The Problem (Preamble)

Many would agree that tuning WIFI has always been fiddly. First, it had to be done by manually matching up particles using HEAT/COOL, or using the console, which was difficult if not time consuming. The PROP tool made it a fair bit easier, by introducing a point and click way to set variables. However, we are still bearing the inconvenience of having to explicitly set the values of particle attributes, in a way which is still relatively slow, and to remember what channels we are using to link which particles. A way to solve both of these problems is quite simple.

The Solution (Important Bit)

The best way would be to include a tool, possibly called TUNE, or a set of tools, that would allow the user to:

• Visualise the links between all WIFI on similar channels
• Sample the channel of an existing WIFI particle, perhaps highlighting the links of that channel
• Set other WIFI particles to the sampled channel, by clicking on them.

Finally, when WIFI is placed anew, it would obtain a random channel (perhaps holding a key could restrict them to the last placed or sampled channel). That would completely eliminate the need to remember WIFI channels, and mean that WIFI could be specifically tuned without wasting time. Whether this would be implemented as a single tool, or a 'toolbox', and how the functionality would be distributed, is a topic for discussion.

(WIFI could still be edited with the PROP tool, of course)

Further Development

Firstly, as HEAT/COOL would no longer be useful for setting channels, 'temp' need not be used to set the 'tmp' attribute, and all modifications could be done directly.

Also, If the selection and assignment of channels is trivialised, it would be completely practical to increase the number of channels available. It should be easy to automatically fix old saves. Combined with random channel assignment, this could potentially reduce WIFI clashes with stamps.

Finally,

I do know a little bit about programming, but I don't know anything about how the Powder Toy is structured, so I may be wrong about how easy/difficult things would be to implement. How or Whether these ideals might be realised is a matter of practicality and minimal change to the code, so I hope the developers can give some insight on that.

@boxmein (View Post)

Thanks for telling me that.
Though I think it would be nicer still if we could see all links, then highlight/isolate a channel's links.
Your idea is good, but at the moment you can't zoom while drawing a line. In fact, that would be a good change too, useful for any drawing tool!

@Potbelly (View Post)

If I interpreted correctly, it might be difficult to click that box ;) while that would be awesome for creating already linked WIFI, we'd still need to remember channels. Perhaps holding shift or control could cause new particles to be on the same channel as the last?