README.md

Particle Life Simulation

An engaging implementation of the Particle Life simulation using C++, SDL2, and Dear ImGui. Watch as particles interact and form complex patterns based on simple rules!

Screenshot

Demo Video

particle.mp4

Prerequisites

Before you begin, a quick disclaimer: I was unable to run it in Windows platform. This codebase has no platform dependent code so it should've worked but due to my lack of knowledge on Windows I gave up trying to make it work after 6 hours of failure and I hadn't had the luxury of trying it out in a Mac. But it is confirmed and tested to work on many different linux distros and devices.

Anyway, ensure you have the following installed:

• C++ compiler (GCC, Clang, or MSVC)
• CMake (version 3.10 or higher)
• SDL2 library (Optional SDL2 is included, confirmed working on Linux only. Should work with other OS too)
• Git (For cloning the repository)

Building the Project

Before building make sure you have the prerequisites downloaded.

Clone the repository:

If you have SDL2 installed in your system you can drop the --recursive flag.

git clone --recursive https://github.com/AnkushRoy-code/Particle.git

If you accidentally clone the repo without using --recursive, or you downloaded the repo using the GUI you can do this to fetch the depencency(SDL2) if you don't have them in your system:

git submodule update --init --recursive

and then

cd Particle

Create a build directory and navigate to it:

mkdir build && cd build

Generate the build files:

If you have installed SDL2 in your system you can add -DParticleVendored=OFF flag to the command to save a ton of your time. Else you can just do this:

cmake ..

Build the project:

make

And hope you don't get any errors.

Running the Simulation

After building, you can run the simulation:

On macOS/Linux:

./particle

Usage

For detailed usage instructions, refer to the Usage Guide.