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Ultimate Magic Cube


 
Intro2

 

Welcome to the home page of Ultimate Magic Cube (UMC), the computer program that lets you create your own Rubik's cube like puzzles. This program is for the true Rubik enthusiast who can't get enough of the twisty puzzles.

You can download the full version here. With it you can make countless more puzzles of your own. Below is a tour of what UMC has to offer.

Download Ultimate Magic Cube

Many thanks to Leo Izen for creating the installer.

System requirements: Windows XP or Vista (I haven't tried UMC on older operating systems, but it might work), NVidia 5000 series videocard (or ATI equivalent) or better, Directx 9 or better.

Download Ultimate Magic Cube 2

you need Winrar to unzip Ultimate Magic Cube 2

Important: You also need to install Dot Net Framework 4 and XNA Framework Redistributable 4.0


 

Tour of Ultimate Magic Cube

The program works by first having a platonic solid as a shape. There are 5 platonic solids: Tetrahedron, Cube, Octahedron, Dodecahedron and Icosahedron:

Tetrahedron

Cube

Octehedron

Dodecahedron

Icosahedron

 

Then cuttingplanes are added to the shape. There are 3 types of cuttingplanes: Cuttingplanes which are parallel to the faces of the shape, 'parallel' to the points of the shape or parallel to the edges of the shape. Here are three pictures to make it clearer:

cuttingplaneface
cuttingplanepoint
cuttingplaneedge
Cuttingplanes parallel to the faces
Cuttingplanes 'parallel' to the points
Cuttingplanes parallel to the edges
 

These 3 types of cuttingplanes can also be mixed together on one shape:

mix1
mix2
Face and point cuttingplanes mixed together
Face and edge cuttingplanes mixed together
 

This gives almost limitless possibilities, from traditional puzzles:

Tetrabig
Cube Big
DodecaBig
 

to mixed cubes, some of which are all new:

Icomix
mix5
Octamix
 

The second feature of UMC is to connect any cubies you like to make certain rotations impossible (a so called bandaged puzzle). This can greatly increase the difficulty of a puzzle.

bandaged1
bandaged2
bandaged3
 

The third feature of UMC is to allow the cubies to have an orientation by giving the outside coloured stickers faded colours. Thus a cuby not only has to be on the right spot, but also has to have the right orientation:

colorfade1
colorfade2
 

This is the end of the tour. I hope you will enjoy the program as much as I enjoyed creating it. If you have any ideas of improving the program, don't hesitate to mail me at woutermeesen@gmail.com.

 

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