Life32 by Johan Bontes

Conway's Game of Life freeware for Windows9x/NT/2000/XP

Version 2.15, last updated August 10, 2002.

There is a European mirror of this page in Holland:



http://www.xs4all.nl/~jbontes

Please send questions and comments on Life32 to

Download Life32 version 2.15

... from an FTP site in Wisconsin: zip file

... from an FTP site in Atlanta: zip file

... from a web-site in Holland: zip file





The self-installing .exe uses InstallShield to make installation a breeze. The .zip file is provided because of the size difference, and because there really is nothing tricky in the installation.

If you just want to give Life32 a try, the installshield is recommended because it has an easy uninstall feature.

If you don't have a program to handle zip files, have a look at Winzip (shareware) or UltimateZip (freeware).

Downloaded the thing and still have questions?

Read the FAQ

What does Life32 do?

Life32 is a player for Conway's game of life and related cellular automa.

If that does not ring a bell, look here

Life32 is the fastest life player in the world, it is very powerfull and extremely easy to use.

Here is a screenshot:



In short, Life32 is the best, fastest, and most user-friendly life player around. But if you need more convincing, here is a list of Features:

Universe size is 1 million x 1 million.

Fastest Windows Life player anywhere; adjustable speed using 1 millisec accurate timer.

Reads and writes patterns written in Xlife 2.0, Life 1.05/1.06, ProLife, MCell, dbLife and even bitmap file formats (.bmp and gif).

Reads and writes patterns written in Xlife 2.0, Life 1.05/1.06, ProLife, MCell, dbLife and even bitmap file formats (.bmp and gif). Uses Microsoft DirectX to accelerate drawing, with seamless non-DirectX support (albeit that the latter is a lot slower).

Support for multiple universes, so you can have multiple files open at a time.

Support for multiple universes, so you can have multiple files open at a time. Adjustable frame dropping increases speed at the cost of smooth animation.

Make a "snapshot" and revert to it later in one button press. Advanced snapshot list maintenance.

"Skip to..." lets you skip to a specific generation fast, both forward and backward.

"Torus..." enables you to play patterns that require a toriod or otherwise bounded universe.

"Torus..." enables you to play patterns that require a toriod or otherwise bounded universe. Unlimited playback. Life32 uses the most recent snapshot to recalculate the previous generation.

Change rules using standard text format (23/3, etc.), or check boxes, or a list of interesting rules with descriptions.

Support for Hexagonal, Moore and VonNeumann neighborhoods.

Support for Hexagonal, Moore and VonNeumann neighborhoods. Advanced editing features: cut and paste, drag and drop, etc. Cut and paste to and from text editors -- good for e-mailing patterns.

Scrapbook support where building blocks can be stored and recalled with a single keypress.

Scrapbook support where building blocks can be stored and recalled with a single keypress. Zoom from 10 pixels per cell down to 1/256 sub-pixel. Zoom cursor for selective zooming. Zoom to fit.

Scroll bars and keyboard shortcuts for moving around easily; hand cursor for scrolling in all directions.

"Move to..." lets you jump to any location in the universe, the edges of the pattern, or the center of the pattern.

View and edit pattern descriptions: shows a description to you in the "Open" window before you even open a pattern. View the description again with one click on the "i" button in the tool bar. Edit it in the "Settings" window or in the "Save As..." window.

Lexicon for looking up life jargon.

External programming interface using Automation, write macro's for Life32 from most Win32 programming platforms, e.g. MS Office, VB, C++, Delphi.

External programming interface using Automation, write macro's for Life32 from most Win32 programming platforms, e.g. MS Office, VB, C++, Delphi. Extensive on-line help.

Get DirectX!

Life32 works best when used with Microsoft's DirectX. If you have Windows '98, Me, 2000 or XP, you already have it, guaranteed. But if you have Windows 95 or NT, then you might not have it. You can check by trying to set "Enabled DirectX" in Life32's "Settings" dialog, in the "Speed" tab.

"Works best" is a vast understatement. Life32 is very efficient, which makes the Windows API a serious performance problem. DirectX is Microsoft's solution to such problems.

For Windows '95: You can download the lastest version of DirectX for users from http://www.microsoft.com/directx

For Windows '98/Me: Silly you, DirectX is part of Windows '98/Me. You should have skipped to the next section already.

For Windows NT 4.0: DirectX 3.0 comes in Service Pack 3. Download it from http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/nts/downloads/archive/nt4svcpk3/default.asp

For Windows 2000/XP: DirectX is a standard component, just like in Windows '98.

To find out more about DirectX, visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/productinfo/overview/faq.asp

Get pattern files

In order to make the most of Life, here are some pattern collections to get you started.

Alan Hensel's great LifeP.zip collection. (205K)

David Bell's huge dblifelib-2.tgz collection (312K), featuring many patterns in all kinds of evolution rules.

If you are a real gun enthusiast (glider guns, that is), here is Dieter and Peter's collection Guns.zip (282K) of smallest guns with periods 100 < p < 1000 and their collection Guns2.zip (424K) of smallest guns with periods 1000 < p < 10,000. Note that these gun collections are in Dieter and Peter's ProLife format, so if you intend to use them with another Life program, you may have to convert them using Life32.

Jason Summers has made an unofficial update to Dieter & Peter's collection. His site contains a lot of other worthwhile pattern collections as well.

New! Dieter and Peter have each put together a small collection of their own favourite patterns.

All of the above files can be unzipped with WinZip.

Other Life links

Recommended links

For news concerning anything digital, look at http://slashdot.org

If you are more interested in AI, http://www.generation5.org might be your thing, they occasionally have a newsflash on CA too.

For CA fans, see what's cooking at the primordial soup kitchen (http://psoup.math.wisc.edu/)



Delphi Links

As you may (or may not know) Life32 is written in Delphi. I hope you agree Delphi is a great tool to easily write nice looking programs. Go and have a look at:

Borland, these guys know how to write great compilers;

Borland recently released the free (as in beer) Kylix (read: Delphi for Linux) compiler with which you can write Open Source ('Free' as in GPL) programs (of course you can also buy the regular package and make 'closed source' programs).

If you are looking for components, I recommend the Delphi Super Page;



DirectX & Delphi