🌈 RGB Field Cellular Automaton (CA) — Full Design Summary

🌐 Overall Concept

Each pixel/cell holds three fields using RGB values:
- Red (R): Represents energy (diffusive gas-like field).
- Green (G): Represents plant matter (structured life field).
- Blue (B): Represents water (fluid field with flow and pooling behavior).
Fields interact locally only (no global counters, timers, or awareness).
All updates happen in discrete ticks with synchronous state application (calculate, then apply).

Behavior:
- Passively seeks equilibrium: spreads outward from high to low concentration.
- Red cells transfer 1 unit per tick to any neighboring cell with less red.
Interaction with Other Fields:
- Blue field (water) can absorb red energy, acting as a transport medium.
- Green field (plant) consumes red to grow, and may release it back when decaying.
Design Notes:
- Treated like heat or radiation: gas-like diffusion.
- No active intent or influence—just passive equalization.
- Optionally: red diffuses faster than blue or green for elegant flow.

Behavior:
- Gravity-like rule: flows down if possible.
- If blocked below, spreads sideways.
- Pools when surrounded; doesn't pile up.
Interaction with Other Fields:
- Carries some red energy when moving (e.g., absorbs some R, transfers it to neighbor).
- Plants (green) can only grow when enough water is nearby.
Additional Option:
- Blue decays slowly via evaporation if isolated and surrounded by dry space.

Binary state: 1 = plant present, 0 = no plant.
Growth Rule:
- A green pixel may appear if:
  - At least N units of blue (water) and M units of red (energy) are adjacent.
  - It’s adjacent to an existing green cell (or a defined "seed" cell).
Decay Rule:
- If red or blue falls below threshold, the plant:
  - Dies, and is replaced by:
    - Red and Blue returned to the grid (same amounts it cost to grow).
    - Optionally: leaves behind a “soil” state that stabilizes future growth.
Geometric Growth:
- Grows in predictable symmetric patterns (e.g., cross-shaped from node).
- Grows in cardinal directions only (no diagonals unless specified).

Resource Recycling:
- When green dies, it returns red and blue it used back into the environment.
- Nothing is created or destroyed—just converted and relocated.
Stabilization:
- Green fields "lock" water and energy into place, slowing chaos.
- Prevents runaway feedback by capping expansion to available resources.

Synchronous Update (all updates occur after scan of current grid state).
Local only: Each cell can only “see” its immediate neighbors (Moore or Von Neumann).
Tie-breaking rule:
- When multiple cells want to move into the same space (e.g., blue falling):
  - Deterministic (e.g., leftmost first) or randomized per tick.

Use just two channels (e.g., red & blue) to simplify simulation further.
Convert RGB floats to 8-bit integers (0–255) for visual elegance and GPU-compatibility.
Add a decay field (alpha channel or grayscale) for dead matter or environmental scars.