HexLife

Software		Date uploaded	Software downloads	Cost
HexCells 1.0.1		23.Aug.2003	A hexagonal version of John Conway's game of life.	Free
	Macintosh	Mac OS X	686KB
	Windows		734KB

Notes:

Grid wraparound is not supported.

Preference items description
name	example	description
misc
name	Walkers	Displayed title of saved pattern, normally empty.
width	47	Number of cells across
height	48	Number of cells down
display	False	If True, the display is turned off (gaining a speed increase of about 20-50%). This is useful for when auto-save is active (see below).
delayMS	100	Delay (in milliseconds) between generations. set to 1 to speed up display.
rules - the state of a cell is based on its previous state and the previous states of its neighbours.
DeadLower	2	Minimum neighbouring cells which must be alive for this dead cell to become alive.
DeadUpper	2	Maximum neighbouring cells which can be alive for this dead cell to become alive.
LiveLower	3	Minimum neighbouring cells which must be alive for this live cell to remain alive.
LiveUpper	4	Maximum neighbouring cells which can be alive for this live cell to remain alive.
cell values - numbers used to represent a cell's current state. Only 0,1, 2, and 3 are recognised.
clearState	0	A value representing cleared cells. Normally 0, it can be set to the same as deadState to speed up display slightly.
liveState	1	A value representing cells which are alive. All other values are considered dead.
deadState	2	A value representing cells which have died.
invalidState	3	A value representing invalid cells. (eg. offscreen cells during rotation process).
display colours
Colour0	&hCCBBAA	Colour corresponding to cell state 0
Colour1	&h7445BF	Colour corresponding to cell state 1 (normally represents live cells)
Colour2	&hF1FACA	Colour corresponding to cell state 2 (normally represents dead cells)
Colour3	&h7F7F7F	Colour corresponding to cell state 3
selectioncolour	&h333333	Colour used to show selection boundary
patterns (advanced stuff)
autogenerated	False	True if file was auto-saved.
maxcheck	5	Maximum generations to check for a repeating pattern. If a stable pattern is detected, and the Run and Random options are active, a new, random display is generated.
maxcheckautosave	0	Normally 0. If greater than maxcheck, then any stable patterns of less than this number of generations is auto-saved to the app's folder and a new, random display is generated. This is useful for leaving the program running unattended to search for patterns (eg. overnight). Often set to a large value such as 999.
randomdensity	0.41	A decimal between 0 and 1, which specifies the probability of a randomised cell being alive. This is only relevant when a random pattern is being generated. NB: the random process generates brownian pattern, rather than white or even. This gives a more 'lumpy' (non-homogenous) result, which tends to yield more interesting patterns.
historysize	64	Twice the maximum number of generations able to be checked for stable patterns. use at least three times for more reliable checking. A larger value will slow the program down slightly (as a compromise, stability is not actually tested for every new generation).
Table 1. This describes the function of most of the preference settings in HexLife. They are also used in saved files.

Software