I'll share more in depth info publically in a week or two on how the behavior works. I don't use ECS actually but would be a good optimization if I wanted to push it even further. The entire world is a grid of nodes in memory that is just its type (dirt or empty) and some other bits of info. This data is rendered to a texture rather than each being a separate entity. When a node changes type, it changes the corresponding pixel on the texture. Basically the ants are modifying pixels on a canvas. An ant is always located at the center of a node and makes decisions moving one node at a time or deciding whether to dig a dirt next to herself. There's more info I can share if you'd like to DM me on Discord (justicefied) or something. Excited to see the results of your thesis as well! The world needs more cool ant simulators.