davidbuchanan314 / pyswargol

A rather fast Game-of-Life implementation in pure Python (plus pysdl2)

pyswargol

$ python3 swargol.py --help
Usage: swargol.py [OPTIONS]

Render Conway's Game of Life via SDL2, unreasonably quickly.

Options:
  --width=INT          framebuffer width (default: 1280)
  --height=INT         framebuffer height (default: 720)
  --vsync=BOOL         enable vsync (default: True)
  --fullscreen         enable fullscreen
  --drylife=BOOL       use the non-standard "drylife" algorithm (default: True)
  --slow               use the very slow implementation (for benchmark comparisons)
  --frameskip=INT      only render 1-in-n frames to the screen (default: 1)
  --num-procs=INT      degree of parallelism (NB: number of actual threads will be 2n+1) (default: 8)
  --bench-frames=INT   render a certain number of frames and then exit (default: 0)

Other actions:
  -h, --help           Show the help

I've written an article explaining more about how and why this code works.

pyswargol's Issues

Exception: SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: Blit combination not supported

Great blog post!
I wanted to try this out, but I get this error (on Ubuntu 22.04/x86_64):

Config: LifeConfig(width=1280, height=720, vsync=True, fullscreen=False, drylife=True, slow=False, frameskip=1, num_procs=8, bench_frames=0)
Exception in thread Thread-2 (blit_thread):
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1073, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1010, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/swargol.py", line 251, in blit_thread
    raise Exception("SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: " + sdl2.SDL_GetError().decode())
Exception: SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: Blit combination not supported
Exception in thread Thread-1 (blit_thread):
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1073, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1010, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/swargol.py", line 251, in blit_thread
    raise Exception("SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: " + sdl2.SDL_GetError().decode())
Exception: SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: Blit combination not supported
Exception in thread Thread-3 (blit_thread):
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1073, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1010, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/swargol.py", line 251, in blit_thread
    raise Exception("SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: " + sdl2.SDL_GetError().decode())
Exception: SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: Blit combination not supported
Exception in thread Thread-4 (blit_thread):
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1073, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1010, in run
Exception in thread Thread-5 (blit_thread):
Traceback (most recent call last):
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/swargol.py", line 251, in blit_thread
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1073, in _bootstrap_inner
    raise Exception("SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: " + sdl2.SDL_GetError().decode())
    self.run()
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1010, in run
Exception: SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: Blit combination not supported
Exception in thread Thread-8 (blit_thread):
Exception in thread Thread-6 (blit_thread):
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1073, in _bootstrap_inner
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/swargol.py", line 251, in blit_thread
Exception in thread Thread-7 (blit_thread):
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1073, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
    raise Exception("SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: " + sdl2.SDL_GetError().decode())
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1010, in run
Exception: SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: Blit combination not supported
    self.run()
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1010, in run
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/swargol.py", line 251, in blit_thread
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/swargol.py", line 251, in blit_thread
    raise Exception("SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: " + sdl2.SDL_GetError().decode())
    raise Exception("SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: " + sdl2.SDL_GetError().decode())
Exception: SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: Blit combination not supported
Exception: SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: Blit combination not supported
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1073, in _bootstrap_inner
    self.run()
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/.pixi/env/lib/python3.12/threading.py", line 1010, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "/home/david/tmp/pyswargol/swargol.py", line 251, in blit_thread
    raise Exception("SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: " + sdl2.SDL_GetError().decode())
Exception: SDL_ConvertSurfaceFormat: Blit combination not supported

TODO

• Fix exit cleanup process
• Make Ctrl+C do something sensible...
• create config object to get passed around
• Add CLI options
• Fullscreen mode
• Support non-evenly-divisible heights
• Optimise frameskip (only serialise whole frame when needed)
• Option to load custom patterns
• Naive computation option (for perf comparison purposes)
• Numpy/scipy computation option (likewise) - genuinely curious whether it's faster

SDL Issue

Hello, I installed sdl etc but when i launch the program it says me this :

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\nayth\PycharmProjects\pyswargol\swargol.py", line 444, in
main(cfg)
File "C:\Users\nayth\PycharmProjects\pyswargol\swargol.py", line 363, in main
raise Exception("Failed to init SDL2")
Exception: Failed to init SDL2

Do you have any idea on how to fix this ? Thank you for your help.