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Thread: Optimal Solution Finder (new project)

  1. #1
    NeoGen's Avatar
    NeoGen is offline AMD Users Alchemist Moderator
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    Optimal Solution Finder (new project)

    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:


    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.

  2. #2
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    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 and it is available as a free download from here.
    Last edited by vaughan; 08-28-2009 at 11:54 PM. Reason: Windows Administrator permission


  3. #3
    NeoGen's Avatar
    NeoGen is offline AMD Users Alchemist Moderator
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    Holy Crap... did anyone see the license plate of the Moster Truck that ran over me last night?

    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.

    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?

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

  4. #4
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    I hit the afterburners for the weekend. 22 cores.


  5. #5
    AMDave's Avatar
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    hahaha - CONVOY!

    (glad I wasn't on that road at the time :P )
    . . . . . ___
    . . . . . . .\___/\______
    . . . . . . . \__AMD___\\__
    ---------------------------------------------

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


  7. #7
    NeoGen's Avatar
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    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.

  8. #8
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    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.


  9. #9
    NeoGen's Avatar
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    Sony Pinball completed!

    Puzz Pinball's 4 levels all >90%

    The Winter CCL Game levels have started.



  10. #10
    NeoGen's Avatar
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    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.

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