Optimal Solution Finder (new project)

[NeoGen]

http://agentsteal.dcmembers.com/

Optimal Solution Finder is a project that finds the best possible solutions for some simple games by trying all (or almost) possible combinations with the input at hand. As the website describes it

This project is using distributed computing to solve clones of The Incredible Machine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Machine). These games have a very large number of possible solutions for each level. The project sifts through possible solutions, using the decompiled physics algorithms from each game. Possible solutions that are not solved after 1,000 frames are rejected. The goal of this project is to create walkthroughs with the games' optimal solutions. A solution is optimal if it uses the least number of objects required to win the level.First things first... this is a NON-BOINC project guys. I know 90% of you reading this are now feeling disappointed, but the remaining 10% are happy that there are more non-boinc projects to choose from now. :)

This seems to be a Windows only application, I have no idea if it is possible to run it on Linux through Wine.

You can see the stats following the link on the lower part of the website or here:
http://agentsteal.dcmembers.com/top10.php

There is no pretty screen saver, no graphics interface, and you don't see the application "playing the games", this is a pure command line application as you can see here:
http://neogen.amdusers.com/osf.png

The first time you run it, it will ask you for nickname and team name. To join AMD Users make sure you write it exactly as shown. Failing to write the team name correctly may lead it to create a new team with the misspelled name.

The application supports multi-core CPUs, by launching 1 command line window (worker thread) for each core of the cpu, so in a quad-core machine you'll see 4 of those windows up there. But you can for example close two of them and that way you'll only be using 50% of the quad-core on it.

And now some things to be careful with...


You need an internet connection always available to fetch work. The application does not do buffering, it only works with 1 WU at a time.
You need to have Java installed on the machine. If you don't it will complain at start.
The application does not support resuming from last session, that is if you close it down and reopen again it starts the WU from scratch again.
Also bad is that there is no progress bar or percentage, so it's impossible to know if the WU is nearly done or still in the beginning. The WU times are unpredictable, it can go from as little as half hour to over 8 hours.
The application runs at a slightly higher level of priority than others, so it is more difficult to have it running along side with most projects because it will hog the cpu.

So, after all this, if you still want to run a good old non-boinc app, just download the and let it crunch away. :)
Our Team is World #1 here because the other teams seem to be sleeping, but we can always use all the help we can get to make sure we don't lose our spot. :icon_wink:

[vaughan]

One more thing to add to NeoGen's pretty comprehensive starter pack is I found on 64-bit Windows 7 you have to add a dll file to your Windows\System folder. Windows will whinge and ask you for Administrator Permission to add the file, just go ahead and let it be installed.

The missing dll is msvcr71.dll (http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?msvcr71) and it is available as a free download from here (http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?msvcr71).

[NeoGen]

Holy Crap... did anyone see the license plate of the Moster Truck that ran over me last night? :icon_lol:

The last thing I remember is that last night I had about 200 WUs of advantage on vaughan and today he's ahead of me.
I did hear a very loud engine roar and saw lots of smoke and dust but I couldn't see what it was underneath all that, it looked like a sand storm... whatever it was it must have been big. :icon_lol:

But now seriously, amazing work there vaughan! :)
It was a boost both for the Team and the project itself. Did you see how the levels percentages shot up since yesterday? :icon_mrgreen:

Just out of curiosity, how many cores did you move to the project? :)

[vaughan]

I hit the afterburners for the weekend. 22 cores.

[AMDave]

hahaha - CONVOY!

(glad I wasn't on that road at the time :P )

[vaughan]

I might see how the stats look on Monday morning and decide then if #1 is within reach.

[NeoGen]

Vaughan, another day at this rate and you'll finish all Puzz Pinball and Sony Pinball levels, leaving only The CCL Winter Game's 2 levels until project is complete. (for now?)

I know the project admin is waiting to finish these last few pending levels to introduce a few new things in the client, like checkpointing, but there is no mentioning of what games will come next.

[vaughan]

A bit busy with work so I'll leave the machines on it. My son has taken out 2 quads and a C2D E8600 as he wants to convert them from Windows 7 to Gentoo and pop them on the 'nix network. Lookout WEP M2. :icon_wink:

[NeoGen]

Sony Pinball completed!

Puzz Pinball's 4 levels all >90%

The Winter CCL Game levels have started.


:)

[NeoGen]

Seems like there was no valid solution for Sony Pinball with 5 objects, so the game was re-inserted now with 6 objects.
And the CCL Winter Game WU's seem to be thousands of them, I wasn't thinking they would be so many. So it is possible to get to World #1 vaughan, if you can push it hard like you did last weekend. :)

[vaughan]

The CCL Winter game tasks are as hard to crunch as the long tasks in Wieferich. I'm getting annoyed with the lack of progress with a new client. Surely a progress bar or percentage complete cannot be that hard to include. This project is just lucky its getting as many CPU cycles as it is because I'm busy with real life stuff and cannot afford the time to turn the battlefleet around.

[vaughan]

OK, battlefleet switched tack to GeneticLife. Let's see if that elusive Top 10 can be reached again.

[NeoGen]

Here I go walking on the tip toes, trying to get back up... that is if I can go around vaughan's battlefleet without being detected... 400 to go :icon_razz:

[vaughan]

I see ya NeoGen, looming large in the rearview mirror. However, I think I'll wait until the developer has improved the application. #1 thing I hate is the lack of in-task progress.

[NeoGen]

I got ahead undetected by the battlefleet! Now to try and make a getaway... :icon_razz:

I think the project admin will only release a new version of the client when these last few pending levels are finished. You could help speed that up vaughan. :icon_wink:

[NeoGen]

Got an email from the project admin about a week ago, only checked the emails now :icon_redface:
He meant to post here but is having difficulty posting on the website (very slow page load / can't reply to thread) so he emailed me asking me to post it here.


Hey AMD users,

Thanks for your support! The project is almost finished thanks to you guys. Vaughan, that was amazing last week! =D

Improving the client
I am sorry, the client definitely needs to be improved, but I don't want to mess with the code so late in the project. When I have a chance I will port it to Linux. For now if you use wine, try running the program with the parameter 1 (distributed.exe 1). When I start the next project, I will be sure to include the ability to resume partially completed workunits and add a cool graphical view of the work.

Progress
Two levels of Puzz Pinball were solved with 5 objects. The results for level 14 are posted. The results for level 20 will be posted after the last 3 workunits are completed (I may have to break them up because they are taking a really long time). The last level of Sony Pinball is guaranteed to be solved with 6 objects. I'm not sure about the last 2 levels of Puzz Pinball, but one or both of them should be solved with 6 objects. The last level of The CCL Winter Game has the largest increase for each object added. Adding 7 objects is about 20x larger than adding 6 objects. Many of the workunits are really fast, though. This level is guaranteed to be solved with 8 objects, but will probably (and hopefully) be solved with 7.

The next project
The games I am considering for the next project after the Kerb games are solved are Building Blaster, Putt Base, and The Incredible Machine (mobile). I want to test the project on some non-flash games, but they would have to be open source. Please tell me if anyone has suggestions for new games. If I do create another project, it wouldn't be until next year. And the client would definitely be improved.

We need as many cores as possible to finish the project in the next few weeks.

Thanks again to all who have participated,
Paul

[vaughan]

OK I put a couple of dual cores on it again.

[NeoGen]

Well, I got about 1000 points ahead of you now so I should be safe for a few days even if you turn the whole battlefleet against me. :icon_razz: :icon_lol:

[vaughan]

Not yet ... still in powersaving mode. Waiting on parts for the new dual xeon server :icon_twisted: time to retire all the dual cores.

[NeoGen]

I noticed you haven't had many new primes found recently, your prime count is at 116 (115 of them listed already on your wiki profile page (http://www.amdusers.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=member:vaughan)), I thought you might be focused on something else. But I understand the why on powersaving, I would hate to get your electricity bill at the end of each month. :icon_lol:

If you happen to not have a use for those old dual cores don't let them just sitting in the basement, we could always arrange a little contest and have them as prize, I'm sure there's people here who would love to add them to their own battlefleets. :icon_razz:

[NeoGen]

Rechenkraft.net is coming up strong behind us with a few members... they're still far but we should look out for it because they seem to have quite a boost going.

[NeoGen]

I'm gonna try and keep an eye on the progress here for us to see...

Rechenkraft is at about 5,000 points away as of the time of this post.

[NeoGen]

It's at 4,000 now...

[NeoGen]

It's a bit below 3,000 now... guys, we need help, I can't shake them off alone. :-(

[gamer007]

Been searching for primes for a while now. I'll pause it to help a good cause here. First time running, let's see how far in the ranks I go. :icon_razz:

[NeoGen]

Thanks for the helping hand gamer. :)

You can run it on only a few cores if you want and still search for primes with the others. The app by default opens as many windows as the cores it finds on the system but you can close some and leave others running.

C'mon people, we need all the help we can get. They're gaining on us fast.
I know it's a really boring project to run, but hey, we're ranked #1 on it! Let's try to keep ourselves up there! :)

[yoyo]

:qright5:
We try our best.

[gamer007]

Thanks for the helping hand gamer. :)

You can run it on only a few cores if you want and still search for primes with the others. The app by default opens as many windows as the cores it finds on the system but you can close some and leave others running.

It's all good. I'm doing manual LLRing so it doesn't make a big difference. Besides, I only have 4 cores. :icon_razz:

[NeoGen]

You've just entered the top 10! :)

[NeoGen]

Well, I've been watching the stats closely, and between me, gamer and vaughan, I think our Team is managing to keep Rechenkraft steady at 3K points away. :icon_mrgreen:

One other factor that helped very much is the longer Winter CCL Game WUs. Previously with the fast Puzz Pinball WUs they were gaining on us fast, but these new WUs are at least 5x longer, so even if we were outnumbered it would take them much longer to catch up with us. :)

But still we have to keep an eye out for it, because altough the Winter CCL Game is the last of the games of this project, it still has several thousands of WUs to distribute, so they can overtake us if they really apply the heavy guns on it. We must be vigilant if we want to keep our #1 spot!

[vaughan]

The computer room air con is working again and the re-arrangement and spring cleaning is well underway. My son spent quite a bit of time on all this so we now have about half the battlefleet running. As some of the cached BOINC tasks get completed I'll transition some of the machines to this project to try to regain the rank I lost during the downtime. The main router Linux PC is still not configured so I'm running on Optus cable internet only. When the server is setup correctly we'll be back on ADSL2+ with cable backup.

[Ototero]

Yeah, I've reached the top 10 in just 2 days.
Just doing my bit for a non-boink project :)

[NeoGen]

The statsman is in the stats! :)

In two days you broke out about 50 of these heavier Winter CCL Game WUs? You must have put a small army of crunchers working on this :)

[Ototero]

Just my quad core with 4 OSFs running + moneybee of course!

[NeoGen]

Project News

Remaining Workunits: 34131.

The project has found solutions for every level! It will be finished when the current workunits are completed.Guys... it's the last stretch, and we're ranked #1 on it.
Let's finish this! :)


The top user and team will be credited in the walkthrough.Vaughan, if you can conquer #1 on the users you'll be personally credited on the walkthrough he is creating for the games. I'm #2 but I can't get to it, the guy has more cores on it than those I own.

[vaughan]

The problem is the tasks take sooooooo looooong to complete on a fast quad core that its boring.

[NeoGen]

The project seems to have finished!

It said on the webpage that it would finish when the current workunits were completed, and they now show as 0. :)

AMD USERS IS #1!!!!!!:qgreenjumpers: