DinoLife v1.0

Emergent life simulation system in C# (.NET 8) with terminal rendering.

Overview

DinoLife simulates ecosystems with 4 entity types and real-time interaction rules. It supports:

• Legacy terminal renderer and TUI renderer (--renderer=legacy|tui)
• Save/load state
• Performance overlay
• In-game help overlay (H)
• In-game parameter tuning with live updates, presets, and import/export
• JSON configuration files with schema validation and hot-reload

Quick Navigation

Planning & Architecture

• Project Overview
• Technical Decisions (ADRs)
• System Architecture
• Project Milestones

Development

• Project Structure
• Entity Design
• System Design

Workflow

• GitFlow Workflow
• Development Guidelines

Core Specifications

Aspect	Specification
Language	C# .NET8
Architecture	Data-Oriented Hybrid
Tick Rate	60 updates/second
Target Entities	5000 simultaneous
Persistence	JSON serialization
Rendering	Terminal (legacy + TUI)

Entity Types

1. Herbivore: Eats plants, flees carnivores
2. Carnivore: Hunts herbivores (and scavengers when very hungry)
3. Plant: Regrows and respawns after being consumed
4. Scavenger: Consumes corpses and avoids carnivores

Build

dotnet restore
dotnet build -c Release

Run

Legacy renderer

dotnet run --project src/DinoLife.Console -- --renderer=legacy

TUI renderer

dotnet run --project src/DinoLife.Console -- --renderer=tui

Main Controls

• Space: Play/Pause
• RightArrow: Step one tick (paused)
• +/-: Simulation speed
• W/A/S/D or arrows: Camera pan
• Home: Reset camera
• Tab / [ / ]: Entity selection
• F: Follow selected entity
• G: Toggle grid
• P or O: Performance panel
• H: Help screen
• M: Command menu (TUI)
• S: Save
• L: Load selected save
• J/K: Previous/next save in browser
• R: Reset simulation
• Q / Esc: Quit

Parameter Tuning (TUI)

In M menu, open Parameter tuning... to:

• Edit movement/metabolism/reproduction/detection/growth values live
• Apply presets: Balanced, Chaotic, Stable
• Export tuning profiles to tuning/*.json
• Import latest tuning profile from tuning/

Configuration Files

• appsettings.json: global app config
• world-config.json: world seed, initial populations, tuning profile
• appsettings.schema.json and world-config.schema.json: validation schemas

Hot-reload is enabled by default (hotReloadEnabled: true in appsettings.json).

Tests

dotnet test -c Release

Benchmarks

dotnet run --project tests/DinoLife.Benchmarks/DinoLife.Benchmarks.csproj -c Release