1 <!--#include virtual="/server/html5-header.html" -->
2 <title>XBoard - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation - NEWS</title>
3 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
4 <!--#set var="article_name" value="/server/standards/boilerplate" -->
5 <!--#include virtual="/server/gnun/initial-translations-list.html" -->
6 <h2>WinBoard / XBoard 4.4.0 features ported from Winboard_x</h2>
8 <table cellpadding="20"><tr valign="top"><td>
11 <li><a href="#tag-B1">Adjudicating engine-engine games</a></li>
12 <li><a href="#tag-A1">Using bitmaps for board textures</a></li>
13 <li><a href="#tag-A3">enhanced move highlighting (with arrows)</a></li>
14 <li><a href="#tag-A2">Using piece symbols from a chess font</a></li>
15 <li><a href="#tag-D1">Score and search depth in the PGN file</a></li>
16 <li><a href="#tag-D2">Did the engine get "out of book" well?</a></li>
17 <li><a href="#tag-C1">Move history window</a></li>
18 <li><a href="#tag-C2">Evaluation histogram window</a></li>
19 <li><a href="#tag-C3">Engine output window</a></li>
20 <li><a href="#tag-C4">Making four windows behave as one</a></li>
21 <li><a href="#tag-C5">A customizable game list</a></li>
22 <li><a href="#tag-B2">FRC (Fisher Random Chess, aka Chess960)</a></li>
23 <li><a href="#tag-A4">Paste anything with Ctrl-V</a></li>
24 <li><a href="#tag-E1">Overview of new options</a></li>
28 </td><td valign="top">
29 <img src="../4.5.0/winboardF.png">
30 </td><td valign="top">
32 <a href="WinBoardF.html">Follow-up fork (4.3)</a>
36 <a href="http://www.ascotti.org/programming/chess/winboard_x.htm">Original Winboard_x website</a>
39 <a href="Winboard_x.html">Preceding release (4.2.7)</a>
43 <h3><a name="tag-B1">Engine-game adjudication</a></h3>
45 To prevent games dragging on forever when neither of the engines want to settle for a draw,
46 games can be aborted (adjudicated draw) after a ertain number of moves.
47 Games can also be adjudiated win or loss when both engines agree that the score is above a certain value
48 for one of them, for 3 moves in a row.
49 To make this work, both engines should use the standard soreing convention (own point of view);
50 engines that don't can be corrected through the use of the boolean options -first/secondScoreAbsolute.
53 It is also possible to adjudicate engine-engine games manually, through the Action menu, as draw or win for white or black.
56 <table cellpadding="20"><tr><td valign="top">
57 <h3><a name="tag-A1">Using arbitrary bitmaps for board squares</a></h3>
59 Winboard_x allows you to make the board look anyway you want by using arbitrary bitmaps
60 to cut the squares from.
61 White and black squares are cut from independent files.
62 The -lite/darkBackTextureFile options can specify these bitmaps files,
63 while -lite/darkBackTextureMode options control how the orientation of the cut-out squares
64 is randomized to suggest larger variety.
65 On the right you see a board with a wood texture made this way.
67 <h3><a name="tag-A3">Line gap and arrow highlighting</a></h3>
69 The rather heavy black lines used by WinBoard for highlighting moves can interfere badly
70 with the aesthetic effect of the textures;
71 An option -overrideLineGap is therefore provided to overrule the default line width,
72 and set it to very narrow or completely absent.
73 This again makes it very difficult or impossible to see the square highlights,
74 so an option -highLigtMovesWithArrow is supplied as an alternative highlight method.
76 <h3><a name="tag-A2">Using true-type fonts to define the pieces</a></h3>
78 If you are tired of the built-in bitmaps, you can use a chess font to define alternativ piece symbols.
79 As true-type fonts are scalable, this in principle works for all board sizes with a single font.
80 (Except that for very small size the result is not pretty, so Winboard_x does not allow it below size petite.)
81 On the right you see pieces made by using the ChessMark font (obtained from enpassant.dk).
83 </td><td valign="top">
84 <img src="chessmark.gif">
87 <h3><a name="tag-D1">Engine scores saved in the PGN file</a></h3>
89 Winboard_x captures the scores and depth reported in engine thinking output,
90 for inclusion in the PGN file under control by the option -pgnExtendedInfo).
91 Obviously this requires the engine to send thinking output,
92 even when a human playing it would prefer not to see it above the board.
93 So the option -showThinking can no longer be used to suppress the output.
94 For that reason a new option -hideThinkingFromHuman is provided,
95 which allows you to suppress the displaying of the info, but not the sending.
98 <h3><a name="tag-D2">Out-of-book info in engine games</a></h3>
100 With an option -outOfBookInfoInPGN you can control the inclusion of an 'Annotator' tag in the PGN,
101 which will report the score at the first move where the engine was reporting a search depth.
102 (Presumably this was where it got out of book.)
103 This allows you to easily see whether the engine was unfairly treated by giving it a bad opening line.
106 <table cellpadding="20"><tr><td valign="top">
107 <h3>Three Auxiliary Windows</h3>
108 <img src="petite.gif">
109 </td><td valign="top">
110 <h3><a name="tag-C3">The engine-output window</a></h3>
112 The engine-output window is the most complex auxiliary window at all.
113 It can consist of two panes (one for each engine), where it displays the thinking output of the engine.
114 Above those the name of the engine is printed, and icons to indicate the color they play, and what they are doing:
115 thinking, pondering or analyzing.
116 It also prints the engine search speed, in nodes per second.
117 When 'periodic updates' is enabled, it also displays the current move, end move count.
119 <h3><a name="tag-C2">The evaluation graph</a></h3>
121 A second auxiliary window is the Evaluation Graph.
122 This displays the engine scores as a histogram when space permits, and as a line graph otherwise.
123 Two lines of user-configurable color do depict the score evolution of the two players.
124 Clicking on a point in the graph fast-forwards the game to the corresponding position.
126 <h3><a name="tag-C1">The move-history window</a></h3>
128 An auxiliary window is supplied to show the move history as free-format SAN.
129 Double-clicking on a move would fast-forward the game to the position where it was played.
130 An option -extraInfoInMoveHistory controls if score/depth info is displayed as comment behind the moves.
134 <h3><a name="tag-C4">Glueing the windows together</a></h3>
136 The three auxiliary windows can be independently sized and positioned.
137 But if they touch each other, or the main window, thew will 'snap' together.
138 If you then move the main window, the other windows will follow it,
139 like the whole conglomerate forms a single window.
140 This behavior is controlled by the option -stickyWindows.
143 <h3><a name="tag-C5">Configuring and selecting game-list headers</a></h3>
144 <table cellpadding="20"><tr><td valign="top">
146 The header line that appears in the game list for each game can now be composed by the user from the PGN tags.
147 A new menu dialog allows him to pick the tags he likes, and sort them in any desired order.
148 This order will be stored in the settings file as the option -gameListTags,
149 where each tag is encoded by a single letter.
151 <table cellpadding="20"><tr><td valign="top">
152 <img src="FilterWB.png">
153 </td><td valign="top">
155 Another novelty is that there now is a 'Filter' field at the bottom of the Game List window.
156 If you type a text there, only game headers containing that text as a sub-string will be displayed in the game list.
157 This allows you, for instance, to select the games of a single player from a PGN with tourney results,
158 or all games that ended in a draw.
161 </td><td valign="top">
162 <img src="GLTagsWB.png">
165 <h3><a name="tag-A4">Pasting games and positions with Ctrl-V</a></h3>
167 In Winboard_x the standard 'paste' command Ctrl-V can be used to paste both games and positions into the board,
168 as it will be obvious whih of the two is currently on the clipboard.
171 <table cellpadding="20"><tr><td valign="top">
172 <img src="Shuffle.png">
173 </td><td valign="top">
174 <h3><a name="tag-B2">Shuffling the starting position of Chess960</a></h3>
176 In local mode WinBoard cannot count on an ICS to generate a starting position for him.
177 An item 'New FRC Game' in the file menu now pops up a dialog,
178 where the user can specify how he wants WinBoard to generate the opening position
179 (a new randomly picked position or every game,
180 or the same position for each game, picked randomly once or specified by the user by number.)
184 <h3><a name="tag-E1">Overview of new command-line options</a></h3>
186 Below follows a table that lists the new features,
187 the command-line option needed to control them,
188 and if there is a menu provided that can switch the option while WinBoard is running
189 (command-line options exert their effect only at startup).
191 <table cellpadding="3" border="1"><tr><td width="310">
192 <h3>command-line option</h3>
195 </td><td width="250">
199 </td><td bgcolor="lightblue">
200 <strong>ENGINE-ENGINE ADJUDICATION OPTIONS<strong>
204 -adjudicateLossThreshold 0 (*)
206 adjudicates engine-engine game based on score
210 -adjudicateDrawMoves 0 (*)
212 adjudicate draw when game lasts too long
218 -secondScoreAbs false
220 Engine indicates score for white, even when playing black
226 Adjudicate the game in progress as win to white, win to black, or draw
228 Action -> Adjudicate to White
230 Action -> Adjudicate to Black
232 Action -> Adjudicate Draw
235 </td><td bgcolor="lightblue">
236 <strong>TIME-CONTROL AND TIMING OPTIONS</strong>
240 -delayBeforeQuit 0 (*)
242 -delayAfterQuit 0 (*)
244 timing parameter specifying how to terminate the engine processes
249 </td><td bgcolor="lightblue">
250 <strong>DISPLAY-LOOK OPTIONS</strong>
254 -liteBackTextureFile "" (*)
256 -darkBackTextureFile "" (*)
258 -liteBackTextureMode 1 (*)
260 -darkBackTextureMode 1 (*)
262 Allows you to use any bitmap picture for displaying the board square
266 -renderPiecesWithFont "" (*)
268 specifies a true-type Chess font to be used for piece symbols
272 -fontPieceToCharTable "" (*)
274 specifies which font character to use for the various piece types
278 -overrideLineGap 1 (*)
280 controls the width of the black grid lines between squares
284 -fontPieceBackColorWhite #0 (*)
286 -fontPieceForeColorWhite #0 (*)
288 -fontPieceBackColorBlack #0 (*)
290 -fontPieceForeColorBlack #0 (*)
292 control piece colors in font-based rendering
296 -fontPieceSize 80 (*)
298 tunes the size of pieces in font-based rendering (% of square size)
302 -highlightMoveWithArrow false (*)
304 draws a big arrow to indicate the move last played
306 Options -> General...
308 -highlightArrowColor #FFFF80 (*)
310 controls the color of the highlight arrow
315 </td><td bgcolor="lightblue">
316 <strong>(UCI) ENGINE OPTIONS</strong>
322 tells WinBoard where you installed Polyglot, for automatic invocation with UCI engines
328 tells WinBoard which opening book it should use, or should make Polyglot use.
332 -usePolyglotBook false (*)
334 turns the use of the Polygot book on or off
338 -defaultPathEGTB "c:\egtb" (*)
340 folder where to find end-game tables
344 -defaultCacheSizeEGTB 4 (*)
346 specifies the cache size for UCI engines
350 -defaultHashSize 64 (*)
352 specifies the size of the main hash table for UCI engines and WinBoard engines implementing the memory command
364 tells WinBoard the corresponding engine should be run through Polyglot
368 -firstHasOwnBookUCI true
370 -secondHasOwnBookUCI true
376 tells WinBoard (or Polyglot) if the engine should use its own opening book
381 </td><td bgcolor="lightblue">
382 <strong>CHESS-VARIANT OPTIONS</strong>
386 -defaultFrcOpening -1
388 allows you to play from a specific opening shuffle, or make a new shuffle each game
390 File -> New FRC Game...
393 </td><td bgcolor="lightblue">
394 <strong>PGN FILE OPTIONS</strong>
398 -pgnExtendedInfo false (*)
400 save engine output (depth, score time) in PGN
404 -pgnEventHeader </br>"Computer Chess Game" (*)
406 specify the event for the PGN event tag
410 -saveOutOfBookInfo true (*)
412 include an 'annotator' tag in the PGN file
416 -hideThinkingFromHuman false (*)
418 suppresses the engine thinking output in the display, without the need to switch it off
419 (so it can still appear in the PGN file)
421 Options -> General...
424 </td><td bgcolor="lightblue">
425 <strong>USER-INTERFACE OPTIONS AND WINDOW CONTROL</strong>
429 -moveHistoryUp true (*)
439 controls opening, placement and size of a window containing the moves of the current game
440 (new in 4.4 is that all X and Y coordinates of auxiliary windows are stored relative to the main window)
442 Mode -> Show Move History (x)
444 -evalGraphUp true (*)
454 controls opening, placement and size of a window containing a graph of the
455 evaluation score of the engine(s) as a function of move number of the current game
457 Mode -> Show Evaluation Graph
459 -engineOutputUp true (*)
469 controls opening, placement and size of a window containing the thinking output of the engine(s)
471 Mode -> Show Engine Output (x)
473 -stickyWindows true (*)
475 make the various windows snap onto each other, and stick together
479 -showEvalInMoveHistory true (*)
481 depth/score info of the engine is included as comments in the move history window
483 Options -> General...
485 -evalHistColorWhite #FFFFB0 (*)
487 -evalHistColorBlack #AD5D3D (*)
489 determines the color of the eval-score comments in the move-history window
493 -autoDisplayComment true (*)
495 causes a window for displaying PGN comments to pop up automatically when such a comment is encountered
499 -autoDisplayTags true (*)
501 causes a window with PGN tags to be displayed as soon as a PGN file is loaded
505 -gameListTags "eprd" (*)
507 specifies the PGN tags that should be displayed in the game list
509 Options -> Game List...
512 </td><td bgcolor="lightblue">
513 <strong>MISCELLANEOUS</strong>
517 -debugFile "winboard.debug"
519 -nameOfDebugFile "winboard.debug"
521 allows you to specify an alternative name for saving the debug information
525 -defaultFrcPosition -1 (*)
527 specify the number of the starting position in shuffle Chess variants
529 File -> New Shuffle Game...
533 display only those lines in the game list that contain a given string
538 The value with which the option is listed is the default value.
539 If it is false or true, it is a Boolean option, a number implies an integer option.
540 A value starting with # indicates an RGB color indication in hexadecimal notation.
541 Options the settings of which are saved into the winboard.ini file are marked with (*).
544 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
545 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
548 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to
549 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>.
550 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
552 Please send broken links and other corrections or suggestions to
553 <a href="mailto:bug-xboard@gnu.org"><bug-xboard@gnu.org></a>.</p>
556 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
557 README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting translations
560 <p>Copyright © 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
562 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
563 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/">Creative
564 Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License</a>.</p>
567 <!-- timestamp start -->
568 $Date: 2012/02/29 05:48:58 $
569 <!-- timestamp end -->