Sand Simulator

A very simple (and very inefficient) cellular automata for basic particle types. Made for my own enjoyment, simulates sand/water/fire/stone/wood.

Warning

Currently, most functionality is broken as I've started rewriting most of the logic. Unfortunately I didn't know about branches at the time and as a result, the main branch has suffered. Sand and Stone logic work, and water is currently a more brightly colored stone.

Dependencies

This project uses SDL2 for window creation and rendering.

Installing SDL2

Windows

Note

This project is set to link statically on Windows, so if you download the zip from SDL, make sure to change the linker flag. Otherwise, build SDL2 from source to get the static libraries.

Use the link to SDL2's webpage, and navigate to the Downloads/Releases tab. SDL recently released SDL3, and I'm not sure on the backwards compatibility with SDL2, so it's safest to just fetch the SDL2 zip.

Alternatively, you may build it yourself if you want static libraries.

1. Navigate to SDL on github
2. Run the commands below

git clone https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL
cd SDL
git checkout SDL2
cd ..
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../SDL
cmake --build .

This should build the static and dynamic versions of SDL in the build directory. Consult SDL's github page if any issues are encountered, or submit and issue.

Also be sure to adjust the CMakeLists.txt based on the path of your libraries/header files.

Linux

Note

This project is set to dynamically link on Linux, so the easiest (and recommended) approach is just to get the SDL2 library from your package manager

Arch

sudo pacman -S sdl2

Void

sudo xbps-install -S SDL2-devel

Debian

sudo apt install libsdl2-dev

Building

Once you have the dependencies, simply run the following commands:

cmake . -B build
cd build
make

There are currently no options for a release build, but you're free to build in release mode.

Usage

• Number keys 1-3 change between Sand/Water/Stone
• Left click places whatever brush type you have selected
• Right click erases a small area around the cursor
• Space resets the simulation
• Escape closes the simulation

Warning

Currently there is a bug where sand that drips out of the left side of the screen will cause a crash. This is due to an array-access error and is being worked on.