6 ms·

Show HN: Visualize Graph Theory

147 points by maxraz 6y ago

tlarkworthy 6y ago
I feel like most of these graphs seem to be the same graph just with a different initial conditions?
- pricecomstock 6y ago
  Here's a Numberphile video that talks about embedding graphs. I think this happens because the subset of graphs that are able to be embedded in a plane is actually fairly limited. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBkTIp6ajAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBkTIp6ajAg
hyperpape 6y ago
Fun challenge, but the draggable area for the graphs is small, and it's not obvious where the boundaries are. I kept going past that boundary then realizing I can't set a vertex down.
whiddershins 6y ago
That’s fantastic.
vishnuharidas 6y ago
Liked it, except the limited boundary and the irritating animated background. Staring at the screen for a minute makes me dizzy
- stevewodil 6y ago
  Nobody tell them about hyperspeed (click and hold on the background) ;)
someperson 6y ago
Very cool. Increase the drag boundary box immediately.
jiveturkey 6y ago
went through the first ten in under 2 minutes. got bored. by the second one, it's easy to see how to find the solution pretty much immediately.
ThePhysicist 6y ago
Nice game, but the moving background somehow makes me quite nauseous.
dooglius 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarity_testing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarity_testing
Someone 6y ago
That’s also one of the puzzles in Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection (https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/)
- crdrost 6y ago
  Yeah, I was going to say, I've played a lot of this because I ran Kubuntu on my laptop for several years and Simon Tatham’s games are sort of our win-98-minesweeper.
  - gmfawcett 6y ago
    Simon Tatham's puzzles are also available as mobile apps -- ad-free, and highly recommended -- and can also be played via the Web. The Signpost puzzle is my personal favourite. :) https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/
kroltan 6y ago
Similar game, but PGC: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/js/untangle.html https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/js/unta...
tosser0001 6y ago
I like this, but I swear there was a Flash version of something very similar that went viral about 15 years ago.
- klyrs 6y ago
  "planarity" The game is cool, but I think the title is overly general. It contaons a graph visualizer, which doesn't show much in the way of theory; and it's a railroad, not a playground.
  - jwilber 6y ago
    No- he outright plagiarized this. Even the code: http://pulzed.com/ http://pulzed.com/
    - klyrs 6y ago
      Yeah, I saw that in another comment and flagged the posting.
Kapura 6y ago
the moving backgrounds are gonna give people issues. i also had trouble reading the text on the backgrounds; consider changing the font colour to something that has significantly a different value (as in, Hue-Saturation-Value) from the background. also as somebody has pointed out, the drag box felt tiny.
- gerdesj 6y ago
  Click and hold on the background. Now you've got issues! Also click on bonus area and then perturb the things.
sanitycheck 6y ago
I like, but: Boundary, background, no "you've finished" (it just stops advancing). Also, I have not had a productive day.
qppo 6y ago
Feels a bit like untangling rope, which makes sense
TACIXAT 6y ago
I am not sure I learned anything about graph theory from playing this.
ilovefood 6y ago
Very good job, the bonus area made up for the fact that there are only 20 levels :) Opening up the dev console sent the robots for a little jump lol
beefman 6y ago
Appears to be a repackaging of Tronix by Danijel Durakovic.[1] Includes his code but this is not mentioned in the credits.[2] [1] http://pulzed.com/ http://pulzed.com/ [2] https://treksit.netlify.app/credits.html https://treksit.netlify.app/credits.html
- kleer001 6y ago
  Yup, totally plagiarized.
  - ColanR 6y ago
    Changed a few colors, and added a background that makes the page lag. Didn't change the text or even the order of the levels. The small size of the bounding box is because he didn't expand it from the original.
    - 101008 6y ago
      Meanwhile, the post is still at the top of HN and he keeps receiving clicks. Can the mods change the link to the original one?
      - kleer001 6y ago
        I did flag it. Maybe more people flagging it would help? Plagiarism really does get my dander up.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- hwayne 6y ago
  This is inexcusable.
- djaychela 6y ago
  Thanks for the link - this version is -much- better in my opinion! None of the needless junk, just a great game.
ascales 6y ago
That's neat, but I'm not sure I learned about graph theory. I liked playing with it but the background was a bit too much for my eyes.
mrzimmerman 6y ago
I enjoy puzzle games like this, but can anyone help me understand what the relationship is to Graph Theory (of which I have little knowledge).
muazzam 6y ago
Spoiler Alert The gotcha thing about this puzzle is sort of greedy approach; try to disentangle the local sub-graphs - concentrate on any nodes of your choice and their connections - and the global graph starts to fall in its place. It's trivial approaching it like this.
- Nitrolo 6y ago
  I think I just naturally gravitated to that method after a few levels. I wonder what an algorithmic approach to this would look like, would it act similarly?
Niccizero 6y ago
Good but I got the hang of it very quickly and it became boring.
JosephRedfern 6y ago
It's cool (well, not cool if these accusations of plagiarism are true, but superficially cool at least), but for some reason, the combination of frustration, tiny working area, and horrendous background really raised my anxiety levels.
IvanK_net 6y ago
It reminds me my Javascript / WebGL game I made back in 2011 :) http://crazybugs.ivank.net/ http://crazybugs.ivank.net/ The design was ispired by Wold of Goo :)
tantalor 6y ago
I invented this game in 2005, it's called Planarity. http://planarity.net/ http://planarity.net/ It has a wikipedia page! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarity Since Flash is dead I rewrote in JavaScript: http://johntantalo.com/raphael.planarity/ http://johntantalo.com/raphael.planarity/ Here's a short doc about how the puzzle generation algorithm works: http://johntantalo.com/wiki/Planarity/ http://johntantalo.com/wiki/Planarity/
- crdrost 6y ago
  Wow, you got cloned by Tatham fast Author: Simon Tatham <anakin@pobox.com> Date: Sat Jul 16 19:51:53 2005 +0000 New puzzle: `Untangle', cloned (with the addition of random grid generation) from a simple but rather fun Flash game I saw this morning. How much did you make via PayPal donations back then, if you don't mind my asking?
birdlawyer 6y ago
For anyone wanting to play it a bit bigger (albeit a bit blurry) and without the background you can load the iframe directly https://treksit.netlify.app/tron/ https://treksit.netlify.app/tron/
imvetri 6y ago
Had good fun

147 points by maxraz 6y ago

tlarkworthy 6y ago

I feel like most of these graphs seem to be the same graph just with a different initial conditions?

pricecomstock 6y ago
Here's a Numberphile video that talks about embedding graphs. I think this happens because the subset of graphs that are able to be embedded in a plane is actually fairly limited. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBkTIp6ajAg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBkTIp6ajAg

hyperpape 6y ago

Fun challenge, but the draggable area for the graphs is small, and it's not obvious where the boundaries are. I kept going past that boundary then realizing I can't set a vertex down.

whiddershins 6y ago

That’s fantastic.

vishnuharidas 6y ago

Liked it, except the limited boundary and the irritating animated background. Staring at the screen for a minute makes me dizzy

stevewodil 6y ago
Nobody tell them about hyperspeed (click and hold on the background) ;)

someperson 6y ago

Very cool. Increase the drag boundary box immediately.

jiveturkey 6y ago

went through the first ten in under 2 minutes. got bored. by the second one, it's easy to see how to find the solution pretty much immediately.

ThePhysicist 6y ago

Nice game, but the moving background somehow makes me quite nauseous.

dooglius 6y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarity_testing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarity_testing

Someone 6y ago

That’s also one of the puzzles in Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection (https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/)

crdrost 6y ago
Yeah, I was going to say, I've played a lot of this because I ran Kubuntu on my laptop for several years and Simon Tatham’s games are sort of our win-98-minesweeper.
- gmfawcett 6y ago
  Simon Tatham's puzzles are also available as mobile apps -- ad-free, and highly recommended -- and can also be played via the Web. The Signpost puzzle is my personal favourite. :) https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/

kroltan 6y ago

Similar game, but PGC: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/js/untangle.html https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/js/unta...

tosser0001 6y ago

I like this, but I swear there was a Flash version of something very similar that went viral about 15 years ago.

klyrs 6y ago
"planarity" The game is cool, but I think the title is overly general. It contaons a graph visualizer, which doesn't show much in the way of theory; and it's a railroad, not a playground.
- jwilber 6y ago
  No- he outright plagiarized this. Even the code: http://pulzed.com/ http://pulzed.com/
  - klyrs 6y ago
    Yeah, I saw that in another comment and flagged the posting.

Kapura 6y ago

the moving backgrounds are gonna give people issues. i also had trouble reading the text on the backgrounds; consider changing the font colour to something that has significantly a different value (as in, Hue-Saturation-Value) from the background. also as somebody has pointed out, the drag box felt tiny.

gerdesj 6y ago
Click and hold on the background. Now you've got issues! Also click on bonus area and then perturb the things.

sanitycheck 6y ago

I like, but: Boundary, background, no "you've finished" (it just stops advancing). Also, I have not had a productive day.

qppo 6y ago

Feels a bit like untangling rope, which makes sense

TACIXAT 6y ago

I am not sure I learned anything about graph theory from playing this.

ilovefood 6y ago

Very good job, the bonus area made up for the fact that there are only 20 levels :) Opening up the dev console sent the robots for a little jump lol

beefman 6y ago

Appears to be a repackaging of Tronix by Danijel Durakovic.[1] Includes his code but this is not mentioned in the credits.[2] [1] http://pulzed.com/ http://pulzed.com/ [2] https://treksit.netlify.app/credits.html https://treksit.netlify.app/credits.html

kleer001 6y ago
Yup, totally plagiarized.
- ColanR 6y ago
  Changed a few colors, and added a background that makes the page lag. Didn't change the text or even the order of the levels. The small size of the bounding box is because he didn't expand it from the original.
  - 101008 6y ago
    Meanwhile, the post is still at the top of HN and he keeps receiving clicks. Can the mods change the link to the original one?
    - kleer001 6y ago
      I did flag it. Maybe more people flagging it would help? Plagiarism really does get my dander up.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
hwayne 6y ago
This is inexcusable.
djaychela 6y ago
Thanks for the link - this version is -much- better in my opinion! None of the needless junk, just a great game.

ascales 6y ago

That's neat, but I'm not sure I learned about graph theory. I liked playing with it but the background was a bit too much for my eyes.

mrzimmerman 6y ago

I enjoy puzzle games like this, but can anyone help me understand what the relationship is to Graph Theory (of which I have little knowledge).

muazzam 6y ago

Spoiler Alert The gotcha thing about this puzzle is sort of greedy approach; try to disentangle the local sub-graphs - concentrate on any nodes of your choice and their connections - and the global graph starts to fall in its place. It's trivial approaching it like this.

Nitrolo 6y ago
I think I just naturally gravitated to that method after a few levels. I wonder what an algorithmic approach to this would look like, would it act similarly?

Niccizero 6y ago

Good but I got the hang of it very quickly and it became boring.

JosephRedfern 6y ago

It's cool (well, not cool if these accusations of plagiarism are true, but superficially cool at least), but for some reason, the combination of frustration, tiny working area, and horrendous background really raised my anxiety levels.

IvanK_net 6y ago

It reminds me my Javascript / WebGL game I made back in 2011 :) http://crazybugs.ivank.net/ http://crazybugs.ivank.net/ The design was ispired by Wold of Goo :)

tantalor 6y ago

I invented this game in 2005, it's called Planarity. http://planarity.net/ http://planarity.net/ It has a wikipedia page! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planarity Since Flash is dead I rewrote in JavaScript: http://johntantalo.com/raphael.planarity/ http://johntantalo.com/raphael.planarity/ Here's a short doc about how the puzzle generation algorithm works: http://johntantalo.com/wiki/Planarity/ http://johntantalo.com/wiki/Planarity/

crdrost 6y ago
Wow, you got cloned by Tatham fast Author: Simon Tatham <anakin@pobox.com> Date: Sat Jul 16 19:51:53 2005 +0000 New puzzle: `Untangle', cloned (with the addition of random grid generation) from a simple but rather fun Flash game I saw this morning. How much did you make via PayPal donations back then, if you don't mind my asking?

birdlawyer 6y ago

For anyone wanting to play it a bit bigger (albeit a bit blurry) and without the background you can load the iframe directly https://treksit.netlify.app/tron/ https://treksit.netlify.app/tron/

imvetri 6y ago

Had good fun