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I'd like to commend his propagating better-than-usual understanding of biological trait blending. At school (in Israel) we learned that you have Dominant Genes
by SonOfLilit 11y ago
I'd like to commend his propagating better-than-usual understanding of biological trait blending.
At school (in Israel) we learned that you have Dominant Genes and Recessive Genes, and Dominant trumps Recessive. Just a month ago I got to hear a more correct description from a biologist friend, which sounds much like Bunnie's implementation:
In order to capture the wonderful diversity offered by sex, I implement quantitative traits in the light genome. Instead of having a single bit for each trait, it’s a byte, and there’s an expression function that combines the values from each gene (alleles) to derive a final observed trait (phenotype).
By carefully picking expression functions, I can control how the average population looks. Let’s consider saturation (I used an HSV colorspace, instead of RGB, which makes it much easier to create aesthetically pleasing color combinations). A highly saturated color is vivid and bright. A less saturated color appears pastel, until finally it’s washed out and looks just white or gray (a condition analogous to albinism).
If I want albinism to be rare, and bright colors to be common, the expression function could be a saturating add. Thus, even if one allele (copy of the gene) has a low value, the other copy just needs to be a modest value to result in a bright, vivid coloration. Albinism only occurs when both copies have a fairly low value.
Also, Bunnie's blog has a great awesome to noise ratio. Check out his post about a tour in a zipper factory: http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4364 http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4364
Edit: text formatting
- smcl 11y agoI adore lots of the bunniestudios blog posts but "awesome to noise" is the exact opposite of how I'd describe that blog. There are dozens of "Name that ware" (and "Winner: name that ware...") posts and in recent history they vastly outnumber the good stuff.
- triplesec 11y agoI think you're being unfair: compare it with the noise on many other blogs, and he compares vey favourably. Also the density and quality of the information in his analytical posts is very very high indeed.
- smcl 11y agoI enjoy the blog posts with substance, however the majority of the posts are "guess the mystery unlabeled circuit board" which isn't really my thing. Take a look at the last 12 posts: - Sex, Circuits & Deep House - Name that Ware, September 2015 - Winner, Name that Ware July 2015 - Name that Ware, July 2015 - Winner Name that Ware June 2015 - Name that Ware, June 2015 - Winner, Name that Ware May 2015 - Name that Ware, May 2015 - Winner, Name that Ware April 2015 - Name that Ware April 2015 - Winner, Name that Ware March 2015 - The Heirloom Laptop’s Custom Wood Composite See what I mean?
- voltagex_ 11y agoI can't speak for bunnie, but to hazard a guess he's bloody busy right now.
- smcl 11y agoI know and that is completely what I expected. I had typed out a "disclaimer: I know Bunnie and his team have a lot going on, I am not having a go" proviso but I figured HN was a place where we don't need to have be so defensive :-/
- voltagex_ 11y agoYep, I think we're in agreement. My reply would have been better if I'd added a note that I've seen that kind of pattern on other blogs before. It's hard to keep a highly technical blog going while also doing the projects that give you material to blog about in the first place!
- triplesec 11y agoI think we're in agreement too. Not defensive, only that it seemed a churlish criticism! Anyway, onwards to constructive things!
- triplesec 11y agothat's a bit unfair: those are monthly things which you can easily skip. Yes, the UX could be better, but he has other priorities. IMNSHO it's worth the little extra effort.
- SonOfLilit 11y agoSorry, I should have added "as long as you skip everything with Name That Ware in the title".
- smcl 11y agoIn that case we're 100% on the same page :)