Feature Overview

The default. A fixed 15³ world, three patterns (Cross, Cube, Sphere), three themes (Clay, Default, B & W), three shapes (Rounded, Cube, Sphere) and three camera views (Default, Isometric, Top). Groups with nothing to change are hidden.

The Simple | Advanced switch at the top of the control panel. Opens everything: world size and boundaries, rules, cell editing, effects, lighting, charts, the pattern library and VR/AR. Free; no account needed.

Simulate holds Patterns, the Pattern library, Playback, Size & bounds, Rules and Edit cells; statistics live on the stage. Appearance holds the themes, Effects, Lighting, Camera and VR/AR. The ? beside the tabs opens Help & shortcuts. A More tab appears only when there is an Account group. Each group collapses, and remembers it. Saving, files, render quality and the panel layout are in Settings, behind the gear.

The magnifier in the panel's tab row (⌘/Ctrl K) expands into a search that filters every group by control name across all tabs and opens the matching groups. Esc closes it.

Hide the whole panel with P, the status-bar button, or the × in its header. Drag it by its header and resize it from the corner; the geometry is remembered. On phones it becomes a bottom sheet.

Hover or tap the ⓘ icons for explanations. Notifications report auto-pauses, imports and warnings, some with action buttons (for example "Keep running").

Run in the playback dock under the 3D view, or Space. The transport and the speed live only there, not in a panel group.

Advance exactly one generation (. or →), or return to the previous one from history (, or ←; up to 200 steps). Step back is Advanced mode only and also undoes a whole painting stroke.

A population sparkline across the top of the playback dock, over the generations the history keeps, with the current one marked. Click, drag or use the arrow keys to go back and forward; it pauses a running world, and Run or Step from an earlier generation continues from there. In Simple mode too.

Regenerates the current pattern with the same seed, back to generation 0, without changing rules or world size (R). Random patterns come back identical.

Fullscreen (F) and a PNG screenshot of the current frame, named after the generation.

In the Capture menu, or A: the controls fade away, the camera orbits, and when the world dies out, settles or has run a while the view fades to another rule and start (each checked first so it does not die at once). The screen stays awake where the browser allows; Esc leaves.

Records the 3D view to a WebM file (V, or the record button, which turns red while recording). Needs a browser with MediaRecorder; the button is hidden otherwise.

Capture saves the current generation for other tools (members): an STL for 3D printing, a MagicaVoxel .vox with one voxel per cell, or a glTF .glb of cubes for Blender and web viewers, both in the theme's age colours.

The scene readout shows the generation, the living cells, and how many were born and died in the last generation, with a status line under them: paused, extinct, still life or period n (empty while the world runs on).

Generations per second, 0.5 to 20 (default 5), from the slider in the playback dock; on narrow screens a chip opens it. [ and ] step through the same twelve speeds. Available in Simple mode too.

Cycle detection hashes every generation. When the world starts repeating with period n, it pauses itself and tells you (with a "Keep running" button). Switch this off to run through oscillators.

The world always pauses when every cell has died, and pauses on a still life (nothing changes any more) while Stop when the world repeats is on. The status line in the stage readout says which: extinct or still life.

Grid dimensions, 3–100 per axis (default 15³). A bounds preview shows while you drag; press Apply & restart to commit (the pattern regenerates in the new size) or Revert. Worlds above 500,000 cells get a warning.

The default. Opposite faces are joined, so patterns leaving one side re-enter on the other.

Everything beyond the edge counts as dead. Structures near walls starve.

The edge acts as a mirror at the face plane, so edge cells see themselves reflected back.

When every cell has died, the notification's Random world button picks a random rule preset and a random pattern, then runs. A notification says which pair you got.

N gives a random start (Random, Random Core, Clusters, Gradient X) a new seed, or switches to Random; Random shape picks a different pattern and Random rule a different rule preset. The density slider (1–100%, default 15%) is Advanced mode only. Random patterns are seeded, so Restart reproduces them exactly.

Random (uniform fill), Random Core (a half-full random block in the middle, the usual start for 3D rule collections), Clusters (five small blobs), Gradient X (density rising from empty at x = 0 to full at the far side).

Single Cell (crystal rules grow from it), Cross, Cube, Hollow Cube, Sphere (the starting pattern), Shell, Pyramid. Sized relative to the world, so they scale with it.

XY Plane (through the centre), Floor (Y = 0), Back Wall (Z = 0): flat 2D starting configurations in 3D space.

Diagonal, Line X, Checkerboard (half the volume: heavy on large grids), Glider (2D seed) on the central XY plane; try it with the 2D Conway rule.

Glider Engine, Oscillator, Spinner, Staircase: hand-built structures from an early prototype. 22 patterns in all; Simple mode shows Cross, Cube and Sphere.

Tries hundreds of random rules in the background, each for 90 generations from the same Random Core in a world like yours (up to 24 per side), and keeps those that stay alive, busy and structured, best first. Hover a card to watch its trial; click to run the rule from that start; More like this searches variations. Also in Simple mode.

Each neighbour counts as 1. Sums run 0–26 in 3D (6 faces + 12 edges + 8 corners). The default rule is B4-5/S4-6.

Face neighbours count 3, edge 2, corner 1. Sums run 0–50. Explorer presets carry their own weighted sets; Classic ones scale by 3; Softology's are written for standard counting and switch back to it.

Moore looks at all 26 surrounding cells; von Neumann only at the 6 face neighbours (sums 0–6, or 0–18 weighted).

Text fields with comma-separated counts or ranges (e.g. "4-5" and "4-6,9"). Press Enter or leave the field to apply; invalid input is flagged and not applied. The current rule shows above, and under the scene title on the stage.

Under the scene title, one square per neighbour count for birth (B) and survival (S): click one to switch it, and reset goes back to the rule before your edits. On touch screens a tap opens a bottom sheet with 44 px toggles, the notation, Reset and Done. Works in Simple mode too.

2 is an ordinary life-like rule. With more states a cell that fails to survive spends states − 2 generations dying: it is not counted as a neighbour and nothing can be born in its place. Dying cells are drawn as fading cells in the old-age colour. The Rule field takes B4/S4/C5 or Softology's 4/4/5/M.

Standard (B4-5/S4-6), Stable, Chaotic, Die-Off, Explosive, Crystal, Pulsating, Maze, Sparse: range presets from the first version of the project.

2D Conway, 3D Default (4555), Spiky, Seeds, Maze, Explosive, Day & Night, Life 5766. Each has a standard and a weighted set. The active preset is highlighted when the rule matches one.

The named 3D rules from Softology's collection, as written there: 445, Amoeba, Architecture, Builder 1 and 2, Clouds 1 and 2, Coral, Crystal Growth 1 and 2, Pyroclastic, Spiky Growth, 3D Brain; several have dying states, two are von Neumann. Each comes with the start it grows from: Restart from… loads it with a new seed.

Shift+click any cell in the 3D view to flip it, no slice editing needed. A click that moves more than a few pixels counts as a drag and is ignored.

Edit in the playback dock, the toggle in the group, or E. Scroll moves the slice, and the hint line under the world names it. Shows a plane, grid and cursor on one layer of the world and dims the cells off the slice. The simulation keeps its state and is not paused; Esc leaves editing.

Edit along X, Y or Z; the index slider picks the layer (range follows the world size, and switching axis recentres it).

Left-click paints cells alive, right-click erases; drag for a stroke. A whole stroke is one history entry, so Step back undoes it in one go.

Mirror X, Y and Z paint each stroke's reflections across the world's centre too, still one history entry (M cycles them). Cutaway (C, or View in the dock) hides every cell beyond the slice, editing or not; population and charts still count them. While editing, − / + and axis beside the slice name move and turn it, and ↑ ↓ does the same from the keyboard.

Two buttons set every cell on the current slice alive or dead.

Generation, living cells, and the cells born and died in the last generation sit under the world's title and rule, with a status line below them: paused, extinct, still life or period n.

The Charts button in the playback dock opens a strip above it with a line chart of population, births and deaths over time, redrawn every other generation. It clears when a new pattern starts, and the browser remembers whether the strip was open.

Beside the population chart: how many live cells there are of each age, coloured like the cells themselves, with a 20+ bucket.

Peak and average population over the charted window; in Advanced mode also the time the last generation took to compute, the backend (Web Worker, main thread or GPU) and frames per second. A Clear button empties the chart data.

15 themes: Clay (the default), Default, B & W, Synthwave, Forest, Ocean, Fire, Glass, Frosted, Dramatic, Neon, Holographic, Pastel, Cyberpunk, Sunset. A theme sets cell colours, background, material and a lighting preset, and may set the shape and floor grid too. Simple mode offers Clay, Default and B & W.

6 shapes: Rounded (soft-edged blocks, the default), Cube (gaps show the lattice), Solid Cube (voxel look), Sphere (more triangles), Pyramid, Point Cloud (fastest for very large grids). Simple mode offers Rounded, Cube and Sphere.

Custom colours for young cells, old cells, ghost cells and the background. Cells fade from young to old over the Age fade span, 2–100 generations (default 12). Some themes add a mature stop in between.

Cells that just died fade out over a few generations. Toggle them and set their opacity (5–60%).

A grid under the world, sized to the box (G to toggle). Off in the Clay theme.

Screen-space ambient occlusion darkens the crevices between cells. On by default; a full-screen pass, so it switches off at Low render quality.

The key light casts soft shadows onto the cells and a ground plane under the world. On by default; off at Low quality.

Highlights newborn cells. Sprites are cheap additive sprites; Bloom is full-screen post-processing where newborn cells bleed light. Off by default (the Neon and Holographic themes turn glow effects up).

Intensity 0–2. Pulse breathes the glow in and out every 1.2 s.

Threshold, strength and radius sliders appear when Bloom is selected.

Low-intensity image-based lighting, distance fog in the background colour scaled to the world size, and a CSS vignette. Not adjustable; they sit under the light rig.

7 presets: Default, Studio (the Clay theme's), Dramatic, Cool, Warm, Neutral, Minimal. A preset sets all five lights at once; editing any light switches to a custom rig.

On/off, colour and intensity (0–3).

Two directional lights, each with on/off, colour and intensity (0–3). The key light is the one that casts shadows.

Two point lights with on/off, colour, intensity (0–10), X/Y/Z position (−50 to 50) and distance (0–200 world units; 0 means unlimited).

5 views: Default, Isometric, Top, Front, Side (keys 1–5). Each is an eased 750 ms transition. Simple mode offers Default, Isometric and Top.

Continuous rotation around the world (O, or double-click the scene). Orbit speed 1–100 (default 20) in Advanced mode. Any drag cancels it.

Drag to orbit, scroll (or middle-drag) to zoom, right-drag (or Shift+drag) to pan. Shift+click toggles a cell instead.

Saves the live cells of the world under a name (or "Pattern n" if you leave it blank). Entries are stored in this browser and list their population and the size they were saved in.

Click a name to place the cells centred in the current world, whatever its size (cells that do not fit are dropped, with a warning). Restart replays a library pattern. Rename and delete buttons sit beside each entry.

The whole library as a JSON file; importing merges into what you already have.

Immersive VR through WebXR with controllers: the trigger toggles the cell you point at, the grip grabs and moves the world. The group only appears in browsers that have WebXR, and shows what is supported.

Places the world in your room: a hit-test reticle finds a surface, tap to place.

Keeps the starting setup (rules, size, pattern, speed, look, lights, camera) in this browser, with the time it was saved, and brings it back; restoring restarts the pattern. Settings is the gear beside the panel search.

The same setup as a JSON file.

Encodes the configuration, compressed, into the page URL (#w=…) and copies it, or opens the system share sheet where there is one. Opening the link applies the settings; links from before (#settings=…) still open.

Share this world (top of the page) links to the exact generation with its rules and look. A world grown from a pattern goes as the pattern, its seed and what happened since, a few hundred characters at any size, and opens with its rewind history; others go as their cells. Copy embed code gives an iframe that shows the world with a Run button and a link back.

The world on screen, cells and rules, as JSON, named after the generation. Import restores cells, size, rules and boundary. To send a world to someone, Share this world at the top of the page makes a link.

Auto, High, Medium or Low. Auto (the default) lowers the pixel ratio, shadows and full-screen effects when the frame rate drops below 30 fps and raises them again when it recovers. Low: pixel ratio 1, no shadows, no bloom or ambient occlusion.

Grouped by tab: hide the groups you do not use and move the rest up or down within their tab; Restore default layout puts everything back. Saved in this browser.

Lists every keyboard shortcut and mouse hint, links to this page and the quick start guide, and a one-paragraph primer on the rules. H or ? opens it from anywhere.

Space start/pause · . or → step forward · , or ← step back · R restart · N new seed for a random start · [ slower · ] faster.

1–5 camera views · O auto-orbit · G floor grid · F fullscreen · A ambient mode (a screensaver of worlds; Esc leaves).

E edit cells · ↑ ↓ move the slice while editing · M mirror painting · C cutaway · Esc stop editing · ⌘/Ctrl K search controls · P show or hide the controls · V record video · H or ? show shortcuts. Shortcuts are ignored while a text field has focus.

Drag orbits · scroll zooms · right-drag pans · Shift+click toggles a cell · double-click toggles auto-orbit · while editing, left paints, right erases, drag for strokes, scroll moves the slice.

?mode=advanced starts in Advanced mode · ?tab=appearance (or simulate, more; look still works) opens that tab · ?panel=hidden starts with the panel hidden · ?groups=patterns,rules shows only those groups, for that visit.

?rule=B6/S5-7 (or 4/4/5/M) · ?embed=1 the world alone, for an iframe (&autoplay=0 waits for Run) · ?ambient=1 starts ambient mode · ?boundary=fixed (wrap, fixed, reflect) · ?pattern=sphere&seed=7 (pattern ids such as random, cross, sphere, glider_xy) · ?run=25 steps that many generations at load (up to 500) · ?slice=z opens slice editing on that axis · ?nworker forces the main-thread simulation.

?theme=neon (any theme id: clay, default, bw, synthwave, forest, ocean, fire, glass, glassmorphism, dramatic, neon, holographic, pastel, cyberpunk, sunset) · ?glow=bloom (off, sprites, bloom). Bad values are ignored with a notification.

The accounts plugin is disabled in the standard build, so there is no Account group, no sign-in, and every feature including Advanced mode is unlocked for everyone.

An Account group appears in the More tab with Sign in with Google or Apple, a membership (monthly, yearly or lifetime, via Stripe) for bigger worlds, all 15 themes, custom colours, lighting and effects, longer videos, a bigger library and VR / AR, Manage membership, a display name and newsletter opt-in, Sign out, and Delete account.