turmite-simulator

Simulates turmites on a torus. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turmite.

Uses the SFML library.

Features

• executable accepts command-line parameters:

  1. turmite ruleset or name (currently supporting relative and listed below turmites)
  2. number of turmites to run simultaneously
  3. steps between renders, small numbers = slow

  Example: $ ./turmites Turmite_Pulsing 100 1000 will simulate 100 turmites of the type Turmite_Pulsing and update the window every 1000 steps.

• color table automatically switches from black/white to multi-color

Included turmites

• Turmite_Biotope: simulating competing species (default turmite)
• Turmite_Pulsing: alternating between creating and destroying every 10k steps
• Turmite_Fibonacci: building a fibonacci spiral
• Turmite_Qrcode: buiding a distinctive growing square pattern
• Turmite_Foo: buiding a chaotic distinctive pattern
• Ant_RL: Langton's ant, building a highway after ~10000 steps
• Ant_RRLL: building a growing symmetrical pattern
• Ant_RRLRR: building a growing square

Make your own Turmites

From TwoDimensionalTuringMachines

Run the executable with the first parameter set to the movement specification string, e.g.: $ ./turmites {{{1,2,0},{0,8,0}}}

Each machine is specified as a table of n_states rows by n_colors columns, written in (Western) reading order: the first row first, then then other rows.

Each triple is {A,B,C} where A is the new color to write: [0,1,2,...,(n_colors-1)], B is the direction to turn/move (see below) or 0 to halt, C is the new state to adopt: [0,1,2,...,(n_states-1)].

The direction is specified like this:

• 1 = forward
• 2 = right
• 4 = u-turn (180 degrees)
• 8 = left
• 0 = halt

This notation will allow turmites to split, e.g. 2+8 = 10 = turn left and right. This is not implemented yet, but will be included in a later version.

For example, the triple {1,2,3} means: change cell to '1', turn right (and move forward), and adopt state 3.