Archive

• [July 25, 2024]

The alien-project video 'Emerging Ecosystems' has been selected as the winner of the Virtual Creatures Competition 2024.     

• [August 31, 2023]

Version 4.0 is now available: featuring a genetic system with editor, new cell functions including neural networks, fluid solver, a wider range of statistics function, dynamic parameter zones and much more 

• [May 8, 2023]

Beta of version 4.0 available: genome model and editor, neural networks, fluid solver, better statistics function and much more 

• [October 5, 2022]

Version 3.3.0 released: model extensions (food chain color matrix and cell color transition rules), shader parameter window and symbiosis examples 

• [June 25, 2022]

Version 3.2.0 released: simulation browser (for downloading/uploading/rating) and image to particles converter added 

• [May 22, 2022]

A Discord server has been established as a place for discussions, new developments and feedback.

• [April 24, 2022]

A short introduction to ALIEN can be found in the April 2022 edition of the ALife Newsletter.

• [April 18, 2022]

ALIEN version 3.1.0 released: barriers are introduced

• [April 10, 2022]

ALIEN version 3.0.0 together with a new documentation has been released. Both the engine and the GUI have been completely rewritten and modernized.

• [Dezember 2, 2021]

Cross-platform compilation using cmake and vcpkg is now working.

• [November 19, 2021]

The next major version is taking shape: New user interface, particle engine, spatially varying simulation parameters and statistics tools. A Windows installer from the developer branch is available.

• [August 19, 2021]

A preview video for version 3 is available on YouTube. A new particle engine is demonstrated.

• [May 19, 2021]

Version 2.5.0 released: UX improvements, better rendering quality and performance, advanced editor functions and much more.

• [March 5, 2021]

A subreddit has been created as a place for discussions, new infos and features. You are welcome to join our forum!

• [March 5, 2021]

New world building features have been developed. It is now easy to construct disc-shaped structures and to colorize arbitrary selections. Check out the latest version 2.4.0!

• [February 21, 2021]

alien version 2.3.0 has been released. A new info bar is introduced displaying general information, monitor data and logging protocol. Furthermore, a possibility to send bug reports including logs to a server is established.

• [February 3, 2021]

alien version 2.2.0 has been released. A vector graphic rendering on GPU is proudly presented. Please read the release notes for all changes.

• [January 17, 2021]

alien version 2.1.0 has been released featuring better usability. Please read the release notes for all changes.

• [January 1, 2021]

A demonstration video for an experimental GPU rendering method is available. It has been developed at the features/GpuVectorView branch and visualized the inner structures of the simulated bodies. The mentioned video shows different replicators in action.

• [August 25, 2020]

The development of alien - version 2.0.0 has been finished. It provides an extreme performance boost by making use of computations and parallelization techniques on GPU devices.

• [January 11, 2020]

All algorithms for alien simulation are now implemented in CUDA. The changes have been merged into the developer branch and will be released soon.  

• [January 15, 2019]

First results on GPU computations with CUDA seem promising. The prototypical alien physics engine on CUDA exhibits a high performance boost of about 10 times in comparison to a related CPU simulation. The measurements have been made on a system with core i7-6700 and GeForce 2080 TI.

• [September 30, 2018]

The new feature branch feature/CUDA has been created in order to develop support for GPU computing.

• [August 9, 2018]

An installer of alien for Microsoft Windows 10 is now available.

• [August 9, 2018]

After many years of development version 1.0.0 of alien including a comprehensive documentation has been released. The source code is available on the master branch in the alien-GitLab repository.

Predecessor project