NOTE: wxWidgets library has been removed from lib/ due to GitHub file size limits. It is included in this release.

Celat is a universal cellular automaton allowing user to define their own rules. It contains easy to use GUI and comes with 3 predefined popular automata Game of Life, Wireworld and Brian's Brain.

This application is distributed as a project for Microsoft Visual Studio and can be cloned from public repository located at MFF GitLab.

It is necessary to unzip libraries as they had to be compressed due to their size.

1. git clone https://github.com/milan252525/celat.git

2. cd celat

3. Extract lib/wxWidgets.zip in its location (Using Windows File Explorer, WinRAR, ...)

4. Make sure the file structure remains the same (celat/lib/wxWidgets containing lib/ and include/)

There are two options:

• using Visual Studio

• using msbuild in command line

You can use Developer Command Prompt for VS 2019 that gets installed with VS.

Type in the following command:
msbuild celat.sln /t:Build /p:Configuration=Release

In case you use normal Command prompt you will have to locate where msbuild is installed. Typical location is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe

You can additionally specify platform with/p:Platform=x86 argument. Available options are x64 (64-bit) and x86 (32-bit).

Alternatively you can download Windows executables from this release.

A grid of the automaton is located on the left side. You can click each individual cell to cycle its state to a next one. On the right side a control panel is located.

Game of Life automaton is preloaded when opening the application.

In the first textbox you can define cells of the automaton.

Each definition needs to be on separate line, empty lines will be ignored.

Format: NAME,COLOUR,PROBABILITY

Examples:

DEAD,FFFFFF

ALIVE,22CC66

Rules go into the second textbox.

Format: CURRENT_STATE,NEIGHBOUR_AMOUNT,NEIGHBOUR_STATE,NEW_STATE

Notes:

Cell of CURRENT_STATE will transform into NEW_STATE if it has NEIGHBOUR_AMOUNT of neighbouring cells with NEIGHBOUR_STATE.

Leave NEIGHBOUR_AMOUNT and NEIGHBOUR_STATE to always transform.

Examples:

ALIVE,1,DEAD,DEAD

ALIVE,123,DEAD,DEAD (= 1 or 2 or 3)

ALIVE,,,DEAD (triggers every time)

After you specify cells and rules you can choose if the grid should wrap around (become a torus) or if there should be a border. However choosing border means cells on edges will not all have 8 neighbours.

To load rules into automaton load press SET button.

Change of rules will only take place after pressing SET button and board will always be reset.

You can load one of preloaded automatons by pressing "GAME OF LIFE", "WIREWORLD" or "BRIAN'S BRAIN".

Game Of Life

Conway's Game of Life is one of the most famous automatons. A cell can be either live or dead. Cells follow these simple rules:

Any live cells dies if it has less than two or more than tree live neighbours.

A live cell with two or three live neighboursstays alive.

Any dead cell with three live neighbours becomes live.

Wireworld

Automaton by Brian Silverman suited for simulating transistors. It has four states: empty, electron head, electron tail and conductor.

Empty always stays empty. Electron head becomes tail and tail becomes conductor.

Conductor becomes electron head if it has one or two heads as neighbours.

Brian's Brain

Another automaton by Brian Silverman. Cells can have three states: alive, dead and dying.

Alive cell always becomes dying, dying always becomes dead.

Dead cell becomes alive if it has two alive neighbours.

This automaton almost always results in chaotic growth, randomizing the board is recommended with this one.

SET BOARD SIZE - set size of the board, application will restart and all settings will be reset!

ONE STEP - advances the automaton by one evolution

RANDOMIZE BOARD - every cell is set to random state

CLEAR - clears the board to default state (default state is the frist defined state)

START - automatically starts advancing the automaton, speed can be adjusted with a slider