Instuctions for Magic Puzzle Ultimate

How to work with MPUlt

Navigation:

For navigation in 4D use mouse:
Left button dragging - rotation around the point of view
Right button up/down - 4D sliding forward/backward
Right button left/right - rotation around the axis of view
Shift+Left button - 4D rotation ("3D pan")
Ctrl+Left button up/down - zoom to/from the point of view
Ctrl+Right button up/down - change view angle
Ctrl+Left click to the cell - set point of view to the center of the face
5D and more puzzles are shown in projection to 4D. Camera position and screen orientation define first three coordinates, and you can change "depth" coordinate by clicking "Switch Dim" button.

Twists in 4D (cell turns):

Left click - rotate cell counter-clockwise
Right click - rotate cell clockwise

Twists in 4D (non-cell turns):

If twist axis is not cell-centered, you should use multiclick.
Multiclick twists work in the following way:
1. you select ridge/edge/vertex by click in it. If you click in cell that has rotational axis, use Left+Right click.
2. program highlights stickers that may be moved by the twist
3. you click some highlighted sticker
4. programs checks where it can go and highlights possible destinations
5. you click the destination sticker for your twists
6. if more than one twist is possible, and last clicked sticker may go to different places, program highlights them - and goes to previous step
7. if there is only one destination for last clicked sticker, but more than one twist is possible, program highlights stickers that have more than one destination - and go to step 3.

Twists in 5D and more:

There are only two types of axes in 5D and more: cell centered and vertex centered. To make a twist you click in some corner sticker. Left-click if you want cell rotation, and right-click for vertex-centered rotation. Program will use the sticker as the first sticker of the chain and highlight stickers where it can go after twists of the selected type. Continue from step 3 of the previous chapter.

Sticker search

If you left-click sticker with Shift key pressed program highlights all stickers of its piece. Shift-Right click temporarily changes color of the sticker (and all stickers of its destination cell) to white.

Color management

Every sticker has "rank" that is a number of cutting hyperplanes between this sticker and puzzle center. You may turn on and off visibility of stickers of the given rank. It may be done by checkboxes "R0", "R1", ..., "R11+" in the bottom of the control pane. If you want to change color of the cell, Ctrl-Right click any sticker of this color.

Macros in 4D

To create the macro in 4D ctrl-alt-left click some point in the outline of the cell. Better to select point in some face close to the vertex or to the middle of edge. This point will be the reference point for the macro. Then perform all macro twists and press "Ctrl-M". Program will ask about the macro name and enter it in the macro list.

To apply macro you should select it in the list. Then alt-click the reference point on the cell of the same type. Alt-left click will apply the macro, and alt-right click is for reversed macro.

Macros file can be saved and loaded, macros can be deleted or renamed.

Macros in 5D and more

... not implemented now. But you can remember some twists sequence and apply it to the same faces of the puzzle (e.g. it may be one twist) - see next section.

Temporary macros

If you want to remember some twist section and then apply it to the same stickers, use F7 and F8 keys: Shift-F7 starts block of twists, F7 closes it, and then F7 repeats twists from the block. For example, (A B C D)3 may be performed as "Shift-F7 A B C D F7 F7 F7". Shift-F8/F8 keys work with the second block.

Setup twists and commutators

If you make some twists before your favorite twists sequence (or before macro) and want to make them in reverse after that, do the following.

If you make [F1 A F2 B F4] sequence (where A and B are some twists sequences) it will be equivalent to [A B inv(A) inv(B)].

Blocks F1..F2 may be nested or delayed. For example, [F1 A F1 B F2 C F1 D F2 E F4 G F3 H F2 K F3] is equivalent to [A B C D E inv(D) inv(E) G inv(B) H K inv(A B C D E inv(D) inv(E) G inv(B) H)] :)

If you press F3 when the last block was not closed (i.e. [F1 A F3]) then F1 will be canceled. Also if you press F2 when the last block was closed but not applied, you "unblock" it. Last string in the right panel shows current state of the stack of blocks.

And more...

Open, Save, SaveAs commands load and save log file. There is no automatic save when program quits.
Reset restores puzzle to its original position
Undo/Redo work as usual. Undo for macro undoes all twists from the macro at once
Recalculate performs all twists made in solve from the beginning. It may be used to correct program errors that may happen during long solves. Perform this command before posting of your solution!
Optimize removes unnecessary twists from your solve. It is useful when you want to know number of twists.
Show Timer shows/hides timer that counts the elapsed time for the solve
Face Shrink and Sticker Size define shapes and positions of stickers
View Angle may be used to view more of space
Animation Speed: left position is for slow rotation, right is for fast
Light defines brightness of stickers

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