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MOPT(6)                     DragonFly Games Manual                     MOPT(6)

NAME
       mopt - multiple constant optimizer

SYNOPSIS
       mopt

DESCRIPTION
       Mopt finds "optimal" combinations of scanning or bombing constants for
       corewar warriors. In contrast to other popular optimizers (optima,
       corestep) which optimize for a single step value, mopt is useful for
       optimizing complex bombing/scanning patterns of stones and cmp-
       scanners. The program asks for core size, target size, and up to 10
       increment/offset pairs.  "Increment" is the distance between two
       consecutive bombs/scans; "offset" is the position of the first
       bomb/scan relative to zero.  Increments and offsets can be simply
       numbers or "generators" that provide a stream of numbers. If at least
       one generator is specified, mopt will find the 20 best combinations of
       increment/offset pairs, otherwise it will report the score for the
       specified increment/offset combination.  Generators have a syntax
       similar to for-loops in the C language (see examples below) and use
       single letter variables A through Z. You don't have to use them in
       sequence, i.e. A for increment generator #1, B for offset generator #2
       etc..

EXAMPLES
       1) Suppose we have a stone:
               spl #A,<B
               add -1,1
               mov <-2,-2
               jmp -2
       and we want to find optimal values for increments A and B:
       Coresize: 8000 <enter>
       Increment value or generator #1: a=4,a<8000,a=a+4 <enter>
          Offset value or generator #2: 0 <enter>
       Increment value or generator #2: b=1,b<8000,b=b+2 <enter>
          Offset value or generator #3: <enter>
       2) Now a carpet-bombing cmp-scanner:
               sub incr,1
               cmp 0,C
               ...
       incr    spl #-A,<-B
               ...

       Coresize: 8000 <enter>
       Increment value or generator #1: a=2,a<4000,a=a+4 <enter>
          Offset value or generator #2: c=10,c<15,c=c+1 <enter>
       Increment value or generator #2: b=a <enter>
          Offset value or generator #3: <enter>
       3) Lastly, a spl/jmp bombing cmp-scanner:
               sub incr,1
               cmp 0,C      ;C is A/2
               ...
       incr    spl #-A,<-B
               ...

       Coresize: 8000 <enter>
       Increment value or generator #1: a=2,a<4000,a=a+4 <enter>
          Offset value or generator #2: c=a/2 <enter>
       Increment value or generator #2: b=a <enter>
          Offset value or generator #3: <enter>

ALGORITHM
       Scoring is based on Nandor Sieben's iterative optima algorithm with two
       modifications: A variable gap cut-off ("target size") is used and early
       gaps weigh more than late gaps.

AUTHOR
       Stefan Strack (stst@vuse.vanderbilt.edu)

PMARS PROJECT                    May 15, 1994                          MOPT(6)