Combinator Game of Life

[DaveMcW]

I built a factory that plays Conway's Game of Life.

The game has three simple rules that govern cell life cycle.

• if neighbors = 3, then cell is born
• if neighbors = 2, then cell does not change
• if neighbors = anything else, then cell dies

That is easy to simulate, but I want to make it even easier. So I subtract 1 from both sides.

• if (neighbors - 1) = 2, then cell is born
• if (neighbors - 1) = 1, then cell does not change
• otherwise, cell dies

The rewritten rules are simple enough to program in two decider combinators.



With the rules in place, I can build a complete cell.



I use 4 arithmetic combinators, to prevent neighbor cell wires from touching. Only one of them is actually used to subtract 1. They are spaced far apart to be able to reach all 8 neighbor electric poles.

Since I use wires of both colors to connect to neighbors, I need to alternate the primary color of each cell. The final blueprint is a checkerboard pattern.

Blueprint String

Code: Select all

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It runs at 2 ticks per frame, or 30 Hz.

Setting the initial pattern using combinators would be a nightmare, so I use the console. You need to run the setup program twice. The first run sets the pattern, the second run starts the simulation.

Setup Program

Code: Select all

/c local start = {x = -347.5, y = -110.5};
local grid = {};
grid[1] = "....................................";
grid[2] = "....................................";
grid[3] = "....................................";
grid[4] = "....................................";
grid[5] = "....................................";
grid[6] = "....................................";
grid[7] = "....................................";
grid[8] = "....................................";
grid[9] = "....................................";
grid[10]= "....................................";
grid[11]= "....................................";
grid[12]= "........................O...........";
grid[13]= "......................O.O...........";
grid[14]= "............OO......OO............OO";
grid[15]= "...........O...O....OO............OO";
grid[16]= "OO........O.....O...OO..............";
grid[17]= "OO........O...O.OO....O.O...........";
grid[18]= "..........O.....O.......O...........";
grid[19]= "...........O...O....................";
grid[20]= "............OO......................";
grid[21]= "....................................";
grid[22]= "....................................";
grid[23]= "....................................";
grid[24]= "....................................";
grid[25]= "....................................";
grid[26]= "....................................";
grid[27]= "....................................";
grid[28]= "....................................";
grid[29]= "....................................";
grid[30]= "....................................";
grid[31]= "....................................";
grid[32]= "....................................";
grid[33]= "....................................";
grid[34]= "....................................";
grid[35]= "....................................";
grid[36]= "....................................";
stopped = not stopped;
for y, values in ipairs(grid) do;
	for x=1, values:len() do;
		local combinators = game.player.surface.find_entities_filtered{area = {{start.x + x*7 - 2, start.y + y*7 - 5}, {start.x + x*7, start.y + y*7 - 3}}, name="decider-combinator"};
		if (combinators[1]) then;
			local rule3 = combinators[1].get_circuit_condition(1);
			if (not stopped) then;
				rule3.parameters.comparator = "=";
				rule3.parameters.constant = 2;
			elseif (values:sub(x,x) == "O") then;
				rule3.parameters.comparator = "<";
				rule3.parameters.constant = 99;
			else; 
				rule3.parameters.comparator = "=";
				rule3.parameters.constant = 99;
			end;
			combinators[1].set_circuit_condition(1, rule3);
		end;
		combinators = game.player.surface.find_entities_filtered{area = {{start.x + x*7 - 5, start.y + y*7 - 2}, {start.x + x*7 - 3, start.y + y*7}}, name="decider-combinator"};
		if (combinators[1]) then;
			local rule2 = combinators[1].get_circuit_condition(1);
			if (stopped) then;
				rule2.parameters.second_signal = nil;
				rule2.parameters.constant = 99;
			else;
				rule2.parameters.second_signal = {type="virtual", name="signal-B"};
				rule2.parameters.constant = nil;
			end;
			combinators[1].set_circuit_condition(1, rule2);
		end;
	end;
end;

Here is the save file with the final factory.

Game-of-Life.zip

(4.6 MiB) Downloaded 657 times

[Choumiko]

Just freaking wow!

[Lupoviridae]

Beautiful and well done! I was planning on building a GoL in my world but you beat me to it

[DRE]

THIS has began.
And it will not stop until someone creates full x86 CPU emulation XD

[Stickman]

So where's the gifv or the video?

[Gandalf]

Dude I wanna hug you so hard right now!

So when are you gonna implement hashlife? x)

[Lee_newsum]

well that is v good, i playing with in une..... i had so thorts can you pull the config from Smart chest, 1 Smart chest for each cell. and you can have a reseat chest, would that work?

as for an input system you can use "z" to put an item down if you put were an Inserter can get it and put it in a chest, you have a in put system

[Zhab]

Very impressive.

[Adil]

You sir are amazing.

[aka13]

Impressive, very nice!