NCS

This is the home of one of my projects, Naturally Coloured Selection, which demonstrates the power of natural selection through the use of colours. I specifically wanted to show that otherwise harmful mutations can lead to beneficial results if selection is applied.

The idea is simple enough. The environment is a randomly selected colour or image, pixels are then picked at random to fight their four neighbors. The pixel which has a colour closest to the selected environment will copy its colour contents to its neighbor. This copy is of course imperfect, which may cause a slight change in colour, also known as a mutation.

I have included two modes for the environment.

1. Colour - The environment is a single colour.
2. Image - The environment is an image. What this basically means is that the ideal colour depends on the location of the pixel. It can be compared to a landscape with varying requirements for survival.

And three modes that control behaviour.

1. Natural Selection - Fully functional evolution, which helps those wee pixels reach the ideal colour.
2. Random - Selection is effectively disabled. This is to show that mutations alone cannot do the job (The picture will slowly degenerate).
3. No Mutations - Nor can selection do much without mutations (No new information will be gained).

Click the picture below to download the software.

Version

Version 1.1 is now available. ^{- January the 19th 2008}
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The release version is now available. I will be going through my To Do List and release v1.1 in a few weeks.

Instructions

1. Unpack the file using a program such as WinRAR.
2. Requires .NET 3.5
3. Requires XNA 2.0
4. Run NCS Settings.exe to adjust the settings to fit your needs.
5. Run NCS.exe.

Settings

• Resolution: Effectively the number of pixels used.
• Fullscreen: Runs the application in fullscreen mode.
• Stretch: If turned on images will be stretched to fit the screen. There are two things to note about this: 1.) The resolution of the image will be used. 2.) The screen will be set to black when the environment is changed.
• Environment: The type of environment used. Either a solid colour or an image.
• Directory: The directory used for images.
• Delay: Delay between colour/image updates when in automatic mode.
• Mode: Manual or automatic delay.
• Behaviour: Evolutionary behaviour as explained above.
• Frequency of Mutations: The chance that a mutation will occur.
• Severity of Mutations: The amount of change caused by a mutation.

Controls

• 1: Switch to Colour Environment.
• 2: Switch to Image Environment.
• 3: Switch to Natural Selection.
• 4: Switch to Random.
• 5: Switch to No-Mutations.
• A: Switch to Automatic Mode.
• M: Switch to Manual Mode.
• Enter: New colour or image.
• Space: Pause.
• I: Show the environment in the upper left corner.
• F: Switch between fullscreen and window mode.
• Print Screen: Save a screenshot to "\ss".
• R+UP/G+UP/B+UP: Increase the Red/Green/Blue component of the environment.
• ESC: Exit.

Enjoy!

Sincerely,
Serdan Kyrbon Telhek