Black Knight Release Date
Community Forums/Showcase/Black Knight Release Date
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| After taking a break from programming I'm ready to continue with my Black Knight chess program. I've set a release date of 15 February 2006 (6 months from now). Information and any suggestions for features can be found here: http://www.elliottproductions.co.uk/blackknight.html |
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| Veeeerrry interresting... I'm going to sit here and wait for a six months now. |
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| Or you could email some suggestions instead of being sarcastic. |
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| Yeah... I could do that too, but I don't know a first thing about chess :) |
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| Why post then? That was a rhetorical question btw. If you're not interested then please don't post. |
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| Have you still got the early demo version? |
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| Yes jb - it's still there (right mouse button to bring up the menu for anybody that hasn't tried this demo). www.elliottproductions.co.uk/temp/BlackKnight.zip |
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| Looks really nice! What I'd like to see (no specific order): - Player versus computer option - Different computer strengths from Grandmaster to unrated - Opening Library Database - Ending Library Database - History of best Grandmaster games - Host tournaments (Round Robin and Blitz (1/2/3/5 minute) - when I highlight a piece with my cursor, it would be nice to highlight the squares the piece can legally move too - Offer Fischer chess option and other variations - Set up positions for AI to calculate best move (study mode) - Offer kid options (easier AI) - Teach mode (opening/middle/end game basics, positional chess, etc) - Setup Mate positions (2-3 moves) with time control - Offer awards (trophies) to kids as they progress through training - Offer several boards/pieces to select from Many more ideas come to mind, but this is a start :) |
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| Thanks P-Q4 - and thanks for those suggestions. I'll probably add those features (some perhaps I'll leave to a 2nd version of the program). Interesting idea about the trophy awards for kids though. |
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| Thanks Steve. Based on a quick fiddle with the demo .. [-] Too many warning popups .. Things like "You can't move there" can be replaced by a sound effect (buzz) and say, do a red outline around the piece showing the move to be illegal. Same for "No legal moves for that peice" and "point at a square containing a piece". Rather than allow the player to click there just do a buzz sound effect and maybe show a message at the bottom of the screen. Again, illegal pieces could show a red outline. The only suggestion I can think of is online play. Although I'm sure you are aware there of plenty of these around already. |
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| As far as the warning dialogue boxes go that's me just making use of my GUI system (the only communication routine I've written) and to explain clearly to a demo user (no user instructions yet). |
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| ..keep it work Steve...this is looking good...by the way, I like to play chess (at home im fighting with Fritz8), so I'm wondering wich engine you implementing for AI oponent? |
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| Thanks Naughty Alien. I'm developing my own AI for Black Knight and my long term goal is to rival programs like Fritz8. |
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| ..cool...update me if you need some chess tester guy...I'll be glad to do that.. |
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| I'm sure you're going to add this (or it may already be in and i accidently disabled it or something) but it didn't recognise checkmate/check. It also let the king move to a piece that would have put it in check. |
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| Naughty Alien, I'm a long way off testing AI yet - but thanks for the offer. MattVonFat, no this demo was just produced to speed test the program (and BlitzMax) so is incomplete - that's why the FPS shows constantly. If you force your card to lock to the monitor refresh rate you'll get that - otherwise you should get hundreds of frames per second (on a decent system). |
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| Are there any chess games that have like, some sort of standard they use so they can be pitched against each other? i think thatd be a cool way to test how good each chess game is. EG, chess programs save out a file with instructions that other chess programs can read. The chess programs that are pitched against each other use this file to perform moves in the games. |
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| That's a good idea Cygnus - but I don't know of any that do. That way you could let the computer play say 100 games and come back later when those games had been played. The problem with that approach on a single computer is that chess programs often think on the opponent's time as well as their own move time - and because they couldn't do so that would not give a true reflection of strength. I'm just going to play my laptop against desktop computer (playing Fritz) to get a rough estimation of strength - and also against my chess computer which has a recognised ELO Rating. |
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| id like to know how you handled the AI. |
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| I haven't coded it up yet Yavin - but I'm going to base it on articles and books I've read - and really need to read again (as well as my own idea's). |
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| In the mean time.. http://www.instantchess.com/ |
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| Hmm, I know someone released a Chess game called Deep Purple, and now this one called Black Knight. Black Night is a song by the group Deep Purple. *Twilight Zone music plays* |
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