2D Cellular Automaton on a Triangulated Surface

In general, every element triangle of a triangulated 3D surface has exactly three neighbors, with the exception of the elements on the edges, with only one or two neighbors. In a topological sense this is equivalent to the notion of a "regular grid", although triangulation does not look regular at all. Because of this neighborhood condition, cellular automata (CA) seem to be particularly suited for such environment. Since the process of mapping and running a triangular CA on a mesh is expensive, the data for this Demonstration was limited to two rules and cached, so that it runs smoothly.

This Demonstration is based on a project done at NKS Summer School 2009 in Pisa, Italy.