by joel

I wrote a script that takes the lifetime of the cellular automaton Conway’s Game of Life and extrudes it into a three dimensional object. The script is written in Python and runs within the Golly cellular automata simulator. Time is equated to the Z-axis, and every live cell/pixel is converted to a cube, output as raw vertices in a text file that can be opened in Blender, an open source 3D graphics program. Because the script inefficiently renders every individual cube into a text file, I’m currently unable to render objects that are much larger or more complex than the images below. Optimizations to the script like combining faces, eliminating hidden faces, and switching to a binary vector file format should eventually reduce this problem.

Download the script here.

To use the script, you’ll need Python, Golly, and Blender. Run Golly, load or draw your starting pattern, then choose Run Script in the File menu and find my script. Enter the number of layers to render; initially try around 10 for large patterns, 100 for small patterns. The script will create a file called 3dlife.raw which you can import into Blender with File->Import->Raw Faces. On my computer, Blender will struggle or crash if the raw file is much more than 150MB.

examples rendered with LuxRender:

Niels van Dijkhuizen made a MIDI interface for the Cynthcart that does it all through simulating keypresses and paddle movement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL2oBjugmx0

This book looks good.

I’ve released a new version of my Commodore 64 synthesizer cartridge that includes several new features and some fixes. See change log below. The cartridge and EPROM upgrade are available from the Atariage Store and the ROM images and source are available on the Cynthcart page.

Cynthcart v1.2.4 changes:
- PAL and NTSC note tables and autodetection
- full-screen video mode
- second paddle controls pulse width, LFO depth, or pitch
- automatic activation for filter paddle
- improved keyboard layout
- onscreen help
- SID editor help and status display
- dummy SID register to edit 3 oscillators at once
- save an editor patch in memory
- fixed patch/sound change glitch when playing
- fixed bad notes in top octave

(note: dorkbotdfw.org website is down, we’re working on it…)

We finally have a Dallas Dorkbot starting up. If you don’t know Dorkbot, it’s a group that meets regularly to share ideas, tools, and methods for artwork and music made with electricity, computers, and electronics. This includes circuit bending, hacking art, generative music, robotics, and so on. The original Dorkbot was started by Columbia professor Doug Repetto in NY, and the group now has local chapters in many cities around the world.

We are planning to have bi-monthly meetings, and the first meeting is this Sunday, April 27th at And/Or Gallery at 1pm. At the first meeting I will be speaking about some of my new music software, and Lars Larson will be talking about his synth modifications and other audio hacking. We will also have some open mic time for other people to talk about their projects, and we could actually use another official speaker for Sunday if anyone’s game.

If you are interested in this sort of thing please GET INVOLVED! Join our Google discussion group or contact me if you want to help out. We could actually probably use some volunteers to help with promotion, set up and tech for the meetings, and we need folding chairs. Also we are looking for more people to present their projects in the future. Join the google group or email me if you want to get on board.

Story about a Zelda cartridge produced with the source code in the ROM, probably because they malloc’s a bunch of RAM for the ROM image without clearing it.

Tom Moody posted a little about the new thing I made for the giant Bitmap show at VertexList that opened last night. I wrote an Atari 2600 emulator that supports a tiny subset of the machine’s full functionality. Pretty nerdy, yeah.

DVD Format Tech Specs. It’s weird how hard it is to find DVD tech info. I looked a year or two ago and the only way you could get any of this info was through pay sites.