Cells

A cellular automaton is nothing without cells, so without further ado, here is a list of each of the cell types in Cellular Explorer with a brief description of each.

Cell: The most basic type of cell. Except for some options (Mirror, Ageing,the Fade rule, and input mode), it doesn't do anything to calculate its state. In its basic form, it simply holds whatever state it has until the state is changed from the outside.

Wolfram: The Wolfram Cell enacts any of Wolfram's elementary cellular automaton rules. Additionally, it has the ageing, fade rule, maturity, mirror, and neighbourhood expansion options. It also has a direction setting that allows it to take on one of four orientations in a two-dimensional array.

MBOT: Stands for Moore Binary Outer Totalistic. It is one of the best known types of cells, mainly because of Conway's Game of Life. This cell type counts how many of its neighbors in the Moore Neighborhood are active (positive numbered state), and compares to its born on numbers (if it is currently inactive), or its survives on numbers(if it is currently active), and activates if there is a match, otherwise it shuts off. This cell is fully customizable: Any combination of Born on and Survives on numbers may be set, additionally, it has 28 pre-set rules to explore. It has the ageing and fade rule options, a maturity setting, it can be run as a mirror cell, and also has the neighbourhood expansion option.

The Randomly-active cell is just that: random. If the ageing option is off, it will randomly flip between a 0 (off) and 1 (on) state. With ageing turned on, it takes on any of a range of values between -1024 and 1024. The maturity setting determines how many generations must pass before it chooses a new random state.

The On Cell is always on. It may take the ageing and Fade options. With ageing on, it will remain in a positive state that will increase over time. If the Fade rule is in effect, it will turn off for one generation when its age has reached the maximum, then it will re-activate with its age set to one.

The Off Cell is always off. No exceptions, no settings, just plain off(state 0).

The Blink Cell oscillates between off and on. The maturity setting determines how many generations it remains in each state, and the ageing option will cause its state to increase while it is in the on state.

The Symmetrical cell detects symmetries within the Moore neighborhood. The direction option allows you to pick the axis of symmetry it looks at, plus there are two special options: "Any", and "All". "Any" means the cell examines all four possible axes and if any of them are symmetrical, the cell activates. The "All" option means the cell only activates if all the axes are symmetrical. The Symmetrical cell also has the Ageing option, the Fade rule option, the Maturity setting, the Mirror option, the Neighborhood expansion setting, and the input mode option.

The Conveyor Cell acts like a conveyor belt. It takes the state of one of its neighbors, and moves that state into its own location. The Direction option lets you pick the direction the states travel. The Conveyor Cell also has the Ageing option, the Fade rule option, the Maturity setting, the Mirror option, the Neighborhood expansion setting, and the input mode option.

The Strobe Cell is like a strobe light. It activates for a single iteration, at a set interval. The maturity setting allows you to control how many generations pass between activations.

The Total Cell adds up the states of its neighbors in the Moore neighborhood. It has the Maturity setting, the Mirror option, the neighborhood expansion setting, and the input mode setting.

The Average Cell averages the states of its neighbors in the Moore neighborhood. It has the Maturity setting, the Mirror option, and the Neighborhood expansion setting.

EVBOT: stands for Extended VonNeumann Binary Outer Totalistic. It functions identically to the MBOT cell except for the fact that it uses the Extended vonNeumann neighborhood. This cell type counts how many of its neighbors in the extended vonNeumann Neighborhood are active (positive numbered state), and compares to its born on numbers (if it is currently inactive), or its survives on numbers(if it is currently active), and activates if there is a match, otherwise it shuts off. This cell is fully customizable: Any combination of Born on and Survives on numbers may be set, additionally, it has 28 pre-set rules to explore. It has the ageing and fade rule options, a maturity setting, it can be run as a mirror cell, and also has the neighbourhood expansion option.

MinCell: Simply takes on the lowest state of any of its neighbors. Options include neighborhood expansion, mirror and maturity.

MaxCell: Takes on the highest state of any of its neighbors. Options include neighborhood expansion, mirror, and maturity.