Generate a GIF of the network solving a Sudoku puzzle

This scripts takes one of the .pkl files generated by sudoku_solver.py and generates a GIF showing the progress of the network solving the puzzle.

Note that the script generates the images individually, storing them to disk first, assembling them into a GIF and then, by default, deleting the images and folder.

For creating the individual images, PIL is used. Because the GIF creation tool in PIL is faulty, imageio is required for that step.

See Also

Script controlling the simulation of a single game of Sudoku

Helper functions for the Sudoku solver

Authors

J Gille

import os
import pickle
import imageio
from glob import glob
from helpers import plot_field
import sys

in_file = "350Hz_puzzle_4.pkl"  # Name of the .pkl file to read from
temp_dir = "tmp"                # Name of directory for temporary files
out_file = "sudoku.gif"         # Name of the output GIF
keep_temps = False              # If True, temporary files will not be deleted

if os.path.exists(out_file):
    print(f"Target file ({out_file}) already exists! Aborting.")
    sys.exit()

try:
    os.mkdir(temp_dir)
except FileExistsError:
    print(f"temporary file folder ({temp_dir}) already exists! Aborting.")
    sys.exit()

with open(in_file, "rb") as f:
    simulation_data = pickle.load(f)

solution_states = simulation_data["solution_states"]

image_count = 0


field = plot_field(simulation_data['puzzle'], simulation_data['puzzle'], False)


for i in range(len(solution_states)):
    current_state = solution_states[i]

    if i == 0:
        # repeat the (colorless) starting configuration several times
        image_repeat = 8
    else:
        field = plot_field(simulation_data['puzzle'], current_state, True)
        image_repeat = 1

    if i == len(solution_states) - 1:
        # repeat the final solution a few more times to make it observable
        # before the gif loops again
        image_repeat = 15

    for j in range(image_repeat):
        field.save(os.path.join(temp_dir, f"{str(image_count).zfill(4)}.png"))
        image_count += 1

filenames = sorted(glob(os.path.join(temp_dir, "*.png")))

with imageio.get_writer(out_file, mode='I', fps=4) as writer:
    for filename in filenames:
        image = imageio.imread(filename)
        writer.append_data(image)
print(f"gif created under: {out_file}")

if not keep_temps:
    print("deleting temporary image files...")
    for in_file in filenames:
        os.unlink(in_file)
    os.rmdir(temp_dir)