Cellular Explorer

For discussion of other cellular automata.
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MattA
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Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » January 31st, 2014, 5:20 am

Hi,
I'm new here on the forum, but I have been interested in cellular automata for quite a while. I decided to scratch my own itch for the subject by creating an automaton editor to allow my own experiments. The main feature it has that doesn't seem to come up much is the abiity to create mixed rules automata. The current edition has the Wolfram elementary rules, the Moore binary outer-totalistic rules, (including presets for many of the more well known rules) and a coupe others. Each can be used independantly, or be edited together into a two-dimensional array. The editing tools are inspired by graphics editing software, and it is free and open source.

Everyone here is invited to download and try it out: http://lincolncybernetics.com/cellular-explorer/

See videos of it in action: http://lincolncybernetics.com/cellular-theatre/

and visit my development blog: http://lincolncybernetics.com/blog/

I'm looking forward to reading your feedback.
Matt

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MattA
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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » February 1st, 2014, 2:09 am

I just made a newer version of the software with some new cell types (mostly very simple ones), including computational cell that detects symmetry in the Moore neighborhood. There are also a number of other refinements. http://lincolncybernetics.com/cellular-explorer/

Also, as an alternative to the development blog, I maintain a Facebook page that has basically the same posts, just in a different venue: https://www.facebook.com/LincolnCybernetics

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MattA
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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » February 9th, 2014, 4:21 am

I'm continuing to work on Cellular Explorer bit by bit. The plan is to make something useful and convenient for a wide variety of experimentation and development of cell-based applications. I have plenty of ideas already for what to do with it, but are there any requests for new features/ celltypes/ brushes, etc? Also, if you have any kind of feedback, positive or negative, please feel free to speak up.

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alexv
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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by alexv » February 9th, 2014, 7:39 am

Matt,
On Windows 7 (32 bit) some elements on upper panel disappear and it is impossible to work.
On Linux Mint 13 (64 bit) it works (with some strange effects like "jumping" of check box),
but, sorry, I failed to put a single cell on area even after seeing your video.
May be it is reasonable to write some short notes about basic things in readme?
Alexander

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MattA
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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » February 10th, 2014, 1:34 am

alexv wrote: On Windows 7 (32 bit) some elements on upper panel disappear and it is impossible to work.
On Linux Mint 13 (64 bit) it works (with some strange effects like "jumping" of check box),
I have noticed these types of problems as well. It may be a problem of Java's Swing library interacting with the thread that runs the cells. Often, pausing the automaton helps, but if the controls are gone it isn't an option. I'm going to research, and try to fix this issue before adding anything more to the program.
Many thanks,
Matt

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MattA
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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » February 15th, 2014, 3:37 am

I just got a new version put together. This should help with the user interface issues. Plus I added a new cell type and did some work with the editing brushes.

Download it here:
http://lincolncybernetics.com/cellular-explorer/

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alexv
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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by alexv » February 15th, 2014, 6:30 am

I tested on Windows and still have problem already mentioned: size of main panel is not enough to make
all control elements visible. May be you should allow user to resize panel.

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MattA
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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » February 17th, 2014, 1:20 am

Sorry about that, alexv, I really thought that last edition would solve the problem. If you'd like to try again, I made another version with resizable controls.
It can be found here: http://lincolncybernetics.com/blog/2014 ... al-edition

If anyone else is having this problem, (or any others) please let me know.

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alexv
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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by alexv » February 17th, 2014, 5:49 am

Matt,

Thank you, now I may see and use all elements. I would not say it is problem due to elements too
small, they are rather bigger than expected and so appear below lower panel boundary.
Here is link to screenshot on a cloud (not direct link, but picture is visible directly on webpage)
https://cloud.mail.ru/public/1b22889c55 ... Exp006.jpg

Alexander

PS. May problem with putting a cell mentioned earlier was because with screen resolution less than
something like 1600x1200 state editor panel simply is not visible on computer screen.

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MattA
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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » February 20th, 2014, 4:48 am

I just got a new layout done. This should work better:
http://lincolncybernetics.com/blog/2014 ... t-complete

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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » March 2nd, 2014, 6:00 am

A lot of work is getting done on Cellular Explorer. A variety of new editing tools have been added, work is continuing on the UI, and just tonight, I added the first automaton-level rule. (hopefully the first of many) The following link leads to the latest prototype build.
http://lincolncybernetics.com/blog/201 ... pass-chaos

I look forward to hearing any comments, questions or suggestions you may have.

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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » March 19th, 2014, 4:00 am

Thank you to everybody who has tried Cellular Explorer, and/or visited my website. I just started reading "The Cathedral & the Bazaar", and it made me realize that you are my greatest asset. In appreciation of that fact, the next edition of Cellular Explorer will start crediting people who give useful feedback and suggestions in the "About" window.

Right now, I am basically re-working the structure of the program. If you have any suggestions, new features you'd like to see, bugs to fix, or anything else, now is a good opportunity to get something in.

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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » April 7th, 2014, 12:05 am

Day off from work today. I took advantage of it mostly by doing some updating of the cell classes to add two new features: Input modes, and Expanded neighborhoods. The source code repository has the latest.

Input modes deal with how each cell responds to the states of its neighbors. There are three input modes now: Mode 0 means no input. Cells in this mode disregard their neighbors entirely. Mode 1 is binary. Cells in this mode treat their neighbors as on if their output is a positive number, and off if their output is negative or zero. Mode 2 is integer mode, where each input is individually evaluated as an integer value. At this time, each cell class has a default mode that it always operates in, and soon some cells will have a customizable option to change modes.

Expanded neighborhoods control how far away a cell's neighbors are. In most cellular automata, each cell looks at its immediate neighbors. Expanded neighborhoods will give at least some cells the option of looking farther afield. More details to come.

Sorry if things aren't very exciting right now, all the code updates recently haven't been user-facing, but they are building up a structure that will allow greater flexibility in cell and automaton design.

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MattA
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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » April 9th, 2014, 2:46 am

One of the experiments I have been working on has now paid off. Expanded neighborhoods are now a part of Cellular Explorer, and they open up a lot of new possibilities. Expanded neighborhoods allows you to set how far each cell is from its neighbors. Normal cells have an expansion factor of 1, meaning they look at their closest neighbors, but when the factor goes up , interesting things start to happen.

Click here to get the latest prototype with expanded neighborhoods:
http://lincolncybernetics.com/blog/2014 ... ghborhoods

Click Here to see a demo of what Expanded neighborhoods can do:
http://lincolncybernetics.com/cellular- ... -unleashed

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MattA
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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » April 21st, 2014, 1:05 am

One of the things I have wanted to do with Cellular Explorer from the beginning was to create automata similar to the Game of Life circuit-board kit that came out several years ago. https://learn.adafruit.com/game-of-life/ The interesting thing about it is that each kit builds a small, stand-alone automaton (4 cells x 4 cells) with a special rule that randomizes the state if it stagnates for too long. The kits can be connected together to create larger automata, and I have built a number of them. Last night I finally got the necessary coding done to achieve this, and tonight I have made a video of it in action.

See it here: http://lincolncybernetics.com/cellular- ... /life-kits

In other news, things are almost ready for the next version of Cellular Explorer. It will probably be done by the end of the week.

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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » April 28th, 2014, 11:03 pm

Cellular Explorer 0.0.8 is complete, and full of new functionality. The new Total Cell adds up its neighbors. The Multi-automaton mode creates new flexibility. Expanded Neighborhoods create parallel universes of cells, and input modes give you more control over a cell's behaviour.

Download it here: http://lincolncybernetics.com/cellular-explorer/

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Re: Cellular Explorer

Post by MattA » May 18th, 2014, 6:45 pm

Cellular Explorer v0.1.0 is out. Cellular Explorer has been in development for about a year now, and the main structures are in place. Things are working more or less as intended. The new version adds three new cells and two new brushes, as well as fixing up some details of the UI. Also, Cell input and output modes were implemented, and things were generally improved.

Download version 0.1.0 here:http://lincolncybernetics.com/cellular-explorer/

This Version marks a bit of a stopping point for the project. There are other programs to create and other skills to learn, so that new perspective and knowledge can be brought in to Cellular Explorer at a later time. If you have any changes you'd like to see made, or any questions to be answered about Cellular explorer, please, send me a message via this forum, or e-mail me at: ahlschwede.m@gmail.com Thank You for your continued interest in this project.

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