Banksia GUI released

[Ozymandias]

When creating a Polyglot book, we need to compute and assign a score for each move in the book. The popular method is to count numbers of game wins, draws and losses of that move then sum up them with their factors.

score_of_a_move = win x win_factor + draw x draw_factor + loss x loss_factor

For default factors of BSG, win_factor = 5, draw_factor = 0, loss_factor = 0 means we use only win number as the score: more wins is better. However, BSG allows users to control all factors too. All scores of a given opening book could be edited manually later. All may help to create scores as users want.

So, you've changed the default 2xW + D for Polyglot?

That screen-capture looks really good, what's the number to the right of the moves? Games?

[phhnguyen]

When creating a Polyglot book, we need to compute and assign a score for each move in the book. The popular method is to count numbers of game wins, draws and losses of that move then sum up them with their factors.

score_of_a_move = win x win_factor + draw x draw_factor + loss x loss_factor

For default factors of BSG, win_factor = 5, draw_factor = 0, loss_factor = 0 means we use only win number as the score: more wins is better. However, BSG allows users to control all factors too. All scores of a given opening book could be edited manually later. All may help to create scores as users want.

So, you've changed the default 2xW + D for Polyglot?

That screen-capture looks really good, what's the number to the right of the moves? Games?

Those numbers are scores. Polyglot books don't store directly the number of games!

If you see the name of that opening book file (on the top box) it is fruit.bin - it is the opening book of Fruit chess engine. We don't know how its author (Fabien Letouzey) built that book: how many games he used, how he selected them, what were factors, did he post-edit after building... I am sure it is a good book, but I am not sure if it is extremely good!

From my experience, the default settings (score = 5xW) for building Polyglot books of BSG are just fine, especially when you have a large number of computer games since they count only winning games and ignore all others.

[Nordlandia]

I tried two computer match feature and it seems to be working fine. But there is few options that would be beneficial to the operator/spectators.

* Ponderhit -> move expected by the opponent in percentage.

Considering predicted Move
Search with the predicted opponent move from the Principal Variation is actually made. If the expected move is really played by the opponent, a so called Ponder Hit occurred and one may either continue searching with the saved time.

* Pondermove -> the expected move in text. I.e " Bc4 "

[Jonathan003]

[/quote]

Oops! Thanks a lot for the report!

Can you send me the database (with the extension bgdb - the one you use to create the Polyglot book) for checking? I am a bit struggling to reproduce the crash. Thanks again.
[/quote]

Its when choosing the format pgn instead of bin when making a book from a bgdb file. I tried it with different pgn books. And Banksia crashes. Maybe it's not meant to load a pgn book that way? Then it would be better not to be able to select a book in pgn format when clicking the + sign, when going to tools > opening

[phhnguyen]

I tried two computer match feature and it seems to be working fine. But there is few options that would be beneficial to the operator/spectators.

* Ponderhit -> move expected by the opponent in percentage.

Considering predicted Move
Search with the predicted opponent move from the Principal Variation is actually made. If the expected move is really played by the opponent, a so called Ponder Hit occurred and one may either continue searching with the saved time.

* Pondermove -> the expected move in text. I.e " Bc4 "

Thanks for those suggestions. I have added them to my TODO list.

[phhnguyen]

Oops! Thanks a lot for the report!

Can you send me the database (with the extension bgdb - the one you use to create the Polyglot book) for checking? I am a bit struggling to reproduce the crash. Thanks again.

Its when choosing the format pgn instead of bin when making a book from a bgdb file. I tried it with different pgn books. And Banksia crashes. Maybe it's not meant to load a pgn book that way? Then it would be better not to be able to select a book in pgn format when clicking the + sign, when going to tools > opening

I have tried on some computers and some databases (.bgdb) but still struggling to reproduce the problem. Please note that:
* to create a new PGN book from an existent database (.bgdb) you need to open dialog Opening Book Builder as below image (menu -> Tools -> Create opening book)
* the input is a database file (.bgdb) and the output is a PGN file that may not be existent - BSG will create a total new PGN file. Thus trying "different pgn books" won't help (BSG won't read them)

BTW, can you try to create a Polyglot first (tick on Polyglot) to check if it crashes or not? Thanks again.

[Jonathan003]

[/quote]

I have tried on some computers and some databases (.bgdb) but still struggling to reproduce the problem. Please note that:
* to create a new PGN book from an existent database (.bgdb) you need to open dialog Opening Book Builder as below image (menu -> Tools -> Create opening book)
* the input is a database file (.bgdb) and the output is a PGN file that may not be existent - BSG will create a total new PGN file. Thus trying "different pgn books" won't help (BSG won't read them)

BTW, can you try to create a Polyglot first (tick on Polyglot) to check if it crashes or not? Thanks again.


[/quote]


I will send you a link to my google drive with the original pgn database, the bgdb database made from the original pgn, the pgn book, and the bin book.
I have no problems in Banksia when loading the created bin book.

Here are the settings I used:

[thombuse]

I am new at trying chess engine match software, so please forgive me as a noobie. I had three problems setting up and using Banksia 0.18 alpha (Win7 laptop).

1. I started a human vs human game, then abandoned it. But I cannot make the game go away. Every time I open the software, there is my abandoned game. Is there a "delete game" or "start over" or "clear" command?

2. I ran a simple tournament, and abandoned it, halfway done. Now when I select from the menubar File > Tournament Load/Save, I do not see my tournament, but a green message near window top says, "Current Tournament roundrobin 2 engines, games: 1/2" which is true. How can I eliminate this abandoned tournament? How can I restart it, if I choose to restart it? Note that clicking the button bar button "Show all playing games" shows no playing games, but the abandoned tournament is somewhere. Where?

3. I used the menu bar command Tools > Download and successfully downloaded and used the available default engines Komodo and Stockfish. However, I failed to download Crafty and Lc0. The two engines do download content into my engine folders. However, the second automatic part, says "Detecting," the progress bar moves up through 100%, but then "Error, the engine doesn't support the selected protocol!" I tried both wb and uci. I tried the Protocol pulldown on "Auto-detect" but receive the error message "This engine does not support any protocol!"

Banksia looks like it will be lots of fun! I want to get it right. I am new at this and may be making a user error, but I can't find it. These problems remain even when I deleted the files and re-extracted everything. Thanks for any advice.

[thombuse]

Note, additional info about my problems mentioned above. On the tournament I was running, I think my computer went to sleep. When I woke it, one of two concurrent games had completed. Then the rest of the problem is as explained in 2 above.

[phhnguyen]

I will send you a link to my google drive with the original pgn database, the bgdb database made from the original pgn, the pgn book, and the bin book.
I have no problems in Banksia when loading the created bin book.

Here are the settings I used:

Thanks a lot, I got the file. Your setups look fine too.

However, I still can't reproduce the problem. I tried to create PGN opening books from your bgdb file, run in a few systems/computers, including macOS, Win10, a strong computer and a week computer. I even redownload BSG 0.18 from the website and tried with it. All can generate PGN books without crashing. Bellow image is the dialog after generating, run on my week computer (AMD Ryzen 5, 2 physic cores, 8GB RAM).



If you can, please try on another computer. I took a note and will come back / check further later. Thanks again