My Boids

Python implementation of Boids using the PyGame engine for the visualization.

1. Installation

Virtual Environment

Create a Python virtual environment and activate it.

python -m venv .venv

Activate the virtual environment

Windows virtual environment activation

.venv/Scripts/activate

Mac or Linux virtural environment activation

source .venv/bin/activate

Install requirements

This simulation requires the numpy and pygame packages. These can be installed via pip andn the requirements.txt file.

pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Running the Simulation

Run the script boids_sim.py to see the Boids in action.

3. Simulation Settings

Adjust the parameters in the [screen] section of config.ini to change some general game settings:

• Screen dimensions in pixels: [width, height]
  winsize = [800, 600]
• Use fullscreen mode? Will accept values of 'yes'/'no', 'on'/'off', 'true'/'false' and '1'/'0'
  fullscreen = no
• Select the boundary type at the edge of the screen: either WRAP or BOUNCE
  boundary_type = BOUNCE

Adjust the [boid] parameters at in the file config.ini to modify the boid behaviour in the simulation:

• Number of boids
  num_boids = 7
• Size of the boids
  size = 5
• Maximum speed of the boids
  max_speed = 3
• Amount that the boids move towards the center of the flock
  cohesion_factor = 0.001
• Desired separation between boids
  separation = 20
• Amount that the boids move away from each other
  avoid_factor = 0.01
• Amount that the boids try to match the velocity of the flock
  alignment_factor = 0.01
• Radius of boids vision. Boids will not interact with other boids that exceed this radius
  visual_range = 50

4. Additional references for Boids

• Background and Update by Conrad Parker
• Conrad Parker psuedocode: Original psuedocode and explanations
• Smarter Every Day Git Repo: JavaScript version of Boids
• Wikipedia: Overview of Boids