproduce this... ;)
Haha glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the support!
I'm doing the same thing haha, I have created a chess AI now and working on planets and atmospheres. Also adding a level of detail as well. I'm going all out on this with my insane amount of free time
This work is so inspiring man. Top notch production value.
your visualizations are really damn nice to watch. Great job, love these videos!
When the world needed him the most, The man with the nice accent returned
And he uses Blender 2 90 at 4:48
These 18min flew by so quickly, this channel repeatedly motivates me to continue self learn coding.
It really is so inspiring!
Did I enjoy the video?! The way you set up what we're about to see, then having the music pair so beautifully and perfectly to the visuals _almost_ had me in tears. I gasped. Literally spine-tingling. Bravo! Edit: To be clear, the code and explanation was also fantastic. Your presentation just blew me away - it's superb! Instant subscribe.
Hey Sebastian, I loved your slime mold so much I downloaded the program, thanks for this wonderful video!
You keep turning programming into art, without that even being the goal. This is why I love this series! Those slime simulation patterns gave me serous big-bang/entropy/heat-death vibes, like creating a tiny little universe.
At 14:42 when they burst out of the pattern and the music swelled to accompany it, I got actual goosebumps. That was amazing.
I regulary come back to this video, the editing is stunning
This is such an inspiring video! You give these topics so much curious attention and explain your steps with such clarity! I am a Medicinal chemist and you’ve given me some ideas :)
i feel like that slime simulation would be absolutely mesmerizing as a screen saver, or a wallpaper in wallpaper engine
I was thinking the same thing.
And make it so that it slowly Morphs the color, speed and other variables randomly
@@alfredsteffensen8343 perfect.
It's already in c# right? and you can use the visual output from c# as screensaver in windows, someone needs to fork the repo and try it.
Sebastian, you're an inspiration to programmers, everywhere. I'd never imagined the organic patterns could emerge so... simplistically. amazing work.
what programmers? you? he uses unity... lol not exactly something to look forward to.
@@xxmiguelczxx70 there's many ways to use Unity. There are very simple ones, but it can also be used for tools, scientific research and AAA games. Maybe the problem here isn't Unity, but the programmer who can't just see past the "friendliness" of its usability ;)
The organic patterns are so mesmerizing! I'm speechless!
What a work, Massive respect, And there is me who falls deep when I get a build fail and can't figure out what it is. You are an inspiration
This is probably the most underrated channel on youtube.
what an unbelievable video, I actually felt privileged just being able to watch this
15:08 This is exacly why i LOVE programming. Because it gives you these godlike powers to create anything that you could possibly think of.
When technology meets nature. Absolutely amazing. Thank you for sharing this. It's just... beautiful.
If Sebastian taught a class on his process of learning and exploration I'd 100% pay for it. These are SO good.
This has to be one of the most impressive things I have ever seen.
It’s not very often that I find a KZheadr that makes me subscribe after one video but you sir are one of them
Still watch this video over and over. Keep up the good work!
I doubt you'll seee this but i just had to say that this is genuinely beautiful
Thank you!
5:23 "This ant is too indecisive and not making much progress in it's life." Hey, I felt that!
i guess im the ant
This is such a good video I just absoultey love it. I keep coming back to watch it every so often. This is like the 4th time watching it now
Sebastian: blows my mind with the most insane simulation I’ve ever seen. “This has been pretty cool looking I think”
this should seriously win an oscar for best video production