Life tag testing

[dvgrn]

Do you think it will be necessary to allow Dynamic Origin to be toggled on and off (like hotkey "w" for Waypoints or LOOP) and turned off on first Reset and back on during second Reset?

Seems like a good idea. The problem with all these cool additional features is that one doesn't always want them operating, and so it's good to be able to turn them off as quickly and decisively as possible.

The Pause button also turns off some of these extra features, which is nice because you don't always want to have to re-run from the beginning to get back to the point of interest (but now have more control over it). Does it work to have Pause turn off Dynamic Origin, and Play turn it back on (i.e., the camera will drift back to wherever it was supposed to be)?

I'm also considering also using Dynamic Origin for TRACKLOOP by extending the origin X, Y to have a Z component. Not quite sure what to do with the ZOOM slider yet...

You already mentioned TRACKLOOP in the previous paragraph -- are you talking about TRACKBOX here? Can a linear delta-zoom be calculated that does the same thing as a delta-E/W/N/S?

[rowett]

You already mentioned TRACKLOOP in the previous paragraph -- are you talking about TRACKBOX here? Can a linear delta-zoom be calculated that does the same thing as a delta-E/W/N/S?

Yes I mean TRACKBOX, and yes I'm hoping to get it to calculate a linear delta-zoom.

[rowett]

The Pause button also turns off some of these extra features, which is nice because you don't always want to have to re-run from the beginning to get back to the point of interest (but now have more control over it). Does it work to have Pause turn off Dynamic Origin, and Play turn it back on (i.e., the camera will drift back to wherever it was supposed to be)?

For Dynamic Origin using Pause makes no difference since all controls are available all the time. If you've panned away and want to recenter you simply click AutoFit. This is consistent with what you'd do with a still life or some other pattern with a static origin.
The only mode that now has the Pause/Drift Back feature is Waypoint mode.

[rowett]

It wouldn't have been a good LifeViewer week if I hadn't...

• added a new hotkey
• built something new that hurt my brain
• fixed a horrendous bug
• fixed a horrendously embarrassing bug
• added a new script command
• added a new UI button
  • that no one will ever use
  • that no one will ever find
  • that no one will recognize as doing what it's supposed to do
• stumbled upon a pattern i quite like

  Code: Select all

  #C [[ TRACKBOX 0 -1/12 -1/12 0 ]]
  #C [[ THEME 4 STARS STOP 3430 AUTOSTART ]]
  x = 51, y = 34, rule = B3/S23
  32bo$30b2ob2o$32bo$47b2o$46bo2bo$33b2o11b2ob2o$32bo2bo11bo$31b2o3bo10b
  3o$31bo4bo$31bo3bo$32bo2bo$33bo3$21bo7bo14b2o$20b3o5bobo12bob2o$19b2ob
  4o2bo2bo10b2o$20b3o2bo18bo$21bo2b2o2bo$25b2obobo$29bo10b2o$40b2o2$3o$
  4bo28bo$4b2o13bo12bobo$4bo2bo11bo12bobo$5bobo11bo13bo$5bo$4b2o15bo$3bo
  bo14bobo$5b2o14bo$2b2o$4bo!

[rowett]

Build 203 is now available on the lazyslug server

Enhancements in this build:

• [[ TRACK ]], [[ TRACKLOOP ]] and [[ TRACKBOX ]] now use Dynamic Origin rather than AutoFit - test
  • all controls (including AutoFit) available during playback
  • Track mode can be switched on/off with hotkey "w" or by clicking the "TRACK" UI Indicator
  • Track mode may not be used with Waypoints
• Thumbnail improvements - test
  • text messages defined in scripts now appear in Thumbnail mode
  • "Expand" and "Launch" messages are now vertically centred
  • script error indication is shown in Thumbnail mode
  • added Shrink button to navigation menu which shrinks the Viewer back to a Thumbnail
  • timing display now positioned correctly in Thumbnail mode
• Gridlines
  • gridlines are now more accurate
  • drawing gridlines is about 10% faster
  • shift and hotkey "x" toggles major gridlines (if not disabled with [[ GRIDMAJOR 0 ]] )
• UI improvements
  • by "popular" demand first Reset no longer resets camera
    • use hotkey "v" to reset camera
  • Waypoint/Track mode and LOOP can be toggled by clicking the UI Indicators
    • if both are defined then they toggle together
  • new "FPS" button in navigation menu to toggle timing display
  • Help hides population statistics overlay and navigation menu
  • improved AutoFit and Fit Zoom icons
  • added Tool Tips for UI controls (hover the mouse over a control briefly to view)
  • improved notification when STOP generation reached
    • [[ NOREPORT ]] now also disables STOP notification - test
  • coordinates label now disappears if coordinates aren't displayed and generation statistics are off
• obligatory script command
  • you can now use [[ Z ]] as an alias for [[ ZOOM ]]

Fixes in this build:

• error is raised if [[ TRACKBOX ]] W is greater than E or S is greater than N
• Stars and coordinate display were using angle in Hex display mode (which doesn't allow rotation)
• Step Back no longer disables LOOP if defined

[rowett]

Build 204 is now available on the lazyslug server

Enhancements in this build:

• improved formatting of timing information
• shift and hotkey "t" toggles extended timing information

The updated hotkey map is here

[rowett]

Assuming Dave is happy with the new dynamic origin work this build should probably be a candidate for release on the Wiki...

[dvgrn]

Assuming Dave is happy with the new dynamic origin work this build should probably be a candidate for release on the Wiki...

It all looks pretty good! I noticed only two things, both from the new Dynamic Origin test page:

1) The slow-GPS glider does something slightly strange on my (presumably fairly normal) laptop. In the time slice from T=0 to T=1, the viewer changes at several frames per second, moving the grid gradually as I think it's supposed to. From T=1 to T=3, the viewer changes only when the generation changes, so the animation is somewhat jerkier.

2) I remember this changing at some point in the past, and didn't notice when it changed back: when I'm panning and zooming around in a Dynamic Origin pattern using the mouse wheel, it seems important to have the center of zoom at the current mouse coordinates. The zoom center appears to have shifted back to the middle of the viewport, both for the embedded and pop-out viewers.

[rowett]

1) The slow-GPS glider does something slightly strange on my (presumably fairly normal) laptop. In the time slice from T=0 to T=1, the viewer changes at several frames per second, moving the grid gradually as I think it's supposed to. From T=1 to T=3, the viewer changes only when the generation changes, so the animation is somewhat jerkier.

I can't reproduce this. Please can you refresh the Dynamic Origin webpage to ensure it's using Build 204?

[dvgrn]

I can't reproduce this. Please can you refresh the Dynamic Origin webpage to ensure it's using Build 204?

Ah, that takes care of item #1, so I must not have refreshed correctly. Definitely at Build 204 now.

The remaining weirdness is with zooming -- possibly specific to viewers with Dynamic Origin, and maybe the ones with diagonal motion, since I can't reproduce it with the copperhead test cases.

Try running the "TRACKBOX c/4 at the front, c/12 at the back" or the "Track this!" examples for 3000+ ticks. Then move the mouse cursor to the right of the pattern, and zoom out. It looks good for a while, but then the pattern starts moving in a different direction... and doesn't actually get any smaller as the mouse wheel moves.

Rolling the mouse to zoom back in reverses the sequence -- first the zoom level doesn't change from -16, but the pattern moves sideways... and then it starts to behave normally, with the change in zoom centered on the mouse position.

You can get similar weirdness by zooming out and then in below the "TRACKBOX Paul Schick's c/2 and 6c/13 blinker" pattern, after running it for a good while. In some cases, puttinng the mouse right on the growing spaceship and zooming in, makes the pattern disappear off the screen.

[rowett]

Ah, that takes care of item #1, so I must not have refreshed correctly. Definitely at Build 204 now.

Actually you were right there is an issue with strange stepping. It only appears after you've paused playback and then restarted. I've fixed it for the next build.

The remaining weirdness is with zooming -- possibly specific to viewers with Dynamic Origin, and maybe the ones with diagonal motion, since I can't reproduce it with the copperhead test cases.

OK so there are two issues here:

1. The mouse wheel zoom is always using the native zoom and not the origin-offset zoom. So the larger the Dynamic Origin during playback the further out the zoom point gets.
2. When you see the pattern moving in a different direction it's because ZOOM hit a limit due to the origin offset.

I'm working on a fix to these zoom issues.

[rowett]

I'm working on a fix to these zoom issues.

Dave, is this any better?

[dvgrn]

I'm working on a fix to these zoom issues.

Dave, is this any better?

In Build 205, there's still some trouble with inconstant zoom center locations.

For example, if you zoom far out with the mouse wheel, with the mouse centered to the right of the "Track this!" pattern, for a while it will work correctly, but toward the end the pattern will suddenly veer off and end up to the right of the mouse position. If a pattern starts on the left side of the mouse, it should always remain to the left of the mouse no matter what you do with the mouse wheel.

[rowett]

For example, if you zoom far out with the mouse wheel, with the mouse centered to the right of the "Track this!" pattern, for a while it will work correctly, but toward the end the pattern will suddenly veer off and end up to the right of the mouse position. If a pattern starts on the left side of the mouse, it should always remain to the left of the mouse no matter what you do with the mouse wheel.

This should be fixed in the official 205 build below. Please let me know!

[rowett]

Build 205 is now available on the lazyslug server

Fixes in this build:

• zoom to mouse position now works with track mode - test
• fixed issue with pausing playback and slow GPS tracking
• integer zoom now works with track mode

[dvgrn]

This should be fixed in the official 205 build below. Please let me know!

Yup, that fixed the odd behavior with zooming around the mouse position.

Now the only remaining oddity seems to be that the maximum allowable zoom value gradually creeps downward as a TRACKBOX simulation runs. Toward the end of a long run it's only possible to zoom up to single digits, instead of the initial 32x.

[rowett]

Now the only remaining oddity seems to be that the maximum allowable zoom value gradually creeps downward as a TRACKBOX simulation runs. Toward the end of a long run it's only possible to zoom up to single digits, instead of the initial 32x.

Yes I know. The issue is that the moving origin (in the Z direction) is slowly changing the zoom. If I reflect that in the zoom control it slowly moves. If I don't and keep it fixed then it limits the range. At the moment I chose the latter but I'm still pondering.

[dvgrn]

Now the only remaining oddity seems to be that the maximum allowable zoom value gradually creeps downward as a TRACKBOX simulation runs. Toward the end of a long run it's only possible to zoom up to single digits, instead of the initial 32x.

Yes I know. The issue is that the moving origin (in the Z direction) is slowly changing the zoom. If I reflect that in the zoom control it slowly moves. If I don't and keep it fixed then it limits the range. At the moment I chose the latter but I'm still pondering.

The worst case seems to be slow-growing patterns -- e.g., "Track this!" which by the time you get up close to T=50K, is limited to a closest zoom of minus 3. Can't zoom in to see details at all any more.

This is probably a highly artificial sample case, and quite possibly fixing this would make some other pattern work sub-optimally at some more reasonable T value.

But I don't really understand yet why it would be a bad thing for the zoom control to move slowly, especially if it allowed the zoom range to remain -16x to 32x all the time. If the zoom level is in fact changing,it seems reasonable for the zoom control to move... and actually the control already records a gradual change in zoom level for this kind of TRACKBOX setting, so you must mean something else.

[rowett]

But I don't really understand yet why it would be a bad thing for the zoom control to move slowly

It just became a pain to interact with the Zoom slider since it was being updated by both the Dynamic Origin system and the user via the mouse, so a fight ensued. I'll see if I can invite in the conciliation service and restore the full zoom range.

In the mean time I'm fighting with elapsed time, gps and step size. Especially with the wonderful step back command. Oh and I should probably rename GPS to SPS since it's really Steps Per Second, not Generations Per Second. STEP defines how many generations to advance in one step. So when STEP is x1 then SPS is GPS, but otherwise not.

Let's say STEP is x1 and GPS is 1. That means that in one second we move one step forward, and given the STEP size is 1 we move forward one generation. Elapsed time = 1 second.
We step again. Elapsed time = 2 seconds.
We change GPS to 2, meaning in 0.5 seconds we move one step forward.
We step again. Elapsed time = 2.5 seconds.
We change GPS back to 1.
We step back. What should elapsed time say: 2 seconds or 1.5 seconds?

Why is this important?
Because the Track and Waypoint systems depend on elapsed time so they can move the camera every frame rather than every generation.

[rowett]

Build 206 is now available on the lazyslug server

Enhancements in this build:

• full zoom range is available again in Track mode - test
• improved elapsed time display
• added 19 new rule aliases
• gridlines UI button now reflects hex/square display mode

Fixes in this build:

• removed a brief glitch on the zoom UI control when Track mode switched on using TRACK button
• tooltips should not appear again on a UI control that has been clicked until the mouse moves off and back onto the item

[dvgrn]

Build 206 is now available on the lazyslug server

Looks good to me! I'm traveling this week, and don't have much time to hunt for new bugs in unrelated areas -- but it looks to me like the Dynamic Origin / zoom functionality is working really well.

@Nathaniel, this build looks good to go live on the forums and the wiki, whenever you have a moment...!

[Nathaniel]

@Nathaniel, this build looks good to go live on the forums and the wiki, whenever you have a moment...!

Live on the forums and wiki now.

[rowett]

@Nathaniel, this build looks good to go live on the forums and the wiki, whenever you have a moment...!

Live on the forums and wiki now.

Excellent, many thanks!

[rowett]

@Nathaniel, this build looks good to go live on the forums and the wiki, whenever you have a moment...!

Live on the forums and wiki now.

Nathaniel - sorry I found a bug with LifeViewer on the Wiki! Please will you upload build 207.

[Nathaniel]

Nathaniel - sorry I found a bug with LifeViewer on the Wiki! Please will you upload build 207.

Done!