Cellular Automaton Lab is a fully customizable cellular automaton application. It is a simulation of cell "life" whose birth and death are defined by a set of rules. The best known of these rulesets is Conway's Game of Life. This application includes customizability of the Life series of rules and Generation series of rules. The Life series have 2 cell states, dead or alive. The Generations series have up to 8 cell states, dead, alive, and the rest are dying. The dying states are represented by different colors.
The difference between this app and other apps is the high degree of customizability available to the user. And the inclusion of a unique coloring mode called Allele mode. In allele mode, the color of the cells are not defined by the state of the cell but by the two color "alleles" each cell spawns with. When a new cell is spawned, it chooses at random from two of its live neighbors to determine its own color. In addition to this, there is a 5% chance for a mutation to occur, changing the allele chosen to a different allele.
This application includes the following features:
- Step mode to walk through the generations one at a time
- Clock mode
- Pinch to zoom
- Touch to spawn a cell
- Sixty of the most popular rulesets included
- Allele color mode
- Full customization
This application allows for customization of the following parameters:
- Live neighbors needed for a cell to continue living
- Live neighbors needed for a dead cell to spawn
- Colors of all states
- Define and save your own rulesets
- Wrapping the edges of the grid
- Hide/Show grid
- Speed of animation
- Size of the cell
- Clock settings
I am enjoying the app, but there really needs to be some kind of explanation about (1) what the app is about [I kind of know because I learned a little LISP informally] and (2) how to use it. When I see the rulesets, I am not sure exactly how to edit anything. Maybe I'm dense, but a couple of examples might help. Even an explanation of the menu would be helpful. Again, I'm new to this thing, but should I have to guess that double-tapping brings up the menu? That the up-arrow gets you to the options is also not immediately obvious.
ReplyDeleteThere also seems to be a bug. If I select one of the rulesets and let it run. Then double tap and hit the up arrow to get back to the menu, the app quits, and I am back to the ios.
I hope this doesn't sound too negative. I've been playing around with CA Lab for a couple of hours and really enjoying it, but I thought you should have some of this feedback.
There also seems to be a bug in it.