a few points, yes running several engines is the future,
but how to combine them is a different story. I have tried
chesscombi, first 14 ply after book komodo and then stockfish
and that worked but during the whole game both engines
were running, on 4 threads, only first the komdo moves
were selected, and then Stockfish. Wasn't optimal for me
(on ICC) because Sfish seems to perform slightly better
with 8 threads instead of 4 even although then hyperthreading
is involved (i have 4 cores on my comp); may be due to
turbomode, but it even then apparently it makes better use
of the possibility of hyperthreading than Komodo..
An interface could solve such a problem, eg using certain
engines during separate phases of the game.
Also, in the Shredder Classic interface there is the option
of 'hyperbrain' combining the result of two engines. In
future you might even combine the result of more engines
not sure how to do this in a good way though.
Then about the book, it looks like .ctg is becoming de facto
standard, but i'm not sure if thios .ctg really is the best.
(it lacks certain features i think) Then, even although Aquarium
can load .ctg, its proprietary Chessbase format i suspect which
is raising some objections towards a standard format.
Then about the 3D look, for some human players this
sometimes is more pleasant, programming it as nice
as Chessbase will not be easy (openGL or so ?) but i
mentioned chessclient, which has a rather simple 3D option
which for me looks better than the ChessPartner 3D option,
and .. the source code is available for some of you geeks:
http://home.centurytel.net/khb/cclient/
(i configured the Cclient 3D interface myself, colours, piece set
and board shape, and it now looks playable for me, maybe i
should insert an image here later, but currently have html off
Finally about Fics (2D) interfaces, besides the ICC default
'Dasher' there are some more, such as Thief, iNemesis, Babaschess
so if 'we' want to think about a general purpose GUI then
the programmers might also like to have a look at them.
(many piece/board configurations, windows, and so on;
for me its a bit superfluous, when playing as human i like
it simple, wooden colours, standard piece set and
not to much other info).
jef
jef
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