Show HN: Demo of Agent Based Model on GPU with CUDA and OpenGL (Windows/Linux)

What exactly is an "agent based model" in this case? What I see is a lot of triangles moving around, but what exactly drives them?

You should work on inter-agent interaction next! It&#x27;s so much fun.<p>I have played with this a fair amount and put a couple of my experiments in a repo- both slime mold simulation and &quot;particle life&quot;.<p>Here&#x27;s the repo: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;jasonjmcghee&#x2F;compute-shaders">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;jasonjmcghee&#x2F;compute-shaders</a><p>And a video of the slime mold: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;_jason_today&#x2F;status&#x2F;1663378736098738177?s=46&amp;t=ZjF9if4qtE9ppAnug9UOPQ" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;_jason_today&#x2F;status&#x2F;1663378736098738177?...</a>

Are the agents independent or are they affected by neighbors? It would be nice to see some classic ABM examples like wolf-sheep population, flocking, and wildfire spread to demonstrate the utility of this.

Super cool, curious to see where you take this! I did some work on GPGPU for agent simulations for an RTS years ago ( <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=P4fKJIrv0J8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=P4fKJIrv0J8</a> ). Doing things like pathfinding on the GPU gets tricky, especially taking into account how agents affect paths of other agents. Happy to jam anytime if you&#x27;re brainstorming applications.

If you want to create some pretty effects, add the concept of a velocity-texture which is added to agents velocity as they pass over it. Then let the user draw on the texture. Very cheap way to get interactivity. My own version from before compute shades were a thing (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;moritonal.github.io&#x2F;force-particles&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;moritonal.github.io&#x2F;force-particles&#x2F;</a>)

Another fun one, not sure about accuracy, but the visuals are stunning.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;dSkxvi9igqQ" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;dSkxvi9igqQ</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;chrxh&#x2F;alien&#x2F;">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;chrxh&#x2F;alien&#x2F;</a>

Are the entities interacting in any way here? That&#x27;s pretty critical for agent based models as they enable complicated&#x2F;unexpected emergent behavior from simplified rules due to the interactions of the entities.

Another related project for ABMs utilizing GPUs: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.flamegpu.com&#x2F;guide&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.flamegpu.com&#x2F;guide&#x2F;index.html</a>

reminds me of the flocking demos 20 years ago...

Could this work in WebGL and&#x2F;or WebGPU (and&#x2F;or WebNN) with or without WASM in a browser?<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;stackoverflow.com&#x2F;questions&#x2F;48228192&#x2F;webgl-compute-shader-and-vbo-ubos" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;stackoverflow.com&#x2F;questions&#x2F;48228192&#x2F;webgl-compute-s...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;conda-forge&#x2F;glfw-feedstock&#x2F;blob&#x2F;main&#x2F;recipe&#x2F;meta.yaml">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;conda-forge&#x2F;glfw-feedstock&#x2F;blob&#x2F;main&#x2F;reci...</a><p>pyglfw: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;conda-forge&#x2F;pyglfw-feedstock&#x2F;blob&#x2F;main&#x2F;recipe&#x2F;meta.yaml">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;conda-forge&#x2F;pyglfw-feedstock&#x2F;blob&#x2F;main&#x2F;re...</a><p>- [ ] glfw recipe for <i>emscripten</i>-forge: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;emscripten-forge&#x2F;recipes&#x2F;tree&#x2F;main&#x2F;recipes&#x2F;recipes_emscripten">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;emscripten-forge&#x2F;recipes&#x2F;tree&#x2F;main&#x2F;recipe...</a><p>Emscripten porting docs &gt; OpenGL ES 2.0&#x2F;3.0 *, glfw: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;emscripten.org&#x2F;docs&#x2F;porting&#x2F;multimedia_and_graphics&#x2F;OpenGL-support.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;emscripten.org&#x2F;docs&#x2F;porting&#x2F;multimedia_and_graphics&#x2F;...</a><p>WebGPI API &gt; GPUBuffer: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;docs&#x2F;Web&#x2F;API&#x2F;WebGPU_API" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developer.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;docs&#x2F;Web&#x2F;API&#x2F;WebGPU_API</a><p>gpuweb&#x2F;gpuweb: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;gpuweb&#x2F;gpuweb">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;gpuweb&#x2F;gpuweb</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=38355444">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=38355444</a> :<p>&gt; <i>It actually looks like pygame-web (pygbag) supports panda3d and harfang in WASM</i><p>Harfang and panda3d do 3D with WebGL, but FWIU not yet agents in SSBO&#x2F;VBO&#x2F;GPUBuffer.<p>SSBO: Shader Storage Buffer Object: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.khronos.org&#x2F;opengl&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Shader_Storage_Buffer_Object" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.khronos.org&#x2F;opengl&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Shader_Storage_Buffer_Ob...</a><p>&#x2F;? WebGPU compute: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?q=webgpu+compute" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?q=webgpu+compute</a><p>&quot;WebGPU Compute Shader Basics&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;webgpufundamentals.org&#x2F;webgpu&#x2F;lessons&#x2F;webgpu-compute-shaders.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;webgpufundamentals.org&#x2F;webgpu&#x2F;lessons&#x2F;webgpu-compute...</a>