Very large 'awesome' patterns

[calcyman]

I've decided to upload some of my huge, impressive patterns to the Internet.


Here are eight such patterns, most of which you probably haven't seen before. (They're roughly arranged in order of spectacularity, with the LCD decimal counter being the most impressive.)


For the first two patterns, I recommend a step size of between 8^6 and 8^8.


Title: LCD decimal counter
Size: 47246 * 31680
URL: http://calcyman.awardspace.co.uk/life-massive/LCD.mc


Title: Mega-fumarole
Size: 311298 * 311298
URL: http://calcyman.awardspace.co.uk/life-m ... umarole.mc


Title: Aperiodic lightspeed telegraph
Size: 48565 * 30639
URL: http://calcyman.awardspace.co.uk/life-m ... legraph.mc


Title: 13395-digit prime oscillator
Size: 18493 * 7074
URL: http://calcyman.awardspace.co.uk/life-m ... icprime.mc


Title: 2c/5 block pusher
Size: 5807 * 1628
URL: http://calcyman.awardspace.co.uk/life-m ... c5-push.mc


Title: Period-59 gun
Size: 4091 * 3082
URL: http://calcyman.awardspace.co.uk/life-m ... 59-gun.lif


Title: Cordership loop
Size: 3410 * 3238
URL: http://calcyman.awardspace.co.uk/life-m ... r-loop.lif


Title: Mystery pattern
Size: 9351 * 11288
URL: http://calcyman.awardspace.co.uk/life-m ... mystery.mc


You'll need Golly to run most of these patterns; the exceptions are the Cordership loop and p59 gun.


Feel free to post any of your own immense patterns.


At the moment I'm trying to build a Life computer to calculate and display the infinite decimal expansion of sqrt(2) or phi. I've already perfected the display/output device, and the internal memory tapes, but I haven't completely programmed the algorithm. The computing part of the machine will resemble my UCC, with an arrangement of peripheral devices attached to a huge reflector array.


More coming soon...

[Axaj]

Very, very, nice! I'd love to see more examples using your mega-cells!

[calcyman]

Very, very, nice! I'd love to see more examples using your mega-cells!

Have you encountered Brice Due's metacells? These were the source of inspiration for my mega-cells, but are much smaller, more compact and orthogonal. They use p46 technology instead of stable reflectors.

[calcyman]

Here's another impressive pattern, which has a diameter growth of O(log t).

Title: Unbounded binary counter
Size: 7480 * 7442
URL: http://calcyman.awardspace.co.uk/life-m ... counter.mc

I also recommend a step size of 8^6 for this one. Zoom in on the northernmost corner of the pattern to see the counter.

[Axaj]

Very, very, nice! I'd love to see more examples using your mega-cells!

Have you encountered Brice Due's metacells? These were the source of inspiration for my mega-cells, but are much smaller, more compact and orthogonal. They use p46 technology instead of stable reflectors.

Yes I have (the examples in Golly).

[calcyman]

Title: Pseudo-ruler generator
Size: 56018 * 63566
URL: http://calcyman.awardspace.co.uk/life-m ... o-ruler.mc

This machine outputs a variant of the ruler sequence by printing the numerical output in readable form. Best viewed at a scale of 2^6 : 1 and a step size of 8^5.

[Axaj]

Title: Pseudo-ruler generator
Size: 56018 * 63566
URL: http://calcyman.awardspace.co.uk/life-m ... o-ruler.mc

This machine outputs a variant of the ruler sequence by printing the numerical output in readable form. Best viewed at a scale of 2^6 : 1 and a step size of 8^5.

...How‽

[calcyman]

...How?

Have you seen the pattern in action? It physically builds the numbers out of blocks by firing massive glider salvos, and prints them in an infinitely long line northeast.

[Axaj]

...How?

Have you seen the pattern in action? It physically builds the numbers out of blocks by firing massive glider salvos, and prints them in an infinitely long line northeast.

I meant how did you build it?

[calcyman]

I meant how did you build it?

After sketching out the rough idea of how the device would work, I needed some basic salvo reactions. It wasn't too difficult to discover that a slow salvo of three gliders could be used to pull a block by 10fd (full diagonals) and create another block, displaced sufficiently from the stream of gliders.

Code: Select all

x = 42, y = 47, rule = B3/S23
35boo3boo$36boobboo$35bo22$22boo$23boo$22bo18$oo$boo$o!

The other key reaction is to push a block by 10fd. Dean Hickerson found such a reaction, several years ago. Combining the two salvo reactions yields a 7-glider recipe for duplicating a block, whilst leaving the original unperturbed:

Code: Select all

x = 107, y = 112, rule = B3/S23
105boo$105boo7$91boo$92boo$91bo$98bo$98boo$97bobo6$71b3o$73bo$72bo11$
70b3o$72bo$71bo31$35boo$36boo$35bo22$22boo$23boo$22bo18$oo$boo$o!

I decided to use 64fd as the basic pixel size for the printer. This can be accomplished by seven 10fd pushes and two 3fd pulls.

The next step was to actually create the shotguns for building the aforementioned glider salvos. Dave Greene created a full toolkit of 16 components, allowing for every phase and location of the output gliders. Assembling them was an easy, albiet tedious, task. The slow-salvo reactions were easiest, since phase and timing can be ignored to a certain extent; only parity and position need to be considered.

Since the numbers are 10 pixels high, I used 10 parallel shotguns to accomplish the task. These are connected to an array of 800 (8*10*10) reflectors, which contains the bitmap information for all 10 numbers. This array can be modified or extended at will to add more symbols, with variable spacing (it doesn't have to be a monospaced font). A larger construction would, for example, admit a printer capable of drawing all 96 ASCII characters in Size 12 Times New Roman (or any other bitmap font). I used a Golly script to create the arrangements of reflectors from the desired numerals.

The final stage in the process was to connect the input of the reflector array to a binary counter, which automatically generates the (pseudo-)ruler sequence.

[Axaj]

I'd love to see a UC controlled printer.

[calcyman]

I'd love to see a UC controlled printer.

Yes, that's what I'm working on -- a device to calculate and print the decimal expansion of phi = 1.61803....

[Alegend]

Actually, calcyman, I'd LOVE to see a 2c/9 spaceship!

[calcyman]

Actually, calcyman, I'd LOVE to see a 2c/9 spaceship!

And I would love to see a minuscule 90° stable reflector!

[calcyman]

I'd love to see a UC controlled printer.

Your dream has come true!

http://calcyman.awardspace.co.uk/life-massive/phi.mc

This pattern calculates the decimal digits of phi = 1.6180332... It generates the '1.6' almost immediately, and calculates the first 30 decimal places within circa 1 trillion generations. At a step size of 8^9, it should manage this within one hour.

[Axaj]

I'd love to see a UC controlled printer.

Your dream has come true!

http://calcyman.awardspace.co.uk/life-massive/phi.mc

This pattern calculates the decimal digits of phi = 1.6180332... It generates the '1.6' almost immediately, and calculates the first 30 decimal places within circa 1 trillion generations. At a step size of 8^9, it should manage this within one hour.

Is the code programmed into the UC, or is it via some other function?

[calcyman]

Is the code programmed into the UC, or is it via some other function?

The massive array of reflectors contains the program for generating phi.

[gameoflifeboy]

Is there any place I can find these patterns now? Most of them aren't in the "very large patterns" database in Golly.

[dvgrn]

Is there any place I can find these patterns now? Most of them aren't in the "very large patterns" database in Golly.

It should be possible to recover most of them from somewhere, but it may take some digging. For example, I happened to notice this morning that there was a copy of an old megacell archive package still on my website. I tried out the script, and once you figure out that it expects the megacell-OFF and megacell-ON RLE patterns to be in Golly's root Scripts directory, it works fine -- select any not-too-big Life oscillator and it will make a megafied copy for you.

This may not be the latest and greatest megafier script. There was a plan to adjust it to support any Lifelike rule, but the attached version can only handle B3/S23 Life.

Several more of Calcyman's monstrosities can be retrieved from the Wayback Machine, though some of those are also in Golly's Help > Online Archives > Very Large Patterns.

Attached is a copy of 'mystery.mc' -- the mystery being, exactly what mathematical calculation does it perform?

[gameoflifemaniac]

Calcyman, I have a problem with downloading your patterns. That's probably because you deleted your website. Can you attach some of your most awesome patterns on this forum so that I and other people can download them (I would love to see your LCD counter, binary counter and ruler generator!)? Please!

[Saka]

Calcyman, I have a problem with downloading your patterns. That's probably because you deleted your website. Can you attach some of your most awesome patterns on this forum so that I and other people can download them (I would love to see your LCD counter, binary counter and ruler generator!)? Please!

I would like to see mega fumarole and 2c/5 block pusher

[dvgrn]

Calcyman, I have a problem with downloading your patterns. That's probably because you deleted your website. Can you attach some of your most awesome patterns on this forum so that I and other people can download them (I would love to see your LCD counter, binary counter and ruler generator!)? Please!

The LCD counter is in Very Large Patterns after all, under "Hex-3digit-7seg". The binary counter pattern was kind of superseded by its successor "O(sqrt(log(t)))" in Very Large Patterns also.

The pseudo-ruler generator I can't find any record of offhand. Hopefully Calcyman can still retrieve it from somewhere, and the original binary counter pattern, and the mega fumarole and 2c/5 block pusher which I also haven't been able to locate.

[gameoflifemaniac]

I don't see the LCD counter there! Under the 3-digit hexadecimal counter is a collection of patterns called 'Just Friends'.

[gameoflifemaniac]

Is Calcyman even still active? Why did he delete his website?

[Saka]

Is Calcyman even still active?

DUUUUUUUUUUDE AYFKM