An OpenCL implementation of Conway's Game of Life, harnessing GPU acceleration for fast cellular automata simulations.

• Overview
• Features
• Prerequisites
• Building
• Usage
• Maps
• Examples
• Contributing

Conway's Game of Life is a zero-player game that simulates the life and death of cells on a two-dimensional grid based on a set of simple rules. This project implements the game using OpenCL to leverage the parallel processing capabilities of modern GPUs, CPUs, FPGAs, and more to deliver high-performance simulations.

• GPU-Accelerated: Utilizes OpenCL for parallel cell updates.
• Configurable Grid: Supports custom map sizes and initial configurations.
• Multiple Maps: Includes example maps in the maps/ directory.
• Real-Time Visualization: Render the simulation visually (via optional viewer).
• Cross-Platform: Compatible with Linux, macOS, and Windows (with an OpenCL SDK).

• A C++ compiler with C++11 support (e.g., g++, clang++).
• OpenCL SDK and drivers installed for your platform.
• CMake (optional).

clang++ main.cpp -framework OpenCL -o conway

This produces conway. You can then run it directly:

./conway <map_file> <num_generations> <delay_microseconds>

Run the executable with the required arguments:

./conway <map_file> <num_generations> <delay_microseconds>
# or, if you used the default output name:
./a.out <map_file> <num_generations> <delay_microseconds>

Example:

./conway maps/m1.txt 500 25000
# or
./a.out maps/m3.txt 250 50000

Sample map files are located in the maps/ directory:

• m1.txt: Random pattern.
• m2.txt: Columns.
• m3.txt: Smaller map with diagonal patterns.

Map files are simple text grids where . denotes a dead cell. Feel free to contribute some interesting maps! At the moment, terminal window re-sizing may be necessary to view bigger maps.

Contributions are welcome! Please open issues or submit pull requests for bug fixes, new features, or improvements.