[Help Thread] Colour Neutrality Discussion

[Phlippieskezer]

I'm only opposite colour neutral. Works nicely enough...

 

[thackernerd]

I guess I could say I'm color neutral even though I can still do white and yellow crosses way better than red blue green and orange.

 

[Sillas]

Particularly for me, is pretty hard to execute for all the colors. I think that color neutral help to better recognize the colors, makes faster the cross, is because of this (and other things) that Feliks is the best.

 

[5BLD]

I disagree a little; faz is not fast due to his colour neutrality, he is fast due to his solving skills and insane tps and lookahead.

Being colour neutral won't save many moves.

 

[Escher]

I urge literally every new solver I know to be colour neutral. It's ridiculously important. The cross-first pair transition is made so, so much better and in my experience it's the key to consistently fast solves.

 

[DaveyCow]

I'm color neutral, but tried white cross at first coz alot of websites/tutorials did it. And it was fine and nice to be able to pick out white easily. But then I tried doing a different color cross and I totally could not do it! (Only after even just a few days of cubing - so it seems our minds lock onto things fast) I had to think hard about how to solve a cube! I didn't like the idea of being "one-color-biased" so I decided to go color neutral.
This = my2cents

 

[Sillas]

I'm not talking about what other skills do not help him, like look ahead and tps very fast. But he is not "color neutral" for nothing. What about solving the cross on the best place and recognition F2L's? Just in cross and F2Ls he is sub-4.

 

[DaveyCow]

I disagree a little; faz is not fast due to his colour neutrality, he is fast due to his solving skills and insane tps and lookahead.

Being colour neutral won't save many moves.

According to Lars Vandenbergh's study at http://www.cubezone.be/crossstudy.html, color neutrality only saves 1 move. I don't color neutral for number of moves saved, but for flexibility of my cross solve.

 

[5BLD]

Yeah, the difference IMO between non colour neutral and colour neutral is looking for specific pieces/colours (or lack thereof) and looking for patterns.

For example, I am colour neutral for LSE... because I look for patterns. We generally look for patterns rather than colours in LSE.
Whilst in our blockbuilding for example, I look for white/yellow on corners and no white/yellow on edges.
If I was colour neutral I'd more look for patterns.

All IMO of course.

Edit: yes daveycow, lulz it only saves one move.
Funny thing is, I'm colour neutral for CFOP but not in Roux... Hm.

 

[Bapao]

Sounds like an ethnic acceptance thread.

Have tried, but still can't get my dense head around colour neutrality. Solving on gray-scale stickers doesn't help. After 3-odd solves, black inevitably becomes blue.

 

[Kirjava]

My colour neutrality varies from method to method.

 

[Olji]

Color neutrality makes solving more interesting for me, but I don't think it gives a significant change in times when you're used to it

 

[Cubenovice]

I'm only truely color neutral in casual solving or FMC.

For ZZ and HTA I prefer (to start with) white/yellow on top, green blue in front because of EO recognition. (but can solve color neutral)

Fun thing I discovered over the last two days: in Human Kociemba phase I I prefer Red/Orange on top??? WTF?

 

[Godmil]

I urge literally every new solver I know to be colour neutral. It's ridiculously important.

But you're not colour neutral, are you?

In that cubezone study, it was just calculating number of moves to get each cross piece in. I don't think that really takes into account being able to take advantage of lucky x-crosses.
Colour recognition is a nightmare for me (slightly colour blind, and it's not uncommon for me to spend 3-5 seconds trying to find a single edge in the middle of F2L), so I won't be trying to be colour neutral. I need to keep it as consistent as possible. I still can't quickly identify what the 3rd colour in a corner is from seeing only 2 sides. I think that will be a significant addition to my solves, before any other colour recognition skill.

 

[Escher]

But you're not colour neutral, are you?

In that cubezone study, it was just calculating number of moves to get each cross piece in. I don't think that really takes into account being able to take advantage of lucky x-crosses.
Colour recognition is a nightmare for me (slightly colour blind, and it's not uncommon for me to spend 3-5 seconds trying to find a single edge in the middle of F2L), so I won't be trying to be colour neutral. I need to keep it as consistent as possible. I still can't quickly identify what the 3rd colour in a corner is from seeing only 2 sides. I think that will be a significant addition to my solves, before any other colour recognition skill.

http://cube.crider.co.uk/coracle.html

No, I don't think I can say I'm colour neutral, I've managed a sub 10 average but generally I'm about 10-12, as opposed to 8-9 otherwise. To be clear - I only meant in the context of a new solver - I've never heard of anybody experienced/sub 15 who successfully switched.

 

[y235]

I'm using ZZ, and my top color is white/yellow and each solve i choose the easier F color

 

[Godmil]

Thanks for the link Escher, I'll get practicing.

I've managed a sub 10 average but generally I'm about 10-12

Wow, well that's still pretty accomplished. So if you saw an easy X-cross on another colour would you go for it? Do you think that would compensate?

 

[unirox13]

I'm color nuetral on puzzles that have defined centers, 3x3, 5x5, 7x7, etc. But for puzzles that you have to order the centers, 4x4, 6x6, I start red center, move to orange, then do white, blue, and finish with yellow and green. However that's only for the reduction, once I get to the 3x3 stage I'm color nuetral. On 2x2, I prefer to start with red, but if there's a pair or group of the corners that make for an easy first llayer I can start with just about any color.

I've been color neutral ever since I started solving, starting with the same color every time just seemed boring to me.

 

[Escher]

Wow, well that's still pretty accomplished. So if you saw an easy X-cross on another colour would you go for it? Do you think that would compensate?

I don't know about 'X-cross' - being opposite colour neutral is enough to allow you to utilise all 2x2x1 blocks on the cube - and other types of x-crosses would probably take too long to check for. However when there are cases like 3 cross pieces solved, I generally do them. For example, I got a 19 in OH at GSO using orange cross because it was easy :3

 

[Cheese11]

I have been experimenting with colour neutrality. I find it interesting and fun, but I don't think it will be an awful lot faster...

Well with Roux, I find there is almost always a good case on the colours I use.