gol/Readme.org

#+AUTHOR: Logan Hunt

* CS 5030 Final Project
[[./report/report.pdf][Report]]

This is GOL. That's it. 

[[https://youtu.be/N_aUWYNqpeY][A Video Example]]

There are multiple implementations in this project. Each one uses the same code, just modified slightly. Each directory contains a Makefile which will build that implementation. For most, a simple ~cd~ into each directory and ~make~ will do (see build instructions).

Every ~make~ will end you up with a ~gol~ binary. However, each implementation takes a different number of arguments (the Cuda one needs to be run in a slightly different fashion).

** Compiling binary output to a video
Every implementation produces file I/O exactly the same. When logging is turned on, each iteration in the output directory is labelled ~iteration-XXXXXXX.bin~ where iteration number is padded by 7 zeros. 

There is a script in ~graphics~ that converts a raw ~unsigned char~ data binary into a .bmp where a zero is black and (with some help from [[https://stackoverflow.com/a/47785639/15819675][this Stack Overflow post]]). This program is utilized by ~make-movie.sh~ to convert every .bin in a directory to a .bmp. Then, these .bmps can be compiled into a video file with the arguments that are described in ~make-movie.sh~ (just provide none and a usage string will be ~echo~ed).

For example to make a movie of the outputs generated in ~cuda-global/output~ where each binary file is a grid of size 1920x1080 (at 8fps to a file named output-1920.mp4):

~cd graphics~

~make~

(On CHPC you will need to ~module load ffmpeg~)

~./make-movie.sh ../cuda-global/output 1920 1080 8 output-1920~

** Building
*** MPI
Firstly, ~module load gcc mpich~. Then ~cd~ into ~mpi~ and ~make~.

Then, you can run with 

~mpirun -np <cores> ./gol simulate <filename | random> <width> <height> <iterations> <log-each-step?1:0>~

*** Cuda
Firstly, ~cd~ into ~cuda-global~ and ~make~.

Then start an interactive gpu session on notchpeak:

~salloc -n 1 -N 1 -t 0:10:00 -p notchpeak-shared-short -A notchpeak-shared-short --gres=gpu:k80:1~

This implementation takes these arguments:

~srun ./gol simulate <filename | random> <width> <height> <iterations> <log-each-step?1:0>~

For example to do 1000 iterations at 1920x1080 with a random starting position (the last ~1~ will log each iteration into the ~output~ directory) with a block size of 32:

~srun ./gol simulate random 1920 1080 1000 1 32~

*** OpenMP
Firstly, ~cd~ into ~openmp~ and ~make~.

This implementation takes these arguments:

~./gol simulate <filename | random> <width> <height> <iterations> <log-each-step?1:0> <num_threads>~

For example to do 100 iterations with 8 threads at 800x600 with a random starting position (and log each iteration into the ~output~ directory):

~./gol simulate random 800 600 100 1 8~

*** Serial
The most basic of the three implementations.

Firstly, ~cd~ into ~serial~ and ~make~.

This implementation takes these arguments:

~./gol simulate <filename | random> <width> <height> <iterations> <log-each-step?1:0>~

For example to do 10 iterations with 8 threads at 400x400 with a random starting position (and log to ~output~):

~./gol simulate random 400 400 10 1~


** Creating an initial starting grid
Each ~gol~ binary also has a ~create-grid~ mode, mainly used for debugging:

~./gol create-grid <width> <height> <filename>~

You'll be prompted to enter in grid values (0/1) for each row, each seperated by a space.

For example to make a 10x10 grid and output it to ~output/testing.bin~:

~./gol create-grid 10 10 output/testing.bin~

And then this file can be used in the ~filename~ argument when using ~simulate~.