Cubolt, a pure-C optimal Rubik's Cube solver

[nbwzx]

Hi everyone! I'm Zixing Wang.

I'd like to share Cubolt v0.1.0, a from-scratch optimal Rubik's Cube solver written in C that I've been working on. It finds solutions for any cube state, searching to whatever depth you specify, and runs much faster than Cube Explorer, with full multi-core support. It's useful for algorithm-hunting tasks—for example, speedsolvers hunting ZBLL algorithms, or BLDers working out LTCT or parity cases.

To put that speed in perspective: consider a common PLL case A-perm and ask for every solution of a given length. Using only the six face turns at length 15, Cubolt lists them all in about 1.3 seconds, while Cube Explorer (using its huge optimal solver) takes roughly 4 minutes (236 s). With slice support added and the length set to 14, Cubolt takes 1.7 seconds, compared with about 20 minutes (1188 s) for Cube Explorer—roughly 180–700× faster.

Key features and details:
- Supported moves: `URFDLB`, `urfdlb`, `EMS`, and `xyz`.
- Incomplete cubes: mark unknown stickers with `?`, and it finds solutions that work no matter how the hidden part is arranged—handy for finding F2L solutions, for example.
- A GUI (paint the cube net, paste a cubestring, batch-solve) and a command-line tool for scripting and large jobs.
- Open source (GPL-3.0), with Windows x64 builds for now.

Source code: https://github.com/nbwzx/cubolt
Releases (prebuilt installer): https://github.com/nbwzx/cubolt/releases
Feedback is very welcome.

 

[1973486]

First thought is that I prefer a portable app over an installed one, I suppose you'd have to store the pruning tables in AppData or something.

Coming from Cube Explorer I'd expect to be able to change the selected colour by clicking the centres, not sure if there's a reason this isn't supported. Also lacks its autocomplete (automatically colouring the third colour of a corner)?

Overall seems nice, not sure anyone's made a proper successor to Cube Explorer in the 25? years since it was released.

 

[nbwzx]

First thought is that I prefer a portable app over an installed one, I suppose you'd have to store the pruning tables in AppData or something.

Coming from Cube Explorer I'd expect to be able to change the selected colour by clicking the centres, not sure if there's a reason this isn't supported. Also lacks its autocomplete (automatically colouring the third colour of a corner)?

Overall seems nice, not sure anyone's made a proper successor to Cube Explorer in the 25? years since it was released.

The two features you proposed have been added in v0.2.0, thanks for your suggestions.