petrak@'s mods forum

This thread is for any interesting small tidbits I find that aren't worthy of making an entire thread for. (Feel free to talk in the thread if you like - I'll be building an index of my posts here to make them easy to find while still allowing folks to talk.)


INDEX:

Optimized Archer's + Architect's raycast
Bit Selector
Mathematician's Raycast (different thread)

Optimized Archer's + Architect's raycast


The standard way of doing an "Archer's + Architect's" raycast (11 patterns):




Mind's Reflection, Compass' Purification, Mind's Reflection, Alidade's Purification, Archer's Distillation

Mind's Reflection, Compass' Purification, Mind's Reflection, Alidade's Purification, Architect's Distillation, Additive Distillation



An optimized version I figured out (9 patterns):





Mind's Reflection, Compass' Purification, Mind's Reflection, Alidade's Purification, Dioscuri Gambit

Archer's Distillation, Rotation Gambit II, Architect's Distillation, Additive Distillation

Bit Selector

Hexcasting's set operations do bitwise math if you apply them to numbers. Here's one practical way to use that in a hex.

Let's say you want a function which returns either True or False depending on what number you pass it, using this table:
0 = False
1 = False
2 = True
3 = True
4 = False
5 = True
6 = False
7 = True

First, you'll want to translate that table into binary, with bit 0 as the least significant bit (on the right). Then convert that number into decimal.

Binary: 10101100
Decimal: 172

From there, you can write some code that uses a bitmask to check whether the Nth bit of 172 is true or false.

Bit Selector (172)
num (selected bit) → bool




Numerical Reflection: 2, Jester's Gambit, Power Distillation, Numerical Reflection: 172
Intersection Distillation, Augur's Purification




If you'd rather not hardcode the number, you can simply omit it. In this case, you push the base number, then the number of the bit you want to check:

Bit Selector (Generalized)
num (base), num (selected bit) → bool




Numerical Reflection: 2, Jester's Gambit, Power Distillation
Intersection Distillation, Augur's Purification

This can be a powerful tool when used with Augur's Exaltation and Hermes'/Thoth's Gambit, though I'm sure other uses can be found.