The Groundbreaking Release

With this release we reached a great achievement for this project: optimization is faster, more reliable and much more fun. It addresses many issues and missing features, so I hope you will enjoy it!

Added

• View all walkers (#3)!
  • show_all_walkers in docs/examples/strider.py let you see all walkers in one simulation!
  • You can set the color of walkers during display.
• Genetic optimization:
  • GeneticOptimization class in geneticoptimizer.py that will replace the previous functional paradigm.
  • The average score is now displayed.
• VisualWorld has a new method called reload_visuals.
• show_evolution.py is a new script plotting various data about the Walkers population's evolution during
  genetic optimization.
• In docs/examples/strider.py we recommend to use total_distance as the fitness function.

Changed

• Genetic optimization:
  • During genetic optimization, population is now stable at max_pop (it used to fluctuate a lot).
  • Genetic optimization do no longer display all dimensions in the progress bar.
  • startnstop argument may now be the name of the file to use (a string).
  • max_genetic_distance was changed from 0.7 to 10. Results are much better now!
• Visuals:
  • update method of VisualWorld replaced by visual_update. It clearly separates physics and display time.
  • Frame rate and physics speed are now independent parameters.
  • Visuals go to a new file worldvisualizer.py.
  • Camera parameters should now be accessed from CAMERA instead of params["camera"].
  • The camera feels more cinematic.
• You can define a custom load when using World.add_linkage or VisualWorld.add_linkage. The default is 0.
• pyproject.toml updated with the data of setup.cfg. This is now the recommended metadata for the project.
• In docs/example/strider.py, simulation time was increased from 30 seconds to 40. It was just not enough.

Fixed

• Documentation of evolutionary_optimization_builtin was wrong: returned data were in order (fitness, dimensions, position),
  but (fitness, position, dimensions) was indicated.
• After a genetic optimization, the example script was assigning wrong data to the demo walker.
• kwargs_switcher from geneticoptimizer.py do no longer pop (destroy) argument from the input dictionary.

Deprecated

• setup.cfg should no longer be used, as it is replaced by pyproject.toml.

Removed

• evolutionary_optimization function is removed. Use GeneticOptimization class instead.
  • You can no longer use the argument "init_pop" to change the size of the initial population.
    It now always set to max_pop.
• time_coef, calc_rate and max_sub parameters of params["simul"] replaced by a unique
  physics_period set to 0.02 (s).
• leggedsnake/Population evolution.json removed.
  It contained data about an evolution run and is not relevant for users.