5 ms·

The "Powder Game" version used to be my favorite "game" of all time. However, I always got limited by how many things you could use at once which I thought shou

The "Powder Game" version used to be my favorite "game" of all time. However, I always got limited by how many things you could use at once which I thought should be no problem on modern hardware.

AlotOfReading 5y ago
I spent far too much time playing Powder game before Minecraft came along to scratch the same itch. Some of the popular maps were incredible works of art within the limits of the game. A larger canvas, determinism, and better zoom/editing capabilities are all that would be needed to make it perfect.
vortico 5y ago
Most powder models have O(n^2) interactions per step, so it's nontrivial to approximate it in O(n log n) while keeping it just as fun, especially when pushing the models to their limits.
- wyager 5y ago
  Isn’t it automatically O(n log n) if you don’t have accurate gravity and you use some sort of special tree to find neighbors?
- rhn_mk1 5y ago
  Where does the O(n²) come from? Is the number of neighbors unlimited? I was always under the impression that only a constant number of immediate neighbours counts.
  - sdflhasjd 5y ago
    Yes, it is linear, with a few small exceptions. The vast majority of element types in the game only check a fixed number of neighbours. Neighbour checking uses a 2-D map so it's constant-time.
    - sandos 5y ago
      Just randomly selected neighbours then I assume?
      - sdflhasjd 5y ago
        Most elements check the entire immediate neighbourhood at a taxicab distance of 1 or 2 (between 8 and 24 neighbours). Not all elements check neighbours, An A+B interaction may have A checking for B or B checking for A.
- tozder 5y ago
  it is mostly linear and there are lots of optimisation opportunities. rapid movements like explosions are the exception. then again you have the gpu and the other cores, i rarely see below 60fps on my sand game and map size is the only limitation.
tozder 5y ago
with toz[0][1] the only limit is the map size (which is 256x256). more than 90% of the gameplay is perfectly parallelizable (1 neighborhood automata) [0] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1170330/toz/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1170330/toz/ [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/toz/ https://old.reddit.com/r/toz/

The "Powder Game" version used to be my favorite "game" of all time. However, I always got limited by how many things you could use at once which I thought should be no problem on modern hardware.

AlotOfReading 5y ago

I spent far too much time playing Powder game before Minecraft came along to scratch the same itch. Some of the popular maps were incredible works of art within the limits of the game. A larger canvas, determinism, and better zoom/editing capabilities are all that would be needed to make it perfect.

vortico 5y ago

Most powder models have O(n^2) interactions per step, so it's nontrivial to approximate it in O(n log n) while keeping it just as fun, especially when pushing the models to their limits.

wyager 5y ago
Isn’t it automatically O(n log n) if you don’t have accurate gravity and you use some sort of special tree to find neighbors?
rhn_mk1 5y ago
Where does the O(n²) come from? Is the number of neighbors unlimited? I was always under the impression that only a constant number of immediate neighbours counts.
- sdflhasjd 5y ago
  Yes, it is linear, with a few small exceptions. The vast majority of element types in the game only check a fixed number of neighbours. Neighbour checking uses a 2-D map so it's constant-time.
  - sandos 5y ago
    Just randomly selected neighbours then I assume?
    - sdflhasjd 5y ago
      Most elements check the entire immediate neighbourhood at a taxicab distance of 1 or 2 (between 8 and 24 neighbours). Not all elements check neighbours, An A+B interaction may have A checking for B or B checking for A.
tozder 5y ago
it is mostly linear and there are lots of optimisation opportunities. rapid movements like explosions are the exception. then again you have the gpu and the other cores, i rarely see below 60fps on my sand game and map size is the only limitation.

tozder 5y ago

with toz[0][1] the only limit is the map size (which is 256x256). more than 90% of the gameplay is perfectly parallelizable (1 neighborhood automata) [0] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1170330/toz/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1170330/toz/ [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/toz/ https://old.reddit.com/r/toz/