1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
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6 <big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tinkering with Winboard<br>
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7 by Alessandro Scotti<br>
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9 Last update: March 22, 2005.<br>
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11 This readme is about some modifications I made to Winboard 4.2.7. Some
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12 will work in Xboard too, while others are for Winboard only.
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13 Regardless, everything here is absolutely experimental and has been
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14 tested very little... so no warranties ok?<br>
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16 All modified sources are included in this archive, the rest can be
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17 downloaded from <a href="http://www.tim-mann.org/xboard.html">Tim
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18 Mann's Xboard page</a>. Please feel free to take my changes and use
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19 them as you like, they are released under the GPL.<br>
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21 <big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Game adjudication</span></big><br>
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23 User can adjudicate a game between two machines, using the "Action"
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24 menu. Note that this only works if two machines are playing.<br>
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26 Also, it is possible to adjudicate a game automatically with this
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29 <div style="margin-left: 40px;">/adjudicateLossThreshold=-700<br>
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32 if set to a negative value, Winboard will adjudicate a game if a engine
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33 can't get a score above the specified threshold for 3 full moves (6
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34 plies). Note that both engines must agree on the score value, and also
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35 the game is only adjudicated after the last move from the losing engine.<br>
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37 Adjudication is still under test!<br>
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39 <big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Background textures</span></big><br>
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41 Add the following to winboard.ini:<br>
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43 <div style="margin-left: 40px;">/liteBackTextureFile="sandstone_w.bmp"<br>
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44 /darkBackTextureFile="sandstone_b.bmp"<br>
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45 /liteBackTextureMode=1<br>
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46 /darkBackTextureMode=1<br>
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49 Of course you can choose any file you like for texturing the light and
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50 dark squares, as long as it's a valid BMP (Windows bitmap) file. <br>
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52 Valid texture modes are 1 (default) and 2. In mode 1 the squares are
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53 taken from portions of the texture bitmap and copied without further
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54 processing. In mode 2, squares can also be rotated, mirrored and so on
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55 in order to provide a little more variety to the texture. The
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56 operations are selected at random so the board will look slightly
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57 different every time the program is run.<br>
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59 Note: to "comment out" a filename, put an asterisk in front of it, i.e.
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60 "*sandstone.bmp" will be skipped.<br>
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62 Additionally it is possible to override the size of the "gap" between
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63 the squares, which is otherwise selected automatically. Add this to
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66 <div style="margin-left: 40px;">/overrideLineGap=2<br>
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69 I have added this because textures usually look better with a smaller
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70 or no gap. Any negative value will ignore the override and use the
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71 standard value from Winboard.<br>
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73 The combination of these parameters can produce very interesting
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74 effects, see for example <a
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75 href="http://usuarios.lycos.es/alexwbtm/Test/">Alex Guerrero's page</a>.<br>
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77 <big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Font-based rendering of chess
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78 pieces</span></big><br>
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80 It is possible to use chess fonts to draw pieces, in place of the usual
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81 bitmaps. You have to specify the font name by adding the following to
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84 <div style="margin-left: 40px;">/renderPiecesWithFont="Chess Leipzig"<br>
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87 Chances are the program will automatically recognize the font and
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88 select the proper mapping, i.e. the correspondence between a chess
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89 piece and the corresponding font character. So if the board looks good
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90 you're set and there's nothing else to do, otherwise you'll have to
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91 find the proper mapping and tell it to the program with this
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94 <div style="margin-left: 40px;">/fontPieceToCharTable="phbrqkojntwl"<br>
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97 The piece are in order: white pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, king
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98 and black pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, king. So the example above
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99 tells the program to use the letter "p" for a white pawn, the letter
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100 "h" for a white knight, the letter "t" for a black rook and so on.<br>
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102 Note: to "comment out" a font name, put an asterisk in front of it,
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103 i.e. "*Chess Merida" will be skipped because of the asterisk.<br>
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105 It is possible to customize the font foreground and background color,
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106 with these settings:<br>
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108 <div style="margin-left: 40px;">/fontPieceBackColorWhite=#ffffcc<br>
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109 /fontPieceForeColorWhite=#402010<br>
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110 /fontPieceBackColorBlack=#ffffcc<br>
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111 /fontPieceForeColorBlack=#301008<br>
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114 Colors are expressed in RGB notation. If you are not familiar with the
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115 RGB notation I would suggest to leave them alone until I manage
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116 to update the GUI. In this case, the program will take the board
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117 settings as for the usual piece set.<br>
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119 It is also possible to control the size of the piece with respect to
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120 the square, for example this entry:<br>
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122 <div style="margin-left: 40px;">/fontPieceSize=80<br>
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125 tells the program to make the pieces about 20% smaller than a square
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126 (i.e. the piece size is 80%). Note that different fonts may require
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127 different values for this parameter. Usually values in the 70-80 range
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128 provide the best values, however the program accepts anything from 50
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131 Font-based pieces are automatically given a "roundish" look. For now,
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132 this option is not mapped to a user-definable setting.<br>
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134 <big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fast clipboard pasting</span></big><br>
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136 Press Ctrl-V to paste a PGN game or a FEN position from the clipboard,
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137 the program will try to autodetect the proper type.<br>
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139 <big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Thread initialization bug</span></big><br>
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141 I've tried to fix a bug reported (and fixed) by Anastasios Milikas (of
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142 AICE), where a thread could try to access a not yet initialized
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143 variable. I've used a different approach here, where threads are
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144 started in a "suspended" state and then released only when the variable
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145 has been initialized (this has the advantage of putting all the
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146 required fix code in one place, and the disadvantage of not having been
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147 tested by Anastasios).<br>
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149 <big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Protection from some buffer
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150 overflows</span></big><br>
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152 In just a few cases, I've tried to put some guard against buffer
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153 overflows. These are just quick attempts... a lot more work would be
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154 needed to provide some measurable benefits. I hope that bug **353 is
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155 finally fixed now. The buffer overflows were propagated across several
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156 functions so as soon as one was fixed another would crash!<br>
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158 <big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Absolute scores can be converted
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159 to relative</span></big><br>
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161 Some engines (e.g. Crafty, Delphi) always report scores from the white
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162 side (i.e. absolute), rather than the engine side (i.e. relative). This
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163 leads to confusion and breaks features such as automatic adjudication.
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164 In order to convert the scores to relative add the following to
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167 <div style="margin-left: 40px;">/firstScoreAbs=false<br>
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170 If true, the score of the first program is absolute and will be negated
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171 when playing black. And similarly:<br>
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173 <div style="margin-left: 40px;">/secondScoreAbs=false<br>
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176 if true, the score of the second program is absolute and will be
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177 negated when playing black.<br>
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179 <big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Engine search info can be saved
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180 in a PGN file</span></big><br>
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182 Add the following to winboard.ini:<br>
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184 <div style="margin-left: 40px;">/pgnExtendedInfo=true<br>
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187 If true, and the PGN save game option is enabled, each move will be
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188 followed by a comment containing the engine score and thinking
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189 depth (when available).<br>
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191 Note: can also be set from the General options dialog.<br>
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193 <big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Engine search info can be hidden
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194 in human-computer games</span></big><br>
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196 When "show thinking" is disabled, engine thinking is not generated at
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197 all, rather than simply hidden. It is now possible to generate the
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198 think lines (e.g. for logging or saving in the PGN) yet hide them when
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199 the engine is playing against a human player. Add the following to
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202 <div style="margin-left: 40px;">/hideThinkingFromHuman=true<br>
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205 Note: can also be set from the General options dialog.<br>
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207 <big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Asymmetric time controls</span></big><br>
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209 Very experimental! You can enter two time controls in the usual dialog,
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210 separated by "/". If so, white will be assigned the first time and
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211 black the second. So for example "0:30/2:00" will give 30 seconds to
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212 white and 2 minutes to black.<br>
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214 Note: for now these times stay with black and white, rather than the
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215 corresponding player.<br>
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217 <big><span style="font-weight: bold;">User interface</span></big><br>
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219 Options to "hide thinking from human" and "save extended info in PGN"
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220 now appears in the "General" options dialog.<br>
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projects / xboard.git / blob