FMC: a Complete Tutorial

[porkynator]

Update:

- Some "bugfixing" (including the missing ' in that 2c2e alg) (thanks to obelisk477).
- Specified that the inverse of a 2c2e alg solves the same case (thank to cuBerBruce).
- Expanded the "Get Lucky" section with two examples: "Insert Last Pair" and "How to Use Algorithms" (thanks to Bruce and Cubenovice).
- Added a reference to multislotting, with D R U R' D' as an example; together with the example solve I used to explain premoves, it should cover the "skewed pairs" topic (thanks to cuBerBruce).
- Added a section under "Advanced Tools": "Pair Analysis". Go find out what it is

About the slot-swapping PLLs:
I have thought about it, but I have decided not to include it in the list, for some reasons:
- The technique is almost only usable with CFOP, which I don't advise using for FMC. Even with FreeFOP it is hard to apply.
- It requires learning 21 new algorithms. I don't even suggest learning full PLL for FMC purposes.
- It forces you going for OLL/PLL: even with a CFOP solve you ay want to end differently (i.e.: with commutators).
- If you don't know in advance what PLL you are going to get, it saves less than 0.15 moves.

Interesting thing, but not really useful for FMC.
I may change my mind if some expert FMCer convinces me, but for now I am not including it in the tutorial.

 

[Cubenovice]

Thanks for the update.
Nice to see that Guus' bad pair counting is now included too.

Just two small things:
you have a nice index with page numbers. But the pages themselves do not have page numbers
If I follow the link to the pdf document I get a "white screen" because the title text is quite low on the page. It only shows after I start scrolling down.

 

[porkynator]

Thanks for the update.
Nice to see that Guus' bad pair counting is now included too.

Just two small things:
you have a nice index with page numbers. But the pages themselves do not have page numbers
If I follow the link to the pdf document I get a "white screen" because the title text is quite low on the page. It only shows after I start scrolling down.

After posting a solve by Guus on fmcsolves I thought I should include it... not that I've tried it often or know much about it (I have hidden my ignorance by saying it is an obscure technique)

If you click on the page number in the table of contents it gets you there Maybe I'll try to add page numbers, but I think almost every pdf reader does it.
I thought putting the title in the middle of the page was less awkward than leaving it to the top with the rest of the page white, or even worse starting with the table of contents right under the title.

 

[bubbagrub]

This is totally amazing! Thank you! It's the first time I've seen any kind of explanation of NISS that made sense...

 

[PJKCuber]

Nice! I appreciate the work you put into making this.

 

[NewCuber000]

Thanks for this! My FMC solves are usually in the 40-50 move range and I probably need all of the help I can get.

 

[lejitcuber]

As the Euro Fmc is coming I will definitely use it. Thanks!

 

[JemFish]

Wow, this is really well done. I might actually start doing FMC now. I've been motivated to learn FMC because of the neat layout of this PDF.

 

[Jimmy Liu]

I'd like to translate this tutorial into traditional Chinese version, hope to get the permission from the author^^.

 

[porkynator]

I'd like to translate this tutorial into traditional Chinese version, hope to get the permission from the author^^.

CuberL and other people are already working on the chinese version: http://cuberl.gitbooks.io/fmccn/content/

 

[StachuK1992]

Porky: this is a great pdf. I'm printing it off to fully read this weekend.
Thanks!

 

[Jimmy Liu]

CuberL and other people are already working on the chinese version: http://cuberl.gitbooks.io/fmccn/content/

Nah, this is the simplified Chinese version, which is different from traditional Chinese
But thanks for your information!

 

[guysensei1]

Nah, this is the simplified Chinese version, which is different from traditional Chinese
But thanks for your information!

简体字 for the win

 

[JemFish]

简体字 for the win

No! 繁体字 is more awesome (like in Hong Kong and Taiwan).

 

[Jimmy Liu]

No! 繁体字 is more awesome (like in Hong Kong and Taiwan).

"繁體字" actually

 

[JemFish]

"繁體字" actually

Haha yeah...oops.

 

[porkynator]

Nah, this is the simplified Chinese version, which is different from traditional Chinese
But thanks for your information!

Sure you can

 

[Kit Clement]

Small error found by Aaron LoPrete earlier:

In the inverse scramble section with the Tim Reynolds example, the final solution should be:

D' F D F' R2 F R2 F' R2 B' D' B' U2 B D' B' U2 B2 D F2 L2 F U' R

 

[porkynator]

BIG UPDATE!
Version 2.0 is here! Basically it just look better, but I have also updated some stuff (like records and links) and added examples and pictures. See the first pages for more about what's new.

The old link still works. The old version is available here.

 

[porkynator]

2020-01-14 Version 3.0 is out!

List of changes:
Since the last version of this tutorial I have fixed like a million typos and probably introduced a lot of new ones. I have also decided to replace .png images with .svg ones, which look much better.
I have removed the appendix with last layer algorithms and just linked a raw text file instead. I have moved the general section on EO to Chapter 2 and merged the remainder of Chapter 4 with Chapter 3.
Other than that, I have added a few sections:

• Sections 2.4.6 and 3.8 on edge insertions.
• Section 2.5.3 about partial domino reduction.
• Section 3.4 about using NISS to find nice EOs.
• Section 3.7.1 “Skew centers and NISS”.
• Section 3.10, “Replace and shorten”.
• Appendix C, “Some exercises by Reto Bubendorf”.
• Appendix D, a short introduction to domino reduction.

All the rest is just minor changes.

The link to the new version is always the same. The old version (2.0) is avalable here.