Message #1266

From: Andrey <andreyastrelin@yahoo.com>
Subject: [MC4D] Re: Announcing MC4D for Android
Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2010 05:35:32 -0000

Melinda,
I think that I can suggest a couple of things for Android version.
First, it may be better to keep only 90-degrees twists. And select axes of twists by large faces of cubes, not by stickers. That is if you click a corner sticker, axis of rotation will depend on the face of this sticker that you clicked.
Second, 4D dragging is a funny thing, of course, but for the real puzzle it’s enough to give users "recenter" command. I don’t know possible Android commands, but something like double-tap could do the trick (if such thing exists there).
With this two options (and without autorotation!) it may be very possible to solve a puzzle in one session before phone’s battery goes empty :)

Andrey

— In 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com, Melinda Green <melinda@…> wrote:
>
> Andrey,
>
> I’m glad that you got it installed and have been playing with it. There
> are certainly several big usability problems with the first version and
> I intend to address some of them but it is really not meant to be
> anything but a toy to fool with and show off. I would feel somewhat
> horrified if anyone attempted a real solution with it, especially as
> there is no way to save and load log files. I don’t want to encourage
> that and almost didn’t include a "full" scramble option for that reason.
> Still, I would like it to be somewhat useful as a portable practice
> tool. I don’t want to add a control panel or menu modes for this reason.
> The one mode I would love to support is the 4D shift-dragging which is a
> wonderful way to show off the 4D nature of the puzzle and to get at the
> invisible face. I just don’t see a good way to do any of these things.
>
> Note too that there is no control, shift, or other modifier keys
> supported since there is no natural way to do that in Android that I can
> see. I implemented counter-clockwise twists as long taps, so if you hold
> your finger down for more than a quarter second before releasing, it is
> supposed to twist CCW, but obviously that’s difficult to do without
> triggering 3D rotation.
>
> I definitely want to tune the autorotation threshold which I agree is
> too sensitive. It makes me crazy too.
>
> I also need to not perform scrambling twists on the outer face because
> there is no way for the user to deal with them.
>
> I’m considering just turning this into a 2^4 puzzle because it is so
> hard to accurately select from such tiny stickers, even with
> pinch-zooming, and it’s very hard to twist on the central face because
> of this and the difficulty of reaching between the other faces. I would
> appreciate anyone’s opinion on the choice of puzzle because I would be
> sad to not offer the full 3^4 but it may just be too un-fun.
>
> The tablet platform seems like another thing altogether. Large puzzles
> may be usable there, and a large, high resolution plus a multi-touch
> interface may provide a much more direct experience with the puzzle than
> our current desktop applications. When I went back to the desktop app I
> found that I missed that sort of direct, tactile connection with the
> puzzle. I definitely need to think about the possibilities for this
> platform a lot more.
>
> One nice thing is that I have gotten the better part of 1,000 downloads
> in less than 48 hours, so it is generating a good bit of interest. Much
> more so than my other apps so there is certainly some interest out there
> which I hope will lead more people to try the full-featured app and to
> join our nice little community of hyper-puzzlers!
>
> Thanks for testing and for your suggestions,
> -Melinda
>
> On 11/25/2010 1:00 PM, Andrey wrote:
> > Melinda,
> > this way it works, thank you. But is there any way to stop autorotation? When I "click" screen I can make a twist sometimes, but on the everrotating model it is completely random :)
> > BTW, I tried MC4D on Tablet PC. And there were two problems:
> > First, it’s very difficult to make "firm" click with the pen - cursor always moves one or two pixels, and program treats it as the rotation of the model. The same problem I have with the mouse navigation in the desktop mode - most mice are too light to make confident clicks, sometimes I have to make 5 or 6 clicks to perform a single twist. In my programs I count mouse moves between "Down" and "Up" events, and if it is 3 pixels or less, consider this event as "click", otherwise as "drag".
> > Another thing is that I can’t make ctrl-click without keyboard. May be, we should have a mask with "ctrl","shift" and "1,2,…5" checkboxes on the control pane (that should work for next one/all clicks and drags)?
> > Andrey
> >
> >
> > — In 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com, Melinda Green<melinda@> wrote:
> >> Interesting. I bet it does have something to do with your location.
> >> Russia is supposed to be among the countries where it should be
> >> available for both free and paid apps. Maybe it will take longer to show
> >> up there for some reason. For the time being I uploaded it to the MC4D
> >> location here<http://superliminal.com/cube/MC4D.apk>.
> >>
> >> -Melinda
> >>
> >> On 11/25/2010 4:55 AM, Andrey wrote:
> >>> Tried both ways. "Magic Cube" gives 16 results, no "Magic Cube 4D" among them. In "Brain& Puzzle / Just in" looked through top hundred games - no result. May be there are different lists for USA and Russia.
> >>>
> >>> Andrey
> >>>
> >>> — In 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com, Melinda Green<melinda@> wrote:
> >>>> Hm. It works fine for me. You probably need to search from an actual
> >>>> Android phone using the preinstalled "Market" app. Other web-based
> >>>> listings may take a while before pick it up. Another way to find it
> >>>> directly in the Market is to click on "Games", then "Brain& Puzzle",
> >>>> then "Just In" where it is still at the top of the list.
> >>>>
> >>>> -Melinda
> >>>>
> >>>> On 11/24/2010 8:43 PM, Andrey wrote:
> >>>>> "There is no matches in Android Market for the search: Magic Cube 4D" :(
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ————————————
> >>>
> >>> Yahoo! Groups Links
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >
> >
> >
> > ————————————
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> > Yahoo! Groups Links
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> >
> >
>