1st Mini Shogi Computer Association Championships 2017

[Ferdy]

OK, I uploaded something that seems to work, to

http://hgm.nubati.net/broadcast.exe

Can't download so far.

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Not Found

The requested URL /broadcast.exe was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

(There are already some 30 games there, mostly crap, which I created during debugging. I will throw all test games away just before the real tournament starts.)

Viewer works fine with loaded sample games.

[hgm]

Oops! Forgot to test the link after posting. It was actually

http://hgm.nubati.net/variants/broadcast.exe

I also forgot to give you the password; without it the thing would also have been pretty useless. Check your PM.

[Ferdy]

Oops! Forgot to test the link after posting. It was actually

http://hgm.nubati.net/variants/broadcast.exe

I also forgot to give you the password; without it the thing would also have been pretty useless. Check your PM.

Thanks I got the file and pw.

[Ferdy]

Oops! Forgot to test the link after posting. It was actually

http://hgm.nubati.net/variants/broadcast.exe

I also forgot to give you the password; without it the thing would also have been pretty useless. Check your PM.

I am able to play some games now .
While game is in progress, the viewer will not update the moves, I need to press the game in the game list before the moves are updated in the viewer, is this normal?

[hgm]

Yes, this is one of the things I still have to fix. For unfinished games the viewer will have to poll periodically to see if there are new moves. This is a matter of changing the JavaScript to which the page links.

This is connected to the issue of game termination, however. The tbserver.cgi program maintains a file state.txt, which reserves 12 characters per created game. The first 10 now are always "0000,0000,", and reserved for keeping track of the time used by the players in future versions. The character behind that is the only one that is currently in use (and is followed by a linefeed, to allow easy editing of the file), and specifies the state of that game:

w or b for games still in progress with white or black to move
+, - or = for finished games with a white win, loss or a draw

In the game overview this state identifier is printed just before the player names. But since the uploaded games are not yet terminated by the broadcaster, even the finished games now have all w or b state. I will make the broadcast.exe upload a game-end marker as a special move when WinBoard sends a "result" command to the first engine, and let tbserver.cgi recognize that marker so that it will set the game state to the result it implies. The JavaScript can then be modified to start polling for games that do not have such a marker as 'last move'.

[Ferdy]

That is cool.

Regarding the trn file, when I use it, the games are not broadcasted.

I set something like:

Code: Select all

[...]

-seedBase 670444073
-tourneyType 1
-debug
-debugfile "///broadcast PASSWORD msca1" 
-tourneyCycles 8
-defaultMatchGames 2

[...]

What works for me is like this:

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-mg 16 -tc 1 -inc 1 -sgf mini_broadcast.pgn -lgf minishogi-ch-8start.pgn -lgi -2 -debug -debugfile "///broadcast PASSWORD msca1"

[hgm]

I will check it out. The -debug option might not work when not already set at startup. The option will be set, for sure, but the debug file will actually have to be openened. Which is probably done by code that is only run at startup. I do not rerun all initialization code after reading a tournament file. (E.g. options that alter the piece or board graphics would also not be executed to have their new values take effect, after loading a tournament file or a new engine.)

If this is indeed the problem, a work-around would be to always put the -debug and -debugfile options on the WinBoard command line.

[Ferdy]

If this is indeed the problem, a work-around would be to always put the -debug and -debugfile options on the WinBoard command line.

Not really a problem, but this work-around already worked.

Since I am runing with 6 concurrencies, I will only broadcast most likely when one of the top engines are get paired using concurrency 1, and others will be on 5 concurrency and will not be broadcasted. The format is RR so this is easier to setup.

[hgm]

I don't think there would be a problem broadcasting many games simultaneously. Because they will all be uploaded as separate games to the server. For each game that starts the broadcaster sends a request to the server to open a new game, and it will get the game number in reply. After that, it uses that number to upload the moves. No two broadcasters would get the same game number, as they all use their own request for a new game.

Observers can then select the game they want to see from the list. Or open the viewer page several times in different browser windows, and select a different game in each of those.

[Ferdy]

I don't think there would be a problem broadcasting many games simultaneously. Because they will all be uploaded as separate games to the server. For each game that starts the broadcaster sends a request to the server to open a new game, and it will get the game number in reply. After that, it uses that number to upload the moves. No two broadcasters would get the same game number, as they all use their own request for a new game.

Observers can then select the game they want to see from the list. Or open the viewer page several times in different browser windows, and select a different game in each of those.

I thought the broadcaster is not be able to handle concurrency.