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Swarmation: like musical chairs for pixels

swarmation.com

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Re: Swarmation: like musical chairs for pixels

#71

Post by steadicat »

exit wrote: post #44

where did you host this?

This is on one of the SmartMachines that Joyent donated to the Node Knockout competition. We’ve been very impressed with it. Very easy deployment, and the server's been chugging along smoothly since launch (save the occasional restart due to invalid HTTP requests crashing some of our Node.js libs).

The Joyent guys have also been tweeting network graphs for our app, which makes us comfortable that they're keeping a watchful eye on our instance for us: http://skitch.com/jimpick/dwjfw/flow-saber-tooth-moose-lion0... :)

Re: Swarmation: like musical chairs for pixels

#72

Post by po »

steadicat wrote: post #66
po wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those aren't saboteurs… I believe scoring is done on the client side so they got the point and are rushing to do the next shape. They either need to do scoring server side, or there needs to be some sort of locking.

I’m actually quite proud of having implemented the scoring client-side. It helps keep the load on the server down. Looking up all possible formations is somewhat computationally intensive. It does create some problems when some clients have high latency and don't detect the formation in time, but I think it's fixable. One way could be to make the computation redundant, e.g. get three pixels to do the detection instea…

Don't get me wrong. I totally agree that you made the right choice, especially for the node knockout.

This might be completely over the top but perhaps you should look into lag compensation technique that FPS games use. There is a global state on the server and the clients send their command with a timestamp. The server then looks at the global state XXXms ago.

You're going to need global state and scoring if you ever want a leaderboard (otherwise people will just game it).

You could also just make it so that it doesn't show the clock during the last three seconds or something. Show "calculating..." or something and give people whatever the greatest lag time is grace period.

Anyway, great game. You got my vote.

Re: Swarmation: like musical chairs for pixels

#74

Post by v21 »

SandB0x wrote: post #3
camwest wrote: post #2

Wow I can't believe how FUN this is. Edit: I just realized no one is commenting because everyone is still busy playing it.

Yes, this game is absolute genius. Felt really sorry for the guy (X) who got stuck running around in the middle of the Fortress formation a minute ago. Like: ##### #X # # # # # # ##### I'm the one in the blue, by the way. Edit: This makes me think about mathematical morphology^, used in image processing. You win when you are inside the opening of the set of pixels by the given structuring element . i.e. you win when…

Yaay, Bob Fisher! I once dressed as him for a party, with a cardboard cutout of his face over my face.

I'm sorry, this comment isn't strictly relevant, but I don't get a chance to tell that story very often.

Re: Swarmation: like musical chairs for pixels

#76

Post by chrismealy »

st0p wrote: post #69
chrismealy wrote: post #12

This is fantastic. What a great demonstration of the limits of self-organization!

Indeed it is fantastic, But I was more surprised about the powers of self-organization than the limits of it!

You haven't tried to make the hat!
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