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Text File | 1993-11-25 | 14.7 KB | 292 lines

Rabid Cat Software's !3DLife v1.0 Jan 1992 BACKGROUND ---------- Since time immemorial (or for a few years anyway) many implementations of John Horton-Conways original LIFE have been available. Most of these are sort of not very good, and there's so many of them the whole scene's a bit depressing. Now I do like to see a nice multi coloured Cellular Automata, the type of which people who are interested in LIFE and stuff like that sometimes write, but there's not many of them about either. My own !Splodge program's a bit crap because the colours all change and flash in a horrible manner, and it does your head in after a bit. However, all is not lost, for now no longer need you be bored by distinctly 'flat' looking LIFE or stare vacantly for hours at flashing colours. Yes at last! Its here! Its taken me ages to write! (and its still not properly finished). A true Cellular Automata for the 90s, 3-DIMENSIONAL LIFE ! 3D LIFE is not a new idea, in fact I think you can already get a PD version for the ARC, I first read about it in A.K.Dewdenys 'The Armchair Universe' which is a well excellent book all about things to do on computers, and I would recommend it to anyone who's interested. Basically the idea is exactly the same as LIFE, a space is split into a grid, each space in the grid is a cell which can either be alive (i.e there, as in 'present') or dead ( not there ). At each tick of a cosmic clock every cell assumes a state that is entirely dependent on its previous state and the previous state of its immediate nieghbours. The only difference with 3D LIFE is that the space in which all the action takes place is 3-dimensional one rather than a flat plane, and whereas in normal LIFE each cell has 8 potential nieghbours in 3D LIFE there are 26 possible nieghbours, therefore making 3D LIFE more than 3 times as much fun as normal LIFE ! As it's 3D, that makes representation a little bit harder, in my program the cells are little cubes ( or spheres ) and its like a sort of isometric projection. You can freeze the action if you want, and look at the cubes from different sides, also you can shift them about in the workspace ( ie if there were something interesting in one corner you could shift it to the centre, without affecting the processing ). You can't look at the cubes from any angle and there's no perspective or any flash stuff like that, because that would need filled in vector graphics, and I don't know how to do that. You can change the workspace size, and if you make it flat ( ie 1 high ), with the right rule it runs normal 2D LIFE ! (that'll keep the old hippies happy - keeps me happy anyway). Anyway there now follows a concise set of instructions for all the available functions. Also you might like to load up the ViewMe file into !Draw, Yeah I know its self indulgent but its took me long enough to write this program so I think I should be able to do what I like. Oh right, nearly forgot the best bit, Multisync monitor owners prepare to be amazed - there are two complete sets of graphics for this program, thus implementing a full Multisync version with quite nice graphics. Enjoy it while it lasts Multisync monitor owners, I'm not going to do it again, too much like hard work ! INSTRUCTIONS ------------ These instructions are fairly comprehensive, but I think they only need to be refered to if you have a problem, the best bet is to mess around with the program. Check out the ideas section at the end of this for some things you might like to try. When the program starts you will see some small cubes moving about in the centre of the screen. These cubes occupy a space which is 14 cubes high by 14 cubes across by 14 cubes deep. This is just the way the program starts, this space can be any shape or size up to 30 x 30 x 30 ( or 62 x 62 x 62 if you have enough memory ). In the corners of the screen ( out of the way of the cubes ) there are four coloured triangles with various icons in them. Clicking the mouse on these icons provides full control over the program, there are no other screens or menus you need to know about. These are the functions the icons control : TOP LEFT TRIANGLE (grey) This contains : - The program title ( 3D LIFE ). - Some moving arrows ( click on these to turn the effect on and off ). "B" Icon - this toggles between Small Mode, max space size 30 x 30 x 30 cubes, and Large Mode, max size 62 x 62 x 62 cubes. When in Large Mode the icon is highlighted by a yellow border, this mode is only selectable if you have enough memory, if you don't an error message will be produced and the program will exit. "M" Icon - this toggles between multisync mode and normal mode, it is an option only available to multisync owners, and the icon will not even appear if you don't have one. Multisync owners however may prefer normal mode operation as the program runs a bit faster. WARNING: Both these operations re-run the program and lose all current statuses and operations that may have been set up. TOP RIGHT TRIANGLE (blue) This contains : Rotator - This rotates at a speed dependent on the speed of program operation. Click on it to stop/start it rotating. Yellow There are four of these all together, they rotate the cube arrow - formation within the space by 90 degrees, in the direction in red of the arrow. The formation is otherwise unaffected, and this allows the cube formation to be viewed from different sides. --- Rule bar --- This is an important function. The bar shows the current rule that governs the action of the cells, it is split into two rows of 27 symbols. The top row shows the fate ( i.e the state in the next generation ) of a cell that is currently live, i.e. 'there', whereas the bottom row shows the fate of a cell that is currently dead i.e. 'not there'. The 27 symbols respectively show the fate of a cell with 0 to 26 (the maximum possible) live nieghbours ( the nieghbours are the cubes immediatly adjacent to the cube in question, and those on the corners ). On the rule bar, a white block represents a cell that becomes alive, a dark red one a cell that becomes dead. This is made clearer by the text below the rule bar, as the mouse pointer passes over the rule bar the text changes to show what the block pointed at implies. E.g. If the pointer were pointing at the top leftmost block, and this were dark red, it would say, ALIVE CELL WITH 0 ADJACENT BECOMES DEAD The rule can be changed by clicking on the blocks in the rule bar, this toggles them between 'BECOMES LIVE' and 'BECOMES DEAD'. Or alternatively rule editing can be done by clicking on the text below. The first word toggles between "ALIVE" and "DEAD". Clicking on the number counts it through from 0 to 26, and clicking on the final word toggles it between 'BECOMES DEAD' and 'BECOMES ALIVE' - and by this method the rule can be changed. See the final section, "IDEAS", for some good rules to try. BOTTOM LEFT TRIANGLE (yellow) This contains : Quit - Click on this to exit to desktop. Formation - These 6 arrows in red discs shift the cube formation about Shift within the cube workspace. Each arrow shifts in the direction it points in. If 'Wrapping' (see later) is on, then any cubes that go off one side reappear on the other, leaving processing unaffected. However if 'Wrapping' is off cubes that go over the edge are lost forever. HLT - This freezes the processing allowing the cube formation to be examined. When the program is frozen the HLT icon is highlighted by a moving border. Click on it again to resume processing. 'S' - This becomes highlighted when the processing is frozen by 'HLT', clicking on it causes the program to go on a single step at a time. Random This is the left most of the three main icons. When clicked on, Start - this clears the cube area and then randomly spreads 'live' cubes about. The density of the cubes in a random start can be varied by the 'Random %' icon in the bottom right triangle (see later). 'r' - This performs the same function as above, but the Seed used Random for the random generation is the same as that used by the last Restart Random Start. i.e. this repeats exactly the last Random Start ( if something interesting happened then you can watch it all over again, perhaps freezing processing at interesting spots, etc). File This is in the centre of the three main icons. When this is Start - clicked on, the cube area is cleared and replaced by the formation of cubes held in the current File. This file contains a 2 x 2 x 2 block at the start of the program, but this can be replaced by any formation of your own (see File Save below). ----EDIT MODE---- The rightmost of the three main icons toggles Edit Mode on or off, when on, this icon is highlighted by a moving border. Edit Mode is for you to define your own cube formations and the run them with whatever rule you choose to see what happens. This is very useful for looking for Gliders or Stable formations etc. This how it works : 1) First freeze the processing with 'HLT'. (This is not essential, but if processing is not frozen any formations you are editing will be destroyed before you get very far !) 2) Switch on 'Edit Mode'. The Edit Mode icon will become highlighted, and also the front plane of the cube block will become highlighted, as all the cubes in that plane will become a different colour. 3) The highlighted cubes can be edited by clicking on them with the mouse pointer. This will toggle them between alive ( 'there' ) and dead ( 'not there' ). 4) Any one of the 3 front planes ( left,right and top ) can be highlighted and edited clicking on the 'Plane Switch' icon ( bottom right corner of the yellow triangle) switches which one is highlighted. 5) By editing the front planes, and by use of the 'Formation Shift' functions (see above), any formation of cubes can be designed. File Save - When you have created a formation in Edit Mode, to store it temporarily while you run it, (so the original formation can be called up again at any time), click on the 'File Save' icon. (This is the small icon with the red "F" next to the blue cube).'File Start' will then restart processing from the saved file. Plane - Switches editable plane when in Edit Mode ( see 'EDIT MODE' Switch above). BOTTOM RIGHT TRIANGLE (red) This contains: Cube space - The three numbers with arrows to either side show the size Adjusters of the physical space in which all the action takes place. The numbers are the size of the dimensions in cube units, i.e. 10 x 10 x 10 means the space shown is 10 cubes high, by 10 cubes wide by 10 cubes deep. The size of each dimension can be cahnged at any time by clicking on the arrows at either side. Wrapping - Clicking on 'W' Toggles wrapping on and off. Wrapping governs how the edges of the cube space act. With wrapping 'on' cubes at the extreme edge of the space touch ( imaginarily ) the cubes at the opposite edge, thus the space 'wraps' around on itself. With wrapping 'off' a dead zone it set up around the outside of the cube space, so any cube at the edge of the space will get a reading of zero ( dead cell ) for all nieghbours beyond the edge of the space. ( When wrapping is on the 'W' becomes yellow ) Lights - Clicking on 'L' toggles the flourescent tube lighting effect on and off. Rnd % - The bar at the extreme right controls the percentage of cells that become alive on a random start. The higher the bar the greater the percentage of live cells. Speed - The arrow pointing to the scale between the hare and the Control tortoise controls the speed of the program operation, the nearer to the hare, the faster the program runs. Cube Type - Clicking on the icon with the picture pf a cube in it changes the image of the cube used in the display. Different size cubes and spheres are available for the best viewing effect. Pallette - Clicking on the icon with the pallete in the centre of it changes the colour of the displayed cube image. IDEAS --------- -- Good Rules To Try -- One class of rules that are easy to talk about are those that consist of a range of numbers of nieghbours that a cell becomes alive with, for both dead and alive cells. Eg. a live cell stays alive with 4-5 nieghbours only (inclusive) a dead cell becomes alive with 5-6 nieghbours. These type of rules lend themselves to an easy notation, the live cell values first, the dead ones second. Eg. the above rule could be called LIFE 4556. Other rules similar to this are worth experimenting with, LIFE 5667 for example. The main things to find in any potential LIFE are, stable forms, multi stable forms ( flips between two or more forms ) and gliders ( multi stables that 'move' across the screen ). All these forms can be found in normal 2D Life, and any good analagous 3D Life will produce them. Gliders are the hardest things to find, and the most prized, I know for a fact that there is a 3D Life rule ( possibly LIFE 4556 ) that has one, but I can't remember what it looks like. Other things to try include running 2D Life. The rule for 2D Life is that a dead cell with 3 nieghbours becomes alive, and a live cell with 2 or 3 nieghbours stays alive so in the above notation this becomes LIFE 2333. Set the cube space up so it's flat i.e one dimension = 1, and a certain rule will run normal Life, depending on whether Wrapping is on or off, I'll leave it to you to discover what the rule is. For more ideas I suggest the book 'The Armchair Universe' by A.K.Dewdeny. Finally, anyone who finds a good rule, or any gliders or anything, I would like to hear about it. Or for any other comments about the program or whatever, you can write to me. John Hedley 15 Hill Rise Trowell Nottingham NG9 3PE