CPSC120A
Fundamentals of Computer Science I

Lab 31

Game of Life

Use the command line to create a new directory called lab31 in your labs directory. Make sure all of the .py files that you create for this activity are in that directory.

Conways's Game of Life

In Conway's game of life, a two dimensional grid represents a petridish. Each cell in the grid is either occupied by a bacteria, 1, or not, 0. In each turn of the game every cell in the grid changes state based on the following rules:

  • If a cell is occupied and fewer than 2 of the 8 adjacent cells are occupied, the bacteria dies due to loneliness and the cell becomes unoccupied.
  • If a cell is occupied and more than 3 of the 8 adjacent cells are occupied, then the bacteria dies due to overcrowding and the cell becomes unoccupied.
  • If a cell is unoccupied and exactly 3 of the 8 adjacent cells are occupied, a new bacteria is born, and the cell becomes occupied.

Details

Modify your game_of_life.py file from the last lab to play Conway's Game of Life. The program should load a board, a two-dimensional list of 0s and 1s, from a file and repeatedly print the result of updating the board according to the above rules. The program should end when the user kills the program by pressing ctrl-c.

Example

0000000
0000000
0001000
0011100
0001000
0000000
0000000

0000000
0000000
0011100
0010100
0011100
0000000
0000000

0000000
0001000
0010100
0100010
0010100
0001000
0000000

Hint

  • Create a function called sum_adjecent_cells(board, row, col). The function should have three parameters, board, a two-dimensional list of 0s and 1s, and row and col, integers that are the row and column of a cell in the board. The function should return the sum of the cells that are adjacent to the specified cell. Note, if the cell is on the edge of the board, some of the adjacent cells may not exist. In this case, the function should sum the adjacent cells that do exist.
  • Add a function called update_board(board). The should have one parameter, board, a two-dimensional list of 0s and 1s. The function should return a new two-dimensional list of 0s and 1s that is equivalent to the input board after being updated according to the rules of the game of life. This function should call the sum_adjacent_cells function in order to determine the new state of a cell. Note, the input board should not be modified. If it is, subsequent cell updates may be incorrect.
  • Finally, after you have tested the above functions, create a program that plays the game. The program should call the read_game_state function to initialize the board. It should have a loop that repeatedly prints the board, using the print_game function, and updates the board, using the update_board function.

 

Challenge

As you have no doubt seen, watching the game of life through the terminal window is incredibly difficult. The 1's and 0's flying past the screen do very little to aid in your visual of what is going on. Let's layer a Graphical Interface on top of your 2-d list representation, which hopefully will make it easier to visualize.

Details

In the same file as above, create a new function called draw_game. This function should take the game board as a parameter, plus any additional information necessary to perform the drawing. You should be able to simply call draw_game in the same place you have been calling print_game, with minimal changes else where.

Your visual should consist of a 2-d grid, where each cell in the grid represents one of the values from the 2-d list of values representing the game board. Cells that are valued 0 will not be filled in, while cells that are valued 1 will be filled in with a color of your choosing (traditionally black).

Your grid should fill as much of the window as possible. As such, you should decide the size of the cells based off the dimensions of the window, as opposed to specifying a default grid size.

Example

Submission

Please show your source code and run your programs for the instructor or lab assistant. Only a programs that have perfect style and flawless functionality will be accepted as complete.