Sloppy 0.2.0 released

[ilari]

Downloads and more info here: http://koti.mbnet.fi/~ilaripih/sloppy/

As it says on the site, I'm making (and already made) some pretty big changes to Sloppy, so I wanted to get one more stable and fully functional version out before things get messy. Sloppy 0.2.0 is that release. I call it a small update, but it's still significantly stronger than the previous version. This version also shouldn't have such a huge problem with the fast time controls that Tony Thomas uses.

The biggest new feature is support for Scorpio's endgame bitbases. It was pretty easy to implement but required a lot of testing. Based on the tests I have concluded that 4-men bitbases (loaded in RAM) help Sloppy with a lot of extra ELO points. 5-men egbbs on the other hand aren't doing much good, and if they're loaded in RAM Sloppy actually seems to get weaker.

As always, feedback, bug reports, and faster builds are welcome.

[Graham Banks]

Thanks Ilari.

[gerold]

Downloads and more info here: http://koti.mbnet.fi/~ilaripih/sloppy/

As it says on the site, I'm making (and already made) some pretty big changes to Sloppy, so I wanted to get one more stable and fully functional version out before things get messy. Sloppy 0.2.0 is that release. I call it a small update, but it's still significantly stronger than the previous version. This version also shouldn't have such a huge problem with the fast time controls that Tony Thomas uses.

The biggest new feature is support for Scorpio's endgame bitbases. It was pretty easy to implement but required a lot of testing. Based on the tests I have concluded that 4-men bitbases (loaded in RAM) help Sloppy with a lot of extra ELO points. 5-men egbbs on the other hand aren't doing much good, and if they're loaded in RAM Sloppy actually seems to get weaker.

As always, feedback, bug reports, and faster builds are welcome.

Thanks IIari. Doing a quick test on it now.

Best to you,

Gerold.

[Tony Thomas]

I will wait for a JA build..I guess Sloppy would be soon playing in my highest division, I did not think that 0.11 had the time problem, because it was already very strong.

[Jim Ablett]

Sloppy 0.2.0 by Ilari Pihlajisto

Windows x64 & win32 Intel compiler 10 p.g.o JA builds
+ auto-parallelized builds.

http://www.zshare.net/download/7245878d162901/
Mirror:
http://mihd.net/uhdnwc

Jim.

[Denis P. Mendoza]

Downloads and more info here: http://koti.mbnet.fi/~ilaripih/sloppy/

As it says on the site, I'm making (and already made) some pretty big changes to Sloppy, so I wanted to get one more stable and fully functional version out before things get messy. Sloppy 0.2.0 is that release. I call it a small update, but it's still significantly stronger than the previous version. This version also shouldn't have such a huge problem with the fast time controls that Tony Thomas uses.

The biggest new feature is support for Scorpio's endgame bitbases. It was pretty easy to implement but required a lot of testing. Based on the tests I have concluded that 4-men bitbases (loaded in RAM) help Sloppy with a lot of extra ELO points. 5-men egbbs on the other hand aren't doing much good, and if they're loaded in RAM Sloppy actually seems to get weaker.

As always, feedback, bug reports, and faster builds are welcome.

Good news Ilari. I'll just wait for Jim to build a much faster 64-bit Intel compile for Sloppy- 64-bit pthreads. It's probably in the oven by now

So you finally added bitbase support. We'll just have to edit the egbb path on the config file in case we enable usage, as configuration sets path to "bitbases" folder (within the engine location). Am I right?

Code: Select all

# Sloppy's config file

# Hash table size in megabytes
# hash = 36

# Use 5-men bitbases (on/off)
egbb_5men = off

# Endgame bitbase load type (4men/5men/smart/none/off)
# 4men: load 3-men and 4-men bitbases to RAM
# 5men: load 3-men, 4-men and 5-men bitbases to RAM
# smart: load a smart selection of bitbases to RAM
# none: load nothing to RAM
# off: disable bitbases completely
egbb_load_type = 4men

# Endgame bitbase cache size in megabytes
egbb_cache = 4

# Endgame bitbase path
egbb_path = bitbases

# Book mode (disk/mem/off)
bookmode = mem

# Book learning (on/off)
learn = off

# Write logfile(s) (on/off)
logfile = off

# The number of threads Sloppy may use (currently for perft only).
# Comment it out if you want Sloppy to autodetect the best value.
# threads = 1

# End of config file

Nice egbb sekection there. Thanks.

[Jim Ablett]

Hi Gabor,

Will you please explain what auto-parallelized means?

I'll refer you to an earlier post where I answered that particular question >

http://64.68.157.89/forum/viewtopic.php ... 54&t=19322

regards,
Jim.

[ilari]

Thanks for compilation work, Jim!

So you finally added bitbase support. We'll just have to edit the egbb path on the config file in case we enable usage, as configuration sets path to "bitbases" folder (within the engine location). Am I right?

Correct. And the library (.dll or .so) must be in the bitbase folder. I could've been more clear there. The path can be relative to Sloppy's folder or an absolute path, it can't contain whitespace, and can't be wrapped in quotation marks.

So these are okay:
egbb_path = bitbases
egbb_path = /home/myself/bitbases #in a UNIX environment
egbb_path = C:\Scorpio\egbb\

And these are not:
egbb_path = "stuff\egbbs"
egbb_path = C:\Program Files\Scorpio\egbb

I work in a Unix environment, so I didn't realise that maybe I should allow whitespace in the pathname.

If you run Sloppy from the command line you'll get some info about your configuration, something like this:

Code: Select all

Found 2 CPUs
Using "book in memory" book mode
Loading opening book to memory...
Book learning OFF
EgbbProbe 3.1 by Daniel Shawul
Cache Size = 4 Mb (516 entries)
Egbbs loaded !      
5-men egbbs disabled
Egbb load type: 4-men
Hash table size: 36 MB

[David Dahlem]

Thanks for compilation work, Jim!

So you finally added bitbase support. We'll just have to edit the egbb path on the config file in case we enable usage, as configuration sets path to "bitbases" folder (within the engine location). Am I right?

Correct. And the library (.dll or .so) must be in the bitbase folder. I could've been more clear there. The path can be relative to Sloppy's folder or an absolute path, it can't contain whitespace, and can't be wrapped in quotation marks.

So these are okay:
egbb_path = bitbases
egbb_path = /home/myself/bitbases #in a UNIX environment
egbb_path = C:\Scorpio\egbb\

And these are not:
egbb_path = "stuff\egbbs"
egbb_path = C:\Program Files\Scorpio\egbb

I work in a Unix environment, so I didn't realise that maybe I should allow whitespace in the pathname.

If you run Sloppy from the command line you'll get some info about your configuration, something like this:

Code: Select all

Found 2 CPUs
Using "book in memory" book mode
Loading opening book to memory...
Book learning OFF
EgbbProbe 3.1 by Daniel Shawul
Cache Size = 4 Mb (516 entries)
Egbbs loaded !      
5-men egbbs disabled
Egbb load type: 4-men
Hash table size: 36 MB

I have Sloppy 0.2.0 installed in Arena, but i can't seem to adjust the hash size. In the config file, i have this entry ...

# Hash table size in megabytes
# hash = 256

Sloppy only uses 48 MB. When i Sloppy from the command line, this is what it shows ...

Sloppy 0.2.0 by Ilari Pihlajisto

Build date: Feb 6 2008
Debugging level: 1
Optimized for 32-bit

Initializing...
Found 2 CPUs
Opening book is disabled
Book learning OFF
Endgame bitbases disabled
Hash table size: 48 MB
...Done

What am i doing wrong?

Regards
Dave

[Jim Ablett]

Hi David,

I have Sloppy 0.2.0 installed in Arena, but i can't seem to adjust the hash size. In the config file, i have this entry ...

# Hash table size in megabytes
# hash = 256

In your 'config' example the hash symbol '#' should be removed to activate the option e.g

Code: Select all

# hash = 256     = ignored
  hash = 265     = used

rgds,
Jim.