Message #605

From: Roice Nelson <roice3@gmail.com>
Subject: Fwd: [MC4D] Re: Magic 120 Cell Solve
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:45:44 -0600

Well, this is my third attempt to get this post through. I wrote yahoo last
night and they responded that they recently upgraded their spam filters and
my posts are getting marked as spam. I guess having links in your messages
increases your spam-probability. Why they don’t have members of the group
white listed I can’t surmise…

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Roice Nelson <roice3@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 10:47 PM
Subject: Re: [MC4D] Re: Magic 120 Cell Solve
To: 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com

With respect to playback, you can watch it in reverse the same way as in
MC4D, that is load the log file, undo a single move, then select solve from
the options menu. I need to support a "redo" playback as well. Your calc
was quite accurate, because I played it back the other night (both to see
the solution approach and to test the puzzle state engine with a full
solve), and it took 40 minutes on my computer! Nope, I didn’t actually
watch every second :) This was with the rotation speed maxed out, which
turns the program into disco ball mode (only a single frame drawn per
twist). I’m betting it is rendering limited, but my computer is slow in any
case and many of you could likely get a quicker playback.
I like Melinda’s idea to not render macro details as a way to compress
playback. It’s not just the log files for Magic120Cell though - we’d need
to implement macros first (the fact they don’t exist makes Noel’s solution
all the more remarkable!).
I like the youtube video idea as well, and may do a little hacking this week
to skip frames for a compressed-solution youtube video. I’ll send a link if
successful.

All the best,
Roice

On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 9:09 PM, Melinda Green melinda wrote:

> One tiny correction: I think I invented the piece finding design though
> it was Roice who implemented it.
>
> I’m a little torn about supporting larger cubes in MC4D but if people
> want it, I see no reason not to support it. That is assuming the
> original memory explosion that happened when I initially tried that
> doesn’t present a problem. Perhaps more importantly, I don’t want to
> keep records related to larger cubes, so if people are OK with that,
> I’ll see what I can do the next time I work on it. That might not be for
> a while as I tend to work on it between contracts/jobs, and right now
> I’m happily employed working on Second Life. I would like to take a
> break from that soon but things are going well there so I have no idea
> when that will likely be. I definitely agree that a cubie-finder would
> be extremely helpful when working on those big boys!
>
> So you solved the 120 cell from the inside-out? Regardless, does the
> program support a playback mode? In MC4D you can adjust the speed while
> doing a "cheat" solve to play the solution backwards. I should really
> allow for the equivalent "redo" playback to play it forward. Also, a
> screensaver mode that plays forward in an endless loop would be fun too.
> The loop should pause in the pristine state and do a bunch of pure
> rotations before starting off again. If at all possible, I encourage you
> to create a time-lapse video of your solution and post it on Youtube.
> OTOH, I just did a back-of-the-envelop calculation which suggests that
> even at movie speeds and one frame per twist, it could still take over
> 20 minutes to play! Either you’d need a higher frame rate or have to
> skip several moves per frame to squeeze it into a reasonable time. Too
> bad Roice’s log format doesn’t mark macro begins and ends, otherwise a
> video or playback mode could skip over the macro details. Oh well, too
> many fun things to do!
>
> -melinda
>
>
> Noel wrote:
> > Hello All,
> >
> > Thank you for the congratulations! To answer your question Melinda,
> > yes it was a lot of fun and I might do it again sometime if I think of
> > a faster method! ;)
> >
> > As for your question Roice, the way I solved this thing is entirly
> > similar to how I solve the 4D cubes. It seemed like a good starting
> > point sice I solve a 3D Megaminx similarly to how I solve a 3D Rubik’s
> > cube.
> >
> > Now that this project is done (it only took me about a week btw :) ),
> > I would really like to go back to the 4D cubes but I admit, using the
> > special features that Roice included in the program
> > makes the puzzle experience much more enjoyable, not to mention
> > faster. Could we please have these kinds of features in the 4D
> > cubes??? Please?? I think everyone would love the piece finder that
> > Roice invented and the piece highlighting would be very useful for the
> > larger cubes.
> >
> > On another note, I know I’m not the only one that has got their hands
> > on the new V-cubes. I think that we know we can solve the 3D 6x6 and
> > 7x7 it would be cool to give the 4D versions a shot. Maybe after those
> > I’ll tackle the 5D versions. :DRecent Activity
>
> .
>
>
>