3D Cellular Automaton — Layer-Slice Grid (2D)

Automaton Rule

Survive min neighbors 4

Survive max neighbors 5

Birth neighbors 5

Generation speed 1.0x

Focus layer (Z) 7

Ready — running generation 0.

Live Statistics

Generation

Alive cells

–

Focus layer alive

–

Fullest layer

–

How it works

This is the same 14×14×14 voxel cellular automaton as the 3D version — every cell has up to 26 neighbors (a 3×3×3 Moore neighborhood minus itself), and each generation a cell survives, dies or is born purely from its live-neighbor count:

alive cell:  survives if  SURVIVE_MIN ≤ n ≤ SURVIVE_MAX
dead cell:   born     if  n == BIRTH
default rule: survive on {4,5}, birth on {5}  ("5766"-family 3D Life)

Instead of rotating a 3D scene, this 2D companion slices the cube into its 14 horizontal Z-layers and draws every layer as its own small grid, tiled left-to-right, top-to-bottom — a real cross-section reader's view of a volumetric automaton, the way a CT scan reads a body one slice at a time. The highlighted panel tracks the "Focus layer" slider and is redrawn full-size on top so you can watch one depth evolve in detail while the mosaic shows the whole cube's structure at a glance.

Survive min/max — an alive cell needs a neighbor count in this range to survive to the next generation.
Birth — a dead cell with exactly this many live neighbors is born.
Focus layer — which Z-slice (0=bottom, 13=top) is drawn enlarged.
New random seed — reseeds a random cluster near the cube's center.

If the grid dies out or fills past half its volume, it reseeds automatically — the same self-correcting behavior as the 3D version, so the mosaic never sits empty or solid for long.

Alive voxel Focus layer outline