gsb19079@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Gerald Scott Bradley) (03/15/91)
Thanks to those who answered some of my questions before...now here's another: Does a 3D version of Life exist, and if so what are the rules and where could I get a hold of a copy? Thanks... Scott | Scott Braley | gsb19079@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu | | University of Illinois| (217)337-5162 | | School of Architecture| "I can't believe they spelled | | | my name wrong!" | -- | Scott Braley | gsb19079@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu | | University of Illinois| (217)337-5162 | | School of Architecture| "I can't believe they spelled | | | my name wrong!" | Newsgroups: comp.graphics Distribution: world
stephens@motcid.UUCP (Kurt Stephens) (03/21/91)
A few years ago, I found a book at my local library
titled _The Recursive Universe_ (can't remember the author, and have
not been able to find it since).
It had plenty of details about celluar automations, Conway's
"Life" in particular. All kinds of stats on different Life organisms,
gliders, R-pentiminos, traffic-lights, etc, natural occurance
in a random field, etc. Even some digressions on designing
self-replicating organisms/machines in Life! It's the best
(layperson's) book I've seen on celluar automata/dynamic systems.
It had an example of a 3D celluar automation using the odd/even
#-of-neighbors rule.
For starters, how about extrapolating the 2D rules into 3D,
preserving the relative density ;^):
2D 3D
------------------------------------------------------------
max-#-neighbors 8 26
dead N <= 2 N <= 6
alive N == 3 N > 6 && N <= 12
same N == 4 N > 12 && N <= 16
dead N >= 5 N > 16
Okay. So how are you going to display your creations? ;^)
PS: If anybody knows where *we* can find _The Recursive Universe_
(ISBN#, author, publisher, etc.), please post/e-mail.
--
Kurt A. Stephens Foo::Foo(){return Foo();}
stephens@void.rtsg.mot.com "When in doubt, recurse."dbarberi@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Barberi) (03/22/91)
In article <6738@celery34.UUCP> stephens@motcid.UUCP (Kurt Stephens) writes: > > A few years ago, I found a book at my local library >titled _The Recursive Universe_ (can't remember the author, and have >not been able to find it since). > >PS: If anybody knows where *we* can find _The Recursive Universe_ >(ISBN#, author, publisher, etc.), please post/e-mail. ok.. here's the info I found: Poundstone, William. The recursive universe : cosmic complexity and the limits of scientific knowledge / William Poundstone ; computer consultation by Robert T. Wainwright. -- 1st ed. -- New York : Morrow, c1985. 252 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. Bibliography: p. 243-245. Includes index. SUBJECT HEADINGS (Library of Congress; use s= ): Self-organizing systems. Machine theory. LOCATION: Sci/Tech Lib CALL NUMBER: Q325 .P68 1985 The call number is at SU.. but I think it's in Library of Congress form (not sure.. though) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ David Barberi | "Put amusing quote here." | Syracuse University |--------------------------------------------------| S.I. Newhouse School of | Bitnet: Dbarberi@SUNRISE | Public Communications | Internet: Dbarberi@Sunrise.acs.syr.edu | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rick@hanauma.stanford.edu (Richard Ottolini) (03/22/91)
A few years Computer Recreations column of Scientific American published some interesting rules and objects for 3-D life. The rules could be parameterized by a four-digit number two digits bounding the neighbor count for birth and two digits bounding the count for death. I took an evening an encoded a nifty 3-D display on the Ardent in Dore (similar to PHIGS). I allow arbitrary rules. I didn't write an interactive graphics based method of specifying the initial state, That would be useful. Also the Dore implementation was not fast. I just applied a translation matrix to a cube. Using lots of transformation matrices is inefficient in Dore.
sigma@jec302.its.rpi.edu (Kevin J Martin) (03/22/91)
gsb19079@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Gerald Scott Bradley) writes: >Thanks to those who answered some of my questions before...now here's another: >Does a 3D version of Life exist, and if so what are the rules and where could >I get a hold of a copy? This topic certainly caught my eye! A three-dimensional simulation of the game of Life (per Conway) was the first project assigned in my Graphical Human-Machine Interfaces course. I would suspect that no less than twenty people have their own versions of 3D Life complete at this point - I demo'ed mine for the professor just this afternoon! Anyway, mine runs under X/Windows, and is kind of attractive on a SparcStation (while I was developing it on an IBM XStation, it was murderously slow). In a shocking departure from the traditional self- serving approach, I've made the code public domain and FTP'ed it to: export.lcs.mit.edu: /contrib/3dlife.c uunet.uu.net: /tmp/3dlife.c wuarchive.wustl.edu: /pub/3dlife.c Of course, it's nothing fantastic, so I'm not losing the million dollar opportunity, you realise. Oh, just to clarify, it's a variation of Life where two armies battle (and you can introduce poison plants onto the battlefield) for dominance. You can change some #define's to get different rules, and you can pick the cube size while the program's running. One thing which is less than obvious from the code (and when running the program) is that you can click on cells to modify their contents; otherwise, you're stuck with the random setups the computer generates. You need the Athena Widget Set, and I don't know what happens if you don't have color. If someone with X/Windows but without FTP wants to see it, I can send it out if requested (just 19K). -- Kevin Martin sigma@rpi.edu
bombadil@diku.dk (Kristian Nielsen) (03/22/91)
gsb19079@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Gerald Scott Bradley) writes: >Thanks to those who answered some of my questions before...now here's another: >Does a 3D version of Life exist, and if so what are the rules and where could >I get a hold of a copy? The rules (as far as I remember them from an old Scientific American, I may remember wrong, and there may be other ways) are similar to the 2D version, only the number of neighbours are different. Each cell has 26 neighbours (since a 3-by-3 cube has 3x3x3=27 'subcubes'). Each version of life (The article in Scientific American discussed at least two) is expressed as a string of 4 numbers xyzw, where x and y are the minimum/maximum number of neighbours that a cell can have to survive, while z and w are the min/max for an empty(dead) cell to be reborn. So, the original life can be expressed as 2333 - a cell with 2 or 3 neighbours survives, and an empty cell with 3 neighbours is born anew. The article mainly discussed the 5766 version (and I think also the 4555 version, though I'm not quite sure about that one). One interesting point about 5766 is that it can be brought to simulate the original 2D-life(so that it can be regarded as a kind of 'generalisation' over the 2D-version). It is VERY difficult to show in ASCII, but it involves creating two planes like this: __________________ / / / / / / /[ [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]/[ [ ][#][ ][ ][#][ ]/[ [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]/[ [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]/[ [ ][#][ ][ ][#][ ]/[ [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]/ Now, place two of these planes at a distance of 4 cells apart, and place two identical layers in the middle containing the pattern desired for the 2D-life. This way, these layers in the middle will evolve exactly like the 2D-life. If anyone shows any further interest in this, I guess I could figure out the exact number sequence for '4555', and in which issue the article appeared. As to where you could get a copy, you're wellcome to my original version for my old Sinclair ZX-Spectrum! (If you can give me a clue as to how to get it from tape on to internet....) In optimised assembler and all.... > Thanks... > Scott Hope this isn't too incomprehensible... Kristian
crs@lanl.gov (Charlie Sorsby) (04/02/91)
In article <6738@celery34.UUCP>, stephens@motcid.UUCP (Kurt Stephens) writes: > [...] > PS: If anybody knows where *we* can find _The Recursive Universe_ > (ISBN#, author, publisher, etc.), please post/e-mail. According to melvyl: Author: Poundstone, William. Title: The recursive universe : cosmic complexity and the limits of scientific knowledge / William Poundstone ; computer consultation by Robert T. Wainwright. 1st ed. New York : Morrow, c1985 Best, Charlie Sorsby "I'm the NRA!" crs@lanl.gov