Game of Life

A program that simulates Conway's Game of Life

Instructions:

1. Install all packages.

npm install

2. Update configs at the beginning of index.js.

• MAX_ITER: maximum game iterations (default = 50)
• GIF_INTERVAL: interval of time between frames (default = 20)
• OUTPUT_PATH: path to output GIF file

If you want to load your own board, set the following variable:

• BOARD_PATH: path to desired board.

Otherwise, leave it empty (BOARD_PATH = "") in order to get a random board and set the following variables:

• WIDTH: board width (default = 100)
• HEIGHT: board height (default = 100)
• THRESHOLD: the approximate desired proportion of living to dead cells in the initial board (default = 0.25)

3. Run the script.

npm start

Loading personalized boards from file

The initial board state can be loaded from a file, which should be placed in the boards folder.

An example of file content is shown bellow (toad.txt):

000000
000000
001110
011100
000000
000000

Testing

Some unit tests were implemented using the Jest library. To run the tests:

npm test

Game of Life Rules

1. Any live cell with 0 or 1 live neighbors becomes dead, because of underpopulation

2. Any live cell with 2 or 3 live neighbors stays alive, because its neighborhood is just right

3. Any live cell with more than 3 live neighbors becomes dead, because of overpopulation

4. Any dead cell with exactly 3 live neighbors becomes alive, by reproduction

Example

Credits

Inspired by: Robert Heaton's Programming Projects For Advanced Beginners