Each of the four shallow depths is given separate treatment with respect to creating the lookup table, initializing the planes, and running the CAM . The rule is still taken from the rule panel, but the connectivity of the planes in the CAM changes with the depth; likewise the preparation of the planes is different.
Thus h loads the table, H the single bitplane for the degenerate case of uniformity through the entire depth. In turn i makes the table, I the two planes, for an automaton whose planes alternate through the depths. A cycle of 3 is governed by j and J, and 4 by k and K.
The special circumstances of evolution have been assigned to the run pair G and g because no swapping of planes is required. Accordingly the evolution will run much more quickly, and also more smoothly because the planes are not shown individually. The merged image is not truly three dimensional.