Basics

BioDynaMo can be compiled with different floating point precisions. Currently, single-precision (float) and double-precision (double) are supported. By default, BioDynaMo is compiled with double-precision.

Reduced floating-point precision reduces the required main memory, the file size of simulation backups, and might reduce the simulation runtime.

You can print the used precision with:

bdm-config --fp-precision

or at the end of a simulation if you set Param::statisticsto true.

To change the precision of BioDynaMo to float, add the cmake option -Dreal_t=float and (re)compile:

cmake -Dreal_t=float ..
make -j<replace-with-num-cpus> 

Usage in simulation code

If you want that the simulation adapts the floating-point precision to the BioDynaMo installation, use the following data types:

• real_t (instead of float or double) and
• Real3 (instead of Double3 or Float3).

If you switch the precision in BioDynaMo, you have to recompile the simulation (e.g., bdm clean ; bdm build)