• Table of Contents
• 📖 About
• 🌟 Showcase
• ✨ Features
• ⌨️ Keybindings
• 📦 Structure
• 📚 Libraries
• 🔧 Build
  • Nix (recommended for MacOS and Linux)
  • Windows (WSL)
• 🚀 Releases
• 📜 License

This is a lightweight C/C++ implementation of Conway’s Game of Life, built using SDL and Dear ImGui.

It allows users to create custom patterns and start or pause the simulation at any time. Additional features include toggling between light and dark modes, displaying or hiding the grid, and adjusting the simulation speed.

• Project

  • 🔄 Reproducible: Built with Nix, this configuration can be effortlessly reproduced on other machines, ensuring a consistent setup.

  • 📖 Documented: Most of the parts of my configuration files are commented and documented with links and explanations if necessary

• Application

  • 🖱️ Interactive pattern editor Draw your own initial configuration directly on the grid.

  • ▶️ Start/Stop simulation Easily control the simulation with play and pause functionality.

  • 🌗 Light and dark mode support Switch between light and dark themes for better visibility and preference.

  • 🧮 Grid display toggle Show or hide the cell grid overlay for a cleaner or more detailed view.

  • ⏱️ Adjustable simulation speed Speed up or slow down the simulation to observe behavior at your own pace.

  • ⚙️ Built with SDL and Dear ImGui Uses SDL for rendering and Dear ImGui for a responsive and modern GUI.

• Directories

  • src - Source files (.cpp)
  • libs - External libraries
  • assets - Images, Shaders and other Resources.
  • build - CMake build files

• Files

  • flake.nix - Environment configuration (based on dev-templates)
  • .envrc - Used by direnv to load Flakes
  • flake.lock - Used by Flakes to version packages
  • CMakeLists.txt - CMake configuration to build the project

• Dear ImGui ~ Bloat-free Graphical User interface for C++ with minimal dependencies
• SDL ~ Simple Directmedia Layer

To build this project, first make sure you have Nix installed as a package manager and direnv as a shell extension.

Then, configure it to enable Flakes according to your setup.

Once you're ready, you can start by cloning this repo

git clone https://github.com/leoraclet/game-of-life
cd game-fo-life

direnv allow

The flake.nix file is where the project's environment is defined, and you can see in it that CMake is part of the packages. So, if everything went well, you should be able to build the project like so

cmake -B build -S .
cd build
cmake --build .

Then, you can run the produced executable in build with

./game-of-life

The best solution to build this project on Windows is to use WSL and follow the Nix way in it.

You can start by installing nix here.

To run the program without editing the source code or building it yourself, go see the Releases.

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.