Repeated Sheep

Wed, 04/07/2010 - 13:23 — dudeperson33

I noticed than in any one single instance of running Electric Sheep, a small number of sheep are repeated throughout the duration of that instance. In other words, instead of linearly cycling through sheep, the program repeatedly returns to displaying a select few sheep. I sometimes see the same sheep over 3 times in just one minute! I have downloaded all of the sheep packs and have well over 5GB of video files. With this amount of sheep, I feel like I should never see the same sheep twice in one instance. I suggest adding something to the code that prevents the same sheep from coming up twice in a specified time period (5 minutes, for example). Just a friendly suggestion. Thanks!

Sat, 04/17/2010 - 17:21 — lindi

I noticed the same thing:

I noticed the same thing: only the most recent sheep were played, over and over and over again. My median level had been set at 30 ( have 2 G in mpeg file). I reset it to 80, and now I find all of my old friends dancing across the screen again---- far more variety. It seems that if the median level is too low, only the sheep with the fewest counts continue to be played, namely only the sheep downloaded in the last 7 days, or so. It is hard to find the right formula, because which sheep gets played depends on how high the count of your older sheep is, which depends on how long you have kept ES running.... It is a complex business, this! :)

Sat, 04/17/2010 - 19:29 — spot

maybe the play counts should

maybe the play counts should decay over time? eg divide by two once per day.

Sun, 04/18/2010 - 04:40 — lindi

Decaying playcounts over time

Decaying playcounts over time sounds like a great idea! Dividing by 2 every day would be a good way to start. Maybe the ratio could be adjustable?

Fri, 04/16/2010 - 11:33 — spot

try reducing the median level

try reducing the median level parameter in the config file. iirc the default is 80.... try something like 20 and let us know if that improves it.

Fri, 04/16/2010 - 08:10 — ozguro

RE: Repeated Sheep

It also happens to me, to a certain degree: they are very short and they quickly transform in something else, totally different.
I could be wrong, since I'm new and didn't really understand everything: I suppose that what you see there are transitions being part of a sheep; sheep A (the very popular one) ends with a frame, so sheep X, Y, Z start with that same frame and continue with a (very beautiful, to be honest) transition. So even though you see different sheep (X, Y, Z), you continue to see that very frame. Quite odd though.
Possibly unrelated, I don't know what the "Never skip" check-button does.

Fri, 04/16/2010 - 08:58 — spinner

Never skip

Hi. If "Never skip" is on, try unchecking it. Does this fix the problem?

Never skip, when on, prevents you from playing sheep when there is no transition to them. You could, conceivably get "stuck" on certain sheep.