Ant Colony Shortest-Path Race (2D)

This 2D companion runs the same stigmergic mechanic as the 3D ant colony scene — a fixed nest, a fixed food source and a single obstacle between them — but drawn top-down on a plain canvas instead of an orbiting 3D camera. Ants leave the nest, wander toward whichever ground smells most of pheromone, and lay a trail only on the way back once they are carrying food; the trail evaporates every frame, so only the route enough ants keep re-walking survives. Because the obstacle is asymmetric, one detour is shorter than the other, and the live top-route-vs-bottom-route bar shows the colony committing to the shorter one with no leader and no map — the same shortest-path emergence the 3D scene shows, reduced to two numbers you can actually watch converge.