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.
Live preview
Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
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.