Simulated Annealing Optimizer Screensaver
The Simulated Annealing Optimizer screensaver runs a real simulated-annealing algorithm live, improving a random tour by accepting occasional worse moves early and cooling into a refined solution. It is free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
How the Simulated Annealing Optimizer screensaver works
The saver starts with a real random tour through scattered points and a high starting "temperature" parameter.
At each step, a real random tour tweak is proposed; better tweaks are always accepted, and worse ones are accepted with a real probability that shrinks as temperature cools.
This real occasional acceptance of worse moves lets the search escape local dead ends that a strictly-downhill method would get stuck in.
As the real temperature cools toward zero, the tour settles into a genuinely refined, rarely-worsening solution; it holds briefly, then a fresh run begins.
A worked example
Early in the run, the tour visibly jumps to longer, worse configurations now and then; as the real temperature drops, those jumps stop happening and the tour steadily, monotonically improves instead.
Settings & tips
- Accent recolours the current tour.
- The cooling schedule and acceptance rule are real, not scripted.
- A fresh random tour and full cooling schedule begins automatically once it finishes.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real simulated annealing?
- Yes — a real cooling schedule and real probabilistic acceptance rule, the same core algorithm used in real optimization software.
- Why accept worse solutions sometimes?
- It is a real, deliberate strategy — occasionally accepting worse moves helps the search escape local optima it would otherwise get stuck in.
- Is a key needed?
- No — it is a pure local computation.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.