High-Res Neural Cellular Automata
AI
neural cellular automata
SHOW HN2026
How HN took it
11 positive, 16 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 2 critical, out of 29 comments about the project. Thread score +0.34.
Idea: 7 for, 0 againstExecution: 3 for, 1 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
Objections
Drawing over the pattern can destroy it; regeneration is brittle
From 2 comments
The automata just completely destroys the image if I draw too much over the stabilized image with the brush. 5 horizontal swipes are enough to destroy the kitty, is that to be…
whilenot-dev on HNThe NeuralCA both generates and maintains the pattern. Because the NCA was not exposed to damage or erasure during training, its regeneration capability is a purely emergent…
esychology on HN
Requests
Allow stamping new images onto existing canvas without reset
From 1 comment
Really interesting demo, nicely done :) Would be fun if switching the "Target Image" when using the second brush mode in the Growing Demo didn't erase/reset the existing canvas,…
embedding-shape on HN
Two seeds competing for space in the grid
From 1 comment
I would love to see two seeds competing for space in the grid
mackenney on HN
Questions
How the neural network inputs and per-image training work
From 3 comments
What are the inputs to the NN? The whole grid, or just nearby cells? What happens if two NNs overlap on the same grid? (Gonna go read the paper).
flir on HNIs each image a NN or is it one NN for all the images?
0xdeadbeefbabe on HN> The input to the NN is just the 3x3 neighborhood around a cell. Well that sounds like black magic. Nice. Thanks for the reply.
flir on HN
Why images are always generated upright
From 1 comment
Why are the images always generated in the same orientation (upright)? Do the cells have awareness of what is "up"?
amelius on HN
Alternatives named
Original Growing Neural Cellular Automata work (distill.pub)
From 1 comment
I found your previous work here: https://distill.pub/2020/growing-ca/ For someone (like me) who wants to understand the basics its probably better. It's very well written.
bjourne on HN