Credits

Much of this repository (and the installation instructions) were based on Dr. Michael J. Reale's CS450 and CS538 courses at SUNY Polytechnic Institute (Spring 2024)

Usage:

Running

In VSCode, use Ctrl+Shift+P, then search for CMake: Set Launch/Debug Target, and set the target to the GOL you want to run.

Once the application is running and the window is visible, you can draw initial conditions, then press space to play/pause.

Initial Conditions

To set initial conditions, there is a brush tool that you can use by drag-clicking on the screen:

• Increase/decrease size with U/J
• Increase/Decrease amount of Red, Green, Blue with I/K, O/L, P/';' repsectively.
  • Only multicoloir GOL supports color change.
• Press enter to clear the screen.

You can adjust the number of steps-per-frame with the up and down arrows. Settings like game-size, window-size, VSync, etc., can be set in SETTINGS.hpp.

Dependencies

VSCode & Git

Technicaly not dependencies, but will make your life easier.
Forgot to include these, but you should be able to look them up and following their installers pretty easily.

C++ Compilers

Download Build Tools for Visual Studio 2022

• Under workloads, select "Desktop development with C++"

CMake

Download CMake

• During installation, select "Add CMake to the system PATH for all users"

GLFW

Download GLFW Source Package

• Unzip
• Close all instances of VSCode
• Open VSCode as administrator
• Open unzipped folder
• Open command palette -> "CMake: Select a Kit" -> "Visual Studio Build Tools 202 Release - amd64"
• Configure project (cmd palette -> "CMake: Comfigure")
• Go to "build/CMakeCache.txt"
  • Add "CMAKE_DEBUG_POSTFIX:STRING=_d"
  • Find "CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX" and change "GLFW" to "glfw3"
  • Save and reconfigure
• CMake: Set Build Target -> install
• CMake: Select Varient -> Debug
• CMake: Build
• CMake: Select Varient -> Release
• CMake: Build

GLEW

Download glew-2.2.0.zip

• Unzip
• Close all instances of VSCode
• Open VSCode as administrator
• Open [UnzippedFolder]/build/cmake/
• Open command palette -> "CMake: Select a Kit" -> "Visual Studio Build Tools 202 Release - amd64"
• CMake: Configure
• Add CMAKE_DEBUG_POSTFIX:STRING=_d anywhere in "build/CMakeCache.txt"
  • Save and reconfigure
• CMake: Set Build Target -> install
• CMake: Select Varient -> Debug
• CMake: Build
• CMake: Select Varient -> Release
• CMake: Build

Assimp

Download Souce Code

• Unzip
• Close all instances of VSCode
• Open VSCode as administrator
• Open unzipped folder
• Open command palette -> "CMake: Select a Kit" -> "Visual Studio Build Tools 202 Release - amd64"
• CMake: Configure
• In build/CMakeChache.txt
  • Set "ASSIMP_ISNTALL_PDB" to "OFF"
  • Set "BUILD_SHARED_LIBS" to "OFF"
  • Save and reconfigure
• CMake: Set Build Target -> install
• CMake: Select Varient -> Debug
• CMake: Build
• CMake: Select Varient -> Release
• CMake: Build

GLM

• Clone the GitHub repo
  • git clone https://github.com/g-truc/glm.git
• Open terminal in the directory cloned from github ("cd glm" if cloned from terminal)
  • md build (mkdir build on Linux)
  • cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="/desired/install/path/glm"
    • If not already, make sure this location is on the system's path
  • cmake --build build
  • cmake --build build --target install