2. Moving Cells

This second step model adds the moving3D skills to the cell agents and simply makes move the cells agent by defining a reflex that will call the action move. We will also add additional visual information to the display.

Formulation

Redefining the shape of the world with a 3D Shape.
Attaching new skills (moving3D) to cells agent.
Modify cells aspect
Add a graphics layer

Model Definition

Global Section

Global variable

We use a new global variable called _environmentSize_that to define the size of our 3D environment. In the global section we define the new variable

int environmentSize <-100;

Then we redefine the shape of the world (by default the shape of the world is a 100x100 square) as cube that will have the size defined by the environment_size variable. To do so we change the shape of the world in the global section:

geometry shape <- cube(environmentSize);

Model initialization

When we create the cells agent we want to place them randomly in the 3D environement. To do so we set the location with a random value for x, y and z between 0 and environmentSize.

create cells number: nb_cells { 
  location <- {rnd(environmentSize), rnd(environmentSize), rnd(environmentSize)};       
}

Moving3D skills

In the previous example, we only created cells agent that did not have any behavior. In this step we want to make move the cells agent. To do so we add a moving3D skills to the cells.

More information on built-in skills proposed by Gama can be found here

species cells skills:[moving3D]{
...  	
}

Then we define a new reflex for the species cells that consists in calling the action move bundled in moving3D skills.

reflex move{
  do move;
}

Finally we modify a bit the aspect of the sphere to set its size according to the environmentSize global variable previously defined.

aspect default {
  draw sphere(environmentSize*0.01) color:#blue;   
}

Experiment

The experiment is the same as the previous one except that we will display the bounds of the environment by using the graphics layer.

graphics "env"{
  draw cube(environmentSize) color: #black empty:true;	
}

Output

output {
  display View1 type:opengl{
    graphics "env"{
      draw cube(environmentSize) color: #black empty:true;	
    }
    species cells;  
  }
}

Complete Model

The GIT version of the model can be found here Model 02.gaml

model Tuto3D   

global {
  int nb_cells <-100;
  int environmentSize <-100;
  geometry shape <- cube(environmentSize);	
  init { 
    create cells number: nb_cells { 
      location <- {rnd(environmentSize), rnd(environmentSize), rnd(environmentSize)};       
    } 
  }  
} 
  
species cells skills:[moving3D]{  
	
  reflex move{
  	do move;
  }	                    
  aspect default {
    draw sphere(environmentSize*0.01) color:#blue;   
  }
}

experiment Tuto3D  type: gui {
  parameter "Initial number of cells: " var: nb_cells min: 1 max: 1000 category: "Cells" ;
  output {
    display View1 type:opengl{
      graphics "env"{
      	draw cube(environmentSize) color: #black empty:true;	
      }
      species cells;
    }
  }
}