McCain - Two Menu Drop Downs Plus

[karger]

Mike , Thanks for answering. I was using Shredder and changed to Arena and the drop down menus are visible. Karger

[JohnS]

Mike , Thanks for answering. I was using Shredder and changed to Arena and the drop down menus are visible. Karger

Mike

I think the issue is that there are too many options for some GUIs. Chessbase also doesn't display the drop down menus and even the hash table size is not visible.

Still, thanks for the new version and Happy New Year and retirement!

[peter]

I think the issue is that there are too many options for some GUIs. Chessbase also doesn't display the drop down menus and even the hash table size is not visible.

At my 8 years old 12core Intel, Fritz14 and chessbase 12 don't install at all, neither the first x64_modern one, nor the correlating Stanback- compile. Tried to copy a libwinpthread-1.dll, a cygwin1.dll and a .DS_Store file into the folder of the exe without success.

Yet the normal compile works in Arena, Shredder (without Analysis Contempt) and HiarcsCE, so I'm rather confident with what I have, thanks to Michael again and Happy New Year to Everyone.

[Ovyron]

So, this time around I wasn't able to make Tactical behave like I wanted. There's code in there that makes sure MultiPV is set to what is in options before Stockfish outputs anything, and trying to change it throws errors.

But my problems wasn't with McCain, it was with Shredder Classic GUI, that hides the MultiPV in settings so there's no way to change it.

My solution was to keep everything the same but Change all instances of "Options["MultiPV"]" to "Options["MultiPW"]", and rename it to o["MultiPW"]. Now Shredder GUI shows it and I can change it.

I can no longer use the F5 or F6 keys to modify MultiPV, and it doesn't show the lines separating output, but I manage to simulate the Tactical setting with equivalence with MultiPW (0=1, 1=2, 2=4, 3=8...) but make it show the scores of alternative moves for free

Thanks again MikeB for this version, now it's back to being my main engine to look for alternative moves.

[MikeB]

So, this time around I wasn't able to make Tactical behave like I wanted. There's code in there that makes sure MultiPV is set to what is in options before Stockfish outputs anything, and trying to change it throws errors.

But my problems wasn't with McCain, it was with Shredder Classic GUI, that hides the MultiPV in settings so there's no way to change it.

My solution was to keep everything the same but Change all instances of "Options["MultiPV"]" to "Options["MultiPW"]", and rename it to o["MultiPW"]. Now Shredder GUI shows it and I can change it.

I can no longer use the F5 or F6 keys to modify MultiPV, and it doesn't show the lines separating output, but I manage to simulate the Tactical setting with equivalence with MultiPW (0=1, 1=2, 2=4, 3=8...) but make it show the scores of alternative moves for free

Thanks again MikeB for this version, now it's back to being my main engine to look for alternative moves.

Sorry about all the extra work you had to do. I use xboard under macOS and don't see the issues you see. New version X1 will be ready soon.

[Kirk]

Two new menu items that some folks may appreciate

First ,we have a new drop menu for levels. For the levels shown, the computer type levels are labels, to fill in some gaps and to honor some of the pioneering chess computers and programs that were created in computer chess infancy. They were placed logically where I felt they should go, but there was no huge amount of energy spent. As an example , Cray Blitz had a performance level of close to or over 2600 in blitz games was searching close to or over 100,000 nps in the late 1980's. Here , McCain with the Cray Blitz level, using the latest software based on Stockfish 10, will search at about 10,000 nps - and for stockfish , 10,000 NPS is pretty darn close to 2600. The novice level will really play at the novice level as McCain will only search about 10-12 nodes per second. So if you give it 30 seconds, it might search 300 nodes in total.

Second feature being added is multi book option from a drop down menu.

McCain X will also include opening polyglot books based on current and past champions, as shown as the menu, The Champions book will also include a few other top players as well, These were all newly custom built books that will play the lines from either the white side or the black side based on games they played. There will be more randomness to the lines so all of the lines played will have a chance to be played, Only if the line was played at least twice by that player and he scored 50% or more was the opening included - so the books are not real big. They were also capped at 60 ply ( 30 moves). You will have the ability to switch from one book to another in mid game easily - so if you are playing the Fischer book and you get out of the Fischer book, you can easily switch it over to another book ( would require you to retract the non book mode etc in the GUI). For the Champions book, a line had to be played at least 3 times by the group with a record of 50% or more to make the cut. For this feature to work, all books will have to be located in the same folder as the McCain engine.

Hi! Where is the download for this version. Thanks!

Anyway, fun times are ahead, as you can play the current and past champions - well, at least the openings they played anyway ... tested and works under the xBoard GUI, ymmv.

It will be very soon.

[Kirk]

MikeB , Are you going to release the version of McCain that has the two dropdown menus that this thread was about ? The current version of McCain X does not have that option ? I was looking forward to it. Thanks , Karger

Having Same issue

[MikeB]

MikeB , Are you going to release the version of McCain that has the two dropdown menus that this thread was about ? The current version of McCain X does not have that option ? I was looking forward to it. Thanks , Karger

Having Same issue

Yes - that was apparently not functional when it was released. It will be in the next version - hoping for later this week. Appreciate your patience. thanks.

[supersharp77]

MikeB , Are you going to release the version of McCain that has the two dropdown menus that this thread was about ? The current version of McCain X does not have that option ? I was looking forward to it. Thanks , Karger

Having Same issue

Yes - that was apparently not functional when it was released. It will be in the next version - hoping for later this week. Appreciate your patience. thanks.

In Fritz GUI some of the dropdowns did not work......an where does one get the 3 chess opening books....Carlsen & Champions..Tried cerebellum book in position #1...engine did not read the book....Thx AR

[Andrew]

Thanks also for the updates Mike, I've been trying McCain and Stockfish10 on a small sample of the Arves positions
(especially those leading to mate scores) with interesting results. Will be interesting to compare the new versions!

Andrew