Banksia GUI released

[phhnguyen]

Hi Phhnguyen.

I have such a request - I will describe it. I play a Swiss tournament and would like to set all engines to have the option "50-move rule" - draw. Is it possible.

Thanks for the request. However, I am not clear about it:
- BSG always auto rules all games by all standard chess rules, including already the rule of 50 moves
- For engines' options, BSG always stores/sends back (to engines) only the options engines declare. It is no point to send engines the options they don't understand

Can you explain more about your request (purpose, how it works)? Thanks again,

[mmt]

Tools->Opening doesn't seem to do anything (no engines loaded and no openings created).

I think Settings->Engines and Settings->Book/Egtb should be made separate menu and toolbar options instead of buried under settings. Tournament could also be a separate menu bar.

Edit->Paste should be Edit->Paste PGN.

I think "Paste FEN" will be needed at some point.

Pieces could use anti-aliasing.

Options under New Tournament could use longer explanations of what they do. This could be done using tooltips. Does "Syzygy path" there allow multiple directories? "Syzygy" should be near "Syzygy path." Better defaults would be good (e.g. Resign score).

Bug - when I'm choosing "WeightsFile" for LC0, I get a dialog about replacing this file.

I had to expand most of the windows to see the full info. E.g. in Settings->Engines. Bigger default size would be nice.

I should be able to set the number of cores and hash size per-engine, not just overall.

What is "(men: 0, eg: 0) after Syzygy checkbox?

If you continue following up on user requests quickly, I think you will have the best GUI out there. As few bugs as possible is most important. Arena GUI has lots of options but it's buggy.

[Steppenwolf]

Thanks for all the suggestions/requests.

Dear Phhnguyen,

I hope that you not forget my little suggestions from the past with the following feature requests, please can you add:

-Possibility to let two or more engines (like SF & Komodo) calculate more in deep at one fixed chess position, in order to compare their analytical outputs. (With that feature you distinguish from all other chess GUIs!)

Sorry, I missed this suggestion. Could you explain more? How to use those engines and what for? Is it in analyzing mode using multiple engines?

I mean the following: I go through a certain game move by move with the analysis tool (engine in permanent mode) is on.
I am asking that not only one engine is on, I am interested to have two or three engines running at the same time at one chess position.
Different engines have different engine evaluation outputs depending on their origin programmer. I prefer Stockfisch, Komodo and Lc0 on macOS catalina.
I am interested in comparing them.

I am not sure if you have at the Moment an automatic analyzing mode using multiple engines in your GUI, but this could also interesting for the future...
But I would perfer personally the first variant.
Did you understand me?

-Open larger pgn files (e.g. from TWIC) and search for typical database functions (position, opening, player names etc.) in it

-Possibility to open chess database/book tree Formats (cbh and ctg) from Chessbase like it is planned in the new Hiarcs Chess Explorer version 2 (http://www.hiarcs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9768)

Great thanks and please go ahead with you nice GUI! I would be very happy to see the new features in the next release…-:)

Steppenwolf

All above suggestions are still in my TODO list and I have actually done some preparing works such as studying realities of implementations, collect and study some involving documents...

[Krzysztof Grzelak]

Thanks for the request. However, I am not clear about it:
- BSG always auto rules all games by all standard chess rules, including already the rule of 50 moves
- For engines' options, BSG always stores/sends back (to engines) only the options engines declare. It is no point to send engines the options they don't understand

Can you explain more about your request (purpose, how it works)? Thanks again,

I thought about what's on the TCEC.

[hgm]

-Possibility to let two or more engines (like SF & Komodo) calculate more in deep at one fixed chess position, in order to compare their analytical outputs. (With that feature you distinguish from all other chess GUIs!)

What do you mean? There exist many GUIs that can have multiple engines analyze the same position. I was told 10 years ago that Arena could even do that with 8 engines.

[Ovyron]

Beware to never use more engines than what your computer's cores allow, all efficiency goes down once you use more than one engine per core and then you'd have been better using them one after the other instead of simultaneously.

GUIs that allow users to use engines concurrently are dangerous if engines have to fight for resources from a core.

[phhnguyen]

Thanks a lot for the report. All bugs will be fixed for the next release.
Just few points:

Tools->Opening doesn't seem to do anything (no engines loaded and no openings created).

I think Settings->Engines and Settings->Book/Egtb should be made separate menu and toolbar options instead of buried under settings. Tournament could also be a separate menu bar.

I have been working on the interface: organizing settings, toolbars and menus. There are some pros and cons between centralizing (as current design) or using multi-places. I have noted your suggestions and will be back to work on that soon.

Edit->Paste should be Edit->Paste PGN.

I think "Paste FEN" will be needed at some point.

BSG can work with pastes of PGN or FEN strings. Just paste any of them.

Pieces could use anti-aliasing.

I have been working hard on that issue. Can you post the image of aliasing pieces and tell me which screen type, solution, the computer's OS you are using? Thanks

Options under New Tournament could use longer explanations of what they do. This could be done using tooltips. Does "Syzygy path" there allow multiple directories? "Syzygy" should be near "Syzygy path." Better defaults would be good (e.g. Resign score).

Yes, you may use multi folders, separated by ; for macOS/Linux or : for Windows

Bug - when I'm choosing "WeightsFile" for LC0, I get a dialog about replacing this file.

I had to expand most of the windows to see the full info. E.g. in Settings->Engines. Bigger default size would be nice.

BSG can remember the size of the Settings dialog. Just resize it and it will be that size for the next time. Between the engine list and the option list is a splitter you may drag it for better sizes too.

Some users still using small screens, thus BSG has to start with small sizes.

I should be able to set the number of cores and hash size per-engine, not just overall.

You can, just turn off Overall options then set them from the option list of each engine.

What is "(men: 0, eg: 0) after Syzygy checkbox?

That is the brief info of Syzygy EGTB. Men = the largest piece number, eg = number of endgames. "men: 0" means you did not set the folder of Syzygy yet (set in Book/Egtb tab of Settings). On my computer, the brief info is: men: 5, eg: 145.

If you continue following up on user requests quickly, I think you will have the best GUI out there. As few bugs as possible is most important. Arena GUI has lots of options but it's buggy.

[phhnguyen]

Thanks for all the suggestions/requests.

Dear Phhnguyen,

I hope that you not forget my little suggestions from the past with the following feature requests, please can you add:

-Possibility to let two or more engines (like SF & Komodo) calculate more in deep at one fixed chess position, in order to compare their analytical outputs. (With that feature you distinguish from all other chess GUIs!)

Sorry, I missed this suggestion. Could you explain more? How to use those engines and what for? Is it in analyzing mode using multiple engines?

I mean the following: I go through a certain game move by move with the analysis tool (engine in permanent mode) is on.
I am asking that not only one engine is on, I am interested to have two or three engines running at the same time at one chess position.
Different engines have different engine evaluation outputs depending on their origin programmer. I prefer Stockfisch, Komodo and Lc0 on macOS catalina.
I am interested in comparing them.

I am not sure if you have at the Moment an automatic analyzing mode using multiple engines in your GUI, but this could also interesting for the future...
But I would perfer personally the first variant.
Did you understand me?

I understood as below:
- Multi engines run in the background, computing for the current position without making moves (analyzing infinitely)
- User will make moves and all those engines will continue calculating for the new positions

For the current version, the user can run similarly by selecting an engine (for any side) and setting the timer to infinite. That engine will calculate in the background. Can you check if it what you need but with one engine? If it is correct, I may update later to run multi-engines. Thanks

[phhnguyen]

Beware to never use more engines than what your computer's cores allow, all efficiency goes down once you use more than one engine per core and then you'd have been better using them one after the other instead of simultaneously.

GUIs that allow users to use engines concurrently are dangerous if engines have to fight for resources from a core.

Good point!

I think we may need user guides. Or let users try and error

[Steppenwolf]

Thanks for all the suggestions/requests.

Dear Phhnguyen,

I hope that you not forget my little suggestions from the past with the following feature requests, please can you add:

-Possibility to let two or more engines (like SF & Komodo) calculate more in deep at one fixed chess position, in order to compare their analytical outputs. (With that feature you distinguish from all other chess GUIs!)

Sorry, I missed this suggestion. Could you explain more? How to use those engines and what for? Is it in analyzing mode using multiple engines?

I mean the following: I go through a certain game move by move with the analysis tool (engine in permanent mode) is on.
I am asking that not only one engine is on, I am interested to have two or three engines running at the same time at one chess position.
Different engines have different engine evaluation outputs depending on their origin programmer. I prefer Stockfisch, Komodo and Lc0 on macOS catalina.
I am interested in comparing them.

I am not sure if you have at the Moment an automatic analyzing mode using multiple engines in your GUI, but this could also interesting for the future...
But I would perfer personally the first variant.
Did you understand me?

I understood as below:
- Multi engines run in the background, computing for the current position without making moves (analyzing infinitely)
- User will make moves and all those engines will continue calculating for the new positions

You understood me absolut correctly. This Feature I had in mind.

For the current version, the user can run similarly by selecting an engine (for any side) and setting the timer to infinite. That engine will calculate in the background. Can you check if it what you need but with one engine? If it is correct, I may update later to run multi-engines. Thanks

That would be Great!