Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

For scripts to aid with computation or simulation in cellular automata.
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LeslieWong
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Joined: November 25th, 2020, 11:57 am

Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by LeslieWong » November 25th, 2020, 12:39 pm

Hi, folks there.

As an enthusiast of John Conway's game of life, I built a cellular automata website out of passion, which brings some brand new experience to the game of life.

Hence, I am quite thrilled to share it here to let more enthusiasts enjoy this easy-accessible website and stay tuned.

playgameoflife.live

Feedbacks are warmly welcome.

Hunting
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Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by Hunting » November 26th, 2020, 4:28 am

Welcome to the forums!

Rude answer: Does your simulator have features that Golly does not have? Since most of us use Golly, it would be of interest iff you introduce something new.

Friendly answer: Nice simulator! It looks beautiful, I like it. But since we focus on investigating CA rather than simulating CA, it would be more helpful to support features that are not available in Golly.

Sidenote: What's with all these exploder stuff? It doesn't even live longer than Gliders by the dozen.

LeslieWong
Posts: 9
Joined: November 25th, 2020, 11:57 am

Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by LeslieWong » November 26th, 2020, 11:53 am

Thanks for the feedbacks.

I haven't known the golly website before, and just knew it as a famous client software for investigating CA. Really a nice recommendation.

Probably the CA website that I implement is still naive, compared with Golly. But there are some features I'd like to mention.

First, It is mobile-friendly.

Second, the layout is quite elegant and modern, bringing a new and fresh experience while investigating CA.

Third, I managed to extract around 700 patterns from Life Lexicon into a database, so users can get a random lexicon pattern from this api https://playgameoflife.live/random.json via clicking at the "random' button. Also parameters are allowed, like https://playgameoflife.live/random.json ... idthmax=40.

However, there are also some shortcomings right now. For example, the board size is fixed yet, and users can not save patterns or insert patterns from files. I notice that Golly is using different extension files to insert patterns, and even from clipboard. This is the ideal feature I am planned to include. I should learn and investigate the formats of them.

One more thing, the animation library I used is svg-based, while the golly website is canvas-based. Hence this website may not be that robust when it comes to extra-large patterns, if the respective board size is available.

Anyway, still a long way to go.
Hunting wrote:
November 26th, 2020, 4:28 am
Welcome to the forums!

Rude answer: Does your simulator have features that Golly does not have? Since most of us use Golly, it would be of interest iff you introduce something new.

Friendly answer: Nice simulator! It looks beautiful, I like it. But since we focus on investigating CA rather than simulating CA, it would be more helpful to support features that are not available in Golly.

Sidenote: What's with all these exploder stuff? It doesn't even live longer than Gliders by the dozen.

Schiaparelliorbust
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Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by Schiaparelliorbust » November 26th, 2020, 12:00 pm

LeslieWong wrote:
November 26th, 2020, 11:53 am
Thanks for the feedbacks.

I haven't known the golly website before, and just knew it as a famous client software for investigating CA. Really a nice recommendation.

Probably the CA website that I implement is still naive, compared with Golly. But there are some features I'd like to mention.

First, It is mobile-friendly.

Second, the layout is quite elegant and modern, bringing a new and fresh experience while investigating CA.

Third, I managed to extract around 700 patterns from Life Lexicon into a database, so users can get a random lexicon pattern from this api https://playgameoflife.live/random.json via clicking at the "random' button. Also parameters are allowed, like https://playgameoflife.live/random.json ... idthmax=40.

However, there are also some shortcomings right now. For example, the board size is fixed yet, and users can not save patterns or insert patterns from files. I notice that Golly is using different extension files to insert patterns, and even from clipboard. This is the ideal feature I am planned to include. I should learn and investigate the formats of them.

One more thing, the animation library I used is svg-based, while the golly website is canvas-based. Hence this website may not be that robust when it comes to extra-large patterns, if the respective board size is available.

Anyway, still a long way to go.
Another very basic problem: When you load a new pattern, it doesn't delete the old one, causing interference. Also, Golly is an application, not a website, and can be found on mobile too.
Hunting's language (though he doesn't want me to call it that)
Board And Card Games
Colorised CA
Alien Biosphere

LeslieWong
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Joined: November 25th, 2020, 11:57 am

Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by LeslieWong » November 26th, 2020, 12:29 pm

Schiaparelliorbust wrote:
November 26th, 2020, 12:00 pm
Another very basic problem: When you load a new pattern, it doesn't delete the old one, causing interference. Also, Golly is an application, not a website, and can be found on mobile too.
I found it quite fun this way, and just keep it, to spark uncertainty. Sorry for my mistake, I originally knew Golly from http://golly.sourceforge.net/, and did not know there exists a website version...

LeslieWong
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Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by LeslieWong » November 26th, 2020, 12:30 pm

It should be to reset and select patterns.

Hunting
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Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by Hunting » November 26th, 2020, 10:32 pm

LeslieWong wrote:
November 26th, 2020, 12:29 pm
Schiaparelliorbust wrote:
November 26th, 2020, 12:00 pm
Another very basic problem: When you load a new pattern, it doesn't delete the old one, causing interference. Also, Golly is an application, not a website, and can be found on mobile too.
I found it quite fun this way, and just keep it, to spark uncertainty.
Yeah, I especially like this.

I remember there was a kind of soup searching that does not delete the previous soup ash (forgot the post where this is mentioned).

Feature request: Add a button that detect the period of the current pattern.

LeslieWong
Posts: 9
Joined: November 25th, 2020, 11:57 am

Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by LeslieWong » November 28th, 2020, 1:25 pm

Hunting wrote:
November 26th, 2020, 10:32 pm
Yeah, I especially like this.

I remember there was a kind of soup searching that does not delete the previous soup ash (forgot the post where this is mentioned).

Feature request: Add a button that detect the period of the current pattern.
Did you mean the evolution info at the website? It shows the generation time of the initial pattern.

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bubblegum
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Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by bubblegum » November 28th, 2020, 2:28 pm

Hunting wrote:
November 26th, 2020, 4:28 am
Sidenote: What's with all these exploder stuff? It doesn't even live longer than Gliders by the dozen.
From some website (I believe playgameoflife.com although it's been slightly modernised and the web.archive.org snapshots are broken) that labelled the honey farm sequence "small exploder" and the pre-pulsar sequence "exploder".
Each day is a hidden opportunity, a frozen waterfall that's waiting to be realised, and one that I'll probably be ignoring
sonata wrote:
July 2nd, 2020, 8:33 pm
conwaylife signatures are amazing[citation needed]
anything

Schiaparelliorbust
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Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by Schiaparelliorbust » November 28th, 2020, 2:40 pm

bubblegum wrote:
November 28th, 2020, 2:28 pm
Hunting wrote:
November 26th, 2020, 4:28 am
Sidenote: What's with all these exploder stuff? It doesn't even live longer than Gliders by the dozen.
From some website (I believe playgameoflife.com although it's been slightly modernised and the web.archive.org snapshots are broken) that labelled the honey farm sequence "small exploder" and the pre-pulsar sequence "exploder".
The website is bitstorm.org, but it's been a while since I've been there, and I can't find it exactly as I remember. It must have changed. This is what bitstorm.org has now.
Hunting's language (though he doesn't want me to call it that)
Board And Card Games
Colorised CA
Alien Biosphere

LeslieWong
Posts: 9
Joined: November 25th, 2020, 11:57 am

Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by LeslieWong » November 28th, 2020, 4:27 pm

bubblegum wrote:
November 28th, 2020, 2:28 pm


From some website (I believe playgameoflife.com although it's been slightly modernised and the web.archive.org snapshots are broken) that labelled the honey farm sequence "small exploder" and the pre-pulsar sequence "exploder".
Thanks for pointing this out. Should I rename "small exploder" to "honey farm" and "exploder" to "pre-pulsar"? I refer to the life lexicon txt, and find that the "honey farm" will be evolved from "small exploder", while only half of "exploder" results in the "pre-pulsar".

Schiaparelliorbust
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Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by Schiaparelliorbust » November 28th, 2020, 4:35 pm

LeslieWong wrote:
November 28th, 2020, 4:27 pm
Thanks for pointing this out. Should I rename "small exploder" to "honey farm" and "exploder" to "pre-pulsar"? I refer to the life lexicon txt, and find that the "honey farm" will be evolved from "small exploder", while only half of "exploder" results in the "pre-pulsar".
Could you explain a bit more what you mean please? Especially the last bit.
Hunting's language (though he doesn't want me to call it that)
Board And Card Games
Colorised CA
Alien Biosphere

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bubblegum
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Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by bubblegum » November 28th, 2020, 6:53 pm

LeslieWong wrote:
November 28th, 2020, 4:27 pm
bubblegum wrote:
November 28th, 2020, 2:28 pm


From some website (I believe playgameoflife.com although it's been slightly modernised and the web.archive.org snapshots are broken) that labelled the honey farm sequence "small exploder" and the pre-pulsar sequence "exploder".
Thanks for pointing this out. Should I rename "small exploder" to "honey farm" and "exploder" to "pre-pulsar"? I refer to the life lexicon txt, and find that the "honey farm" will be evolved from "small exploder", while only half of "exploder" results in the "pre-pulsar".
Rename the "exploder" the pulsar, the pattern produced at the end. And the entire "exploder" pattern creates one pre-pulsar (the pair of hollow squares), which create two pre-pulsars which form the final oscillator.
Each day is a hidden opportunity, a frozen waterfall that's waiting to be realised, and one that I'll probably be ignoring
sonata wrote:
July 2nd, 2020, 8:33 pm
conwaylife signatures are amazing[citation needed]
anything

Hunting
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Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by Hunting » November 28th, 2020, 9:23 pm

LeslieWong wrote:
November 28th, 2020, 1:25 pm
Hunting wrote:
November 26th, 2020, 10:32 pm
Yeah, I especially like this.

I remember there was a kind of soup searching that does not delete the previous soup ash (forgot the post where this is mentioned).

Feature request: Add a button that detect the period of the current pattern.
Did you mean the evolution info at the website? It shows the generation time of the initial pattern.
I mean, add a button that check how many generations does the current pattern repeat.

LeslieWong
Posts: 9
Joined: November 25th, 2020, 11:57 am

Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by LeslieWong » November 30th, 2020, 11:02 am

Updated.
Hunting wrote:
November 28th, 2020, 9:23 pm
I mean, add a button that check how many generations does the current pattern repeat.
Thanks. Would take into consideration.

LeslieWong
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Joined: November 25th, 2020, 11:57 am

Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by LeslieWong » May 19th, 2022, 4:21 pm

Hi All,

It has been a long time for me to go around here.

Finally, I spent some time implementing the RLE pattern import & export feature I said before. And now it is done. Users can click the "pattern" button to experience this feature.

With this feature, playgameoflife.live would behave more pragmatic and friendly for those who want to explore life patterns, instead of just
a demo. Users can now pause at any time and export the current pattern on board to an RLE file.

Feedbacks are strongly welcome!

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silversmith
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Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by silversmith » May 20th, 2022, 9:46 am

Have you considered adding mobile support? The grid is finite, so it does not need panning and zooming, but it would make to mobile experience much nicer if you could draw lines on mobile.

Another nice feature would be looping edges, so that spaceships could travel continuously.
A simulator with the tools I couldn’t find elsewhere: https://www.silversimulations.com/caplayer/
Documentation:https://github.com/teraxtech/caplayer

LeslieWong
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Re: Brand new cellular automata experience with playgameoflife.live

Post by LeslieWong » May 21st, 2022, 5:29 pm

silversmith wrote:
May 20th, 2022, 9:46 am
Have you considered adding mobile support? The grid is finite, so it does not need panning and zooming, but it would make to mobile experience much nicer if you could draw lines on mobile.

Another nice feature would be looping edges, so that spaceships could travel continuously.
Nice reply! I haven't realized the zooming experience yet. Thanks for pointing it out. Technically it is not that feasible for this project to facilitate point manipulation on mobile, but more suitable for pattern demonstration when using a mobile phone.

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