What is Tresvita?

A cellular automata is a lattice of cells which are used as both memory and processing elements. This lattice of cells can exist in any dimension and can be of infinite size. At any given time each cell can be in one of any of a finite number of states. The transitions between states from one time step to the next (from one iteration to the next) depends upon the state of the cell and the neighbouring cells states. Each state is defined by clear rules, and these rules apply to all the cells on the lattice and at all times. The configuration of cells in the next time step is determined entirely by the current arrangement of cells – past arrangements have no direct influence over future cell arrangements.

Perhaps the most famous cellular automata was developed by John Conway. In Conway’s “Life”, which is played in an infinite two–dimensional board where each cell is a square (and therefore has eight neighbouring squares). There exist only two possible cell states – on (or “alive”) and off (or “dead”). The rules are very simple: if a cell is off it remains off in the next time step unless there are exactly three neighbouring cells in the on state, if a cell is on it remains on unless there are more than three “on” neighbours or if there are less than two “on” neighbours. The patterns produced from these simple rules are amazing, with many “life–like” structures emerging (such as “gliders” which “walk” diagonally across the board).

Tresvita is very similar in idea to Conway’s “Life”. In Tresvita there exist only two possible cell states, “alive” and “dead”, and the rule sets are defined in a very similar way. The major difference is that Tresvita is a three dimensional cellular automata.

Download Tresvita for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.0 up to Mac OS 9.2

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II