Gaviota 0.74 released

[Spock]

OK, so I got further than you then, I was only missing 3.

It seems that the only way to generate these at the moment is under Linux. Or perhaps on a Windows box that has more than 8GB main memory, which is what I had on the machine I used and it still failed

[michiguel]

OK, so I got further than you then, I was only missing 3.

It seems that the only way to generate these at the moment is under Linux. Or perhaps on a Windows box that has more than 8GB main memory, which is what I had on the machine I used and it still failed

Hi Gabor,

My machine has only 2 gigs, I was perhaps a overoptimistic/stupid hoping I might succeed.

My machine has only 2 gigs and I generated them all in Linux 32 bits (Ubuntu 8.40). Since I moved to another version of Ubuntu (9.04), yesterday, I did a quicker test of loading and unloading every single file (rather than generate them) and three files did not fit (different than the ones you saw). What happens is that we are working on the limit of 2Gb. If a bit more memory is occupied for whatever reason, that limit is crossed. For instance, now that I say this, I forgot to lower the hash memory.

This is not good as it is. I am going to fix it (I wrote the code already but I have to test it now). I want people to be able to generate the files with 2 Gb and 32 bits.

Do not erase your files if you will try the next version. It should pick it up where the current version failed.

Miguel

[Spock]

Do not erase your files if you will try the next version. It should pick it up where the current version failed.

Miguel

Thanks, I'll wait for the next version

[michiguel]

Do not erase your files if you will try the next version. It should pick it up where the current version failed.

Miguel

Hi Miguel,

By no means!

BTW, can Gaviota work with incomplete 5-man bases or will she be confused?

Gaviota was not designed to work with incomplete TBs, **BUT**, it may work fine in this case because it generates TBs in such an order that if misses one, it will not affect conversions related to the previous ones. For instance, it is a problem if you have KPK and you do not have KQK. It will not promote. But that does not happen because of the order in which Gaviota generated them. This is untested, but I am almost sure gaviota will work fine with a truncated generation of TBs. (not if you delete some at random).

Miguel

[Graham Banks]

Gaviota was not designed to work with incomplete TBs, **BUT**, it may work fine in this case because it generates TBs in such an order that if misses one, it will not affect conversions related to the previous ones. For instance, it is a problem if you have KPK and you do not have KQK. It will not promote. But that does not happen because of the order in which Gaviota generated them. This is untested, but I am almost sure gaviota will work fine with a truncated generation of TBs. (not if you delete some at random).

Miguel

So I'll need to generate these tablebases too, if I want to include Gaviota in my amateur series?
Just clarifying.

Cheers,
Graham.

[michiguel]

Gaviota was not designed to work with incomplete TBs, **BUT**, it may work fine in this case because it generates TBs in such an order that if misses one, it will not affect conversions related to the previous ones. For instance, it is a problem if you have KPK and you do not have KQK. It will not promote. But that does not happen because of the order in which Gaviota generated them. This is untested, but I am almost sure gaviota will work fine with a truncated generation of TBs. (not if you delete some at random).

Miguel

So I'll need to generate these tablebases too, if I want to include Gaviota in my amateur series?
Just clarifying.

Cheers,
Graham.

You don't have to. You can include gaviota to play without TBs. Of course I would prefer Gaviota to play with them, but I understand the burden of doing this. A reasonable compromise will be to generate only up to 4-pc tablebases, which are generated quickly and do not occupy too much space.

I am planning to release the TB code with a BSD license. So, if other engines start using it, there will be a good reason to generate them.

Miguel

[Spock]

Now running Gaviota.

Playing a human vs Gaviota game under Arena, Gaviota uses 2 cores as I have set in the ini file.

Using Gaviota under Winboard on H.G. Muller's Free ICS Server, it only uses 1 core. Very strange. Maybe in the command line I need to do something. It is currently

winboard -ics -icshost 80.100.28.169 -icshelper timeseal -zp -fcp gaviota.exe -fd 'F:\Gaviota 0.74.8' -autoKibitz -keepAlive 5

[michiguel]

Now running Gaviota.

Playing a human vs Gaviota game under Arena, Gaviota uses 2 cores as I have set in the ini file.

Using Gaviota under Winboard on H.G. Muller's Free ICS Server, it only uses 1 core. Very strange. Maybe in the command line I need to do something. It is currently

winboard -ics -icshost 80.100.28.169 -icshelper timeseal -zp -fcp gaviota.exe -fd 'F:\Gaviota 0.74.8' -autoKibitz -keepAlive 5

Oops, I just sent you a PM because I saw the message disappear. Maybe in winboard the general settings is cores = 1. Gaviota will respond to it. The ini file is just a default, but whatever is established in winboard, it will stick. I think that is the spirit of the new commands.

Miguel

[michiguel]

Now running Gaviota.

Playing a human vs Gaviota game under Arena, Gaviota uses 2 cores as I have set in the ini file.

Using Gaviota under Winboard on H.G. Muller's Free ICS Server, it only uses 1 core. Very strange. Maybe in the command line I need to do something. It is currently

winboard -ics -icshost 80.100.28.169 -icshelper timeseal -zp -fcp gaviota.exe -fd 'F:\Gaviota 0.74.8' -autoKibitz -keepAlive 5

Oops, I just sent you a PM because I saw the message disappear. Maybe in winboard the general settings is cores = 1. Gaviota will respond to it. The ini file is just a default, but whatever is established in winboard, it will stick. I think that is the spirit of the new commands.

Miguel

I just checked to confirm (it is difficult to remember all this): You have to send -smpCores 2 in the command line

-smpCores number
Specifies the maximum number of CPUs an SMP engine is allowed to use. Only works for engines that support the XBoard/WinBoard-protocol cores feature.
http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/manu ... ne-options

then it should be
winboard -ics -icshost 80.100.28.169 -icshelper timeseal -zp -fcp gaviota.exe -fd 'F:\Gaviota 0.74.8' -autoKibitz -keepAlive 5 -smpCores 2

Note that this is not Gaviota's attitude , she is following winboard protocol very closely (at least trying). smpCores is not a gaviota's switch, it is a winboard's. Gaviota is probably the first winboard engine (or one of the first) to have this implemented, since HGM's engines may not be SMP (I think).

Miguel

[Spock]

winboard -ics -icshost 80.100.28.169 -icshelper timeseal -zp -fcp gaviota.exe -fd 'F:\Gaviota 0.74.8' -autoKibitz -keepAlive 5 -smpCores 2

Note that this is not Gaviota's attitude , she is following winboard protocol very closely (at least trying). smpCores is not a gaviota's switch, it is a winboard's. Gaviota is probably the first winboard engine (or one of the first) to have this implemented, since HGM's engines may not be SMP (I think).

Miguel

That works, thank you !