# Approximate Moran Process¶

Due to the high computational cost of a single Moran process, an approximate Moran process is implemented that can make use of cached outcomes of games. The following code snippet will generate a Moran process in which the outcomes of the matches played by a Random: 0.5 are sampled from one possible outcome against each opponent (Defector and Random: 0.5). First the cache is built by passing counter objects of outcomes:

>>> import axelrod as axl
>>> from collections import Counter
>>> cached_outcomes = {}
>>> cached_outcomes[("Random: 0.5", "Defector")] = axl.Pdf(Counter([(1, 1)]))
>>> cached_outcomes[("Random: 0.5", "Random: 0.5")] = axl.Pdf(Counter([(3, 3)]))
>>> cached_outcomes[("Defector", "Defector")] = axl.Pdf(Counter([(1, 1)]))


Now let us create an Approximate Moran Process:

>>> axl.seed(3)
>>> players = [axl.Defector(), axl.Random(), axl.Random()]
>>> amp = axl.ApproximateMoranProcess(players, cached_outcomes)
>>> results = amp.play()
>>> amp.population_distribution()
Counter({'Random: 0.5': 3})


We see that, for this random seed, the Random: 0.5 won this Moran process. This is not what happens in a standard Moran process where the Random: 0.5 player will not win:

>>> axl.seed(3)
>>> amp = axl.MoranProcess(players)
>>> results = amp.play()
>>> amp.population_distribution()
Counter({'Defector': 3})