Pre-Intro
This way of visualizing is both complicated and not very user-friendly. I've just found a better way to do it while browsing EternityII Yahoo group.
Please check this improved solution visualizer first and if you don't like it, then by all means go for this one.
Intro
Here I present set of scripts anyone skilled enough can use to visualize his EternityII "High score" solutions from Eternity2 distributed solver.
Here are two samples of the visualization: first and second.
Prerequisities
To actually use those scripts, you have to have those things installed:
- shell (preferrably on Linux, although it should work on Mac, too)
- Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program)
- Ruby (object oriented language I happen to love)
- e2pieces.txt and solution.txt files
Where you can get the e2pieces.txt and solution.txt file? Well, first off, you have to own the EternityII puzzle. Then you have to build the e2pieces.txt file yourself. Of course, to have solution to visualize you might want to participate in Eternity2 distributed solving project. Alternatively you can create the solution by hand and code it in the e2hints.txt format (as described on the build page), which is the format used by layout-generator script.
Download
I thought you'll never ask :-)
Here you can download the visualizer script.
Installation / Usage
You should follow the README files for the scripts. I'll reproduce them here.
Main README file
Hi there. Please, first check the piece-generator. Once you have all the pieces' *.png files, you can proceed to layout-generator. Btw, layout generator is just trivial script, the magic lies in the piece-generator directory. If you want more shapes for the puzzles, you will have to change the generator a bit plus edit the sample et2-piece.xcf template. Check that file plus et2.scm for details, but it should be obvious. Of course, I'd welcome any changes you might make ... Just send them to me, if you feel like it.
piece-generator README file
Author: Wejn
License: GPL v.2 (exactly this version)
Purpose: Generate *.png files from e2pieces.txt description (which is
format created by Dave Clark (http://eternity.net/) describing
Eternity2 puzzle pieces)
Prerequisities: Ruby 1.8 (http://ruby-lang.org), Gimp 2.2 (http://gimp.org)
Howto use this generator
------------------------
1) Copy et2.scm to ~/.gimp-2.2/scripts/ directory
2) Copy your e2pieces.txt to this directory
3) Optionally tweak e2.pal which is palette file describing
RGB color pairs (outer, inner) for given edge type
3) Run ./generator.rb and wait :-)
It will generate 4 pngs for each piece named $N-$ROT.png
where $N is number of that piece in e2pieces.txt (starting from 1)
and $ROT is rotation (0-3)
4) Copy resulting files somewhere
layout-generator README file
Author: Wejn
License: GPL v.2 (exactly this version)
Purpose: Generate _simple_ table from e2hints.txt-like file which describes
Eternity2 puzzle piece placement on board
Prerequisities: Ruby 1.8 (http://ruby-lang.org)
How to use this generator
=========================
1) run: ./generator.rb <hintfile> [img_dir]
where hintfile is the file with solution in e2hints.txt-like format
img_dir is path to the images that will be placed in the resulting
HTML code. Normally it's "pieces/"
Couple of notes:
- HTML is output to stdout, you can redirect it like this:
./generator.rb [parameters] > outfile.html
- Board size is hardcoded, you have to edit the script to change it
Conclusion
With a little bit of effort you can visualize your Eternity2 solutions using those scripts.
Of course, if you have trouble getting them to work, drop me a line, I'll see what I can do. You'll find my e-mail in the downloadable archive (I get more than my fair share of spam already which is why I don't post it here).
Michal S. aka Wejn