6 ms·

Perhaps a dumb question: how hard is it to do a "3D" game of life?

by dluan 9y ago

SaturateDK 9y ago
It's hard to answer, it depends on the person I guess... But for my point of view it's easy. You can find 3D versions online that work in the browser.
Cthulhu_ 9y ago
Not very; you just change the grid to a 3d space instead of 2d and change the basic algorithm a bit to count neighbours in 3d space.
- oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
  Do we know whether or not there is an equivalent set of 3d rules that behave anything like 2d GoL? The same sort of algorithm (count neighbours, update state) can be applied, but it doesn't necessarily mean an extra dimension will result in similar behaviour, does it?
  - dvgrn 9y ago
    There are in fact various 3D rules that can be made to behave exactly like Conway's Life -- starting with some discoveries by Carter Bays involving a two-cell-thick "sandwich" of Life cells that emulated standard Conway's Life. Without the sandwich trick it can do other interesting things: http://www.complex-systems.com/pdf/04-6-2.pdf http://www.complex-systems.com/pdf/04-6-2.pdf The two problems with 3D life have always been 1) 3D is computationally very expensive compared to 2D, so you tend to get stuck working with much smaller grids; and 2) you need a really good visualization system, otherwise interesting patterns and uninteresting patterns both look like ugly random blobs of cells and you can't tell what's going on. That said -- not promising anything, and especially not on any definite timeline, but the next version of Golly might have a Lua-based system for experimenting with 3D CAs.
taylorexpander 9y ago
You might be interested in lattice Boltzmann methods. They solve complex equations (navier stokes for example) using similar rules like Life. They can also be coded in 3D.
DonHopkins 9y ago
Here's a 3D programmable universal constructor -- with physical kinematic block cells that can slide around, rotate, attach and detach with each other, that has to collect, sort, store and assemble the parts it needs from the environment. http://www.srm.org.uk/papers/CBlocks3D_programmable_constructor.pdf http://www.srm.org.uk/papers/CBlocks3D_programmable_construc...
DonHopkins 9y ago
Here's a 3D programmable universal constructor -- with physical kinematic cell blocks that can slide around, rotate, attach and detach with each other, to build machines that can collect, sort, store and assemble the parts they need from the environment to reproduce themselves. http://www.srm.org.uk/papers/CBlocks3D_programmable_constructor.pdf http://www.srm.org.uk/papers/CBlocks3D_programmable_construc... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBXO_6Jn1fs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBXO_6Jn1fs

Perhaps a dumb question: how hard is it to do a "3D" game of life?

by dluan 9y ago

Perhaps a dumb question: how hard is it to do a "3D" game of life?

It's hard to answer, it depends on the person I guess... But for my point of view it's easy. You can find 3D versions online that work in the browser.

Cthulhu_ 9y ago

Not very; you just change the grid to a 3d space instead of 2d and change the basic algorithm a bit to count neighbours in 3d space.

oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
Do we know whether or not there is an equivalent set of 3d rules that behave anything like 2d GoL? The same sort of algorithm (count neighbours, update state) can be applied, but it doesn't necessarily mean an extra dimension will result in similar behaviour, does it?
- dvgrn 9y ago
  There are in fact various 3D rules that can be made to behave exactly like Conway's Life -- starting with some discoveries by Carter Bays involving a two-cell-thick "sandwich" of Life cells that emulated standard Conway's Life. Without the sandwich trick it can do other interesting things: http://www.complex-systems.com/pdf/04-6-2.pdf http://www.complex-systems.com/pdf/04-6-2.pdf The two problems with 3D life have always been 1) 3D is computationally very expensive compared to 2D, so you tend to get stuck working with much smaller grids; and 2) you need a really good visualization system, otherwise interesting patterns and uninteresting patterns both look like ugly random blobs of cells and you can't tell what's going on. That said -- not promising anything, and especially not on any definite timeline, but the next version of Golly might have a Lua-based system for experimenting with 3D CAs.

taylorexpander 9y ago

You might be interested in lattice Boltzmann methods. They solve complex equations (navier stokes for example) using similar rules like Life. They can also be coded in 3D.

DonHopkins 9y ago

Here's a 3D programmable universal constructor -- with physical kinematic block cells that can slide around, rotate, attach and detach with each other, that has to collect, sort, store and assemble the parts it needs from the environment. http://www.srm.org.uk/papers/CBlocks3D_programmable_constructor.pdf http://www.srm.org.uk/papers/CBlocks3D_programmable_construc...

DonHopkins 9y ago

Here's a 3D programmable universal constructor -- with physical kinematic cell blocks that can slide around, rotate, attach and detach with each other, to build machines that can collect, sort, store and assemble the parts they need from the environment to reproduce themselves. http://www.srm.org.uk/papers/CBlocks3D_programmable_constructor.pdf http://www.srm.org.uk/papers/CBlocks3D_programmable_construc... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBXO_6Jn1fs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBXO_6Jn1fs