factoriosrc

Search for patterns in Factorio (R3,C2,S2,B3,N+) cellular automata, using an algorithm similar to rlifesrc.

This program is still work in progress. Many features are still missing.

Now it has a simple text-based UI. A simple GUI is work in progress. A web UI will be added in the future.

Usage

You need to install Rust first.

Build:

cargo build --release

Text-based UI

Print the help message:

cargo run --bin factoriosrc-tui --release -- --help

Search for a c/2 spaceship with D2- symmetry in a bounding box of size 30x10:

cargo run --bin factoriosrc-tui --release -- new 30 10 2 -x 1 -s D2-

Search for a c/3 spaceship in Hash (R2,C0,S4-6,B5-6,N#) in a bounding box of size 30x8, and save the search state to a file when exiting:

cargo run --bin factoriosrc-tui --release -- new 30 8 3 -x 1 -r R2,C0,S4-6,B5-6,N# --save save.json

Resume the search from the saved state, and save it again when exiting:

cargo run --bin factoriosrc-tui --release -- load save.json

The program is still work in progress, so the usage may change, and the format of the save file may be incompatible between different versions.

GUI

The GUI is still work in progress. I have only tested it on Linux. It may not work on other platforms.

cargo run --bin factoriosrc-egui --release

Hover the mouse over the labels in the configuration panel to see the help messages.

On X11, for HiDPI displays, you may need to set the WINIT_X11_SCALE_FACTOR environment variable to 2.

Todo

Features that rlifesrc has but factoriosrc doesn't:

• Improve the performance. Possibly by using some unsafe code.
• Support transformations (rotation and reflection).
• Count the number of living cells.
  • Max population constraint.
  • Dynamically adjust the max population constraint to find the smallest pattern.
• Support more rules.
  • Parse rule strings.
  • Non-totalistic rules.
  • Generations rules.
  • Hexagonal rules.
  • Check the symmetry of a rule.
  • Update (or completely rewrite) the ca-rules crate.
• Support trying a random state for unknown cells.
• Set some cells to be known in the configuration.
• Custom search order.
• Save and load the search state.
• GUI.
  • Save and load the search state in the GUI.
• Web UI.
  • Port the GUI to the web. I'm using the egui library, which has a web backend. I still need to figure out how to port the multi-threaded part, maybe using WebWorkers.
  • Better support for mobile devices.

Features that rlifesrc doesn't have and factoriosrc may add:

• Support searching non-periodic patterns. For example, find a parent of a given pattern.
• Support more symmetries and transformations. (AlephAlpha/rlifesrc#51)
  • Support hexagonal symmetries and transformations.
  • Support custom symmetries and transformations. Maybe describe them using a DSL.
  • Separate the symmetries and transformations into another crate.
• A seedable RNG. (AlephAlpha/rlifesrc#183)
  • Use a RNG with serde support, so that we can save and load the random state.
• More user-friendly TUI and web UI.
  • Set cells to be known by clicking.
  • Automatically save the search state in the browser cache. (AlephAlpha/rlifesrc#366)
• More. See rlifesrc's issues.

And finally:

• Merge factoriosrc into rlifesrc.