README.md

Conway's Game of Life implementation for Native/Web

This game runs on both the web and native!

Try in your browser

How to Build for Native

1. Install SDL2

• Arch Linux:

  sudo pacman -S sdl2
  

• macOS (Homebrew):

  brew install sdl2
  

• Windows (MSYS2):

  pacman -S mingw-w64-SDL2
  

2. Build and Run

   git clone https://github.com/gifnksm/game-of-life-rs.git
   cd game-of-life-rs
   
   export LIBRARY_PATH=<path_to_sdl2> # optional
   cargo run --release
   

How to Build for the Web

You should read the following post before start building: https://users.rust-lang.org/t/compiling-to-the-web-with-rust-and-emscripten/7627

1. Install Emscripten SDK

   curl -O https://s3.amazonaws.com/mozilla-games/emscripten/releases/emsdk-portable.tar.gz
   tar -xzf emsdk-portable.tar.gz
   source emsdk-portable/emsdk_env.sh
   emsdk update
   emsdk install sdk-incoming-64bit
   emsdk activate sdk-incoming-64bit
   

2. Install Rust Standard Library for asm.js

   rustup target add asmjs-unknown-emscripten --toolchain nightly
   

3. Prepare Emscripten Caches

   # Set envvars for Emscripten toolchains
   source emsdk-portable/emsdk_env.sh
   
   echo "int main(void) { return 0; }" > empty.c
   emcc -s USE_SDL=2 empty.c     # for debug builds
   emcc -s USE_SDL=2 -O3 empty.c # for release builds
   

   Without this step, cargo build may fail.

   I think this is because cargo runs emcc in parallel. emcc does a lazy compile of dependencies (libc, gl, SDL2, ...) the first time you run it. If cargo runs emcc in parallel, each emcc process starts compiling dependencies and seems to write the build artifacts on the same path at the same time. This makes the build broken.

4. Build and Launch Web Server

   git clone https://github.com/gifnksm/game-of-life-rs.git
   cd game-of-life-rs
   
   # asmjs target is available only for nightly so far.
   rustup toolchain add nightly
   rustup override set nightly
   
   # Set envvars for Emscripten toolchains
   source emsdk-portable/emsdk_env.sh
   
   # Build and serve
   make
   make serve
   

5. Access to the Following URL

   http://localhost:8080/