ESP32 Conway's Game of Life in Rust

Implementation of Conway's Game of Life Rust Bare Metal.

Supported boards

ESP32-S3-BOX-3 Minimal Implementation

• https://github.com/espressif/esp-box

The implementation is based on Rust no_std, using mipidsi crate.

cd esp32-s3-box-3-minimal
cargo run --release

Waveshare ESP32-C6-LCD 1.47

Rust Bare Metal no_std with Bevy ECS no_std on 1.47 inch ESP32-C6 LCD Waheshare with DMA and framebuffer - Conway's Game of Life:

2025-03-bevy-no_std.mp4

The implementation is based on Rust no_std and Bevy 0.16 no_std, plus mipidsi crate.

cd waveshare-esp32-c6-lcd-1_28
cargo run --release

Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD 1.28

Rust Bare Metal no_std with Bevy ECS no_std on Waheshare ESP32-S3 LCD Touch 1.28 inch with DMA and framebuffer:

The implementation is based on Rust no_std and Bevy 0.16 no_std, plus mipidsi crate.

cd waveshare-esp32-s3-touch-lcd-1_28
cargo run --release

M5Stack Atom-S3

• https://docs.m5stack.com/en/core/AtomS3

Controls: Press button under display to reset the game state (GPIO 41).

The implementation is based on Rust no_std, using mipidsi crate and Bevy ECS. It requires es-rs toolchain for ESP32-S3 version at least 1.85, because of edition 2024.

Installation of the toolchain:

cargo install espup
espup install --toolchain-version 1.85.0.0
source ~/export-esp.sh

Build:

cd m5stack-atom-s3
cargo run --release

M5Stack CoreS3

• https://shop.m5stack.com/products/m5stack-cores3-esp32s3-lotdevelopment-kit

Controls: Press the button under display to reset the game state.

Note: Press Boot button and reset to enter download mode.

The implementation is based on Rust no_std, using mipidsi crate and Bevy ECS.

Installation of the toolchain:

espup install --toolchain-version 1.85.0.0
source ~/export-esp.sh

Build:

cd m5stack-cores3
cargo run --release

ESP32-S3-BOX-3

• https://github.com/espressif/esp-box

The implementation is based on Rust no_std, using mipidsi crate and Bevy ECS. It requires es-rs toolchain for ESP32-S3 version at least 1.85, because of edition 2024.

Installation of the toolchain:

cargo install espup
espup install --toolchain-version 1.85.0.0
source ~/export-esp.sh

Build:

cd esp32-s3-box-3
cargo run --release

ESP32-S3-LCD-Ev-Board

ESP32-S3-LCD-Ev-Board is more complex when it comes to the display. Initialization sequence for the display is:

• initialize I2C
• tunnel SPI commands via I2C bus
• configure 16 GPIOs to transfer data
• all data must be transferred in one transaction (requires PSRAM)

The timing of the display must be precise, otherwise incorrect data will be displayed.

Working configuration of timing:

    // Configure the RGB display
    let config = Config::default()
        .with_clock_mode(ClockMode {
            polarity: Polarity::IdleLow,
            phase: Phase::ShiftLow,
        })
        .with_frequency(Rate::from_mhz(10))
        .with_format(Format {
            enable_2byte_mode: true,
            ..Default::default()
        })
        .with_timing(FrameTiming {
            // active region
            horizontal_active_width: 480,
            vertical_active_height: 480,
            // extend total timings for larger porch intervals
            horizontal_total_width: 600, // allow long back/front porch
            horizontal_blank_front_porch: 80,
            vertical_total_height: 600,  // allow longer vertical blank
            vertical_blank_front_porch: 80,
            // maintain sync widths
            hsync_width: 10,
            vsync_width: 4,
            // place HSYNC pulse well before active data
            hsync_position: 10,
        })
        .with_vsync_idle_level(Level::High)
        .with_hsync_idle_level(Level::High)
        .with_de_idle_level(Level::Low)
        .with_disable_black_region(false);

This is only bare metal implementation, does not contain Bevy ECS in this version.

cargo install espup
espup install --toolchain-version 1.85.0.0
source ~/export-esp.sh

Build:

cd esp32-s3-lcd-ev-board
cargo run --release

ESP32-C3-LCDKit

Controls: Press button rotary button to reset the game state (GPIO 9).

cd esp32-c3-lcdkit
cargo run --release

ESoPe SLD_C_W_S3

Board: SDL_C_W_S3 Display: RGB Schukat Smartwin display-concept

The implementation is based on Embassy Async Rust no_std with RGB interface. Both cores of ESP32-S3 are used. One core is handling DMA transfers to the display, while the other core is running the game logic.

RGB displays are very time-sensitive, so the timing of the display must be precise, that's also why one core is dedicated to the display.

The display configuration is stored in EEPROM for this specific display type.

Run:

esope-sld-c-w-s3
cargo r -r

The board requires connection using ESP-Prog. You need to switch the board into boot mode. Press and hold the BOOT button, then press the RESET button, then release the BOOT button. Press the RESET button again to start the program.

WASM

This is experimental implementation for WASM.

cd wasm
wasm-pack build --target web
wasm-bindgen --target web --out-dir pkg target/wasm32-unknown-unknown/release/conways_wasm.wasm
python3 -m http.server

ESP32-WROVER-KIT

This board is no longer in production, yet it's still used by many developers.

The implementation is based on Rust no_std, using mipidsi crate and Bevy ECS. It requires es-rs toolchain for ESP32-S3 version at least 1.85, because of edition 2024.

Installation of the toolchain:

cargo install espup
espup install --toolchain-version 1.85.0.0
source ~/export-esp.sh

Build:

cd esp32-wrover-kit
cargo run --release