I have an idea for a game that povers can play where one matches wits
against another for coming up with the best algorithm to solve the
following "golf" hole-in-one problem:

1. The course is an isosurface bounded by a sphere {0,600}
2. You start (tee off) at <-450, 5 units above surface, 0>
3. The hole is a cylinder of radius 15 cut into the surface at <450,0,0>

    or difference{
                        [isosurface]
                        cylinder {<450,-1000,0>,<450,1000,0>,15}
                        }
4. Specify a vector to shoot your ball at, (a good first guess is
<8,0,0>)
5. The pov program will then animate your ball as it bounces across the
surface, and input back to your algorithm (INC) the closest it came to
the hole. This information is in the form of the vector from the closest
point on trajectory to the hole.
6. Your algorithm will use the information to choose a new trajectory.
7. The loop continues until one player's or the other's INC makes it in
the hole, limited to say 20 or 50 tries...
8. Your ball must fall in by the, say, 250th frame or it is a
stalemate.  Your ball must also bounce at least once!

Players could choose a course of nine holes to play, with things ranging
from black holes to mindless putt-putt courses.
An animation could then be made from the tee off, the hole, etc.
The person who "wins" the most holes wins the match!

I've got the mechanics of the game down, as demonstrated in the
following animation.  Here I had 200 balls of varying trajectories shot
at the target, and they bounce around on the surface. One finds the
hole!  The animation actually starts at the 150th frame.

Now I'm going to work on the feedback loop given to the INC and my first
entry for the algorithm. At that time, I'll set up a web page with the
files.

Would I just be playing this by myself?

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