Talk:1663: Garden

Some of the posts in [[#Finally Garden is up on xkcd|Finally Garden is up on xkcd] where originally posted on the Talk page for Jack and Jill, below the section about why this comic was not already up on April 1st. The Finally Garden is up on xkcd section was moved here, because this was made after the comic was up, but before this page was created... Kynde (talk) 12:11, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Finally Garden is up on xkcd

It is here the comic we have been waiting for, and it seems it is a April fool comic although it first came out past midnight in all of the US except Hawaii...

I do not know when it will be on this page but for those impatient...

Loading screen shot

It says to Relax, while it loads, but it will eventually get to a barren land with a growth lamp that can be moved:

Starting point screen shot

The lamp can be moved and change color.

Red Lamp selected screen shot

It may be there will be something growing if we wait long enough?

And there will be more lamps and new items:

Three Lamps and birdbath screen shot.png]

Yes he is messing with us for sure but at least not by not making a comic :-) --Kynde (talk) 09:46, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

I succeeded to get a small plant, but I'm not sure how. --162.158.86.167 10:16, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Try not to cover everything with every light wavelength. I'm sure you get different plants with different wavelengths:

Lots of growth.

Moved the picture links to the image page, and inserted direct links to the images instad. It took up too much space. Kynde (talk) 12:04, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Also, I've noticed a constant cpu usage, indicating some kind of number crunching. The script's name "linden" reminded me of linden dollars and crowdsourcing bitcoin mining with javascript, but afair linden dollars were never mined nor based on cryptography. -- Xorg (talk) 10:30, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

"Linden" is probably a reference to the Linden trees, a genus (Latin name Tilia). It would make more sense than a reference to dollars, at least. 162.158.135.57 12:14, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

My first thought were Lindenmayer systems --198.41.242.240 16:29, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Ok, it's *moving*. The leaves wobble in the wind. That explains the cpu usage. So far I have seen the following images: asdfx2=""; for (asdfx in garden.linden.imgCache.imgs) { asdfx2 += asdfx+" "; } asdfx2

"http://xkcd.com/1663/art/background.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/talltrunk-2.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/shrub-8.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/wavyplant-3.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/turtle-1.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/shrub-6.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/birdbath.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/cactus-2.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/trunk-6.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/branch-11.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/branch-18.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/woman-1a.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/branch-21.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/rover.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/leaves-7.png http://xkcd.com/1663/art/leaves-6.png " -- Xorg (talk) 12:10, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

For those who are in https (with firefox for example) and don't see the "comic", there is mixed content. Click on the padlock on the up-left corner, then on the arrow, then "disable the protection against not secure elements" (or something like that). Seipas (talk) 11:32, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

The comic is finally here! ... but it won't load on my computer. Does anybody know what the problem might be or how I can fix it? Soad Kraken (talk) 12:45, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Does not load (continually Loading...) on IE/FF/Chrome for me (in UK, non-https, ad-blockers turned off) any ideas? 141.101.98.114 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Loads for me in Chrome, but then every time it refreshes, it resets the lamps to the default (one lamp in center). Removes the ones I added. Does this happen to anyone else? Vixy (talk) 16:51, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Did someone try the debugmode?

http://xkcd.com/1663/?debug#YourCode

It also logs data in the console Magno (talk) 12:51, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Post new images here: 1663: Garden/Screen-shots. Anyone know what happens to the site, it looks really weird and it is difficult to use the site now. Kynde (talk) 13:52, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Ah I can see there is a community post about this already. Kynde (talk) 07:22, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

April Fools?

What's the evidence that this is an April Fools comic? I think that the April Fools joke this year was the absence of a comic, and all the silly excuses about it when it was never coming. JoDu987 (talk) 15:48, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

It's interactive. April Fools comics are always interactive. Normal comics rarely are. Mikemk (talk) 16:52, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

I would rather say that it is also an april fool's comic because it came late. But first of all it has the pointless but time consuming concept of user input resulting in a comic that has no joke in it self, or at least only user made. Second the comic is rather complex and doesn't seem to work on all browsers. I cannot make it work on my explorer at home, but it did work at my office. It seems likely that he has worked very hard t make this work. When he then had problems with it Friday, he may have taken the chance of using April 1st to make excuses that people could read as being an April fool's joke. But neither way, he tells in the status updates that we are awaiting a complex comic, and in the end he said that the Friday comic (from April 1st) would come Sunday evening, and it did, so this is Fridays comic and thus also April the 1st's comic. Kynde (talk) 18:52, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

The April Fool's Joke is lost on everyone here so far. Let me explain. You have 3 lamps you are allowed to use max and 3 different colors you can use max. That means there are a total of 7 possible colors you can use to grow things in your garden (red only, yellow only, blue only, red+yellow, red+blue, yellow+blue, and red+yellow+blue). If you are OCD, like me, you will work to position the lamps in such a way that all possible combinations are available at different positions on the ground. However, it cannot be done or if it can I have yet to find a way! I believe that is why the title text says "Relax". Because he knows the challenge will drive people crazy trying to find the solution. Maybe there is one but I think the April Fool's joke is that there isn't a possible solution but people will spend lots of time trying anyway.R0hrshach (talk) 16:33, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

I updated the explanation with this information but apparently someone didn't like that and just removed the entire paragraph without any alternate explanation. Oh well...R0hrshach (talk) 17:23, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

This doesn't sound likely to me. It is impossible to do what you describe, and I would think "Relax" refers to the slow growth rate of the gardens. KangaroOS 18:18, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

And also it is possible over time because you can move the lamps. By the way there are more than three colors. There are also white and other hues in between red and yellow and red and blue. So there are many more combos. Kynde (talk) 22:30, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

I agree that "Relax" can have multiple meanings but the fact that you are limited to 3 lamps and 3 primary colors bears significance to me. Or why not let you spawn in 4 or 5 or 6? I also think the April Fool's joke can refer to the fact that gardens are meant to be relaxing but instead you will be left tending your garden and working to achieve all possible combinations. The opposite of relaxing.R0hrshach (talk) 03:43, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Mobile

Like many of the dynamic comics, Garden doesn't interact well with mobile devices, but I have found a workaround for this one. On my Android tablet, going to m.xkcd.com/1663 gives me a page where I can manipulate the lights - tap once on a light to reveal the handles, tap in whitespace to hide them - but the landscape and growth are not rendered.

But, as I manipulate the lights, a string is appended to the URL; if I replace the initial m with www while preserving this string, I get a page where the landscape and growth are displayed. But from this page, I cannot manipulate the lights. But it does appear that the string includes enough information to prevent "losing progress", as several iterations of swapping between the mobile and desktop URLs retained all existing growth. Therefore, some level of timestamp information may also be included in the composition of this string. 108.162.216.73 14:18, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Actually, it doesn't look like the URL changes when I move the lights after all. So now instead I'm guessing it's more of a unique identifier or something. If two people both use the same string, will one person's act of moving a light be reflected by the other user refreshing their browser? 108.162.216.73 14:33, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Resets

Resets occur sporadically, because they are actually happenning when there was a connection_error event in the WebWorker. The "game" is continually contacting the server (linden.xkcd.com) and is resetting the page on the connection errors. The fact that this resets the progress is probably a bug. --DukeBG (talk) 16:52, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

It seems to reset the light placement and settings too, not just the plants in the garden 162.158.210.238 07:06, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Linux

Anyone else NOT able to get it to work on Linux. Tried Chrome, and FF, both with all extensions disabled. Linux Mint (like Ubuntu). Constantly says "Loading..." 162.158.214.217 17:23, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

You're not the only one. Running Unbuntu 12.04. Opera displays "Loading ..." for over 30 minutes. Firefox finishes loading and I can add and tweak lamps, but nothing grows. 108.162.218.59 19:32, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Works fine with chromium on gentoo. 162.158.83.156 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I had the same problem with Firefox on Ubuntu 15.04. However, reloading the page fixed it. Maybe it's got something to do with caching, or maybe it just only works with some chance. 141.101.104.92 11:02, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Available "plants"

I've got a Megan so far. Are we going to try to compile a list of what things will grow in the garden? --KingStarscream (talk) 19:06, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Oversight on my part. Apologies. --173.245.52.64 19:18, 4 April 2016 (UTC)

Suggestions for the explanation

What is missing and what would be interesting. And how can you help... Add it here below, maybe even with subheadings. Kynde (talk) 14:18, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Possible items

• Someone has made a list of images of items that can be found on xkcd and seems to be complete.
  • Can anyone say for certain if it is complete now?
    • And can we be certain no new items appear? Anyone who can check this?
  • Can someone easily download all the images?
    • And if so either post them here as a zip file, or even better upload them to xkcd so we can have a page like this 1350: Lorenz/Images for these items
      • And later tables similar to those in the themes section of 1350: Lorenz!
• Kynde (talk) 14:27, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Urls

• Post urls here.
• Seems like the urls are not quite understood.
  • What I have found so far is that the urls do not change after you load a garden. Even if something grows or if the lights are moved.
  • If you save the url to begin with it will stay the same.
  • But if you load the url later then it is a view only image.
    • The questions are if the garden that an url refer to can be manipulated by the original user, to change what others see later even though they have the url.
    • My gardens reload to often to really have a chance to test this. But the url I posted yesterday (now used as example) under explanation of permalinks kept developing after I copied it and closed the garden down.
• Kynde (talk) 14:27, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

I have understood it much better now, and the explanation has been changed to the way it work. Urls are still interesting to see how peoples gardens develop, but they are not permalinks, so only screen shots will be useful to guide the explanation.I have taken lots already of peoples posted interesting gardens, before they became overgrown or the interesting part might get deleted by the owner of the garden. Kynde (talk) 21:42, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

• I'm not sure if it's been mentioned before, but Cueball can look like he's holding items if they grow on his outstretched hand.

http://xkcd.com/#8d526e44-fb49-11e5-8001-42010a8e000c 162.158.38.207 10:03, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Title text

The "Create new light" and "Remove selected (delete key)" icons have their own title text. I don't think anything else does though. 141.101.98.74 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Great thanks. Had not noticed. Added this to the explanation now. Kynde (talk) 21:26, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Colour mapping

• Yellow light grows plants and birdbaths, but so does a combination of Magenta and Cyan light.
• Magenta light grows cacti and turtles. Yellow light does not seem to affect this.
• Cyan light grows octopuses.
• Yellow light plus Cyan light grows office furniture.

141.101.98.74 (talk)  (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Great it would be nice to see some garden urls or screen shots, especially of the furniture, which I haven't seen yet. Kynde (talk) 21:29, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Bird 5

What's in the beak of Bird 5? It reminds me of 614: Woodpecker, but it's something different. --162.158.86.167 07:29, 6 April 2016 (UTC)