GUI wish list

[MOBMAT]

To support opening positional analysis, my ideal scenario would to have a GUI with the following features:

1. For analysis, support multiple engines (like Arena)
2. Support a PV setting > 1 (like Arena, if engines support it)
3. Display arrows for the best move by each engine (like Arena), but instead of displaying the arrows with a different color representing each engine, instead, for each engine, have a separate color for each of the PV moves. Such as red for the best move, blue for the second best move, etc. So, for example, if I have 3 engines loaded, and all three think "e4" is the best move, then three red arrows would show for the move. If "d4" was the second best move for 2 of the 3 engines, then two blue arrows would appear for d4 but another blue arrow would show for whatever the other 2nd best move was for the 3rd engine. etc.

Granted, at first, there would be a ton of arrows as the engines change their minds in early plys, but when using top engines, they tend to converge on the same best moves fairly quickly.

The way Arena presents the arrows doesn't tell you anything about which arrow belongs to which engine without having to view the move list. I don't care about that anyway. I want to know which are the top X moves are best when using multiple engines for simultaneous analysis.

I don't think any GUIs can do this, but if there is one, please let me know.

[Programmingbear]

Hi,

your idea number 3 is interesting, and I will incorporate it into one of the next BearChess versions.

Lars

[MOBMAT]

Does Bear Chess support multiple engines for analysis?
implementing my idea for a single engine still could be useful.
I haven't tried your program since I don't have a e-board.
Let me know when you implement it and I'll try it.

thanks

V

[bastiball]

I'll try to create a GUI that is focus on analysis since the GUI i've been developing is more on engine v engine

[Carl]

3. Display arrows for the best move by each engine (like Arena), but instead of displaying the arrows with a different color representing each engine, instead, for each engine, have a separate color for each of the PV moves. Such as red for the best move, blue for the second best move, etc. So, for example, if I have 3 engines loaded, and all three think "e4" is the best move, then three red arrows would show for the move. If "d4" was the second best move for 2 of the 3 engines, then two blue arrows would appear for d4 but another blue arrow would show for whatever the other 2nd best move was for the 3rd engine. etc.

Keep in mind that you might also vary the texture of the arrows, and encode the engine attribution that way, like: "dotted arrow" -> Stockfish, "solid arrow" -> Lc0, and so on.

Thinking about it, you might also use opacity for indicating the strength of the variations.

[Programmingbear]

Hi,

Does Bear Chess support multiple engines for analysis?
implementing my idea for a single engine still could be useful.
I haven't tried your program since I don't have a e-board.
Let me know when you implement it and I'll try it.

thanks

V

yes, BearChess supports multiple engines.
You can always run multiple engines in parallel, even when playing a game against another engine.
No electronic chessboard is required to use BearChess.
You can also use it as a normal GUI, such as Arena.
I will provide an update once I have implemented the feature.

Lars

[MOBMAT]

I'll give it a try!

[tapio]

Here's a screenshot from AcidApeChess Android, unfortunately abandoned (sometimes it cannot even be used when there's license server issues - state of the dev unknown).

The IMO best GUI ideas are in this software. Here I've added 2 analysis engines, Caissa set up as multi pv. More analysis engines can be added and you can look into every engines line calculations.

It's so well done, given that this is for a small screen.

[Tibono]

I don't think any GUIs can do this, but if there is one, please let me know.

Analyze This Android does exactly that.