The-Powder-Toy vs alien

The-Powder-Toy

Written in C++ and using SDL, The Powder Toy is a desktop version of the classic 'falling sand' physics sandbox, it simulates air pressure and velocity as well as heat. (by The-Powder-Toy)

Source Code

powdertoy.co.uk

Suggest alternative

Edit details

alien

ALIEN is a CUDA-powered artificial life simulation program. (by chrxh)

artificial-life open-ended-evolution agent-based-simulation Physics Engine Cuda

Source Code

alien-project.org

Suggest alternative

Edit details

Our great sponsors

InfluxDB - Power Real-Time Data Analytics at Scale

WorkOS - The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS

SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews

Our great sponsors

The-Powder-Toy		alien
	Project
69	Mentions	56
4,324	Stars	3,269
2.0%	Growth	-
9.5	Activity	9.8
5 days ago	Latest Commit	6 days ago
C++	Language	C++
GNU General Public License v3.0 only	License	BSD 3-clause "New" or "Revised" License

The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

The-Powder-Toy

Posts with mentions or reviews of The-Powder-Toy. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-04-10.

Lessons from Open-Source Game Projects
76 projects | dev.to | 10 Apr 2024

The Power Toy - Physics Sandbox. C++, SDL2
The-Powder-Toy VS Sandboxels - a user suggested alternative
2 projects | 1 Feb 2024
Orb Farm
1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 19 May 2023

I love these kinds of sandbox games, Orb Farm was super nice to have it running directly in the browser for a little procrastination break. Although my favorite is probably The Powder Toy [0], I've been following this project for years.
[0] https://powdertoy.co.uk/
tell me 3 things about you and i give nickname
1 project | /r/EliteEden | 24 Apr 2023

I play The Powder Toy https://powdertoy.co.uk/
What games can I play on my work computer with no wifi?
2 projects | /r/gamingsuggestions | 22 Apr 2023

Dwarf Fortress N Cave Story Powder Toy Knytt Stories
Ever heard of The Powder Toy?
1 project | /r/EliteEden | 3 Apr 2023
GAMES I SHOULD RECORD?
1 project | /r/tommyinnit | 31 Mar 2023
[TOMT][GAME][????] Sandbox browser game
2 projects | /r/tipofmytongue | 15 Mar 2023
Is this the official powder toy page?
1 project | /r/PowderToy | 1 Mar 2023

yes, if you look in the sidebar on Reddit you can see a link pointing you to powdertoy.co.uk
Finding Sandbox Games
1 project | /r/AndroidGaming | 23 Feb 2023

Powder Toy is not only my favorite but available on Android

alien

Posts with mentions or reviews of alien. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2023-12-04.

Show HN: Demo of Agent Based Model on GPU with CUDA and OpenGL (Windows/Linux)
5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 4 Dec 2023
Alien v4.0 (Simulation)
2 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 1 Sep 2023

Just discovered this artificial life simulation tool and it looks so beautiful.
It's also Open Source: https://github.com/chrxh/alien
Real-time AL simulation of self-replicating organisms performed on a GPU (github link in comment)
1 project | /r/GraphicsProgramming | 25 Jun 2023

The project is open-source and can be found here: https://github.com/chrxh/alien
My tiny little spiders can now self-replicate. Terrifying and beautiful...
1 project | /r/Simulated | 15 Jun 2023

Source code and installer of the simulator: https://github.com/chrxh/alien
Evolving creatures in a world with barriers
1 project | /r/generative | 11 Jun 2023
Are there any cool cellular automata I can play around with?
1 project | /r/cellular_automata | 5 Jun 2023

artificial life environment (alien-project.org) is worth checking out
Beta of version 4.0
1 project | /r/AlienProject | 9 May 2023

the latest beta of ALIEN version 4.0 can be downloaded (or compiled) from https://github.com/chrxh/alien. It contains the following major changes:
Alien – Explore worlds of artificial life
1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 6 May 2023
How to proceed with 2d graphics?
2 projects | /r/GraphicsProgramming | 12 Apr 2023

I am not completely against the idea of getting into 3d graphics but maybe after I finish making some stuff I am interested in. For reference when I say 2d graphics I mean something which would look like this.
Latest alpha of version 4 (download link in the description)
1 project | /r/AlienProject | 4 Mar 2023

Here you find a Windows build of the version4 branch: https://alien-project.org/files/alien-v4-alpha6.zip (based on https://github.com/chrxh/alien/tree/version4).

What are some alternatives?

When comparing The-Powder-Toy and alien you can also consider the following projects:

sandspiel - Creative cellular automata browser game

VulkanAutomata - Cellular Automata GPU Renderer using the Vulkan API

OpenLoco - An open source re-implementation of Chris Sawyer's Locomotion

agentpy - AgentPy is an open-source framework for the development and analysis of agent-based models in Python.

FallingSand

Rythe-Engine - Rythe is a data-oriented C++17 game engine built to make optimal use of modern hardware.

r216-forth - A Forth implementation for the R216K8B Powder Toy computer.

webots - Webots Robot Simulator

cellular - A simple command-line tool that generates gif images and animations from elementary cellular automata

seagull - A Python Library for Conway's Game of Life

xolotl - A MATLAB neuron simulator. Very fast (written in C++). Flexible (fully object oriented). Immediate (live manipulation in MATLAB). Comes with a powerful parameter optimizer. Get started ➡️

Simbody - High-performance C++ multibody dynamics/physics library for simulating articulated biomechanical and mechanical systems like vehicles, robots, and the human skeleton.