Cellular Automaton

This project is my implementation of a cellular automata, written in Java using LibGdx.

Features

• Original cellular automata impl.
• Support for John Conway's Game of life and Brian Silverman's Wireworld
• The rulesets can be changed during runtime
• The state of the cellular automata can be saved or loaded during runtime
• Some default patterns are included (Acorn, R-Pentomino, ...)
• Constant performance
• Open-mindedness - feel free to contribute

Usage

• W,A,S,D - move camera along x- and y-axis
• Q - zoom in
• E - zoom out
• Space - continue iterations
• Left Mouse - change cell state
• Right mouse - reset cell state

Prerequisites

This project is built using the java programming language and libgdx as the framework.

- OpenJDK or Oracle JDK version 1.8 (currently using version 1.8.0_212 - should work with earlier version of the jdk)
- gradle (use the provided wrapper from within the project)
- Hardware support for OpenGL 1.1 / 2.0

Installation

These are the steps to get, compile and execute the project:

- git clone https://github.com/benjaminfoo/cellular_automaton_libgdx
- open the project with IntelliJ IDEA or your IDE of choice
- Run the DesktopLauncher from the Desktop-Project

Screenshots

Game of life showcase

Wireworld showcase

Common problems and fixes

Old hardware + Java development kit version >= 1.8.0_45

OpenGL is not supported by the video driver.

There is a known problem with java/libgdx when launching this application on windows and older hardware. The simplest thing to do is to use an older version of the java development kit (<= 1.8.0_45).

GdxRuntimeException: OpenGL 2.0 or higher with the FBO extension is required.

There is another known problem on older hardware without proper support of opengl, which leads to the following exception:

Exception in thread "LWJGL Application" com.badlogic.gdx.utils.GdxRuntimeException: OpenGL 2.0 or higher with the FBO extension is required. OpenGL version: 1.1.0

In order to fix it, add the following loc before libgdx gets launched:

System.setProperty("org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.allowSoftwareOpenGL", "true");

Built With

• OpenJDK - The open-source implementation of the Java Platform
• LibGDX - Java game development framework
• Gradle - The best build tool in the java ecosystem

Additional Third party frameworks / libraries

• VisUI - VisUI
• Artemis-Odb - Artemis-ODB ECS-Framework

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 - see the LICENSE.md file for details