Introducing Hyperspeedcube, a new puzzle simulator with way too many features

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Andrew Farkas

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Sep 3, 2022, 1:38:19 AM9/3/22

to hypercubing

Hello, hypercubers!

After many months of work, I am excited to announce version 1.0 of Hyperspeedcube, a 3D and 4D twisty puzzle simulator with all these features and more:

- n^3 and n^4 face-turning twisty puzzles, where 1 ≤ n ≤ 9

- New human-readable log file format using standard notation

- MC4D log file compatibility

- Customizable keyboard and mouse controls

- Multiple keybind presets

- Interactive keybinds reference

- Piece hiding, with user-defined presets

- Marking pieces with shift+click

- Geometrically-accurate transparency

- Blindfold mode

- Eight different turn metrics

- All the visual customization you could ask for, and then some

Click here to download the latest release for Windows, macOS, or Linux on GitHub.

Hyperspeedcube's new features affect nearly every aspect of competitive hypercubing. Please weigh in with your feelings on these matters, especially on the categories that you find personally relevant!

Blindfolded solving

Hiding pieces by color is clearly cheating for blindfolded solves. When enabling blindfold mode, Hyperspeedcube removes the ability to filter by color. Filtering by piece type is still allowed, in case someone finds that helpful.

Marking pieces is currently allowed. Should this be allowed? Should marked pieces be cleared when entering blindfold mode? In some sense, marking pieces is analogous to resting your finger on a piece of a physical puzzle to track its motion, which is obviously allowed during 3D blindfolded solves. I'm not well-versed in blindfolded solving, so I don't feel qualified to have a strong opinion on this subject. Whatever the consensus among blindfolded solvers is, I can implement those constraints in software and/or we can simply enforce them as a community.

Fewest Moves Challenge

Hyperspeedcube introduces several new twist metrics, whose effects on FMC solving warrant a separate email thread.

Speedsolving

Keyboard controls and piece filtering are both unprecedented in hypercube speedsolving, and also warrant their own email thread.

Conclusion

Please let me know what you think of Hyperspeedcube, both what you like and what could use improvement. I'd like to make it as beginner-friendly as possible while also providing advanced speedsolving tools.