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Mazette

mazette.net

33 pointsawame34 comments

Popped in expecting JS code procedurally generating and solving the mazes on the fly, but it looks like the page just pulls animated GIFs of pre-generated maze solutions?

There are only two GIFs in the `/mazes/L40` directory, so now I'm lost as to how the query parameters in the `img src` determine which maze solution is used.

I feel cheated now

The query parameters don't affect which solution is used. They are only used to force the browser to reload the gif from the server each time, bypassing the browser cache. The only thing that determines what maze gif you get is probably some server-side code that chooses between mazes/L40/L40-01.gif and mazes/L40/L40-02.gif with each page load.

Ahhh that makes sense, thanks. For some reason I could have sworn I saw multiple solutions for a single maze, which is why I jumped to the query parameters having something to do with the solution picked.

If you enjoyed that, you'll probably also enjoy the "Maze Generation" section of Mike Bostock's Visualizing Algorithms talk: https://bost.ocks.org/mike/algorithms/#maze-generation

very nice, thank you.

This is great, I've bumped into this a while ago but lost the link. The maze generated algorithm gradually transformed into a tidy tree is very insightful.

There's also a whole book dedicated to maze generating and solving: Jamis Buck's "Mazes for Programmers" https://pragprog.com/titles/jbmaze/mazes-for-programmers/

I really wonder what brings someone to design a logo and register a domain name for a site that displays one out of two GIFs, randomly. Is it some kind of "how mesmerized can we make HN" performance art?

Exactly!

Love it :-)

Share it! Art is for everyone :-)

It actually passes the exit because it's not making the "turn" to it. So it tries a bunch of other paths first before the time comes to try the turn towards the exit.

It had me pulling my hair

Funfact : in the south-east of France, "mazette" is an interjection used to express astonishment or incredulity. It is used alone, as a sentence : "He is a billionaire. Mazette!".

Maybe the same root as the Italian 'ammazza!' ? Which literally means 'kill', but it's not a violent expression.

I can find one etyomoly for "mazette" used as a noun, but it doesn't fit very well to the use of the interjection. Maybe it's linked the same root as "maze" and old english "amazian" (to confuse/perplex).

Here's are some more interesting maze algorithms with proper live demos: http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/under-the-hood/

This one is really nice to watch: http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2015/1/15/better-recursive-divis...

I'm not sure how kosher this is as it's my own project, but this reminds me of a project I did for college back then:

https://arianv.com/post/cs-180-pathfinding/

It's a python/jupyter project though that's just rendered into html. It's over-engineered and over-explained :D

I kept clicking on it thinking it would generate a path to where I cliked.

Did the author of the site really buy a domain, point it at a web server, and add SSL, for this? Two GIFs?

10 now

The algorithm:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backtracking

Is it just me or are there only two different mazes?

Seems so.

https://www.mazette.net/mazes/L40/

It's loading one of two GIFs from this directory.

I just saw the line ignoring the exit and continue to search for it, that was... Unexpected!

it's a breadth-first search that takes every right it can. the exit was on the left, so it only tries it when all the "earlier" rights have been exhausted.

This is absolutely a depth-first search, not BFS.

Yes, obviously (facepalms). Thanks :-)

In Italian, mazzetta is a roll of money - usually used as 'bribe'.

This reminds me of Matthias Wandel's mouse mazes.

I feel cheated but satisfying to watch

What's interesting about this?

This was Zen to watch.

Isn't it

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