Message #966

From: matthewsheerin <damienturtle@hotmail.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] MC7D v1.10 released
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:07:56 -0000

I like the sound of not having to click reference stickers, that’s been a bit of a pain really. Especially given that it seems to require quite a few stickers to define a position (6 is the fewest I could find easily). I preferred the MC5D system where I just had to select the macro and if it was backwards or forwards, so a similar system here should be great. I don’t think speed to change between 2-click and 3-click is much of a problem personally, but maybe that’s just me. I mainly use 3-click but every so often 2-click is much better, but not often. I would also like to second a request made a few days ago, can’t remember who made it, about highlighting pieces. I also like to make twists when I have a certain piece highlighted, and it is a little cumbersome to reset the search after every move or two in order to see the piece again. Since I know a fairly quick workaround it isn’t a huge problem, but it can still be annoying. Nice work on these updates though, I will be trying them out soon.

Matt

— In 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com, "Andrey" <andreyastrelin@…> wrote:
>
> Well, "Auto Reference" may be a name for this mode. I’m not sure that I can catch "ctrl" or "shift" in the click to the context menu, but I’ll see what can be done here.
> Autoreference in MC4D is more tricky. Your camera position/orientation is defined by four 4D vectors, right? So you need to get full group of symmetries of the object (it may be done once), compute an orbit of camera positions, "congruent" to the position at the moment of macro definition, and then find an element of that orbit that is closest to the current camera position. And then find stickers correspondence - but you already do it when match sets of reference stickers.
> Keyboard modifier may be more useful in switch between 2click and 3click modes. Now I work in 3click, but sometimes see that 2click could be more efficient in some situations… But it’s faster to make extra click than switch modes. May be Alt-click (first click in alternative mode) will be a good idea.
>
> — In 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com, Melinda Green <melinda@> wrote:
> >
> > Wow, that second feature sounds like it’d be really useful to add to
> > MC4D as well! It’d be great if someone wanted to implement that. I’d
> > suggest naming your new feature something else because MC4D has a
> > similarly named feature which causes each of the macro twists to be
> > performed in a single animation frame. I.E. "Quick Moves" but just for
> > macro application.
> >
> > Another suggestion: Consider allowing a keyboard modifier to toggle the
> > macro apply to prompt if the new mode is selected and to not prompt if
> > it is. That will make it so that users will not need to switch modes as
> > often. (Modes are the most difficult things for users to learn about
> > user interfaces.) I recommend using the "Shift" key as the modifier
> > though "Ctrl" may work just as well.
> >
> > Great stuff, Andrey!
> > -Melinda
> >
> > Andrey wrote:
> > > Hello all,
> > > In "Files/MC7D" you can find the next version of the program. There is a couple of improvements:
> > > 1) Click mode "2 Click (opposite)" added - you make first click not in the rotating face, but in face that defines "from" direction (i.e. on the opposite side of 2C piece")
> > > 2) In the bottom of right panel you can see checkbox "Quick Macro Apply". If you check it, then macros will be performed without asking of reference stickers - program will find the best match for the current orientation of the camera with its orientation in the moment of macro recording start. Central face, main/secondary dimensions and their collinearity are invariants for the match (that is if you have recorded macro that did something with central face, you cannot apply it to the bottom face on the screen just by looking at it - you need to switch the center of the model). This function will work only for macros recording in the new version - old macros will continue to ask you about reference stickers. Function was not tested in 5D and 6D, so there may be some strange behavior. But in 7D it works fine :)
> >
>