Among other things, "JWV" <jwv|at|planet.nl> wrote:

>> - Most real puzzles I've found have a lower density of "special" pieces,
>> meaning pieces which are *not* the typical shape:
>>      ___    ___
>>     |   |__|   |
>>    _|          |_
>>   |_            _|
>>     |    __    |
>>     |___|  |___|
>>
>> This density of "defects" could be adjusted with some parameters...
> 
> Could you explain this in a different way, i don't understand what you
> mean.

I'll try, though it's not so important :)

Many real puzzles are somewhat boring, with all pieces the same general 
shape (some of them even have all pieces exactly the same shape). This 
general shape consist on two bulges on two opposite sides and two holes on 
the other two opposite sites. There are, however, some pieces with 
"special" shapes, which deviate from the typical shape mentioned above (and 
shown in the ASCII picture). These "special" pieces or "defects" (since 
they make the overall shape non-periodic) can have:

 - three or even four bulges or holes.
 - two bulges in non-opposite sides (I don't remember having seen this).
 - a side (I have not seen more) without bulge or hole, just the "wavy" 
shape I described in my previous message.

Your puzzle shows the first two kinds of defect, but in a very high number, 
there are too many "special" pieces for a typical puzzle, I'd say. I 
suggested you could make this "density of defects" an adjustable parameter. 
When this parameter is 0, the puzzle would be perfect, completely regular, 
all pieces (except for the straight edges) exactly the same shape, as the 
the parameter increases, the number of "special" pieces increases as 
well... maybe something like this:

 0:   perfect puzzle: bulge to the left, bulge to the right, bulge to the 
left, bulge to right... and bulge down, bulge up, bulge down, bulge up...
 0.1: each bulge has a 10% probability of being inverted (changed from left 
to right or from up to down).
 0.5: the puzzle is completely chaotic, there's no regularity (maybe this is 
how you do it now?)
 1:   all bulges are inverted, so the puzzle is again regular, but 
different.

I don't know what's the structure of your macro right now, but unlike my 
first suggestion (in the previous post), this one should be no real problem 
(I guess). :)

-- 
light_source{9+9*x,1}camera{orthographic look_at(1-y)/4angle 30location
9/4-z*4}light_source{-9*z,1}union{box{.9-z.1+x clipped_by{plane{2+y-4*x
0}}}box{z-y-.1.1+z}box{-.1.1+x}box{.1z-.1}pigment{rgb<.8.2,1>}}//Jellby

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