3D Game of Life: Feature Overview

Modes and the panel

Simple mode: Where everyone starts: a 15³ world, three patterns (Cross, Cube, Sphere), eleven named rules (the 9 Classic ones, Life 4555 and Coral), six themes (Clay, Default, B & W and the members' Synthwave, Neon and Holographic), two cell shapes (Rounded, Cube), three camera views (Default, Isometric, Top) and the pattern library, with Save image, Record video, 3D print, Ambient mode and Fullscreen under Capture. Groups with nothing to change are hidden.
Advanced mode: The Simple | Advanced switch at the top of the control panel. Adds world size and boundaries, rules, playback, cell editing, effects, lighting, the pattern library and VR / AR. The mode itself is free; some of its controls are members' (marked below). Open in Advanced mode.
2D | 3D | 4D: Beside Simple | Advanced: Conway's game on a flat board (2D mode), the 3D world, or a four-dimensional world shown in 3D slices (4D mode).
Tabs: Simulate, Appearance, More: Simulate holds Patterns, Choose a rule, the Pattern library, Playback, Size & bounds, Rules and Edit cells. Appearance holds the themes, Effects, Lighting, Camera and VR / AR. More holds Account and Help & shortcuts. Each group folds away and remembers it. Saving, files, render quality and the panel layout are in Settings, behind the gear.
Search the controls: The magnifier beside the tabs (⌘/Ctrl K) filters every group in every tab by control name. Esc closes it.
Hide, move, resize: Hide the panel with P or the × in its header; Controls at the top right brings it back. Drag it by its header and resize it from the corner; the browser remembers where. On a phone it is a sheet that pulls up from the bottom. Open with the panel hidden.
Tooltips and notifications: Hover or tap the ⓘ icons for explanations. Notifications report auto-pauses, imports and warnings, some with buttons (Keep running, Undo, See plans).

The dock

Run, Back, Step, Restart: Run or pause (Space); one generation back (, or ←) or forward (. or →); and Restart (R), which rebuilds the pattern from the same seed at generation 0 (a shared or imported world comes back as it arrived) without changing the rule or size. Back also undoes a whole painting stroke.
Timeline: A population line across the top of the dock, over the last 200 generations, 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.
Speed: 0.5 to 20 generations a second in twelve steps (5 to start with), and 30, 40 and 60 for members. [ and ] step through them; on a narrow screen a chip opens the slider.
Edit: Paint cells one slice at a time (E). See Edit cells.
View menu: Fit the world (0), the five camera views, auto-orbit, the cutaway, colour by change and the slice view.
Charts: Opens a strip above the dock with population, births and deaths over time and the ages of the live cells.
Save image: A PNG of the current frame, named after the generation.
Record video Members: any length: Records the world (V) as WebM, or MP4 in Safari. Free recordings stop after 10 seconds. Needs a browser that can record a canvas; the item is hidden otherwise.
3D model files Members: Saves the current generation for other tools: an STL for 3D printing (about 60 mm along its longest side, with the option of standing loose pieces on a plate so it prints as one object), a MagicaVoxel .vox with one voxel per cell, or a glTF .glb of cubes for Blender and web viewers, in the theme's age colours. Ready-made sculptures that print in one piece, free: 3D-printed Game of Life.
Ambient mode: In the Capture menu, or A: the controls fade, the camera orbits, and when a world dies out, settles or has run a while, the view fades to another rule and start. The screen stays awake where the browser allows; Esc leaves. Try it.
Fullscreen: In the Capture menu, or F.

On the stage

Name, rule and rule strip: The world's name and rule sit at the top left; clicking the rule opens Choose a rule. Under them, the rule strip has one square per neighbour count for birth (B) and survival (S). Click a square to switch it, and reset goes back to the rule before your edits. On a touch screen a tap opens a bottom sheet with larger toggles and a Named rules button. Works in Simple mode too.
Counters and status: Generation, living cells, and the cells born and died in the last generation, with a status line under them: paused, extinct, still life or period n.
Charts strip: A line chart of population, births and deaths, and an age histogram coloured like the cells (with a 20+ bucket). The summary row gives peak and average population, and in Advanced mode the time the last generation took, the backend and frames per second.
First-visit card: On a first visit, a card says what the rule does, with a Run button.

Patterns

Choose a starting shape: 24 patterns in five groups. Random: Random, Random Core (a half-full random block in the middle, the usual start for 3D rule collections), Clusters, Gradient X. Forms: Single Cell, Cross, Cube, Hollow Cube, Sphere (the app's first pattern), Shell, Pyramid. Planes: XY Plane, Floor, Back Wall. Special: Diagonal, Line X, Checkerboard, Glider (2D seed), Glider (two layers), Glider 4555. Engineered: Glider Engine, Oscillator, Spinner, Staircase. Shapes scale with the world.
Random rule, Random shape: Random rule switches to another named rule, in standard counting, and restarts the world from that rule's start; Random shape starts another pattern under the same rule.
New random start and density: N gives a random start a new seed (or switches to Random). The density slider (1–100%, 15% to start with) is in Advanced mode. Random starts are seeded, so Restart reproduces them exactly.
Find rules: Tries 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 it, and More like this searches variations. Advanced mode.
Random world: When every cell has died, the notification offers Restart, Back and Random world, which picks a named rule and runs it from its start.

Rules

Choose a rule: 30 named rules as cards in the Simulate tab (Simple mode lists the Classic nine, Life 4555 and Coral). Picking one restarts the world from the start it grows best from: the same world every time, as its seed is fixed, and N tries another seed. Classic (9): Standard B4-5/S4-6, Stable, Chaotic, Die-Off, Explosive, Crystal, Pulsating, Maze, Sparse. Explorer (8): 2D Conway, Life 4555, Spiky, Seeds, Maze, Explosive, Day & Night, Life 5766. Softology (13): 445, Amoeba, Architecture, Builder 1 and 2, Clouds 1 and 2, Coral, Crystal Growth 1 and 2, Pyroclastic, Spiky Growth, 3D Brain. Every one has a page in the rule list.
Birth and survival Advanced: The rule field takes B4-5/S4-6, a Generations rule such as B4/S4/C5, or Softology's order 4/4/5/M. Counts can be ranges and lists (4-6,9). Press Enter or leave the field to apply; a rule that does not parse is flagged and not applied.
Counting: standard or weighted Advanced: Standard counts every neighbour as 1 (sums 0–26). Weighted counts a face neighbour 3, an edge 2 and a corner 1 (sums 0–50). Explorer presets carry their own weighted sets; Softology's are written for standard counting and switch back to it.
Neighbourhood: Moore or von Neumann Advanced: Moore looks at all 26 surrounding cells, von Neumann only at the 6 that share a face.
States Advanced: 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 fade in the old-age colour.
Restart from its start Advanced: When the rule in the Rules group is one of the named rules, a button restarts the world from that rule's start.

Size, bounds and playback

Size X / Y / Z Advanced Members: over 30: 3 to 30 cells per axis, and up to 100 with a membership (15³ to start with). A preview of the box shows while you drag; Apply & restart regenerates the pattern at the new size, Revert goes back. Worlds above 500,000 cells get a warning.
Boundary Advanced: Wrap (the default: opposite faces are joined, so a pattern leaving one side comes back on the other), Fixed (everything beyond the edge counts as dead) or Reflective (the edge mirrors the cells next to it).
Stop when the world repeats Advanced: The world always pauses when every cell has died. With this on (the default) it also pauses on a still life or when it starts repeating, and says so, with a Keep running button. In the Playback group.

Edit cells

Shift + click: Switches the cell under the pointer on or off, without entering editing.
Slice editing Advanced: Edit in the dock, or E: a plane, grid and cursor on one layer of the world, with the rest dimmed. Left-click paints, right-click erases, a drag is a stroke, and a whole stroke is one step back. Scroll, ↑ ↓ or − / + move the slice; the axis can be X, Y or Z. The simulation keeps running; Esc stops editing.
Mirror, cutaway, fill and clear Advanced: Mirror X, Y and Z paint each stroke's reflections across the world's centre too (M cycles them). Cutaway (C) hides every cell beyond the slice; counts and charts still include them. Fill and Clear set every cell on the slice.
Slice view: S, or the View menu: the slice as a flat grid beside the world, so cells hidden inside the volume can be read one plane at a time. Click switches a cell, a drag paints, right-drag erases, and the wheel or arrows move the plane.

Appearance

Themes Members: all 24: 24 themes, each setting colours, background, material and lighting: Clay (the default), Default, B & W, Synthwave, Forest, Ocean, Fire, Glass, Frosted, Dramatic, Neon, Holographic, Pastel, Cyberpunk, Sunset, X-ray, Toon, Blueprint, Ember, Deep Sea, Chrome, Toy Bricks, Viridis, High Contrast. Free: Clay, Default, B & W, Forest, Ocean, Viridis and High Contrast; the others carry a Member tag and preview for 30 seconds. Some change how cells are drawn: X-ray adds see-through cells together, Toon shades in flat bands with outlines, Blueprint draws cell edges, Ember and Deep Sea make cells glow.
Cell shapes: Rounded (the default), Cube, Solid Cube and Brick (a toy brick with a stud). Simple mode offers Rounded and Cube.
Your own colours Members: Colours for young, old and ghost cells and the background.
Age fade, ghosts, grid and boundary: Cells fade from young to old over the age fade span (2–100 generations, 12 to start with). Cells that just died fade out as ghosts (opacity 5–60%). The floor grid (G) and the world boundary (B) switch on and off.
Colour by change: D: cells born this generation, cells that survived it and cells that just died, in three colours chosen to stay apart with colour blindness, with a legend under the counters.

Effects and lighting

Ambient occlusion and soft shadows Advanced: Darkened crevices between cells, and shadows from the key light onto the cells and a ground plane. Both free, on by default, and off at Low render quality.
Birth glow, pulse and bloom Advanced Members: Newborn cells glow, as cheap sprites or as full-screen bloom with threshold, strength and radius; intensity 0–2, and a pulse that breathes every 1.2 seconds.
Lighting Advanced Members: 7 presets (Default, Studio, Dramatic, Cool, Warm, Neutral, Minimal) and five lights to set yourself: ambient, key, fill and two point lights, each with colour and intensity. Every theme brings its own lighting for free.

Camera

Views: Default, Isometric, Top, Front and Side (1–5), each an eased 750 ms move; 0 fits the world. Simple mode offers the first three.
Auto-orbit: O, or double-click the world, to circle it slowly; the speed (1–100) is in Advanced mode. Any drag stops it.
By hand: Drag to orbit, scroll (or pinch) to zoom, right-drag or Shift + drag to pan.

Pattern library

Save current cells Advanced Members: 200: Keeps the live cells under a name: 5 patterns free, 200 for members. Click a name to place them in the current world, whatever its size. Signed out, the library is kept in this browser; signed in, in your account on every device, and Move to account brings the browser's patterns over.
Export and import Advanced: The whole library as a JSON file; importing adds to what you have.

VR and AR

Enter VR Advanced Members: Immersive VR through WebXR: point and pull the trigger to switch a cell, grab the world to move it and use both grips to resize it; the buttons play, step, go back and restart, and a panel on the left controller shows the generation. Shown only in browsers with WebXR.
Enter AR Advanced Members: Places the world in your room: a reticle finds a surface, tap to place it.

2D mode

Conway's game on a flat board: 14 presets, from the glider and the Gosper glider gun to Diehard and the HighLife replicator, and 20 named life-like rules. Boards from 32×32 to 512×512, wrapping or with dead edges. All of it is free. More about 2D mode.
Time stack: Piles the past generations (8 to 128) under the board, so time becomes the third axis: a glider draws a staircase, an oscillator a braided column. X switches between the flat board and the stack.
Painting, RLE and Open in 3D: Paint straight on the board (E). Paste a pattern as RLE or plaintext, or copy the board as RLE for Golly or LifeViewer. Open in 3D lays the board on two layers of a 3D world under Life 5766, where it keeps playing Conway's game.

4D mode

A four-dimensional world Members: over 20⁴: Each cell has 80 neighbours. Worlds from 8⁴ to 20⁴ are free, up to 32⁴ for members; large worlds step on the graphics card where the browser has WebGPU. A Labs mode: it works, and it is still changing. More about the 4D Game of Life.
Four ways to look: Slices (every 3D slice side by side), One slice (with a sweep through them), X-ray (all slices overlaid) and Turn (a cut tilted through the fourth dimension). X changes the view, W the axis you slice along.
Ships, the tour and the rule browser: Presets for the ships a search of about 110,000 rules found, a seven-step tour, 65 rules the search found worth a look, and a watch that tells you when a ship or a long oscillator turns up. Saved 4D worlds: 5 free, 40 for members.

Sharing

Share this world: The button at the top right opens a dialog with a preview and four actions. Copy world link 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), other worlds as their cells. Create short link makes a short ?s= address. Copy embed code gives an iframe for another web page, with a Run button and a link back. Download world file saves it as JSON.
Links open as they were made: Shared links, world files and embeds open with their size and look for everyone, members' big worlds and custom looks included.

Settings

Setups and worlds: Save the starting setup (rules, size, pattern, speed, look, lights, camera) in this browser and restore it later; export or import it as a file; copy it as a link. Export or import the world on screen as a file.
Performance: Render quality: Auto (the default) lowers the pixel ratio, shadows and full-screen effects when the frame rate drops below 30 fps and raises them when it recovers; High, Medium or Low. Performance mode draws simpler cells above 20,000 cells and turns itself on for a visit when the frame rate stays low. Renderer: the graphics card (WebGPU) or WebGL.
Panel layout: Hide the groups you do not use and reorder the rest within their tab; Restore default layout puts everything back.

Help and feedback

Help & shortcuts: In the More tab, or H / ? from anywhere: every keyboard shortcut and mouse gesture for the mode you are in, a short primer on the rules, a note on flashing light, and links to this page, the guide, the rules and the other pages.
Report a problem, suggest an idea: In Help & shortcuts and in Settings → Feedback. A problem report can include a screenshot and technical details; "What is sent" shows exactly what goes. Crash reports can be switched off in Settings.
Keyboard: The full list is in the quick start guide.

Account and membership

Signing in: Optional, in More → Account: with Google, or with your email address and a link that signs you in (no password). Signed in, your pattern library is kept in your account.
Membership: Monthly, yearly or lifetime, paid through Stripe. It adds bigger 3D and 4D worlds, all 24 themes, your own colours, lighting, glow and bloom, videos of any length, 200 saved patterns, 3D model export and VR / AR. Prices and details.
Managing it: Manage membership opens Stripe's customer portal: cancel, switch between monthly and yearly, change the payment method, see invoices. Switch to lifetime pays once instead. The account panel also sets a display name and newsletter preference, signs out and deletes the account.

URL parameters

Mode, tab and panel: ?mode=advanced (or simple) · ?tab=appearance (or simulate, more) · ?panel=hidden · ?groups=patterns,rules shows only those groups, for that visit · ?perf=1 performance mode for the visit. Try ?mode=advanced&tab=appearance.
The world: ?preset=s_445 a rule preset, from its own start · ?rule=B6/S5-7 (or 4/4/5/M) · ?pattern=sphere&seed=7 · ?run=25 steps that many generations at load (up to 500) · ?boundary=fixed (wrap, fixed, reflect) · ?slice=z opens slice editing on that axis. Try ?pattern=sphere&seed=7&run=25.
The look: ?theme=neon, any theme id: clay, default, bw, synthwave, forest, ocean, fire, glass, glassmorphism, dramatic, neon, holographic, pastel, cyberpunk, sunset, xray, toon, blueprint, ember, abyss, chrome, bricks, viridis, contrast · ?glow=bloom (off, sprites, bloom). A look from a link opens as sent. Bad values are ignored with a notification.
Embeds, ambient mode and short links: /embed or ?embed=1 shows the world alone, for an iframe (&autoplay=0 waits for Run) · ?ambient=1 starts ambient mode · ?s= opens a short link.
2D and 4D: ?dim=2 with preset2, rule2, n2, edges2, view2, depth2, run2 and rle2 · ?dim=4 with preset4, rule4, n4, view4, axis4, run4 and tour4=1. Try ?dim=2&preset2=gosper-gun.