CetaSim Progress Update

I'd like to start off with some extremely belated thanks to this project's backers, and a special note of appreciation to the Earth Species Project for the generous grant. Secondly, I'm pleased to report that as of this week I've wrapped up my previous game development commitments, and I'm currently devoting my full attention solely to CetaSim.

Much of the focus so far has been on exploring methods of visualizing the echolocation soundwaves and reflections with as much grounding in realism as possible, while still taking some artistic license as needed. One goal is to try incorporating the concept of 3D cymatics into the interference patterns of the sound wave particle effects. Also, I'm adding global time dilation controls to slow things down, as otherwise these vibrations would of course be too fast to see.

 

Expanding distortion sphere effects

I'm also working on the initial whale rig so that its skeleton more closely matches real vertebra among other elements. Eventually this will evolve into the universal procedural rig that can be configured to any size, gender, coloration, fluke characteristics etc. But for now this one will serve for generating animation libraries to train the locomotion ML agents on.

I'll definitely try to be more frequent with updates in the coming months. Thanks again to the project's supporters!