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Physarum Slime Mold Simulator (2D)

Interactive 2D Physarum polycephalum agent simulation: thousands of particles sense a decaying, diffusing pheromone field with three sensors and steer toward the strongest trail, self-organizing into the branching transport networks real slime mold uses to solve mazes.

Animals & Their World2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This top-down 2D simulation models Physarum polycephalum as thousands of independent agents moving over a shared pheromone trail field. Each agent has three sensors — front-left, center, and front-right — that sample the trail map's intensity ahead of it; the agent turns toward the strongest reading and deposits a fresh trail at its new position. The entire trail field then diffuses and decays every frame, so only trails reinforced by many agents persist while stray wandering fades away. Out of these purely local sensing-and-depositing rules, the colony self-organizes into the same branching, network-optimizing transport lines the real organism uses to connect food sources. Adjust agent density, sensor geometry, turn speed, deposit strength, and trail persistence to see how each parameter reshapes the emergent network.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 2D Physarum polycephalum agent simulation: thousands of particles sense a shared, decaying pheromone trail field with three sensors (front-left, center, front-right), steer toward the strongest reading, and deposit their own trail as they move. The field diffuses and decays every frame, collapsing random wandering into the same branching, network-optimizing transport lines the real slime mold uses to solve mazes. Adjust agent density, sensor geometry, turn speed, deposit strength and trail persistence.

biologyphysarumslime moldagent-basedpheromone trailemergent behavioranimals2D

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install