Documentation for v. 2.0
For those of you unfamiliar with John Conway's Game of Life here is how it works: we begin with a grid (2D in most cases). Some spaces contain a cell, others do not. Every generation, each cell is evaluated. Sometimes the cell is lonely or overcrowded so it dies. If conditions are right, a new cell may grow. Certain rules determine whether a cell survives, grows, or dies. The rules are dependent on the number of neighbors. Here's Conway's set of rules that started it all:
So the coolest thing about this game is the patterns. From a completely random grid, organized patterns can result. Some patterns are stable, others repeat themselves after a certain number of cycles, and some will even move across the grid.
For lots more info, please follow the above link.
Life Workshop is freeware, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.
I must confess there are better versions of Life out there, versions that can handle grids of unlimited size, but in my experience these are not very interactive or easy to use. This version of Life is easy to interact with, easy to use, and makes discovering new patterns and interacting with the grid very easy. Some features:
G
S C F D R A K L Z* Up Down Right* Left* J* H |
Go Stop Clear Fill Draw Regenerate Start the current pattern over Kaleidoscope mode Adjust the laws Resize the grid Increase speed Decrease speed Go forward a generation Go back a generation Jump to specific generation number Hide controls. With all these keyboard shortcuts, who needs 'em? |
* Only works when stopped
You can also right-click the grid (unless you are drawing) to bring up a pop-up menu.
If you download the zip file, you'll see it contains several sample patterns, but looking at them may reduce some of your fun of discovering patterns for yourself. Load them on your own discretion.
Included are:
When I wrote this I was limited by then-current hardware and my own inabilities to foresee the scope this program could have. As such, the grid is currently limited to a maximum size of 60x80.
Send suggestions, discovered bugs, encouraging remarks, or even hate mail to me at support@@spamsafezachbardon.com.
Thanks for downloading Life Workshop! Enjoy!
~Zach~
Brainfather, Zach Bardon Software