F#, 496
I could reduce this a lot, but I like this as it's still in the ballpark and pretty readable.
open System.IO
let mutable a:_[,]=null
let N y x=
[-1,-1;-1,0;-1,1;0,-1;0,1;1,-1;1,0;1,1]
|>Seq.sumBy(fun(i,j)->try if a.[y+i,x+j]='X' then 1 else 0 with _->0)
[<EntryPoint>]
let M(r)=
let b=File.ReadAllLines(r.[0])
a<-Array2D.init 40 80(fun y x->b.[y].[x])
for i=1 to int r.[1] do
a<-Array2D.init 40 80(fun y x->
match N y x with|3->'X'|2 when a.[y,x]='X'->'X'|_->'.')
File.WriteAllLines("out.txt",Array.init 40(fun y->
System.String(Array.init 80(fun x->a.[y,x]))))
0
EDIT
428
By request, here's my next stab:
open System
let mutable a,k=null,Array2D.init 40 80
[<EntryPoint>]
let M r=
a<-k(fun y x->IO.File.ReadAllLines(r.[0]).[y].[x])
for i=1 to int r.[1] do a<-k(fun y x->match Seq.sumBy(fun(i,j)->try if a.[y+i,x+j]='X'then 1 else 0 with _->0)[-1,-1;-1,0;-1,1;0,-1;0,1;1,-1;1,0;1,1]with|3->'X'|2 when a.[y,x]='X'->'X'|_->'.')
IO.File.WriteAllLines("out.txt",Array.init 40(fun y->String(Array.init 80(fun x->a.[y,x]))))
0
That's a 14% reduction with some basic golfing. I can't help but feel that I'm losing by using a 2D-array/array-of-strings rather than a 1D array, but don't feel like doing that transform now. Note how I elegantly read the file 3200 times to initialize my array :)
