OpenGL & Go Tutorial Part 3: Implementing the Game
Part 1: Hello, OpenGL | Part 2: Drawing the Game Board | Part 3: Implementing the Game
The full source code of the tutorial is available on GitHub.
Welcome back to the OpenGL & Go Tutorial! If you haven’t gone through Part 1 and Part 2 you’ll definitely want to take a step back and check them out.
At this point you should have a grid system created and a matrix of cells to represent each unit of the grid. Now it’s time to implement Conway’s Game of Life using the grid as the game board.
Let’s get started!
Implement Conway’s Game
One of the keys to Conway’s game is that each cell must determine its next state based on the current state of the board, at the same time. This means that if Cell (X=3, Y=4) changes state during its calculation, its neighbor at (X=4, Y=4) must determine its own state based on what (X=3, Y=4) was, not what is has become. Basically, this means we must loop through the cells and determine their next state without modifying their current state before we draw, and then on the next loop of the game we apply the new state and repeat.
In order to accomplish this, we’ll add two booleans to the cell struct:
type cell struct {
drawable uint32
alive bool
aliveNext bool
x int
y int
}
Here we’ve added alive and aliveNext, the former being the cell’s current state and the later being the state it has calculated for the next turn.
Now let’s add two functions that we’ll use to determine the cell’s state:
// checkState determines the state of the cell for the next tick of the game.
func (c *cell) checkState(cells [][]*cell) {
c.alive = c.aliveNext
c.aliveNext = c.alive
liveCount := c.liveNeighbors(cells)
if c.alive {
// 1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by underpopulation.
if liveCount < 2 {
c.aliveNext = false
}
// 2. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
if liveCount == 2 || liveCount == 3 {
c.aliveNext = true
}
// 3. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overpopulation.
if liveCount > 3 {
c.aliveNext = false
}
} else {
// 4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
if liveCount == 3 {
c.aliveNext = true
}
}
}
// liveNeighbors returns the number of live neighbors for a cell.
func (c *cell) liveNeighbors(cells [][]*cell) int {
var liveCount int
add := func(x, y int) {
// If we're at an edge, check the other side of the board.
if x == len(cells) {
x = 0
} else if x == -1 {
x = len(cells) - 1
}
if y == len(cells[x]) {
y = 0
} else if y == -1 {
y = len(cells[x]) - 1
}
if cells[x][y].alive {
liveCount++
}
}
add(c.x-1, c.y) // To the left
add(c.x+1, c.y) // To the right
add(c.x, c.y+1) // up
add(c.x, c.y-1) // down
add(c.x-1, c.y+1) // top-left
add(c.x+1, c.y+1) // top-right
add(c.x-1, c.y-1) // bottom-left
add(c.x+1, c.y-1) // bottom-right
return liveCount
}
In checkState we set the current state (alive) equal to what we calculated on the last iteration (aliveNext). Next we count the number of neighbors, and determine the aliveNext state according to the rules of the game. The rules should be relatively clear and they’re documented in the code above, so I won’t go over them again here.
What’s more interesting is the liveNeighbors function where we return the number of neighbors to the current cell that are in an alive state. We define an inner function called add that will do some repetitive validation on X and Y coordinates. What it does is check if we’ve passed a number that exceeds the bounds of the board - for example, if cell (X=0, Y=5) wants to check on its neighbor to the left, it has to wrap around to the other side of the board to cell (X=9, Y=5), and likewise for the Y-axis.
Below the inner add function we call add with each of the cell’s eight neighbors, depicted below:
[
[-, -, -],
[N, N, N],
[N, C, N],
[N, N, N],
[-, -, -]
]
In this depiction, each cell labeled N is a neighbor to C.
Now in our main function, where we have our core game loop, let’s call checkState on each cell prior to drawing:
func main() {
...
for !window.ShouldClose() {
for x := range cells {
for _, c := range cells[x] {
c.checkState(cells)
}
}
draw(cells, window, program)
}
}
Now our core game logic is all set, we just need to modify the cell draw function to skip drawing if the cell isn’t alive:
func (c *cell) draw() {
if !c.alive {
return
}
gl.BindVertexArray(c.drawable)
gl.DrawArrays(gl.TRIANGLES, 0, int32(len(square)/3))
}
If you run the game now you’ll see a plain black screen, not the glorious simulation we’ve been working so hard to achieve. So why’s that? Well its because the simulation is working! None of our cells are alive, so none of them are drawing themselves.
Let’s fix that. Back in makeCells we’ll use a random number between 0.0 and 1.0 to set the initial state of the game. We’ll define a constant threshold of 0.15 meaning that each cell has a 15% chance of starting in an alive state:
import (
"math/rand"
"time"
...
)
const (
...
threshold = 0.15
)
func makeCells() [][]*cell {
rand.Seed(time.Now().UnixNano())
cells := make([][]*cell, rows, rows)
for x := 0; x < rows; x++ {
for y := 0; y < columns; y++ {
c := newCell(x, y)
c.alive = rand.Float64() < threshold
c.aliveNext = c.alive
cells[x] = append(cells[x], c)
}
}
return cells
}
We start by adding two imports for the rand (random) and time packages, and defining our threshold constant. Then in makeCells we use the current time as the randomization seed, giving each game a unique starting state. You can also specify a particular seed value to always get an identical game, useful if you want to replay interesting simulations.
Next in the loop, after creating a cell with the newCell function we set its alive state equal to the result of a random float, between 0.0 and 1.0, being less than threshold (0.15). Again, this means each cell has a 15% chance of starting out alive. You can play with this number to increase or decrease the number of living cells at the outset of the game. We also set aliveNext equal to alive, otherwise we’ll get a massive die-off on the first iteration because aliveNext will always be false!
Now go ahead and give it a run, and you’ll likely see a quick flash of cells that you can’t make heads or tails of. The reason is that your computer is probably way too fast and is running through (or even finishing) the simulation before you have a chance to really see it.
Let’s reduce the game speed by introducing a frames-per-second limitation in the main loop:
const (
...
fps = 2
)
func main() {
...
for !window.ShouldClose() {
t := time.Now()
for x := range cells {
for _, c := range cells[x] {
c.checkState(cells)
}
}
if err := draw(prog, window, cells); err != nil {
panic(err)
}
time.Sleep(time.Second/time.Duration(fps) - time.Since(t))
}
}
At the top we define our fps equal to 2, meaning we will perform 2 game iterations per second. We get a reference to the current time at the beginning of the loop, and at the end we sleep for one second divided by our FPS, minus the time that elapsed during the frame. For instance, at an FPS of 2 this means we want each loop to take 500 milliseconds. So, we divide one second by our FPS 2, giving us 500 milliseconds, but we also subtract the time that was spent processing the frame using time.Since(t) where t is the time we recorded at the beginning.
Now you should be able to see some patterns, albeit very slowly. Increase the FPS to 10 and the size of the grid to 100x100 and you should see some really cool simulations:
const (
...
rows = 100
columns = 100
fps = 10
...
)
Running now you should be able to see something along the lines of this:
Try playing with the constants to see how they impact the simulation - cool right? Your very first OpenGL application with Go!
What’s Next?
This concludes the OpenGL with Go Tutorial, but that doesn’t mean you should stop now. Here’s a few challenges to further improve your OpenGL (and Go) knowledge:
- Give each cell a unique color.
- Allow the user to specify, via command-line arguments, the grid size, frame rate, seed and threshold. You can see this one implemented on GitHub at github.com/KyleBanks/conways-gol.
- Change the shape of the cells into something more interesting, like a hexagon.
- Use color to indicate the cell’s state - for example, make cells green on the first frame that they’re alive, and make them yellow if they’ve been alive more than three frames.
- Automatically close the window if the simulation completes, meaning all cells are dead or no cells have changed state in the last two frames.
- Move the shader source code out into their own files, rather than having them as string constants in the Go source code.
Summary
Hopefully this tutorial has been helpful in gaining a foundation on OpenGL (and maybe even Go)! It was a lot of fun to make so I can only hope it was fun to go through and learn.
As I’ve mentioned, OpenGL can be very intimidating, but it’s really not so bad once you get started. You just want to break down your goals into small, achievable steps, and enjoy each victory because while OpenGL isn’t always as tough as it looks, it can certainly be very unforgiving. One thing that I have found helpful when stuck on OpenGL issues was to understand that the way go-gl is generated means you can always use C code as a reference, which is much more popular in tutorials around the internet. The only difference usually between the C and Go code is that functions in Go are prefixed with gl. instead of gl, and constants are prefixed with gl instead of GL_. This vastly increases the pool of knowledge you have to draw from!
Part 1: Hello, OpenGL | Part 2: Drawing the Game Board | Part 3: Implementing the Game
The full source code of the tutorial is available on GitHub.
Checkpoint
Here’s the final contents of main.go:
package main
import (
"fmt"
"log"
"math/rand"
"runtime"
"strings"
"time"
"github.com/go-gl/gl/v4.1-core/gl" // OR: github.com/go-gl/gl/v2.1/gl
"github.com/go-gl/glfw/v3.2/glfw"
)
const (
width = 500
height = 500
vertexShaderSource = `
#version 410
in vec3 vp;
void main() {
gl_Position = vec4(vp, 1.0);
}
` + "\x00"
fragmentShaderSource = `
#version 410
out vec4 frag_colour;
void main() {
frag_colour = vec4(1, 1, 1, 1.0);
}
` + "\x00"
rows = 100
columns = 100
threshold = 0.15
fps = 10
)
var (
square = []float32{
-0.5, 0.5, 0,
-0.5, -0.5, 0,
0.5, -0.5, 0,
-0.5, 0.5, 0,
0.5, 0.5, 0,
0.5, -0.5, 0,
}
)
type cell struct {
drawable uint32
alive bool
aliveNext bool
x int
y int
}
func main() {
runtime.LockOSThread()
window := initGlfw()
defer glfw.Terminate()
program := initOpenGL()
cells := makeCells()
for !window.ShouldClose() {
t := time.Now()
for x := range cells {
for _, c := range cells[x] {
c.checkState(cells)
}
}
draw(cells, window, program)
time.Sleep(time.Second/time.Duration(fps) - time.Since(t))
}
}
func draw(cells [][]*cell, window *glfw.Window, program uint32) {
gl.Clear(gl.COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | gl.DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT)
gl.UseProgram(program)
for x := range cells {
for _, c := range cells[x] {
c.draw()
}
}
glfw.PollEvents()
window.SwapBuffers()
}
func makeCells() [][]*cell {
rand.Seed(time.Now().UnixNano())
cells := make([][]*cell, rows, rows)
for x := 0; x < rows; x++ {
for y := 0; y < columns; y++ {
c := newCell(x, y)
c.alive = rand.Float64() < threshold
c.aliveNext = c.alive
cells[x] = append(cells[x], c)
}
}
return cells
}
func newCell(x, y int) *cell {
points := make([]float32, len(square), len(square))
copy(points, square)
for i := 0; i < len(points); i++ {
var position float32
var size float32
switch i % 3 {
case 0:
size = 1.0 / float32(columns)
position = float32(x) * size
case 1:
size = 1.0 / float32(rows)
position = float32(y) * size
default:
continue
}
if points[i] < 0 {
points[i] = (position * 2) - 1
} else {
points[i] = ((position + size) * 2) - 1
}
}
return &cell{
drawable: makeVao(points),
x: x,
y: y,
}
}
func (c *cell) draw() {
if !c.alive {
return
}
gl.BindVertexArray(c.drawable)
gl.DrawArrays(gl.TRIANGLES, 0, int32(len(square)/3))
}
// checkState determines the state of the cell for the next tick of the game.
func (c *cell) checkState(cells [][]*cell) {
c.alive = c.aliveNext
c.aliveNext = c.alive
liveCount := c.liveNeighbors(cells)
if c.alive {
// 1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by underpopulation.
if liveCount < 2 {
c.aliveNext = false
}
// 2. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
if liveCount == 2 || liveCount == 3 {
c.aliveNext = true
}
// 3. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overpopulation.
if liveCount > 3 {
c.aliveNext = false
}
} else {
// 4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
if liveCount == 3 {
c.aliveNext = true
}
}
}
// liveNeighbors returns the number of live neighbors for a cell.
func (c *cell) liveNeighbors(cells [][]*cell) int {
var liveCount int
add := func(x, y int) {
// If we're at an edge, check the other side of the board.
if x == len(cells) {
x = 0
} else if x == -1 {
x = len(cells) - 1
}
if y == len(cells[x]) {
y = 0
} else if y == -1 {
y = len(cells[x]) - 1
}
if cells[x][y].alive {
liveCount++
}
}
add(c.x-1, c.y) // To the left
add(c.x+1, c.y) // To the right
add(c.x, c.y+1) // up
add(c.x, c.y-1) // down
add(c.x-1, c.y+1) // top-left
add(c.x+1, c.y+1) // top-right
add(c.x-1, c.y-1) // bottom-left
add(c.x+1, c.y-1) // bottom-right
return liveCount
}
// initGlfw initializes glfw and returns a Window to use.
func initGlfw() *glfw.Window {
if err := glfw.Init(); err != nil {
panic(err)
}
glfw.WindowHint(glfw.Resizable, glfw.False)
glfw.WindowHint(glfw.ContextVersionMajor, 4)
glfw.WindowHint(glfw.ContextVersionMinor, 1)
glfw.WindowHint(glfw.OpenGLProfile, glfw.OpenGLCoreProfile)
glfw.WindowHint(glfw.OpenGLForwardCompatible, glfw.True)
window, err := glfw.CreateWindow(width, height, "Conway's Game of Life", nil, nil)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
window.MakeContextCurrent()
return window
}
// initOpenGL initializes OpenGL and returns an intiialized program.
func initOpenGL() uint32 {
if err := gl.Init(); err != nil {
panic(err)
}
version := gl.GoStr(gl.GetString(gl.VERSION))
log.Println("OpenGL version", version)
vertexShader, err := compileShader(vertexShaderSource, gl.VERTEX_SHADER)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fragmentShader, err := compileShader(fragmentShaderSource, gl.FRAGMENT_SHADER)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
prog := gl.CreateProgram()
gl.AttachShader(prog, vertexShader)
gl.AttachShader(prog, fragmentShader)
gl.LinkProgram(prog)
return prog
}
// makeVao initializes and returns a vertex array from the points provided.
func makeVao(points []float32) uint32 {
var vbo uint32
gl.GenBuffers(1, &vbo)
gl.BindBuffer(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo)
gl.BufferData(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, 4*len(points), gl.Ptr(points), gl.STATIC_DRAW)
var vao uint32
gl.GenVertexArrays(1, &vao)
gl.BindVertexArray(vao)
gl.EnableVertexAttribArray(0)
gl.BindBuffer(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo)
gl.VertexAttribPointer(0, 3, gl.FLOAT, false, 0, nil)
return vao
}
func compileShader(source string, shaderType uint32) (uint32, error) {
shader := gl.CreateShader(shaderType)
csources, free := gl.Strs(source)
gl.ShaderSource(shader, 1, csources, nil)
free()
gl.CompileShader(shader)
var status int32
gl.GetShaderiv(shader, gl.COMPILE_STATUS, &status)
if status == gl.FALSE {
var logLength int32
gl.GetShaderiv(shader, gl.INFO_LOG_LENGTH, &logLength)
log := strings.Repeat("\x00", int(logLength+1))
gl.GetShaderInfoLog(shader, logLength, nil, gl.Str(log))
return 0, fmt.Errorf("failed to compile %v: %v", source, log)
}
return shader, nil
}