Here is one small attempt to write a program that runs Conway's Game Of Life. It is a zero player game which does not require any user input once it has been started with an initial configuration. It is basically an infinite 2-D array of cells, each cell having state of either being alive (1) or being dead (0). At each step (tick of time), state of cell changes based on 4 simple rules (referred from aforementioned wikipedia article) -
- Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population.
- Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
- Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
- Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
Below is a simple C# console application that runs Game of life. It is by no means
the best implementation but it is a good representation of an auto-updating state machine.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
int[,] state = GetInputArray();
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
state = NexStep(state, i, (int)Math.Sqrt((double)state.LongLength));
Console.WriteLine("**************************************************");
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
private static int[,] GetInputArray()
{
//int[,] state = new int[3, 3];
//state[0, 0] = 0;
//state[0, 1] = 1;
//state[0, 2] = 0;
//state[1, 0] = 0;
//state[1, 1] = 1;
//state[1, 2] = 0;
//state[2, 0] = 0;
//state[2, 1] = 1;
//state[2, 2] = 0;
int[,] state = new int[5, 5];
state[0, 0] = 0;
state[0, 1] = 1;
state[0, 2] = 1;
state[0, 3] = 1;
state[0, 4] = 0;
state[1, 0] = 0;
state[1, 1] = 1;
state[1, 2] = 0;
state[1, 3] = 1;
state[1, 4] = 0;
state[2, 0] = 0;
state[2, 1] = 1;
state[2, 2] = 0;
state[2, 3] = 1;
state[2, 4] = 0;
state[3, 0] = 0;
state[3, 1] = 1;
state[3, 2] = 1;
state[3, 3] = 1;
state[3, 4] = 0;
state[4, 0] = 1;
state[4, 1] = 1;
state[4, 2] = 0;
state[4, 3] = 1;
state[4, 4] = 0;
return state;
}
private static int[,] NexStep(int[,] state, int stepCounter, int arrSize)
{
int[,] newState= null;
if (stepCounter > 0)
newState = GetNextState(state,arrSize);
else
newState = state;
PrintCurrentState(newState, arrSize);
return newState;
}
private static void PrintCurrentState(int[,] state, int size)
{
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
{
for (int j = 0; j < size; j++)
{
Console.Write(state[i, j]);
Console.Write(" ");
}
Console.Write(Environment.NewLine);
}
}
static int[,] GetNextState(int[,] oldState, int arrSize)
{
int[,] newState = new int[arrSize, arrSize];
for (int i = 0; i < arrSize; i++)
{
for (int j = 0; j < arrSize; j++)
{
int aliveCells = GetAliveNeighbourCount(oldState, i, j, arrSize);
if (aliveCells < 2 || aliveCells > 3)
newState[i, j] = 0;
if (aliveCells == 2)
newState[i, j] = oldState[i, j];
if (aliveCells == 3)
newState[i, j] = 1;
}
}
return newState;
}
static int GetAliveNeighbourCount(int[,] currState, int x, int y, int arrSize)
{
int sumOfCells = 0;
for(int i = x - 1; i <= x + 1; i ++)
{
for (int j = y - 1; j <= y + 1; j++)
{
if (i < 0 || j < 0) continue;
if (i >= arrSize || j >= arrSize) continue;
if (i == x && j == y) continue;
sumOfCells += currState[i, j];
}
}
return sumOfCells;
}
}
