Spore prototype: BIOME

Say hello to another Spore prototype:  BIOME.  The official Spore site has added it to their Prototypes section.

BIOME is a programmable cellular automata simulator that allows users to develop simple “SimCity-like” grid simulations.

The grid-simulations in SimCity were inspired by Conway’s “Life” program, which produces amazingly intricate patterns from simple rules

BIOME uses a language based on chemical stoichiometry, the notation system used to describe chemical reactions. Cells in a BIOME simulation change state the same way that chemicals change when exposed to other chemicals

Systems such as this can be used to simulate phenomena such as forest fires, disease epidemics, animal migration patterns and crystallization

BIOME supports both rectangular and spiral cellular automata configurations. The spiral configuration was used to study stochastic, self-propagating star formation (the process whereby the ignition of a star promotes the creation of more stars) on the galactic scale.

You can download the program by going to the official site or by checking out our Spore – Programs page.