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Dear beta tester, Thanks for showing an interest in e-den. The latest version is 0.60 which includes some modified metabolic rules favouring the survival or carnivores. A number of earlier versions have been released over recent weeks and are discussed below.
installation instructionsThere are two installation options. Option 1If you have a fast internet connection and want to download everything at once, click on eden60x.zip (Version 0.60, updated June 99) and then extract the zip file into the C:\ root directory so that all files end up in C:\eden or one of its subdirectories. You'll then need to check that all the files have ended up in the correct directories, as outlined under option 2.
Option 2Alternatively, if you only want some files or want to download in chunks, follow these instructions: You'll have to make a parent directory, c:\eden
then 4 subdirectories: Note that it is no longer recommended that you run e-den from C:\biology... C:\eden should be used instead, where possible. Any other directory can be used as the root directory, however, provided the four subdirectories are one level down from the location of eden.exe.
There are 9 zip files available (click to download): The first three zip files are absolutely necessary, the next two necessary if you want to use the graphical display modes, and the rest are samples to get you going. If you just want an updated eden.exe file and already have the others, download eden.zip and protectd.zip... The latter is necessary if your version predates April 17 because the *.opt format for saving user settings has been modified. If you change your root directory to eden, as suggested, you might find that e-den initially searches for world and genome files under their old names. If this causes persistent problems, please let me know.
Place the files as follows: Nothing needs to be put in c:\eden\hyper but this will be used for transferred internet files and is also needed for error logging. You'll need a copy of winsock.dll but most people already have one - and you must have one if you got this over the net through a windows application
Recent e-den versionsVersion 0.52 introduced a variable called "difficulty" that determines the metabolic cost of moving in e-den. Version 0.52 also introduced a less volatile control mechanism for automatic climate, and relaxed the restrictions for sexual reproduction, which can now occur with two parents of different names as long as their initial 5 genomic digits are identical.Version 0.53 introduced the option of saving multiple worlds. Version 0.54 corrected a bug in the dendrite creation code, modified some of the rules relating to vision, recalibrated the difficulty parameter and introduced multicoloured EEG tracings for difficult neural design problems. Version 0.54 also introduced 'die-back', which causes atoms to fall back into lower energy states when the background radiation (climate) is very low (<20) but this feature was implemented in a way that slowed the e-den simulation.
Version 0.55 improved the implementation of die-back and added 'sprint mode' to the movement capabilities of e-den organisms. This allows organisms to move two spaces in a single biological moment and was introduced to allow carnivores to catch fleeing herbovires. Control of sprinting is discussed in more detail on the e-den neurology page and some of the consequences are discussed on the e-den biology page. Basically, organisms can only sprint if one of their motor neurons fires twice in a single moment, they can only sustain it for a limited distance that depends on how well-rested they are and, in the case of herbivores, cannot sprint and graze at the same time. Version 0.56 fixed a minor (but fatal) bug that was found in Version 0.55, that was causing general protection faults. It also had a lot of debugging information stripped, greatly reducing the size of the executable. Version 0.59 corrected a fault that had been hidden in all other versions. Some organisms were dying by supernatural means - a programming error that was treating them as though they had lost a fight when in fact they were minding their own business. Now that the fault is corrected, the attrition rate is reduced and the populations tend to expand if the climate and difficulty are not adjusted. NOTE:It may take a little while to load a complicated world. If things are loading too slowly on your machine, change the name of the *.wld file specified in the bugs.opt file to a simple world like clear.wld or sparse.wld (complete with path information).REMEMBER:Even 0.60 is a beta version, although it is much closer to being error-free now and should allow you to have robust populations up and running quite quickly. It still contains some debugging code that traces function calls and this extra code will have to be removed in a later version. If it crashes or throws exceptions please send me a copy of c:\eden\hyper\log.txt , with all the details you can. I am only a hobbyist programmer so if you can see ways to do things better, let me know. I might not have time to implement the changes right away but I will produce a slicker version of e-den eventually. I'm also looking for people able to provide genuine coding assistance. I'm willing to change the rules of e-den if a significant number of beta-testers support the change... Sprinting, for instance, was introduced on the basis of a user suggestion. It may take some further adjustment of the rules before a multilevel food chain becomes truly viable and self-perpetuating.
| For further information, or in the event of problems, e-mail the author at eden_alife@hotmail.com You are welcome to attach any genomes or worlds that are puzzling you. |
Contents |
e-den introduction | e-den overview | e-den physics | e-den biology | e-den neurology | e-den genetics | e-den across cyberspace | e-den user interface | e-den FAQ |