   Game algorithm contest!
  The Omega Architects are having are contest to see how can come up with the best new Omega Architecture.  Prizes include swag/code/membership to the Architects/etc.  So if you want to enter, or want to learn how to write code so good it actually increases the speed of your cpu, head over to..to this place
  Man, that has to be the most incredible programming site I''ve ever seen! I''ve already begun implementing the Omega rendering architecture into my game engine, and it''s already starting to speed up my AI code!   "Sneftel is correct, if rather vulgar." --Flarelocke ;  holy crap! those papers are amazing! You guys have really opened my eyes to some out-of-the-box thinking!Actually, I was fooling around with the TOZA algorithm.. and I found out something really neat! It seems like the TOZA compression algorithm is not limited by the sparseness/noisiness of the data, because I found out that you can run it TWICE and get the same compression ratio!! That''s a 65025-fold difference in file size!!! I tried to see if you could run it 3 times, but something went wrong with my computer. ;  i think the only thing better than the articles are the crazy photoshops on ''the architects'' page.  i think i would give up my first born to be on that page.  i love you guys. ;  ok, I''m obviously missing something at a very fundamental level ... of what papers does pinacolada speak?  you mean the description of the toza algorithm?  that''s hardly a paper.And while I''m on the subject of the TOZA algo, again, I must be missing something, how is that compression?  did I understand it correctly in saying that for every bit you will have a tza chunk of all the values that it''s not?  wouldn''t that inflate the data instead of compressing it?   Joel Martinezhttp://www.codecube.net/ ;  i believe pinacolada stated our mission and purpose very well, thinking "outside the box".  we confine ourself with definitions, such as compression, effeciency, etc.  we help broaden horizons with new thought patterns relating to computer science and game related algorithms.for example, toza does accomplish compression.  very well in fact.  if we define compression as "making something smaller", then we can infer that after toza compressing something, the free space on the  hard drive gets smaller.  so we fit within our nomenclature.  i hope this helps, i would hate to be misunderstood.  oh, and Sneftel, we''re working on an omega A* algo, that would benefit your already benefiting AI code greatly i think.   [omega]Uppercut ;quote:Original post by uppcercut   oh, and Sneftel, we''re working on an omega A* algo, that would benefit your already benefiting AI code greatly i think.Is it based on the drunkard''s walk?   “Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.”    — Brian W. Kernighan (C programming language co-inventor);quote:Original post by uppcercut  i believe pinacolada stated our mission and purpose very well, thinking "outside the box".  we confine ourself with definitions, such as compression, effeciency, etc.  we help broaden horizons with new thought patterns relating to computer science and game related algorithms.true true true, I was in no way trying to put down the concept behind this endeavor ... I love the concept of breaking "tradition" to find other (and potentially better) ways of doing things.quote:for example, toza does accomplish compression.  very well in fact.  if we define compression as "making something smaller", then we can infer that after toza compressing something, the free space on the  hard drive gets smaller.  so we fit within our nomenclature.aaaaahhhhh ... that truly does answer my question.  In fact, I read the above paragraph several times before my brain realized (accepted?) the fact that you weren''t trying to use "compresion" in the traditional sense.keep on keepin on Joel Martinezhttp://www.codecube.net/ ;  to joelmartinez, it brings us all great joy that another accolyte has realized the intrinsic workings of toza.to Fruny, although the drunkard''s walk has many omega qualities, the algo were we specifically designing is slightly different.  one version works more or less exactly as the normal A*, though instead of keeping track of nodes we have visited, and those that are to be considered (very time consuming), we just allocate nodes then search through the entire contents of RAM looking for them later, this way we might bump into other relevant data we might want to process.to pinacolada, the toza ratios are amazing, we have a ''super'' toza that works with 64 bits(a long long), instead of a measily 8 bits, though i have not been able to test it yet, as a toza compressed byte works out to be several thousand terabytes.  one day.   [omega]Uppercut ;HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  [edited by - PlayGGY on January 22, 2004 8:13:55 PM] [edited by - PlayGGY on January 22, 2004 8:15:57 PM] [edited by - PlayGGY on January 22, 2004 8:17:55 PM]