The Vat Kit
for Creatures 3


Copyright CyberLife 1999



Probe your creature's brain with this nifty kit!




Introduction

The Vat Kit can operate in two modes: offline and online.  The online version
allows you to examine the brains of creatures running around in the game.
The offline version allows you to to examine a creature's brain "in a vat",
i.e. you control its sensory input instead of it being provided by the world!


To start up the offline version:
 - Choose "Open" from the File menu and load up a creature genome.
 - Click on "Adult" and then OK: we want to load in the adult version of the brain.
 - You should now have a picture of the brain in the Vat window.
 - For a quick demo of the brain in action, press the "IN" button on the toolbar
   to turn on instinct-processing, the loop button (looks like a circular arrow)
   and then the play button (looks like a right arrow).
 - You'll see input neurons light up, propagate through the brain and result in
   various dendrites migrate into their learnt positions and increase their weights.


To start up the online version:
 - Make sure the game is running with some creatures in it.
 - In the Vat Kit, choose "Connect to Creatures" in the File menu.
 - Choose one of your creatures in the world through the list in the File menu.
 - The game should now pause.
 - There should be a picture of the brain in the Vat window.
 - Now press the loop button (looks like a circular arrow) and then the play button
   (looks like a right arrow).
 - The game should now unpause and you'll be able to see all the brain changes on
   the fly.



Things you might want to try:

 - Right-clicking on a neuron or dendrite.  You can graph variables over time or
   view/modify their current value.

 - Try setting the threshold in the View menu to Non-Zero.  This will make it so
   only neurons and dendrites with non-zero values are shown which makes it easier
   to see what's going on.  Try the instinct processing with this option set.

 - To see how creatures attach importance to things which are moving try graph a
   neuron in the movement lobe, neuron 3 say.  Then load up the vision input from
   the Windows menu.  Moving the slider on neuron 3 in this dialog (to simulate
   the movement of an object in the real world) should make the neuron in the 
   movement graph fire more.

 - Naturally, there are many more things to try.  The more you learn about the brain
   the more things you can test.  Have fun with it!
