I downloaded this file (listed on the Google Docs page as the .gz file, no choice available) and what I find in my download folder (on my recent iMac) is a file with an .mc extension, which my computer claims not to know how to open. (Nor do I.)
Any suggestions? Thanks,
It's a Golly pattern file in macrocell format. Get Golly here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/golly/files/golly/golly-2.4/
Unzip "mandelbrot3.gz" and call the result "mandelbrot3.mc". Drag this file onto Golly. It will take 10 to 20 seconds to open.
Golly can open compressed .mc.gz files directly.
It is a monochrome image of the Mandelbrot set, about 260,000 pixels wide and 220,000 pixels high.
Click the mouse in the image to zoom in 2x. Shift-click to zoom out 2x. Use the "View > Fit Pattern" command (command-F or alt-F) if you get lost.
If you're really patient, hit the spacebar (or tab or Return or command-R or...), and it will try to perform Conway's Game of Life on the pattern... all 10 billion cells.
I think this is meant more as a proof of concept of the ability of macrocell compression, rather than a useful way to do the Mandelbrot set.
Indeed. It demonstrates that macrocell compression applies even to very chaotic and irregular patterns.
I'm super-hyper-patient and have an 8-core workstation with 26 GB of memory. I am trying to switch the algorithm to HashLife... we'll see if that works.
The algorithm ('RuleTable') is already multi-state HashLife, so it can compute GoL on the initial pattern efficiently. It takes about a minute (at which point the Mandelbrot set becomes 'hollow'), after which we can switch to QuickLife and run it at about one generation per second. Sincerely, Adam P. Goucher