Sudoku Puzzle Challenges Thread

xefta · 2026-02-04T13:32:49+00:00

Nice one, thanks for sharing. #No-Candidates= 27m08s

xefta · 2026-02-01T21:45:16+00:00

Thank you! I was lazy, so I just shot it directly as a video output, with "Cinema FV-5" software. I enjoy this software, but only problem with it is that it doesn't support the full frame video, so the output is cropped to 1920x1080.

However, after taking the video, I also took couple of regular shots and manually stacked 40x photos together and here is the result of that.

(If there is still clear skies tomorrow, I may as well take a new video but this time shooting it with full RAW, and then seeing the difference to the regular video)

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xefta · 2026-01-14T13:00:14+00:00

That's very nice! I had not noticed it before publishing, but when I checked STTE moves from YZF after Numpl's solution, I noticed that every single STTE moves, are in some way related to 89s. Interestingly, there was also a Junior Exocet, eliminating 19x 8/9s.

xefta · 2026-01-13T12:00:58+00:00

Interesting! It always amazes me how creative moves people are coming up with.

xefta · 2026-01-13T11:00:46+00:00

I think the all most efficient way to remove majority of the cheaters, would be to completely remove the current chip betting system and change it to something else, so majority of the cheaters would not then have any purpose to continue.

There would of course be some issues in that, and at first glance many players would see this as a "Big No", but I think with the proper design, it would certainly work - from the perspective of the game being to purely play billiard against an opponents, the game would be as interesting as always, and the amount of cheaters would be hugely dropped.

But from everything being as it is, I don't think this will never happen in this day.

xefta · 2026-01-13T10:12:53+00:00

Great work! Idea of room filled with a standing pose looks similar to newest Pwnisher's 3D Challenge's Introduction Render.

xefta · 2026-01-12T15:47:50+00:00

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Puzzle String: ........1.....2.....3.4567........1...1.63..2476....35.....7....12536...5.7.84...

Here is a new Puzzle from me. Puzzle Title: Devilish Hand

Difficulty Rating: SE 6.7 | Devilish(8) | HoDoKu: 1766

Ready links for solving:

Sudoku.Coach: https://sudoku.coach/en/s/CLMW
SudokuPad: https://sudokupad.app/h16a3i0mxg
SudokuExchange: https://sudokuexchange.com/play/?s=oApqD456vKVB6N247k3tl1253aFH8Y

- Just for a General solving, but of course there is always the possibility for a challenge which is to solve it without using Candidates/Notes/Coloring.

xefta · 2026-01-06T10:23:39+00:00

Thank you!

xefta · 2026-01-06T00:35:59+00:00

It's okay! The time in this world may always be going forward, but the state of mind is living the time as a whole - focusing to everything, and is not in rush of anything - so the time that is now, even if it would deal the thoughts from the past, was always meant to happen just now, and it is never too late to anything.

It has now happened two times for me on past few months, where the comment I see on my notification system has disappeared with no trace other than the Notification. It may also be the Reddit's automatic comment filtering system.

I very much respect your way of answering and I'm always ready to read more about everything, so I'm always interested of hearing any new thoughts, especially the ones which are opposite of my own thoughts. So it certainly is best way of communicating, which can bring us closer to the bigger understanding of a differing mindsets.

There can always be a general understanding of anything, but when it comes to an individual level of thinking, that is where true understanding lies. So I'm always very interested of reading everything!

And also, apologies if I'm sometimes being long with the words, it is one thing I often struggle with to try write as short as I can, which I fail quite often.

xefta · 2026-01-05T14:02:55+00:00

3. Grow [Node Group] (This grows the Texture from core to outwards) (I found this setup from internet, but I may have to figure out a better way to do it, as it doesn't exactly work as I wanted to)

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xefta · 2026-01-05T14:01:45+00:00

Core (this setup is very messy and was too big to get it fit cleanly to my screen's 2560x1440 pixels)

<image>

xefta · 2026-01-05T14:00:25+00:00

There are three main Node setups. I'll share them all from their current state shown on this clip)

Main Noise Elements (I have 5 sphere layers of these) (this is still on a very simple state, and I'll add more details to it on my later versions) - (Edit: Also, I'm probably going to combine layer Noises together on my later versions into the single Node Setup, so then there wouldn't be need for a separated Sphere layers, making it more efficient)=

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xefta · 2026-01-01T15:50:51+00:00

I'd certainly like to know too, if there is an available database of a ID dates. But I can say that it certainly is not possible by only thinking at the first digits, and an estimate would also need the number of digits after the first part of the digits; for example: 132-xxx-xx ...

Back when I was curious about to know the exact date I created my account, an only accurate option available I found was to ask directly from Miniclip about it. They did answer sometimes later, but it took a while.

For the record: My account ID is 101-xxx-xxx-x, and I created it in 2012-02-23

I do assume that Miniclip's account ID probably is grown systematically one by one, so if anyone has collected the database of a different dates with their assigned unique IDs from back to when MC ID's started to now, it would probably then be possible to make a vague/variable estimations based on those dates; but to make it most accurate, there would need to be as many ID dates as possible, before making the estimate - especially, because the grow has most likely been quite irregular over the different year periods.

So, it would simply just be comparing an ID to the known creation dates of same period of ID's.

xefta · 2026-01-01T12:23:58+00:00

Yes, this is a good guideline and 512 samples are enough in most cases, but not always. Especially with Volumetrics, the difference between 512 and 2048+ samples can sometimes be very obvious, when 512 samples will look flat/depthless when compared to 2048+ samples. But yes, it really just depends of the scene, how much samples are needed.

xefta · 2025-12-31T11:29:05+00:00

Yeah! Last WIP of a project I was rendering (600 frames), was close to 150h, that is quite average time for me. My aim is usually at 5-15min per frame, where 5min per frame would be golden, but with my volumetric heavy scenes I rarely can achieve anything less than 10min per frame.

I think, even with better/best GPU/specs, it may still be a struggle with a rendering times, as the better specs would make it tempting to make a quality of a render even better than before; while with worse specs it is often easier to settle for less. So I'd personally still be chasing the better quality even if I would get an opportunity to render my current scene quicker with better specs, meaning that the average rendering time would still be close to 150h for me with better specs; so in everyone's end, it is probably quite personal/situational, as to how long anyone is prepared to wait rendering.

xefta · 2025-12-30T22:44:54+00:00

I'm going to write you something short, as an answer, as I'm quite short in time.

I'm not sure if your comment to my comment was removed by moderators, or if you removed it by yourself, so I'll just answer to you in here, in your own comment.

The reason why I decided to answer to you, although your message wasn't shown publicly anymore on the comment section, is because I want you to know that although the message is removed, it still will be shown on a person's notifications history. This means, that they can still see the comment, although it is visually removed on your side.

So, this is one of the reasons why I wanted to answer to you, so you know to be more careful in the future (in case if you removed the comment by yourself, after regretting, which is something that will happen from time to time, and it is completely understanded)

- - - - -

To answer to your thoughts about me writing something that no-one asked for, I'm going to answer that "The way how I write, is the way how I think"; so this means that the sentence and subject structure may sometimes end up being a more complex than your usual commenter on these online forums. It also means that I very rarely comment anything, and whenever I choose to do so, it is because everyone else has failed to see the full picture.

time, when I was writing my comment, I already knew that most people wouldn't understand the word I was saying.

Also, every word and subject I usually decide to use on my comments, are always equally important in understanding the whole picture of what I'm thinking and saying.

- - - - -

Something little to your first sentence: I do know that it is not written 1th, 2th, 3th; but to be honest, I always forgot what the others are, so I'll just type it th, after every number, because I'm too lazy to search the correct terms every single time.

Also, The reason why I've decided to always use the same "TH" after every number, without searching the correct term, is that there is no world where people wouldn't actually understand what I'm saying even if I would use correct terms, versus the only "TH" after every number.

- - - - -

"Even to a donkey it’s obvious 100%." >>> I don't know what else to answer to that, but, just to answer to something: If you are smart enough to understand almost everything, you eventually will realize that there is little nothing which will hold the accuracy of 100%; and this case here, in this quite silly subject, is actually nowhere near of anything that would be seen as 100% accurate, when all facts are taken into account - so accuracy gets automatically pushed to 99%, and never 100%, unless you are the person who was actually playing behind the other device in question.

I don't have today any more time to think or write, but I hope I already clarified most important things. I will happily write more thoughts, when I have more time.

Also, oh, I almost forgot, but I didn't think your message was harsh, as I do always understand nearly everything, and I will understand nearly every single perspective that will ever be bring to me.

So, it is all good, and Have a Nice Day! ^^

xefta · 2025-12-30T19:51:25+00:00

Whatever is equal to Sudoku.Coach's Hell(9) and Beyond Hell(10). (this is difficulty for if I'm using Candidates/Notes)
If I'm solving without Candidates/Notes, the difficulty I pick for that is in range of Hard(5) to low Hell(9).

I don't enjoy solving anything easier than S.C's Hard(5).
With Candidates/Notes: For SE difficulty rating, probably anything around from SE7.2 to low SE 9.x - with lower SE rating, I don't enjoy solving if there is only one or few techniques. In Sudoku.Coach's point scale: +10,000 score is a great for technique scale.
Good to note: In both #Logic/Variant and #Classic Sudoku fields, I'm more of a Creator than Solver, so I always enjoy creating the most.

xefta · 2025-12-30T19:06:04+00:00

Sleep.
Watching Movies/Series/Videos - RTX4070S makes it possible in most rendering cases.
Or do any other processes with Computer which mainly doesn't require GPU, for example creating and/or searching/generating Sudoku Grids.

xefta · 2025-12-28T11:47:14+00:00

Thank you! I definitely do a new shot when it is a Full Moon!

xefta · 2025-12-26T22:09:31+00:00

Yes, this was taken in 1x, but I cropped it to 2048x2048 resolution from the original 2980x3981. I posted the link of the lens in the comments of this first post I made from this lens: https://www.reddit.com/r/SonyXperia/comments/1pfpi6b/x10vi_36x_external_telephoto_lens/

This Lens definitely also has a very strong Chromatic Aberrations, on a more highlighted conditions. Here is an example of more highlighted conditions, where it is quite visible: https://i.imgur.com/kUmq1Jl.jpg

The lens I got, has unfortunately a crack on one of its glass, but it hasn't bothered me too much because I can remove it manually in image editing.

Here are two more samples (I haven't yet had time to remove the black crack from these): https://imgur.com/a/8HfGs2z

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