B2o3m56/S2om4oH (Hex Life)

[TheoSwartz]

This is a thread for the B2o3m56/S2om4o rule in hexagonial life. I've been using http://gwylim.net/hexcell to work in hex and it seems pretty nice. The aforementioned rule is the default in the simulator but I haven't found any writing about it, so I'm making a thread here.

If you use the Gwylim simulator, note that it uses a unique method of notation used by the person who made the simulator, and that it's written Survive/Birth. View it here. In short, numbers only refer to what is normally referred to "adjacent" placements, and they are SEPARATE from letters. 24a for example means cells are born when they touch 2 adjacent cells, 4 adjacent cells, OR (actually XOR if you want to be technical) two live cells 120 degrees apart from each other. The link explains it better than I can.

Anyhow, my findings. Anyone pressing "random" can find some of these, but others took a bit more fiddling.

Spaceships

First of all there's two natural spaceships, a 2c/3 p3 I call "Hawk" and a c/2 p4 I call "Slider" (it looks a lot like a Glider).



In orthogonal life you have diagonal ships and orthogonal ships. In hex you have ships that travel in the corner direction of a hex, and ships that travel in the side direction of a hex. I will call these corner ships and side ships. The Hawk is a corner ship and the Slider is a side ship. Because of this nature, they can never travel parallel to each other, and there's 12 non-knight directions to travel in.

You can put Hawks close to each other to combine them into one ship producing dots in between, I call this "Hawkmates".


Puffers

I only found one of these and it occurred naturally!

9c/21 (?) p42 Fly Puffer (corner ship)


Oscillators

I haven't been able to find many of these. The rule seems to move around a lot more than it stays still.

p2 "Fly"


p4 "Gull"


p30 "Sprawler" - this one shows up naturally too, and more often than you might expect.


p22 "Hawkicide" - I found this when experimenting with Hawk guns (more on that later).


You can combine Flies, Gulls, and even Sprawlers together in a number of ways without changing their periods.






Hawkicide can also be extended.


Guns

Small 2-and-3-way guns are extremely common in random soups. The rest of these I manufactured. For the triangular ones, the Hawks are launched in the direction of the points of the triangle.

1-way Hawk Gun (p22) - made by combining a two way gun and a Hawkicide.


2-way Hawk Gun (p22) - natural.


2-way Hawk Gun (p9), and extension - made from combining two 3-way guns.


3-way Hawk Gun (p9) - natural.


3-way Hawk Gun (p22) - made from combining two 2-way guns at a different state. Fires 2 up and 1 down.


4-way Hawk Gun 1 (p9), and extension - made from combining two 3-way guns.


4-way Hawk Gun 2 (p9), and extension - made from combining two 3-way guns.


4-way Hawk Gun 3 (p9), and extension - made from combining two 3-way guns.


6-way Hawk Gun (p9) - made from combining six 6-way guns.


2-way Hawkmate Gun (p22), and extension - made from combining two 2-way Hawk Guns.


Reactions

I have no idea what to do with any of these, so maybe you guys can help me out. There's got to be some kind of higher level design possible with this rule given all the moving parts.

Hawk + Fly = Death of Fly


Hawk + Fly = Fly Puffer (moving 60 degrees to the right of the Hawk's direction)


Hawk + Fly = Slider (moving 30 degrees to the left of the Hawk's direction)


Hawk + Hawk = Death of the back Hawk


Slider + Slider = Death of the back slider


That's all I have for now. Is this rule not interesting? I'd love for somebody to help me find more things and especially to help me figure out some kind of engineering because I'm new and terrible at it.

EDIT: Feel free to suggest a slightly different rule that preserves most of the patterns above if you think it will lead to more involved design.

[TheoSwartz]

I just found Callahan's notation for hex life, but since it doesn't apply to the nice easy hex simulator I'm going to leave the thread title as-is, for now. If someone could make this rule work in Golly in the orthogonal grid, that might be helpful for allowing others to work with the rule who are more used to the mess that is hex in an orthogonal grid.

EDIT: I believe this rule would be called 2om4o/2o3m56.

[drc]

You're welcome

Code: Select all

@RULE B2o3m56_S2om4oH

@TABLE

n_states:2
neighborhood:hexagonal
symmetries:rotate6reflect

var a={0,1}
var b=a
var c=a
var d=a
var e=a
var f=a

0,1,1,0,0,0,0,1
0,1,1,1,1,1,0,1
0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1
0,1,1,0,1,0,0,1
1,1,1,0,0,0,0,1
1,1,1,1,1,0,0,1
1,0,1,0,0,0,1,1
1,a,b,c,d,e,f,0

[drc]

The sprawler is common because of this 5 cell predecessor:

Code: Select all

x = 3, y = 2, rule = B2o3m56_S2om4o
o$3o!

Also, a weird growth pattern:

Code: Select all

x = 16, y = 5, rule = B2o3m56_S2om4o
2o$bo2$13b2o$15bo!

[TheoSwartz]

Whoa, that pattern is awesome! It's a puffer and a rake at the same time... I'm a bit lost on the terminology here.

Also, I think the B and S are swapped in your rule name. But that's my fault for writing Survive/Birth first when most of the forum does it the other way. Why does this forum tend to use B/S when Life Wiki any many academic sources use S/B? That's weird...

EDIT: Thanks for writing the rule btw, you've just taught me how to write hex rules

[TheoSwartz]

I just edited the topic title to make it less confusing for everyone. It's now B2o3m56/S2om4oH; I think that should be the rule name in the file as well.

[FractalFusion]

It's a puffer and a rake at the same time... I'm a bit lost on the terminology here.

At least when applied to Life, a rake is a puffer that emits only spaceships.

Also, I think the B and S are swapped in your rule name. But that's my fault for writing Survive/Birth first when most of the forum does it the other way. Why does this forum tend to use B/S when Life Wiki any many academic sources use S/B? That's weird...

I cannot say how differing standards arose regarding birth/survival notation. All I can say is that if you see a notation with no B and S in it, then by default the first is survival and the second is birth.

[drc]

Fixed the rule name. Also, this rule keeps giving:

Code: Select all

x = 48, y = 61, rule = B2o3m56_S2om4o
45b3o$45b3o$44bob2o$45bo27$o$b2o23$34b2o2bo$34bo2bo$34bo3bo$35bo2b2o$
37b4o2$38bo!

P.S. Removing B6 explodes

[TheoSwartz]

Wow a pusher! That's something I didn't expect; nice find.

Here's a p110 Slider gun with nothing else coming out. I used 1-way Hawk guns and a Hawkicide as an eater. It can almost certainly be shrunk, but I can't be bothered because moving stuff around in this orthogonal hex grid hurts my head.

Code: Select all

x = 54, y = 86, rule = B2o3m56_S2om4oH
3o3b3o$2o6b2o$o2bobobo2bo2$6bo2$4bo5bo2$4b3o3b3o$3bo4b2o4bo$4b2ob2ob2o
b2o$6b2o4b2o3$16b2o$15b2ob2o$15bo4bo$17b3o2$19bo4$19bobobo$20b4o$21b3o
12$28bo$26bo4bo$27bobobo$29b2o9$28bo$29b2o7$21b3o$23b2o$23b3o$25bo$25b
o2$16bo2bo$15bo$15b2o$b2o13b2obo$ob2o13b2o$3b2o$4bo2bo$o2bo$5bo$7b2o$
6bob2o$9b2o$10bo$6bo2bo31bo5bo$41b2o4b2o$41bobo3bobo$41bo2bo2bo2bo3$
44bo5bo$42bo3bo2bo3bo$43bobobobobobo$45b2o4b2o!

I think the rule should still have the H in it to distinguish from orthogonal rules. If there weren't any letters in the rule, there would be no way to tell hexagonal and orthogonal apart without the H. Also, Golly uses H to distinguish Hexagonal rules.

[Saka]

Also, a weird growth pattern:

Code: Select all

x = 16, y = 5, rule = B2o3m56_S2om4o
2o$bo2$13b2o$15bo!

Woah... if you can remove those excess oscs, that would be amazing.
Also, TheoSwartz, please post patterns in RLEs, not images.

[muzik]

How can I view patterns on a hexagonal grid? Seeing them simulated on a square one is confusing

[Saka]

How can I view patterns on a hexagonal grid? Seeing them simulated on a square one is confusing

Thats why people should post patterns in rle format

[TheoSwartz]

please post patterns in RLEs, not images.

I only planned on doing images for the initial post. Plus, I hadn't learned the ins and outs of hex life in Golly yet. The patterns I posted are simple and small enough that it's quite easy to remake them in Golly.

How can I view patterns on a hexagonal grid? Seeing them simulated on a square one is confusing

I agree, but there's currently no way that I know of to view the complicated RLEs we've been posting in a hex grid. I agree that it's confusing, but you can mess around small patterns in Gwylim's hex simulator if you like.

Thats why people should post patterns in rle format

I think you misunderstood what muzik was saying, because that sounds like the opposite. Too bad we don't have a proper hex visual mode in Golly yet or none of this would be a problem.

[Saka]

Can anybody make a fly puffer rle? I cant get it to work in golly

[BlinkerSpawn]

I agree, but there's currently no way that I know of to view the complicated RLEs we've been posting in a hex grid. I agree that it's confusing, but you can mess around small patterns in Gwylim's hex simulator if you like.

If there was a hex-grid application that supported RLE format, it could simply paste in each row like Golly soes, but offset by 1 unit in the Z direction (SSW) instead of by 1 unit down.

[SuperSupermario24]

Can anybody make a fly puffer rle? I cant get it to work in golly

Code: Select all

x = 23, y = 19, rule = B2o3m56_S2om4o
19b2o$7bo10bobo$7b2o9bo$18bo$8bo$9bo$10bo2$2o$bo$3b3o11b3o$21bo$21b2o$
12bo$5bo7bo$5bo8bo$3bobo$3b2o9b2o$15bo!

[rowett]

I agree, but there's currently no way that I know of to view the complicated RLEs we've been posting in a hex grid. I agree that it's confusing, but you can mess around small patterns in Gwylim's hex simulator if you like.

If there was a hex-grid application that supported RLE format, it could simply paste in each row like Golly soes, but offset by 1 unit in the Z direction (SSW) instead of by 1 unit down.

The next version of LifeViewer has improved support for Hex rules. See here for the current test cases. You can also press the "/" key to switch display modes between regular and hex. The build should be released in the next week or so. Feedback welcome.

[TheoSwartz]

The next version of LifeViewer has improved support for Hex rules. See here for the current test cases. You can also press the "/" key to switch display modes between regular and hex. The build should be released in the next week or so. Feedback welcome.

Now that is wonderful news! Switching between the two states is easy, I have no complaints. Really glad to see that hex life is being given more digital love.


In other news, here's some minorly interesting ways in which parallel Fly Puffers interact - deleting every other Fly in both trails, and deleting every other Fly in the left trail respectively.

Code: Select all

x = 19, y = 4, rule = B2o3m56_S2om4oH
2bo15bo$2bo15bo$obo13bobo$2o14b2o!

Code: Select all

x = 20, y = 4, rule = B2o3m56_S2om4oH
2bo16bo$2bo16bo$obo14bobo$2o15b2o!

[Martin Büttner]

If there was a hex-grid application that supported RLE format, it could simply paste in each row like Golly soes, but offset by 1 unit in the Z direction (SSW) instead of by 1 unit down.

I started work on a browser-based Hexagonal Life simulator that will support RLE import/export, because I haven't yet found one that does all the things I'd like it to do. I'll let people know when it's actually usable.

[TheoSwartz]

I started work on a browser-based Hexagonal Life simulator that will support RLE import/export, because I haven't yet found one that does all the things I'd like it to do. I'll let people know when it's actually usable.

This is great to hear too! I'm glad there are people with the know-how to do these things that are interested in completing them.

[rowett]

The next version of LifeViewer has improved support for Hex rules. See here for the current test cases. You can also press the "/" key to switch display modes between regular and hex. The build should be released in the next week or so. Feedback welcome.

Now that is wonderful news! Switching between the two states is easy, I have no complaints. Really glad to see that hex life is being given more digital love.

Note that the rule name will need to end with the letter "H" (signifying Hex neighbourhood) for LifeViewer to default to the Hex view.

[TheoSwartz]

Note that the rule name will need to end with the letter "H" (signifying Hex neighbourhood) for LifeViewer to default to the Hex view.

A welcome inclusion. I'm curious as well if you plan to have the viewer support non-totalistic rules? That could be quite handy for viewing moving patterns in said rules quickly in the forums.

[drc]

A welcome inclusion. I'm curious as well if you plan to have the viewer support non-totalistic rules? That could be quite handy for viewing moving patterns in said rules quickly in the forums.

+1 Support. This will come especially in handy when on mobile.

[M. I. Wright]

http://conwaylife.com/forums/viewtopic. ... 759#p28759

[TheoSwartz]

http://conwaylife.com/forums/viewtopic. ... 759#p28759

Ooh, that's great! Thanks for the link.