Bounds and Wrapping

Often, you don't want your agents to move ad infinitum. You might be simulating gas particles in a closed box, or flights across the globe. In these situations, you need to define how big the world is, and how the agent operates as it nears the borders.

A gas particle in a box might have a topology configuration like:

{
    "topology": {
        "x_bounds": [0, 20],
        "y_bounds": [0, 20],
        "z_bounds": [0, 20],
        "wrapping_preset": "reflection"
    }
}

Notice the "wrapping_preset": "reflection" - this tells us that the agent will bounce off the borders, similar to how a ball might be reflected against a wall. If the agent has a direction, the direction will be flipped. This isn't always perfect though, so try to move the agent only once per chain of behaviors.

The wrapping presents we support out-of-the box are:

Wrapping Preset	Effect
Spherical	Agents will be wrapped continuously along the x-axis and will be reflected against the Y-axis borders. Imagine flying across a map of the world.
Reflection	Agents are simply bounced off the border and have their direction flipped
Torus	Like the classic arcade games Asteroids and Pacman, agents will be wrapped continuously on both borders. This only applies to the X and Y axis
Continuous	Like Torus, but applies in all three dimensions, X, Y, and Z.