Pfeiffer evolves snow flakes in your browser.
You control the evolution by saving pretty flakes and deleting ugly
ones.
The newest saved flake is:
.
Once evolution starts,
you can
use flying menus
by dragging your mouse across a snow flake.
The menu will then appear.
Use the menu to
save pretty flakes.
Flakes you save replace the current:
newest flake and your evolved picture will be displayed instead.
You can also
clone snow flakes,
name them,
edit them or
delete ugly ones.
(Deleted flake will be replaced by a tombstone
).
You can save pictures on your computer as a cookie and
globally.
Pictures you save globally can be down loaded by everyone else.
The Table button on the main screen
creates a display table
showing the complete contents of the local population.
Data fields highlighted in
blue
can be edited.
However only changes to genetic material (Chromosome)
or tumble axis (Angle,x,y,z)
can be written back into the simulator.
Click here to change defaults for local system.
By default Microsoft internet explorer
will read GIF files from our server.
If
your PC is configured to understand XBM images as well
then a six sided fractal is displayed ->
<-here.
Even if the XBM is not displayed, IE will work with
GIF images.
To use colour,
your browser must support either
GIF,
PNG image format
or
Scalable Vector Graphics
.
PNG is supported in Firefox,
which supports fast pnglets.
SVG are supported by
Firefox 1.5
however CPU load is heavy
(cf.
302909)
In most browsers,
right clicking (local version) on a flake will give you the option to
Copy Image.
The .PNG can then be pasted into other applications,
such as paint.
SVG images might be saved by using This Frame
|View frame source browser menu option
and then using cut-n-paste (as for XBM).
The evolved L-System grammar can also be developed by
the
command line
version of pfeiffer.
Other options such as View Image
display the image as raw data, not as a picture.
For .PNG this is mostly binary and hence of little use.
However .XBM data is plain text which can be cut-and-pasted
into a text editor or microsoft word
and saved as a Plain Textfile,
e.g. nicepic.xbm.
View Image and some other options
cause the browser to move to a new window.
If you return to pfeiffer, pfeiffer will be re-initialised.
Flakes saved to the global population,
can be displayed in mono-chrome
(e.g. using
Today's flakes).
These are not dynamic images but normal .GIFs.
So all the usual cut-n-paste and save options can be used
on these pages.
Alternatively you can use
one shot Pfeiffer
to translate a grammar into a colour picture.
In most browsers, function key F11 causes the display to occupy the full screen.
but after a few seconds it will start to evolve).
Documentation.
EuroGP 2004
paper (at
Springer-Verlag)
and
live demonstration from Portugal to England.
This version is recommended for MAC Safari and Netscape 4. Netscape 6 does not work but Netscape 7.2 is ok with both local and server versions.
A bit flakey...
If using Netscape 4 you need both Java and javascript enabled to
access the global population.
Documentation for UCL server based server.
To run evolution off line you will need the full version of Pfeiffer and a copy of the global population seed.pop on your machine. A copy is included with the sources. For security reasons, you must run the parameters window using open file. Ensure the file name (second large box) points to the copy of the global population on your machine (seed.pop) and start.
Tested with firefox. Stand alone version not working with microsoft browser 5.00 or 6.00.
Also it may help me
to know about your computer.
Is it a PC?
How much RAM does it have?
What CPU and its speed?
How is it connected to the Internet?
Modem speed, always connected, cable modem?
Etc.
Please email your comments to
me