PDA

View Full Version : zehlein's Game of Life


zehlein
12-07-2008, 08:33 PM
Maybe few of you followed our thread on the speed issues with Conway's game of life in this thread (http://forums.arianesoft.ca/showthread.php?t=1540). This weekend I took the time to put together the bits and pieces, optimized the code to run even faster :) and decided it is now even "fast" enough to run on a PocketPC.
Attached you find the early alpha of zehlein's Game of life. If you don't know anything about the fascinating world of Conways Game of Life you might check the Wikipedia source here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway_Game_of_Life). The program is not mature yet considering the fact that you always start with the same object (a simple 78 pixel line). The next version will allow for user input on startup-objects, maybe even contain a little library. For now I wanted to build in the basic stuff like zooming and scrolling (use stylus or d-pad). The speed on my HTC Touch Diamond is about half a second per generation, sometimes (with a lot of living cells) it takes a bit over a second per generation to compute the new generation (watch out for the "T" value). On those slow 200 MHz machines speed is still an issue with processing times about two seconds per generation.
After 2400+ generations ther will be a run-time error :) simply due to not checking the borders of the world at the moment. This will be fixed of course in the next release :)

Tell me what you think about the prog and the GUI!

The downloads:
Game of Life for PocketPC (http://www.pocketplayers.info/PocketPC GameOfLife.zip)
Game of Life for PC (http://www.pocketplayers.info/PC GameOfLife.zip)

I could not upload the files to the arianesoft-server: the upload-limit is set to <500 kB :mad: Alain, could we have a little more please!?

Leginus
12-08-2008, 03:31 PM
I like it!! Especially the green and grey screen, it has a nice sci fi feel to it.
After following this from the first post and seeing the protoype, I think you have done a great job and polished it nicely.

You will have to post a new one when the border code is in place.
Again, well done!

Nicknack
12-08-2008, 08:44 PM
i completly agree with Leginus, a nice job you have done here :)
a stylish gui and speedy speed, keep on the great work, i'm looking forward to next version.

zehlein
12-09-2008, 09:37 PM
Ok, using the links from the first post you find a new version of zehlein's Game of Life :)
The border-bug is fixed, there is a single step generation processing available and...
... for your amusement I added a "real" Life-Object: a moving spaceship! funny to look at, use scrolling and/or zoomin out to follow it's path!
Hope you enjoy this early stage of developmment...