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A newbie problem with gencols(Edit: Solved)

Posted: September 11th, 2014, 7:52 am
by Scorbie
(Oh this post is pretty long)
Some time ago I was crazy about schick engines. I spent quite a lot of time perturbing its debris with *WSSs by hand trying to make an interesting puffer. Well, that turned out to be a seconds-worth task using gencols... Or did it?

Well... Today I learned how to use gencols and the first thing I did was gencolling schick engines with *WSSs. It did produce some nice puffers, but... The problem is that it couldn't find some patterns I found by hand. Can anybody find some mistake in the parameters? This search is nothing more serious than a gencols walkathrough. I'm just worried that I might omit some good patterns in future searches.

Here's the command line script.
I ran the patterns (Schick engine + *WSS both heading east) for 60 generations and filtered the ones that do make a puffer (or spaceship). The schick engine is symmetric along the x axis, so I just let the nph paramater as 2.

Code: Select all

gencols -pat obj/schick.life obj/allss_e.list -nph 2 -tc 9 21 -gen 61 -test1 obj/schick_tr30.life -del2 -filt ap > schickbasedpuf.col

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#O schick.life
#P
.....****
....*...*
........*
**..*..*.
***......
**..*..*.
........*
....*...*
.....****

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#O schick_tr30.life
#P
...................................****
..................................*...*
......................................*
..............................**..*..*.
..............................***......
..............................**..*..*.
......................................*
..................................*...*
...................................****
Here's the result.

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x = 19, y = 1313, rule = B3/S23
2b2o$o4bo$6bo$o5bo$b6o3$10b4o$9bo3bo$13bo$5b2o2bo2bo$5b3o$5b2o2bo2bo$
13bo$9bo3bo$10b4o85$2b2o$o4bo$6bo$o5bo$b6o3$13b4o$12bo3bo$16bo$8b2o2bo
2bo$8b3o$8b2o2bo2bo$16bo$12bo3bo$13b4o85$15b4o$14bo3bo$18bo$10b2o2bo2b
o$10b3o$10b2o2bo2bo$18bo$14bo3bo$15b4o$2b2o$o4bo$6bo$o5bo$b6o87$2b2o$o
4bo$6bo$o5bo$b6o3$15b4o$14bo3bo$18bo$10b2o2bo2bo$10b3o$10b2o2bo2bo$18b
o$14bo3bo$15b4o85$15b4o$14bo3bo$18bo$10b2o2bo2bo$10b3o$10b2o2bo2bo$18b
o$14bo3bo$15b4o2$4b2o$4ob2o$6o$b4o87$10b4o$9bo3bo$13bo$5b2o2bo2bo$5b3o
$5b2o2bo2bo$13bo$9bo3bo$10b4o3$4b2o$4ob2o$6o$b4o86$13b4o$12bo3bo$16bo$
8b2o2bo2bo$8b3o$8b2o2bo2bo$16bo$12bo3bo$13b4o3$4b2o$4ob2o$6o$b4o86$11b
4o$10bo3bo$14bo$6b2o2bo2bo$6b3o$6b2o2bo2bo$14bo$10bo3bo$11b4o3$4b2o$4o
b2o$6o$b4o86$10b4o$9bo3bo$13bo$5b2o2bo2bo$5b3o$5b2o2bo2bo$13bo$9bo3bo$
10b4o$o2bo$4bo$o3bo$b4o88$10b4o$9bo3bo$13bo$5b2o2bo2bo$5b3o$5b2o2bo2bo
$13bo$9bo3bo$10b4o$2b2o$2ob2o$4o$b2o88$2bo$o3bo$5bo$o4bo$b5o2$14b4o$
13bo3bo$17bo$9b2o2bo2bo$9b3o$9b2o2bo2bo$17bo$13bo3bo$14b4o86$2bo$o3bo$
5bo$o4bo$b5o3$15b4o$14bo3bo$18bo$10b2o2bo2bo$10b3o$10b2o2bo2bo$18bo$
14bo3bo$15b4o85$2bo$o3bo$5bo$o4bo$b5o3$14b4o$13bo3bo$17bo$9b2o2bo2bo$
9b3o$9b2o2bo2bo$17bo$13bo3bo$14b4o85$3b2o$3ob2o$5o$b3o$12b4o$11bo3bo$
15bo$7b2o2bo2bo$7b3o$7b2o2bo2bo$15bo$11bo3bo$12b4o!


and it didn't contain spaceships like these... and maybe more.
(the mwss positions in the 2nd and 3rd puffers are slightly different but they puff the same thing)

Code: Select all

x = 20, y = 210, rule = B3/S23
4b2o$4ob2o$6o$b4o$11b4o$10bo3bo$14bo$6b2o2bo2bo$6b3o$6b2o2bo2bo$14bo$
10bo3bo$11b4o92$14b4o$13bo3bo$17bo$9b2o2bo2bo$9b3o$9b2o2bo2bo$17bo$13b
o3bo$14b4o$7b2o$4b3ob2o$4b5o$5b3o81$16b4o$15bo3bo$19bo$11b2o2bo2bo$11b
3o$11b2o2bo2bo$19bo$15bo3bo$16b4o$8b2o$5b3ob2o$5b5o$6b3o!

And one more thing.
Combining the 1st and 2nd(or 3rd) pattern above makes a p24 rake.

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x = 15, y = 17, rule = B3/S23
4b2o$4ob2o$6o$b4o$11b4o$10bo3bo$14bo$6b2o2bo2bo$6b3o$6b2o2bo2bo$14bo$
10bo3bo$11b4o$4b2o$b3ob2o$b5o$2b3o!
I think nobody used this p24 rake in patterns.(And yes, I did (re-)find it by hand.) I think people used the one with two HWSSs instead. Was it because they couldn't find this pattern with gencols or was it just a matter of optimization?

(Sorry for any mistakes in English...)

Re: A newbie problem with gencols

Posted: September 11th, 2014, 12:48 pm
by codeholic
Scorbie wrote:and it didn't contain spaceships like these... and maybe more.
You invoke gencols with -tc 9 21, but interaction starts here already in the fifth generation (corresponds to 6 in one-based gencols notation).

P. S. There is a cute puffer (the 3rd from the bottom) whose debris emit a LWSS just before they stabilize.

Re: A newbie problem with gencols

Posted: September 12th, 2014, 6:56 am
by Scorbie
Oh I got it.. Thanks!
Edit: Now it works well. Thanks a lot!