![]() The initial setup is an infinite, orthogonal, two-dimensional grid of rectangular cells, each of which is either alive or dead (populated or unpopulated). The initial configuration can then be observed evolving over generations, following a rather simple, yet ingenious set of rules. It is basically a zero-player game, meaning that merely the initial conditions are set, and no further input is required beyond that. I’ve revisited the concept the past weekend and am eager to share the results with you all.įor those of you not familiar, I’m not reporting about the parlor game, created in 1860 by Milton Bradley, although that would also be a great topic, but about the conceptual Game of Life devised by British mathematician John Conway in 1970. Back then my overall CG and coding skills were still in early development, and the Game of Life remained a pretty much unrealised side-project. ![]() For those of you, not familiar with architectural academia, the Game of Life, like the Vornoi diagram, particles, and other geometrical curiosities are often times experimented with to produce seemingly avant-garde design objects and/or buildings. In fact, a computer that calculates prime numbers has been designed within the Wireworld system.A couple of years ago, when I first encountered the concept of Conway’s Game of Life, oftentimes referred to as cellular automaton, during my early architecture studies, I was kind of baffled and intrigued by it. Components are relatively easy to combine and the capabilities of the automaton make it Turing-complete. ![]() Using these four simple rules, it is possible to design structures such as diodes (shown below), logic gates, and clock generators. Conductors (yellow) become electron heads if exactly one or two neighboring cells are electron heads. Electron heads (blue) become electron tails in the succeeding generation. Empty cells (black) always remain empty. Wireworld uses four possible cell states and has the following rules: Wireworld is a cellular automaton that simulates electronic devices and logic gates by having cells represent electrons traveling across conductors. "Demon" artifacts, as shown below, create these spirals and are constructed from adjacent groups of cells which constantly devour each other and create a rotating pattern. Two dimensional cyclic cellular automata typically result in spiraling patterns that eventually consume the entire grid. Cycles involving more than 4 colors tend to produce patterns that stabilize more quickly when compared to 3 or 4-color cycles. One dimensional cyclic cellular automata can be used to model particles that undergo ballistic annihilation. Whenever a cell is neighbored by a cell whose color is next in the cycle, it copies that neighbor's color-otherwise, it remains unchanged. In cyclic cellular automata, an ordering of multiple colors is established. The Immigration Game and the Rainbow Game of Life can both be viewed and played here. Some investigations on the propagation of colors in the Rainbow Game of Life can be seen here. The Rainbow Game of Life is notable for being somewhat analogous to genetic properties spreading through a population of creatures. Thus, a cell which is born from two black cells and one white cell will have a dark gray appearance. The Rainbow Game of Life is similar to the Immigration Game, only newborn cells instead are colored based on the average color values of their parent cells.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |