Prédateur 2.2 Released

[JuLieN]

Since a little bit more than a year and a half, I've been working on a C++ "rewrite" of Prédateur. So this latest pascal version of my engine might well also be the last one, as the C++ version is getting mature and closer to delivery. This 2.2 version is most of all a speedup/bugfix release. Testers will tell, but I think the Elo boost might be bewteen +50/+100 compared with Prédateur 2.1.

The archives includes binaries for :
- win 32
- win 64
- Mac Intel
- MorphOS PPC

Here's what have changed:
- A lot of speedup everywhere, made possible by using Intruments, XCode's code profiling tool.
- The promotion "bug" is fixed, so Olivier and Leo should be happy, now
- Many ply-variables have been gathered into fieldbits, speeding up many parts of the engine.
- The search have been polished and finely tuned.
- Prédateur now understands the "go nodes xx" command.
- Time management and response improved (Prédateur can now play games will less than 200ms per move).
- perft is now available to everyone.
- More binaries in the archive: MorphOS PPC added.
- Many tidbits here and there I don't even remember.

Have fun, and happy new year 2012!

Read more on the blog: http://predateur-chess.blogspot.com/
Prédateur also has a Facebook dedicated page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prédateur ... 5648159697

[zullil]

Thanks, Julien.

Very nice to see a post about an engine release.

[JuLieN]

Thanks, Julien.

Very nice to see a post about an engine release.

I hear you!
Thanks!

[Graham Banks]

Thanks Julien. I'll take a look.

[Adam Hair]

Thanks, Julien.

[micron]

cutechess-cli 0.5.0 does not like Prédateur:

Invalid UCI option from "Predateur v2.2_MacIntel" : "option name UCI_EngineAbout type String default http://predateur-chess.blogspot.com"

[mar]

Since a little bit more than a year and a half, I've been working on a C++ "rewrite" of Prédateur. So this latest pascal version of my engine might well also be the last one, as the C++ version is getting mature and closer to delivery. This 2.2 version is most of all a speedup/bugfix release. Testers will tell, but I think the Elo boost might be bewteen +50/+100 compared with Prédateur 2.1.

The archives includes binaries for :
- win 32
- win 64
- Mac Intel
- MorphOS PPC

Here's what have changed:
- A lot of speedup everywhere, made possible by using Intruments, XCode's code profiling tool.
- The promotion "bug" is fixed, so Olivier and Leo should be happy, now
- Many ply-variables have been gathered into fieldbits, speeding up many parts of the engine.
- The search have been polished and finely tuned.
- Prédateur now understands the "go nodes xx" command.
- Time management and response improved (Prédateur can now play games will less than 200ms per move).
- perft is now available to everyone.
- More binaries in the archive: MorphOS PPC added.
- Many tidbits here and there I don't even remember.

Have fun, and happy new year 2012!

Read more on the blog: http://predateur-chess.blogspot.com/
Prédateur also has a Facebook dedicated page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prédateur ... 5648159697

Good luck with the new Prédateur and happy new year too PS hope you won't lose any LCCRL points by going for C++!

Martin

[JuLieN]

Thanks Julien. I'll take a look.

Thanks, Julien.

Thanks, Graham and Adam! My pleasure!

Good luck with the new Prédateur and happy new year too PS hope you won't lose any LCCRL points by going for C++!

Martin

Thanks Martin! Nope, C++ is safe. Java wouldn't be!

cutechess-cli 0.5.0 does not like Prédateur:

Invalid UCI option from "Predateur v2.2_MacIntel" : "option name UCI_EngineAbout type String default http://predateur-chess.blogspot.com"

Hmm, the problem comes from cute chess (if Arto reads this?) The whole UCI_EngineAbout line should just be totally ignored by the interface. I guess that cute chess doesn't like an argument that includes "://" and several points...

[ilari]

cutechess-cli 0.5.0 does not like Prédateur:

Invalid UCI option from "Predateur v2.2_MacIntel" : "option name UCI_EngineAbout type String default http://predateur-chess.blogspot.com"

Hmm, the problem comes from cute chess (if Arto reads this?) The whole UCI_EngineAbout line should just be totally ignored by the interface. I guess that cute chess doesn't like an argument that includes "://" and several points...

The special characters shouldn't be a problem for cutechess-cli. It's the option type being in upper case ("String"). I don't think the UCI protocol allows this either, it only states that the option name and value are case-insensitive (which is really unfortunate as well).

Also, for some reason the Windows version of Predateur doesn't seem to work under Wine in Linux because I can't pass commands to it. Doesn't it read input from stdin?

[Amstaff]

Hello I have installed Predateur 2.2 under Arena 3.0 and loaded it as a UCI engine and it will not start.
Any thoughts.
Thanks in advance,
Gerald