Message #3618

From: Roice Nelson <roice3@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] Remembering Andrey Astrelin
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2017 00:24:30 -0600

Doing a memorial solve is a really lovely idea, Nan. I’ve always wanted to
finish one of the MHT633 puzzles, so I started anew on the 12-colored
version after reading your email. It will take me some time, but as you
say, this is a nice way to remember Andrey.

So far, I think the 12C puzzle is a natural choice for those who have
solved the 3^4. It’s a lot like that puzzle in that it has 3 layers of
3-dimensional faces: a bottom face, 9 center section faces, and 2 opposing
top faces. The fact that each face has two opposites reminds me of the
Klein Quartic puzzle in MagicTile, and will provide an extra challenge when
finishing up piece types. Working layer-by-layer, one will almost
certainly end up with some pieces that need to be moved to a non-adjacent
face.

As usual for me, I’m tackling it by piece type, doing 2C pieces (9 per
face, 54 total), 3C pieces (27 per face, 108 total), and finally 4C pieces
(18 per face, 54 total). Hopefully I counted those right. I’m finding
Andrey’s setup move and piece finding functionality really helpful. I
haven’t used macros yet, but I think they will become important later.

The most challenging aspect so far is getting used to looking out into
hyperbolic space. Everything is so "squashed" together and pieces are
often occluded by material in front, but I’m getting more used to it. I
like having the "Area Center" slider setting mostly to the left. I haven’t
done any solving in the Poincaré Ball view yet, but I might try that some
too.

I’ll report back when I’m done (at least weeks, maybe longer since I’m not
rushing). And if others want to try, you can download MHT633 here
<http://cardiizastrograda.com/astr/M3dHT633/>.

Roice

On Sun, Jan 15, 2017 at 1:06 AM, mananself@gmail.com [4D_Cubing] <
4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

>
>
>
> These two days, I went through some old posts by Andrey. Those about the
> 120-cell Mirror Z (120Z) reminded me of a long and challenging solve.
>
> I’ve been thinking about doing or making something to remember Andrey. I
> may do a memorial solve on Magic Puzzle Ultimate (MPUlt). I’m thinking
> about 48-cell FT Mirror Z. The number of pieces is about half of 120-cell.
> The parity situation can be pretty challenging, which will give me enough
> time to think about him.
>
> I encourage everyone to try some puzzles created by Andrey. My favorite is
> MPUlt, which has a large collection of different shapes in 4D. The latest
> binary (v1.53) is here:
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/xm5py39jec0nl1q/MPUlt1.53.zip
>
> His latest puzzle definition file is here:
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/b96ce6cbau4txd6/MPUlt_puzzles.txt
>
> Nan
>
> —In 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com, <roice3@…> wrote :
>
> Thank you for letting the group know Nan. Andrey influenced me so much,
> and this news is very sad. I will miss him.
>
> I have many memories of Andrey, but thought I would share a few of my
> favorites…
>
> When he released MHT633, Andrey did not even tell us what it was - he let
> us guess! That was a fun way to announce it, and I still recall the
> excitement and joy investigating that amazing puzzle abstraction. The
> surprises were wonderful. It introduced me to exotic hyperbolic honeycombs
> for the first time, which have held my interest ever since, and he
> subsequently shared many further insights about them with me. To date, his
> MHT633 is still the coolest puzzle in my mind, abstracting so many
> different features of the original Rubik’s cube. I like the way Andrey
> would blow my mind by conjuring up something way beyond my current thinking.
>
> I loved reading Andrey’s emails for all their insights. Often I would
> need to read them a number of times. When he turned his attention to
> MagicTile, he noticed all sorts of things I hadn’t considered. He pointed
> out how one of the {8,3} 6C puzzles was combinatorially the Rubik’s cube in
> disguise. He had thoughts on what colorings would work and helped me map
> out identifications for the {8,3} 24C. He appreciated the beauty of
> certain puzzles and encouraged their creation - for example, he requested
> the hemi-Megaminx and knew it would be a special puzzle. He ended up
> digging into the configuration files and building some of his own. He
> had a great mind.
>
> For those who were friends with Andrey on facebook, folks are leaving
> messages on his page here
> <https://www.facebook.com/astr0073/posts/1650043985296523>.
>
> Roice
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 10:24 AM, mananself@… [4D_Cubing] <
> 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> I was so saddened to hear the tragic news that the member of our group,
> the creator of many high dimensional puzzles, lost his battle to cancer. It
> is a huge loss to his family and our little community.
>
> Andrey is the most creative, productive, talented, and passionate person I
> know in this group. Many of us played the puzzles he created and are
> inspired by them. Snippets from the MC4D website:
>
> "In 2010, Andrey Astrelin joined our community and immediately broke
> several of our most cherished records. Not satisfied, he then wrote and
> released his own seven dimensional version! MagicCube7D solves the problem
> of visualizing such a high-dimensional object by starting with our
> now-familiar 4D projection and then partially unrolling the last three
> dimensions using a clever fractal-like design. Not just one puzzle this
> amazing piece of code supports all 12 cubes from 34 through 57. Oh and then
> he went and solved the 37."
>
> "Magic Puzzle Ultimate also from Andrey is his version of MagicCube4D. The
> user interface is quite different and some experienced users prefer it. It
> includes some unique and special puzzles such as the much desired and very
> difficult 24-cell, the 48-cell, the 600-cell along with deep-cut truncated,
> runcinated, rectified, and snub versions of many of these plus some 5D and
> 6D puzzles."
>
> "Magic Hyperbolic Tile {6,3,3} from Andrey is the 3D version of Roice’s
> MagicTile because it lives in a hyperbolic 3-space. This puzzle turns out
> to be devilishly hard but also gloriously beautiful to behold."
>
> I enjoyed discussing geometry and puzzles with Andrey in this group. His
> great ideas and deep understandings enlightened us.
>
> Andrey loved puzzles so much. His family told me, that "he deals with
> puzzles till the last days."
>
> Let’s take a moment to remember Andrey. To me, Andrey moved to higher
> dimensions. I’m sending my deepest condolences to his family.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Nan Ma
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