3 ms·

Why is the density greater at equally spaced grid lines?

• quuxplusone 7mo ago
  You're probably thinking "one cell = one pixel." In fact "one cell = one 8x8 block of pixels"; the specific pattern of colors in each 8x8 block represents the opcodes of that cell's 64-opcode program. So when the replicator takes over the map, it's changing the image to a repeating pattern of 8x8 blocks. Now, don't quote me on this part, but I think the first replicator to take over is this (minus all the "junk DNA" between the instructions): [}<,]}],<}[ and the second, more efficient, one is: {[}<,]],<}[{ The latter means roughly: --head1; while (*head0) { *--head0 = *++head1; } *head0-- = *head1++; while (*head0) { --head1; // CUT HERE which gets pasted together with whatever cell it's breeding with at the time.