For now I’ve decided that rather than post 100 images in a new gallery that no one will look at, I’ll try to post one or two new images for one level that I like on a semi-daily basis here:
The first image is fairly modest which is why I like it:
An alternate version is available on the page as well as links to download the full-sized images.
On this page I go into detail about the recent “natural line update” that is actually 3 major updates in one.
The 70s is the 2nd gallery to feature images with this update. It is not quite unedited like The 80s Unedited– but it is very close.
Link to gallery: The 80s Unedited
A major update to my program makes the lines more natural while adding an additional line glow layer to each image.
Here is an example from the 2nd image in the gallery:
Before/After
The line glow is generated by drawing thicker lines that follow the same path as the first image – and then applying a standard blurring algorithm with multiple passes (currently, 6).
The lines are drawn afterwards and follow the glow.
Since each line’s glow blends into adjacent line’s glow, the lines and dots end up having a slight gravitational pull that effects the path of the lines.
This makes the areas with short lines look even more natural, and also far more interesting, in my opinion.
Since the lines are drawn on top of the line glow layer, they are still well-defined even when the glow surrounding them is brighter than the line.
A slight downside is that the new images don’t reduce well. You can see this if you zoom into the area above on the images of the full levels. which were reduced to about a quarter of the height/width of the original available on the gallery page.
The logical follow-up to the 90×90 and 91×91 is of course, 91×90. I won’t claim there is any real difference between the levels my program generates at these sizes (though, strangely, 90×90 is a lot slower than the others), but I’ve decided to stay around this size because I felt 120×120 was too big (the lines are too thin), the 80×80 remake is as good as any of the larger sets preceding it, and it takes a lot longer for my program to generate levels at 100×100 and larger.
The new gallery doesn’t attain the near-perfection (at least, in my own delusional mind) of the last set, but I think it’s pretty good in its own right and has it’s own unique feel compared to the other 4-5 image sets.
Link to gallery: 90+91
Notes and edits: 90+91 Notes and Edits
Though my program generated 24,000 levels and images for 120 of those levels (both twice the usual – because of the multiple sizes) – only 5 images for 5 levels made it into the gallery.
I have to admit, I was really disappointed with the 90×90 levels – which is why I combined them with the 91×91 levels (generated 3 days later) for the set. The 91×91 levels failed to disappoint and I think the 5 image set is the best yet as a result.
Link to the gallery: 120×120
Notes are on the page. Again, there are only 4 images, though part of the reason is that the next set (90×90) will be ready to view tomorrow morning.
I was disappointed in that I didn’t find any levels that contend with 111×109 level 25 as a possible favorite. The one level that I thought had an outside chance turned out to be very difficult to edit and didn’t make it into the gallery.
I do like the four images that made it into the set, even though they are rather simple and not particularly representative of what my program generates and selects at this board size.
Click here to see images, comparisons and notes from the original 80×80 set and the remake.
Here are thumbnails of the 3rd and 4th images from the remake:
I finished the 100×100 #2 set a week ago, and I will see my first image for the next set (120×120) in 3 days.
So, I decided to make new images for some of the levels in the 80×80 set.
Here is the result: 80×80 Remake.
The original set had 37 images for 19 levels; this version has only 7 images for 6 levels (still, more than the last 2 sets I’ve posted). I generated new images for 16 of the 19 levels in the original set; decided on a 10 image/10 level remake; then dropped 4 levels (even after editing images for 3 of them) because either they didn’t fit, I didn’t like them as much as the rest, or I didn’t want to spend time editing them.
I think the levels are really good – probably the best set of levels of any set yet (including the 6 sets with larger board sizes I made afterwards).
I’ll post more tomorrow – including comparisons with images from the original set. I won’t post before/after editing versions because my editing efforts were mostly in vain with very modest improvements for 6 out of the 7 images.
The gallery has only 4 images (only 3 of which are new) – which is probably going to be closer to the norm now, though I have no set number in mind when I start my work on a set.
As with the last gallery – the highlight comes at the end. The last image in this gallery required a much more massive editing job, though. I even made a quick video showing the original and final versions and the roughly 250 intermediate versions made during line editing: https://doug-osborne.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Vid4.mp4.
The next set is going to be 120×120 – at least I hope so. My program has generated 5400 out of the 12000 required levels; I am guessing I will see my first image in 8 or 9 days.
