When an ent is born in Genetic Life, it has the three neighboring ents in adjacent cells as its parents. Ents therefore have a family tree that can trace their lineage back to the primary ents present in starting generation zero. Below is a two-dimensional animation showing the direct parents of active ents on the board.
This direct lineage can also be viewed in 3D. In the video below the starting primary ents in generation 0 are shown with chess queen shapes, and born ents are shown with pawns. The height based on activity feature is retained here as well.
In three dimensions there are more possibilities for how to show inheritance. The following video shows child ents painted with rings representing the colors of their parents. The top and bottom colors are the random colors they would normally be assigned.
Finally, here is a little more complex, but more informative alternative. The color of a child ent’s parents are painted in vertical stripes. The side of the octagonal ent on which a colored stripe is painted is in the direction on which the parent was located when the ent was born.
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