Creating a 2D Cellular Automata with Modifications

[farful]

I'm looking to create a two-dimensional cellular automata. And I suck at programming, esp if graphics are involved. Is there anything out there where you can program the rules for a CA and I can just let it run whilst watching it? I will need some extensive modifications...

Requirements of modifications I willl need:
1) two dimensional
2) cells are square-shaped (such that they have 8 neighbors)
3) each cell must allow at least 8 states (represented by different colours or whatever)
4) rules for cost
5) rules for selection
6) rules for initial state
7) I'm really not sure what else yet!

I've often used Matlab, to create cells using a vector/matrix, and used numbers, 0, 1, 2, etc, to change the state of a cell... but it's clearly not as pretty nor fun to watch :(

 

[technoweasel]

Do you know C or Basic programming? If so, you can write a console version of Conway's game of life in less than 100 lines. I don't know anything about Matlab, but I know that FreeBasic is very easy to use and has a simple graphics library. It might work if you are new to coding.

 

[lawtonfogle]

If you are allowed to us another program, I suggest:

http://www.mirekw.com/ca/index.html

If you have to program it yourself, I would suggest just doing some simple (ASCII graphics using Allegro would be easy enough).

As to the link, that program is one of the greatest because it has so many different types of CA's, 1D's and 2D's, as well as numerous variants (such as generations). Overall, I doubt you will find a better free program to do what you want short of you making it yourself.