The parameters below can be tweaked. One of the nice features of the applet is the ability to speed up or slow down a run in the middle of that run. This can be done by pausing the run, changing the run speed or percent to display and continuing the run. One can also tweak other parameters during the run. However, the num of the respective agents will only be modified when the run is restarted.
These parameters will only take effect after Start/Restart is pressed.
Num Sheep - blue circles, number of sheep in run
Num Wolves - red circles, number of wolves in a run
Num Grass - black circles, number of grass units in run
The applet is multi-threaded in order to allow the user to make changes in the user interface while the computationally intensive portion of the applet runs. One may find it agreeable to pause a run when one needs the cpu to complete a high priority task and then resume the run when that task is completed. Although it is possible to suspend a thread when the applet is minimized, I prefer to be able to let the applet run even if it is minimized.
Parameters can be modified during a run. For example, one can simply pause the current run, tweak some parameters, and then continue a run which will use the new parameters. This can be extremely useful if one wants to evolve a population while not watching the applet. In this case, evolution may proceed much more quickly because the time consuming drawing phase is skipped. Additionally, one can increase or decrease the speed of the drawing phase so that users can watch the action at a pace that is agreeable to them.