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Brain

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Revision as of 14:29, 4 February 2005 by Fuzzie (talk) (whoops, didn't catch all the changes)
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The brain in Creatures is a very complex thing built of about 10 lobes, maybe 900 neurons and many thousands of dendrites.

Lobes

A lobe is a part of the brain that is dedicated to a certain function . There are the:

Neurons

In the Creatures series of games, a neuron is a place where you can store a number value. Most neurons lose the saved value over time, but some do this faster than others.

Dendrites

Dendrites are the connection between different neurons. Dendrites work unidirectionally, so the value of neuron 1 may influence the value of neuron 2, but not vice versa. Dendrites may have different behaviours and some just transfer the value of one neuron to another one, while others may negate the value or do even more complex work.

SVRules

Creature brains use a neuronal processing system, called "State Value Rules", commonly shortened to SVRules.

These were fairly simple in Creatures 1 and Creatures 2, essentially designed to let you perform simple manipulations upon Creature variables (ie, biochemistry and brain values), with the possibility of adding conditions based upon these variables.

In Creatures Evolution Engine games such as Creatures 3, each neuron and dendrite is a fully functional register machine. That means that you have several registers (places where you can store something) and one special working register. The most important commands on a register machine are LOAD, which loads a value into the working register and STORE, which stores a value from it into one of the other registers.

Operations like ADD always use the value of the working register. Look at the following example, which adds the value from register 1 to the one of register 0 and stores the new value in register 2:

  • LOAD 0
  • ADD 1
  • STORE 2

The SVRules system adds some extensions to the usual register machine, like access to the Creature's chemical system or to its reception.

Take your favourite genetics editor and take a look into one of the Brain Lobe or Brain Tract genes to get a full (?) list of supported operations.

A good place to learn more about the brain is The Creatures Developer Resource