So what happened to the contests?

[Frank]

I'm really disappointed that I showed up on the scene right at the tail end of the golden age of Phun contests. What's wrong? In this thread, I'd like to have some discussion about what went wrong and how the Contests section can see some rebirth.

Here's my theory: We've done everything and we can do anything. Remember when that first stabilized hovercraft showed up, and everyone went nuts over it? That was jaw-dropping. Now I see a simulation of evolving living creatures, and it's just plain old impressive. There are already several super-complicated, super-reliable guns out there that would blow the bejeezus out of any rationally weighted structure you can put in front of them. There are already cars out there that can not only clear monstrous obstacles, but even drive on the ceiling. Nearly any contest you can think of has been done before, and there are truly epic designs from them you can imitate. There are probably some possibilities with water that remain unexplored, but not everyone has the same water since the advent of Algodoo, and it still lags too much to be fun to play with in a serious way.


I think the taboo on repeat contests is making it too hard to come up with suitable contests. What's so bad about doing approximately the same thing again, anyway? I'd enter a new offroad race every other week if people kept making cool courses to drive. I think another thing is that people are getting too lazy to make cool challenge scenes.

What do you think about this issue?

[RicH]

Recycle contests from the old forum, make them compatible with Algodoo and stuff etc. Add some more challenges...

This "issue" you're talking about isn't only because of the lack of contests, it's also the lack of people who enter as well. Try to view the contests forum and scroll down, most posts were made a week back.

[Mr_Stabby]

I dont think its the repetition thats holding it back. Id be happy if there was the same obstacle course type or whatever generic contest every week with minor alterations ofc, what im not happy with are usually the rules and judges. First off what you never see in rules is ruling out "algodoo physics" ie the stuff that only works by exploiting algodoos shortcomings and bears no relation to reality. What this does is oversimplifying the most complex and interesting mechanisms such as stabilizers, propulsion, weaponry etc. making all other ways(you know the ones algodoo was designed to simulate) obsolete. If we could get that out of the way suddenly everything that algodoo is capable of melds together into a platform that has alot of options(from mechanical to thyme) while still being challenging, heck we could redo most of the old contests with just that rule and it be a whole new challenge. As for the judges - most guys who make contest either rule out thyme or cant appreciate whats been done with it, for example i had a 3 link weighted inverse kinematics chain built in thyme that got less scripting score then a box that changes colors.

k that little rant aside what i was gonna say is that the people qualified to make and judge contests just dont do it or do it too rarely for various reasons(?), for example i myself am super occupied trolling half the forums on the internet.

[Chronos]

Well I got some pretty good feedback on my contest...

The problem is that there aren't many well-known/great people making the contests, and because they aren't very popular, the contest is looked down upon.

[Mystery]

The cutting edge now relies on thyme. Literally all of the latest break throughs in Algodoo science have been thyme. Not Thyme based, not thyme related just Thyme.

Alot of contests don't allow thyme (I hate this), it has become (False) Common knowledge that anything made with thyme is unoriginal. As thyme is like the ultimate short cut. This is not true, not even almost you can be original in thyme. This is the reason my teleporter scene can beat mathematical marvels like K-Bro's amazing laser cutter

Robotic Arm v1.0 [mouse controlled]

KarateBrot

Rating:
Filesize: 252.14 kB
Comments: 22
Ratings: 43

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If you look at the codes in my scene you will realize that they are so simple most Phundametalist could understand them, if you look at K-bros laser cutter you will realize the codes are so complicated you will kind of doubt the auther understood them him self, seriously have a look at it, this gives me head aches just looking at it .

[Dakta]

@Mystery: All of us who passed through Geometry easily understand the triangulation that is going on in the robotic arm scene. You just have yet to take that course in mathematics, and so it is all gibberish to you. Don't worry, you'll get there eventually.

Also, about fear of Thyme, you yourself once said that Thyme was basically the devil incarnate and the ultimate shortcut and all that shit you just denounced. I am glad to see you have realized what an amazing tool Thyme is, but it makes you look like a bit of a hypocrite. No offense, but it does.


@Frank: I think all the main problems have been covered here. it is a combination of inexperienced users posting contests, lack of participation because of that (or lack of interest), fear of repetition, fear of Thyme, fear of simulation exploits, etc.

Like EVERYONE who has posted here, I would LOVE it if every week there was a new obstacle course challenge. That would be fun. I think it would be awesome if someone spend a while and took the best elements from all the races and courses and vehicle challenges out there and compiled them into one large challenge, and took entries. Then, they could evaluate the entries and make changes where things were easiest, gradually making the challenge harder and harder and forcing entrants to every week get the new version and improve their vehicle to meet the new challenge. THAT would be a contest I would participate in, every week, for as long as it ran.

@Chronos: People got a good response because your contest was original enough and well crafted enough, and you well known enough.

@Others: I think recycling old contests from the Phunland forum is a great idea. There's a lot of awesome contests over there that couldn't reach their fullest potential because of Phun's limitations.

[Frank]

Hmmm.... Making a walker course. Not gonna be one of my 1km supertracks, but I'm trying to set it at a difficulty people will enjoy and add some cool/fun obstacles.

[Mystery]

@Mystery: All of us who passed through Geometry easily understand the triangulation that is going on in the robotic arm scene. You just have yet to take that course in mathematics, and so it is all gibberish to you. Don't worry, you'll get there eventually.

Also, about fear of Thyme, you yourself once said that Thyme was basically the devil incarnate and the ultimate shortcut and all that shit you just denounced. I am glad to see you have realized what an amazing tool Thyme is, but it makes you look like a bit of a hypocrite. No offense, but it does.

I said that Thyme ruined the dynamics of Phun. There is nothing that can be done about that. Rather then swimming against the current i go with it.

And you completely missed the message of my post (You seem only to read it for some excuse to try and insult me and your trying very hard).
I know you like things to be dumbed down for you (Your love for Apple proves this) so i will reiterate it for you.

Thyme still requires creativity.
Knowing thyme doesn't automatically grant you voodoo powers to make your scenes awesome.

[Chronos]

But, Mystery, most of the things you can do with Thyme can only be done one way, with the same code. However, most mechanical things that be done hundreds of different ways. Yes, Thyme requires creativity, but only to think of what you want to make. Typing in a certain line of code used by many other people isn't very creative, now it is?

[Mystery]

Name me one thing that can only be done one way

Besides it not about the codes individually but it is how it is used.

For an example think about Method X
This simple line of code has been used in so many different ways. From Boosters to Fixating circles to a "we love katamari" scene. It has been used in so many unique individual ways.

[Dakta]

@Mystery: All of us who passed through Geometry easily understand the triangulation that is going on in the robotic arm scene. You just have yet to take that course in mathematics, and so it is all gibberish to you. Don't worry, you'll get there eventually.

Also, about fear of Thyme, you yourself once said that Thyme was basically the devil incarnate and the ultimate shortcut and all that shit you just denounced. I am glad to see you have realized what an amazing tool Thyme is, but it makes you look like a bit of a hypocrite. No offense, but it does.

I said that Thyme ruined the dynamics of Phun. There is nothing that can be done about that. Rather then swimming against the current i go with it.

And you completely missed the message of my post (You seem only to read it for some excuse to try and insult me and your trying very hard).
I know you like things to be dumbed down for you (Your love for Apple proves this) so i will reiterate it for you.

Thyme still requires creativity.
Knowing thyme doesn't automatically grant you voodoo powers to make your scenes awesome.

Wait, what WAS the message of your post? That your teleporter scene is more awesome than an amazing laser cutting mouse controlled multi joint robotic arm? And all this from a guy who doesn't even understand parabolas? I am highly doubtful.

From what I can make of your 8 sentence post, it seems to me that you're trying to say that all the cool stuff being done now is Thyme. Which is total bull, but that's not my point. It also seems that you're gloating about your teleporter, which is arrogant and off-topic, but that isn't my point either.

My point in this post right here, right now, is to try and show you how arrogant, fallacious, and downright stupid that post came out.

Let's start by analyzing your first post. Oh wait, we already did (see above). And then my response, where I simply stated what was going on with your lack of understanding of the robotic arm code, and where I pointed out a bit of a conflicting statement you made about Thyme. Nothing rude, insulting, or otherwise out of place there.

Your response to that was to bash Thyme, avoid the whole topic of my post, conflict with your own statements, throw in an entirely unnecessary (rude, and offtopic) insult about my choice of computer, whine about me always trying to insult you (I did nothing of the sort in that post, as anyone here can see), and proceed to write some bold text about Thyme.

You have failed not only to understand a very simple, polite, to the point post, but also the unspoken and written forum etiquette. You DO NOT go bringing arguments against other posters based on their opinions that have absolutely no relevance to the current post. In this case, you are using my choice of Apple computers in a pathetic and immature ad hominem attack on my simple post about why you probably don't understand the mathematics involved in KarateBrot's robotic arm.


I would spend the time to entirely deconstruct your arguments in the computer thread and break them down into the successive logical fallacies that they are, but it is getting late and that is the topic for another post.

Now can someone please read through everything here and tell me wether or not my posts make sense?

[Mr_Stabby]

But, Mystery, most of the things you can do with Thyme can only be done one way

there are definitely more ways then just one. just like with mechanics there is always that one way that is perfect for the situation, the difference is that in thyme that one - the best way to do the task is just easyer to perceive.

[davidz40]

I always try to make some synergy between mechanics and thyme. I rarely use Thyme as shortcut, for me it's mainly a tool to change physical object properties on the fly, spawn things, do some calculations.
Btw there are still many interesting inventions in phun/algodoo that doesn't use thyme. I'm still investigating the way how lasers create huge flashes of light when hitting certain high refractive index polygons.