Some suggestions

[Joe]

I apologize if this has already been done and I don't know about it yet, the foremost two changes that I think you should make is to reset to your original pattern, and to make it so the 'generations' count stops (or records, somewhere) once the cell count stops. This way I could play it as a game against my friends, for competing against each other for the amount of gernations passed before cell count stops. Then the 'warp speed' function comes in handy to keep trying.


As is the rule, it seems, if the cell count changes continuously, you have a 'winner' (i.e., a life form that continues to grow and die off). The ultra-winner would be one that continues to grow indefinetly (has this already been discovered? I assume it has...wait... continous 'glider makers' would be that). Making the two above listed updates would make this into a competing game, where 'continuous cell changes' would win again a stoppage of cell count, but two competing 'continuous cell changes' would be decided by the most amount of cells vs. starting cells ratio (or, both competiters could agree to start with the same amount of cells)

Again, though, this would only be possible if one could see their starting cell pattern, and could see their 'final' score of 'generations passed' when the cell count stopped.

[iconmaster]

Joe, if you want to have the timer stop, download winlife32 at http://www.winlife32.com/ .

[Joe]

Winlife32 doens't work on Vista it seems. It installs fine and I can open the program fine, but I can't mouse click on cells to make my own patterns. That's too bad, too, because it looks like exactly what I was looking for.

Joe

[dvgrn]

Golly 2.x has most of what's needed to set up a competitive game of this kind, I think: for example, you could use two or more tiled layers, so the competition could be run side-by-side on the same screen. Would have to make a few modifications to oscar.py or oscar.pl so it will detect the first generation when the cell count settles down -- maybe by backtracking when necessary.

It's a little more complicated than just when the cell count stops changing, I think -- you can have long periods with the same cell count when there's still something interesting going on (e.g., a glider on its way to hitting something that's going to blow up). And conversely you can end up with oscillating final states where the cell count never does settle down -- spaceships, pulsars, or what have you.

There will be a multistate rule called "LifeHistory" in Golly 2.1 that could be adapted for competitive Life (or there's an earlier version available in the Rule Table Repository now). Basically you'd draw a big square of "boundary" cells around the competition area, to catch any escaping gliders or spaceships and make sure the pattern would settle down eventually. Might want to skip the history-cell state, or just make it the same color as the background.

Anyway, setting up competitions in Golly certainly seems possible using a script, but I think some more detail would be needed about how exactly it would all work. Would the script display, and maybe verify before starting, the initial cell-count requirements? Why wouldn't people just draw a known methuselah pattern like the Online Soup Search is coming up with, or maybe Lidka (13 or 15 ON cells, 29,000+ generations)? I just tried drawing Lidka freehand from memory, and it was easy after a little practice...

[calcyman]

dvgrn wrote:

Why wouldn't people just draw a known methuselah pattern like Lidka

Because I can beat Lidka with an R-pentomino:

Code: Select all

x = 20, y = 30, rule = Lifecolor
3$13.2D$12.2D$13.D5$6.A$5.A.A$6.A8$13.A$11.A.A$10.2A.A2$9.3A!

[iconmaster]

WinLife32 works fine on Vista machines. You need to zoom in/out to display what you've drawn.

[H. V. McIntosh]

Although this thread seems mostly about running Life programs, I am still trying to figure out the LifeWiki, with the following observation. There seem to be numerous subindices, but I wonder how items make their way into them. In particular, there are various stretchers - wickstretchers, tubstretchers, boatstretchers and so on. But specific items which announce themselves as one or the other do not always make it into their subindex. Not only does it seem to be redundant to recognize various stretchers (why not just call them that for indexing purposes, and apply the adjective of choice in their specific page?), but it is not even clear how to get one classified in the first place. Something like mentioning a name within double braces?

Supposing that such an organization is possible and acceptable, it would still be a messy job going through and revising all the possible pages.

[H. V. McIntosh]

..... but it is not even clear how to get one classified in the first place. Something like mentioning a name within double braces? .....

So I get to answer my own question. It's done just like that, using that pattern template. Or even just putting those markers at the bottom of the page. Apparently if you fill out the questionnaire in the template, your page goes onto lists matching the answers. So, given that there are various kinds of stretchers, they each go into their own lists without any cross referencing. Too bad that all stretchers are much alike, and that readers might be better served by placing them all next to each other. But for what it's worth, we do get some subindices; some care is needed in naming a category, but it only works if everyone takes the same attitude.

[avfg]

Hello, I'm new to here.

I'd like to know why "block-laying switch engine" and "glider-producing switch engine" are not in the list.

[Lewis]

Hello, I'm new to here.

I'd like to know why "block-laying switch engine" and "glider-producing switch engine" are not in the list.

The program generating the list will have found switch engines, but the list is updated manually so they aren't shown. Whenever the list is next updated, the switch engines (as well as other patterns) will hopefully be added to the bottom.

[Macbi]

How should the amount of blocks and gliders produced by the switch engines be counted?

[Extrementhusiast]

OK, this thread hasn't been active for a REALLY long time, but there's more on my image problem. I settled for plain black and white. Here is the image:

[winlife32]

The Winlife32 bug that stopped the display working properly on Vista and Windows 7 is now fixed - download a new version from www.winlife32.com to get the fix.