We've just released Simpocalypse 2.1 today. This is another feature release, containing some exciting new functionality we wanted to get into your hands as quickly as possible, as well as the usual collection of quiet bugfixes. The highlights, below the fold:

Simpocalypse 2.0.3, published this afternoon, is a bugfix release focusing on the user interface. Previously, Simpocalypse wasn't really usable with keyboard navigation (using the Tab key to move between entry fields and buttons); we've tried to clean this up a little bit, although it's still not possible to control every parameter with the keyboard. We've also changed the names of the immunity parameters to make it easier to understand what they do, and moved them so they're next to each other.

Another bugfix release, 2.0.2 just makes the rollover boxes for individual people behave a little bit more nicely, and in particular solves an issue where the application might become confused over whether one exists or not, and display a scary-looking error dialog.

The 2.0.1 bugfix release is out, solving the macOS crash we noted in the 2.0 release announcement, and correcting some other minor issues. We've also got Google Drive save/load support enabled for the Web version. As always, watch this space for future updates.

We've just published version 2.0 of the application. This release has been a long time in coming, and adds numerous new features. There have been over 100 individual changes since 1.3 was released; highlights include support for more public health measures, like quarantines, better ways to see the status of individual agents in the simulaiton, and various bugfixes.

A detailed list of changes follows below the fold: (more...)

Our new Simpocalypse website has just gone live. We previously used a combination of the download page, here at simpocalypse.org, and a site-builder page with most of the other information. The new site has everything right here, and is designed so that every page loads as fast as possible, and (hopefully) is accessible to people with visual disabilities.

We're still working on a new version of the application; expect big news on this front in the near future!

Version 1.3.0 is out today, and besides some minor improvements to the user interface, there's really only one thing to see: Simpocalypse now keeps track of the complete history of the simulation, and allows you to go back in time to see how your epidemic developed. We've been surprised by just how helpful this feature is for understanding the model, so we decided to release it as soon as possible. We're still working on additional improvements, so keep watching!

We've just released version 1.2.0 of the Simpocalypse application today. Besides many bugfixes, this version comes with some important improvements:

• There are now two modes for changing the simulation's parameters. Simple mode has fewer parameters and longer explanations for them, so it's easier to get started right away. Complete mode lets you change every parameter in the simulation, for maximum control, and shows the raw probability numbers behind them, for more advanced students.
• It's now possible to save and restore the parameters that control the population, movement rules, and vaccines, along with the disease.
• Simpocalypse has always supported saving the simulation's history as a SQLite database file for futher analysis. SQLite databases allow for all kinds of advanced manipulation of the data, but they require special tools to open, and some knowledge of how SQL databases work. 1.2.0 adds support for saving the history in CSV format, which can be opened with most spreadsheet programs, for more basic data analysis.
• The user interface layout has been revised to make it, hopefully, a little bit easier to figure out.
• We've been able to test Simpocalypse on a slightly wider range of different Macs, and we are now pretty confident that it will start on any PowerPC Mac that can run Mac OS X 10.5, and any Intel Mac manufactured to date, although many of the older ones will have trouble running the simulation with large populations or short cycle times.

There are still plenty of new features we want to add, and probably more bugs left to squish. Check back for more updates.

Version 1.1.0 is out today! Some highlights:

• You can now create basic vaccines, with control over the vaccination rate and the effectiveness of the vaccine itself, and introduce the vaccine at any point before or during a simulation.
• It is now possible to save and restore diseases: snapshots of the parameters that control the disease's properties. The files this creates are small, simple plain text files that can easily be shared via email attachments or other means.
• Several of the parameter sliders have a wider range, and are a little easier to use, thanks to using a logarithmic scale instead of a linear one.
• The UI layout has been further improved, especially on Macs and for smaller screens.
• Many other miscellaneous bugs have been fixed.

We're still hard at work adding new functionality to the simulation and looking for bugs to squash. Check back here for further updates!

For those who haven't noticed already, Simpocalypse 1.0.2 has been available since Monday, May 4th. This corrects several bugs in the application, and most importantly makes some of the dialog boxes more relevant and helpful. We're still working on a new release with some other usability improvements and added features, stay tuned!