Py-EcoSystem

author: Barbara Wojtarowicz

Program for creating simple ecosystem simulations using Python threading library. Each animal's behaviour is handled by a different thread. The main thread supervises the animals' threads and communicates with them using threading.Event objects. Shared memory multithreading safety is supplied with simple threading.Lock objects.

Task Description

D. Van Tassel - „Praktyka programowania”

Running the program

Enter the 'app' directory - you need your current working directory to be ending with '\Ekosystem\app' to meet the technical needs. Then run the program.

cd app
python main.py

Start Menu

• start a sample simulation with the default parameters immediately,
• enter the settings menu to chose your preferences.

Settings Menu

Use sliders to chose your parameter preferences:

• 'N' - size of the map field,
• 'Rabbits' and 'Wolves' - no. of rabbits and no. of wolves,
• 'Rabbit Reproduction Chances' and 'Wolf Reproduction Chances' - parameters for better managing possible overpopulation issues.

Use buttons for:

• getting back to the start menu,
• moving further to the map settings menu,
• saving current settings, including map preferences, and running the simulation.

Map Menu

• Use the slider to chose how many 'Fence Islands' (labyrinth elements) you'd like your maze to contain - choose anything from 0 up to 4. The maze will be placed on the map, which size you've picked in the settings menu.
• Click on the map field to generate the maze randomly and display its' preview. Every time you click on the map, a new maze containing the number of elements you've chosen will be generated and displayed.
• Save your settings and get back to the setting menu, from where you can start the simulation!

Pause, Resume or Quit Simulation

• Pause the simulation using the 'Pause' button in the right bottom corner.
  • Once the simulation is paused, the 'Pause' button will become replaced with the 'Resume' button.
  • If the simulation had just started and you cannot observe new animal statistic plots yet, it make take a few seconds for the program to catch up with the plot and pausing. That's because at the very beginning, each animal needs to get spawned and only after that can the program react to pausing, resuming or quitting.
• Resume the simulation using the 'Resume' button, once stopped.
• Quit the simulation using the 'Quit and Return to Start Menu' button. Only from there can you quit the whole program.

Be careful not to overpopulate the simulation area :) Find some optimal parameter configurations and enjoy!