Species Settings

Configure species count, sizing, lifespan, reproduction, and food oases.

The Species tab controls the initial conditions for each species population — how many species compete, how large they grow, how long they live, and where food concentrates in the world.

Sliders

Setting	Range	Default	Description
Number of Species	2 – 12 (step 1)	5	How many distinct species are created when the world initializes. Each species gets a unique color from the 12-color palette.
Starting Size	1.0 – 8.0 (step 0.5)	3.0	The size of every organism at birth. Size determines the initial energy pool since size = sqrt(energy) × 1.5.
Max Size	8 – 40 (step 1)	18	The upper size limit an organism can reach by eating. Organisms at max size can no longer grow but continue consuming energy.
Organism Speed	0.3 – 4.0 (step 0.1)	1.2	Base movement speed for all organisms. The Speed Gene can mutate this value up or down over generations.
Lifespan	10 – 120 s (step 5)	30	Maximum age in seconds before an organism dies naturally. Shorter lifespans increase generational turnover and speed up evolution.
Reproduce at Size	5 – 30 (step 1)	12	Size threshold that triggers reproduction. When an organism’s size reaches this value it spawns offspring at Starting Size, and its own energy is reduced to 40% (causing it to shrink).
Offspring Count	1 – 5 (step 1)	2	Number of offspring produced per reproduction event. Higher counts grow populations quickly but also stress food supply.
Food Oases	0 – 8 (step 1)	4	Number of food-rich zones placed randomly in the world. Food spawn is biased 60% toward oases and 40% random.

Changing Number of Species triggers initWorld and resets the entire simulation.

Keep Reproduce at Size well below Max Size — if they are equal or close, organisms reproduce the instant they could grow further, preventing large predators from ever developing. A gap of at least 6 units (e.g., Reproduce at 12, Max at 18) allows a meaningful size hierarchy.

Species color assignment

Species are assigned colors in index order from a fixed 12-color palette:

Index	Name	Hue
0	Red	0.00
1	Orange	0.08
2	Gold	0.15
3	Green	0.30
4	Teal	0.45
5	Cyan	0.55
6	Blue	0.65
7	Indigo	0.75
8	Purple	0.83
9	Magenta	0.92
10	Lime	0.18
11	Emerald	0.38

Hue values are passed directly to the GLSL hsv() function in the particle fragment shader.

Size–energy relationship

An organism’s rendered size is derived from its internal energy value:

size = sqrt(energy) × 1.5

This means energy scales with the square of size — a larger organism needs proportionally more food to maintain its size and to grow further. This relationship naturally limits unchecked growth and creates ecological pressure.

Food oases mechanics

Each oasis is placed at a random position within the canvas with a radius between 80 and 200 px (80 + random() × 120). A random strength value between 2 and 5 is also assigned per oasis.

When a food pellet spawns:

• 60% of the time it is placed within or near an oasis (biased toward that oasis center)
• 40% of the time it is placed at a uniformly random canvas location

With Show Food Oases enabled in the Visual tab, semi-transparent teal circles mark each zone.