New Kid in Town

2017-01-02

eagles-usa-hotel-california-1977At Sokoban-Online.de a brand new solver was introduced in the middle of december. Sokolution made by Florent Diedler. A hitherto unknown name in Sokoban.
Test results for Sokolution can be found at Sokobano.de. Sokolution performs only second to the still ruling Takaken solver.
Not bad for a newcomer!

Sokolution is a plugin. That means it need a Sokoban player to work.
Download Sokolution from Diedlers homepage.

Install Sokolution with YASC

  1. Put your download, SokolutionPlugin_v1.53t_ext.dll, in the folder C:\Users\Yourname\Documents\Sokoban\Sokoban YASC\Plugins
  2. Open YASC and go to Tools>Solver
  3. Click “Browse”. Go to the folder mentioned in 1. and choose the dll for Sokolution
  4. Thats all. Now click on the dropdownbox with the text YASS 2.xxx and you find you have a new solver: Sokolution v1.053t

Install Sokolution with Sokoban++

  1. Rightclick the icon for Sokoban++ and choose “Open file folder”. Copy SokolutionPlugin_v1.53t_ext.dll to the folder “Solvers”
  2. Restart Sokoban++ and choose Level>Solvers and you will find Sokolution v1.053t

There is no helpfile for Sokolution but using the solver a bit I learned:
Sokolution doesn’t accept cyclic levels.
Sokolution is limited to 64 boxes, maximal size 40×40 and maximal 255 floors.

By the way the limits for Takaken 7.22 are:
Takaken doesn’t accept cyclic levels.
Takaken is limited to 64 boxes and maximal size 50×50.

I wanted to try Sokolution and tested it together with all the solvers you would want to use (To my knowledge. Please correct me if I am wrong)  with my collection “Sokobet”. The solvers were allowed one hour before time out.

 

Sokolution  YASS JSoko Takaken
A U U U U
B U U S U
C S S S S
D S S S S
E S S S S
F S S S S
G U U U U
H S U S S
I* S S S S
J S S S S
K S S S S
L* S S S S
M S S S S
N* S S U U
O U U S S
P S S S S
Q* S S S S
R U U U U
S* S S S S
T S S U S
U* S S S S
V* S S S S
W U U U S
X U U U S
Y U U U U
Z S S S S
Æ U U S U
Ø S S S U
Å S S S S
Solved 20 19 21 21

S = solved. U = unsolved.

*) Cyclic levels. In all the levels the first move is an inevitable push so I just changed the levels a bit to test them with all the solvers.

Many of the levels were solved within less than 2 seconds by all the solvers. Once in a while some solvers really took some time but eventually got the job done.

Not unexpectedly none of the solvers could handle A, G and Y.

Only JSoko solved B and Æ.

Only Takaken solved W and X.

Much to my surprise JSoko not just solved, but also just needed 0,4 seconds to figure out how to solve Æ. A simpler solution I didn´t recognize when I constructed the level. Actually Æ can be sharpened conciderably.

Sokolution tends to use lots of moves for its solutions. Probably due to different methods to find a solution. But the number of moves and pushes really aren’t very interesting.  Using an optimizer the results will become much closer.

The conclusion: A new high class Sokoban solver. So now you need to use 4 solvers to get the best results.

Did you remember to download the last version of YASC a few months ago? One feature you might like is the possibility to put a grid on your skin. Go to Settings>Graphics>Board>Grid and set enabled=yes.

You will also get YASS version 2.138 which boosts the number of solved levels in the classic XSokoban collection to 85, just one short of Takaken. Getting there next time?