Mouse controls
Click and right-click anywhere on the simulation canvas to interact with the living world directly.Keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts work whenever focus is not inside a text input, select, or textarea field.The hint card (splash screen) that appears when you first load the simulation dismisses automatically on your first interaction — any click, right-click, key press, or button touch counts. It fades out over 1.2 seconds and is removed from the DOM after the transition.
Time display
A small pill at the top center of the screen shows elapsed simulation time inMM:SS format. This reflects simulated time, which runs faster than real time when speed is set above 1.0x and slower at 0.5x.
Organism tooltip
Hovering over any organism opens a fixed tooltip near the cursor. The tooltip updates every 3 frames and shows:
The tooltip disappears when no organism is within range of the cursor.
Left panel — simulation controls
The left panel contains five tabs. It can be collapsed by clicking the ✕ button in the panel header, and reopened with the hamburger toggle (☰) that appears in the top-left corner.World tab
The default tab. Contains top-level world parameters and live population data.- Pause / Play, Reset World, Sound On/Off, Record, Fullscreen — action buttons
- Scenario Presets — dropdown to select and apply one of six tuned presets (Stable Eden, Arms Race, Battle Royale, Superorganism, Food Chain Cycle, Extinction Event) plus a Custom entry
- Share Link / Export / Import — copy a shareable URL encoding current settings, download a
.primordialsettings file, or load one - Organisms slider — starting organism count (500–50,000; default 5,000)
- Food Pellets slider — starting food count (100–10,000; default 2,000)
- Food Spawn Rate slider — pellets spawned per second (1–80; default 15/s)
- Simulation Speed slider — continuous speed multiplier (0.1–5.0; default 1.00)
- Population Over Time — a 200-sample rolling graph showing per-species population history, color-coded by species
- Species Census — colored dot chips showing live organism counts per species
Species tab
Controls organism biology and lifecycle parameters.- Number of Species — how many distinct species exist (2–12; default 5)
- Starting Size — initial size of newly spawned organisms (1.0–8.0; default 3.0)
- Max Size — maximum organism size cap (8–40; default 18)
- Organism Speed — base movement speed multiplier (0.3–4.0; default 1.2)
- Lifespan — maximum age before organisms die of old age (10–120s; default 30s)
- Reproduce at Size — size threshold that triggers reproduction (5–30; default 12)
- Offspring Count — number of offspring per reproduction event (1–5; default 2)
- Food Oases — number of concentrated food zones on the map (0–8; default 4); oases bias 60% of food spawns toward these regions
Rules tab
Governs predation logic and the five behavioral drives. Predation- Same Species Protected — checkbox; when enabled, organisms cannot eat members of their own species (default: on)
- Food Chain (Rock-Paper-Scissors) — checkbox; each species only hunts the next species in sequence, wrapping around, producing circular predation and Lotka-Volterra oscillations (default: off)
- Size Advantage to Eat — how much larger a predator must be relative to prey to eat it (1.05–2.0x; default 1.3x)
- Energy from Eating — fraction of prey size gained as energy on a kill (0.1–1.0; default 0.50)
Evolve tab
Controls the genetic mutation system.- Enable Mutation — master toggle for all genetic drift (default: on)
- Mutation Rate — probability per gene per reproduction event that a mutation occurs (0–0.5; default 0.15)
- Mutation Strength — magnitude of each mutation as a random offset (0.01–0.5; default 0.20)
Visual tab
Renders and visual effects toggles.- Additive Glow — enable WebGL additive blending for a glowing bloom effect on organisms (default: on)
- Death Particles — enable colored particle bursts when organisms are eaten or die of starvation (default: on)
- Show Food Oases — overlay semi-transparent teal circles indicating food oasis zones (default: on)
- Food Glow slider — intensity of the pulsing glow on food pellets (0.2–2.0; default 1.0)
- Trail Length slider — persistence of the previous frame, creating motion trails (0 = off; up to 0.95 for long trails; displayed as Off / Short / Medium / Long)
Stats bar
A fixed row at the bottom of the left panel shows four live metrics updated every frame:Right panel — AI Lab Partner
PressL or click the star icon (⚛) in the top-right corner to open the AI Lab Partner panel. Close it with the ✕ button or by pressing L again.
AI provider settings
A collapsible section at the top of the panel. Click the AI Provider Settings header to expand or collapse it.
Click Save Settings to persist your config. Click Test Connection to verify the API key and model are working.
Chat
A scrollable conversation history where the AI Lab Partner responds as a research scientist. Every message includes a live snapshot of the full simulation state as context — species populations, gene averages, food supply, extinction events, top predator stats, and current parameter settings. Type a question in the input field and pressEnter or click Send. The AI maintains the last 10 messages of conversation history for continuity.