Optimized Snarkmaker

For discussion of specific patterns or specific families of patterns in Conway's Game of Life, both newly-discovered and well-known.
russellsprouts
Posts: 49
Joined: January 28th, 2026, 10:04 am

Re: Optimized Snarkmaker

Post by russellsprouts »

Hippo.69 wrote: September 3rd, 2026, 1:47 pm I have not checked how much cheaper it is ... and how much faster the destroyal is. ...
What is the use case?

If the construction is ended and after a while the SoD is invoked ... than this is definitely helpfull/required (otherwise you should build one glider absorber after all gliders pass by ... what would be troublesome).

...

For the use during the construction I would actually welcome construction including speboe behind the turn ... so when the snark is removed, the construction can continue. ... Of course you can duplicate the speboe before building the snark, but I expect inenvelope version would be much cheaper.
I think you'll always be better off with the original snarkbreaker recipe, if you want to continue construction. It takes 17 gliders to send the reverse glider, then 3 more gliders timed to convert the snark into an elbow block.

In contrast, the chain recipe is +50 gliders from a regular snarkmaker. The reverse glider is the same as in the original snarkbreaker, so you could technically build snark -> chain snark -> chain snark -> snarkbreaker to return to a block. However, it would still be cheaper to do snark -> snark -> snark -> snarkbreaker -> snarkbreaker -> snarkbreaker.

In my case, I need to destroy the snarks after the entire recipe has long passed.

---

The antship will be a loopship that can detect and leave behind tubs to indicate the state of the Langton's ant cells.
  1. Recipe hits a block placed in front of the tub.
  2. Recipe builds snark -> snark -> snark -> simkin gun to line up the simkin gun lane beside the tub.
  3. Conditional recipes detect the tub. If the tub is present, it builds one future elbow block on one side of the input recipe lane, else it builds a future elbow block on the other side. This implements the turning.
  4. Conditional recipes toggle the state of the tub
  5. Snarkbreaker -> snarkbreaker -> snarkbreaker -> destroy elbow
  6. Now, the recipe will hit the block that was placed by the conditional recipes
  7. Snarkmaker (end) -> snarkmaker (chain) -> simkin gun. We now have a construction arm facing left or right.
  8. Build crabstretcher, build signal loop pieces including seeds of destruction
  9. Destroy simkin gun
  10. Snarkmaker (chain) (we now have a chain of snark (end) -> snark (chain) -> snark (chain) which turns around the marker tub and into the next signal loop)
  11. Send the trigger signal for the seeds of destruction (with a long delay)
  12. Destroy elbow block
  13. End of the recipe, Previous signal loop starts outputting the recipe a second time.
  14. Full recipe flows through the snarks into the next signal loop.
  15. After the recipe has finished flowing into the next signal loop, the seeds of destruction finish, including removing the previous loop's snarks using the sod recipes.
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Hippo.69
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Re: Optimized Snarkmaker

Post by Hippo.69 »

For those limited by space where OGGCA will be (I know only about 0e0p...), here are "edgy left emissions" (color/phase ... to cheaper variants for less edgy)

Code: Select all

x = 1425, y = 1435, rule = B3/S23
14bo$14bo$14bo16$2o$obo64bo$bo65bo$67bo$17bo6b2o$16bobo5b2o37b3o3b3o$
16bobo$17bo49bo$34bo32bo$9b2o23b3o30bo$8bobo26bo$9bo26b2o5$25b2o5b2o$
25b2o5b2o46b2o$79bo2bo$29b2o49b2o$24bo4b2o$5b2o16bobo$5b2o16bobo$24bo$
52b2o$40b2obo8b2o$37bobo3bo$37bo11b2o5b2o$37bobo9b2o5b2o$12bo28bobo$6b
2o3bobo$5bo2bo2b2o$6b2o17$61bobo$62b2o$62bo22$81b2o$80b2o$82bo22$105b
2o$104b2o$106bo48$155b2o$155bobo$155bo47$204b2o$204bobo$204bo30$236b2o
$236bobo$236bo63$300b3o$300bo$301bo20$323b2o$323bobo$323bo21$345b3o$
345bo$346bo21$368b3o$368bo$369bo40$411b2o$411bobo$411bo27$441bo$440b2o
$440bobo27$468b3o$468bo$469bo20$491b2o$491bobo$491bo22$515b2o$514b2o$
516bo47$564b2o$564bobo$564bo61$626b3o$626bo$627bo28$656b3o$656bo$657bo
52$710b3o$710bo$711bo20$733b2o$733bobo$733bo22$757b2o$756b2o$758bo45$
803b3o$803bo$804bo20$826b2o$826bobo$826bo39$868bo$867b2o$867bobo44$
912b3o$912bo$913bo21$935b3o$935bo$936bo31$969b2o$969bobo$969bo30$1000b
3o$1000bo$1001bo20$1023b2o$1023bobo$1023bo25$1051bo$1050b2o$1050bobo
33$1086bo$1085b2o$1085bobo50$1136b3o$1136bo$1137bo44$1183b2o$1183bobo$
1183bo22$1207b2o$1207bobo$1207bo21$1230b2o$1230bobo$1230bo35$1267b2o$
1266b2o$1268bo36$1304b3o$1304bo$1305bo23$1329b3o$1329bo$1330bo32$1364b
2o$1363b2o$1365bo27$1392b3o$1392bo$1393bo27$1423bo$1422b2o$1422bobo!
Using these emissions I would be able to do both "biblock" and "blinker loaf" in 0e0p metacell with rather long salvo (not using slow^2 at all) ... phase%2 of OGGCA is fixed by it.
(I have not made special version of pslmake to work with lane restriciton based on signatures ... it would probably save few gliders from current 24 of blinker-loaf).
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