New release: Plisk 022

[vladstamate]

Hi Harun,

With all this, it is possible there is a bug somewhere so I appreciate your feedback. If you can tell me the percentage plisk.exe is using in your Task Manager and your number of cores in your PC I might be able to figure out what is going wrong and fix it if it is a problem.

I am still happy about the 2300 rating though

Regards,
Vlad.

[beachknight]

I stand corrected: around 2350

Code: Select all

1268 Plisk 0.2.2 4cpu               2347   69   69    78   42%  2404   15% 

Best,

PS: I have set NumberThreads to 4. Cpu usage was around 100%

[vladstamate]

Hi Harun,

Thanks for the update. Good news then!

And yes, setting back the NumberThreads to 1 should make it behave properly. It is my fault that I left that setting there.

Thanks again for the testing and giving me feedback!

Regards,
Vlad.

[beachknight]

Hi Harun,

Thanks for the update. Good news then!

And yes, setting back the NumberThreads to 1 should make it behave properly. It is my fault that I left that setting there.

Thanks again for the testing and giving me feedback!

Regards,
Vlad.

Well, you might be right!

Just tested 022 on Arena 201:

When I set NumberThreads to 8 on a quad, I observe 100% cpu load.

When I set NumberThreads to 4 on a quad, I observe 100% cpu load
when calculating a new move and 75% cpu load after executing the move.

When I set NumberThreads to 2 on a quad, I observe 50% cpu load
when calculating a new move and 25% cpu load after executing the move.

When I set NumberThreads to 1 on a quad, I observe 25% cpu load
when calculating a new move and 0% cpu load after executing the move.

Interesting but may I conclude that plisk 022 does not ponder?!



Best,

I recall that Sloppy has some similarity.
It has an option of NumberThreads but it uses always 1cpu.

As far as I understand this multicore business is no easy thing.

[Sylwy]

Multumesc pentru cuvintele de incurajare. Eu continui sa imbunatatesc engine-ul si banuiesc ca va ajunge candva la 2200-2400. Am sa investighez ce se intampla cu pionii. Sunt curios, care sunt rezultatele turneului pe care l-ai jucat?

Am acum un turneu special pentru Plisk 0.2.2. Il rulez pe un Athlon 64 3800 +/OS 32 bit. Am sa-ti trimit toate partidele ! Imi place sa urmaresc -critic fiecare partida. Nu sunt programator , doar un sahist fanatic. Fratele ,in schimb , este programator ( lucreaza in patria frunzei de artar ).
Cu stima,
Silvian

[vladstamate]

When I set NumberThreads to 1 on a quad, I observe 25% cpu load
when calculating a new move and 0% cpu load after executing the move.

Interesting but may I conclude that plisk 022 does not ponder?!

Plisk does ponder. Make sure you have it set up in the UI. In Arena the settings is under Engines in the Menu. Plisk supports both protocols UCI and xboard and ponders correctly in both. Make sure that you have Ponder=1 in the config.txt file as well.

I used Area extensively for testing (I use Plisk as UCI engine under Arena) and provided the conditions above, ponder works just great.

I also played few hundred games on both ICC and FICS using winboard and xboard with ponder on and it was working fine too.

It also works with cutechess-cli as a UCI engine.

If you see 0% CPU utilization it means you have ponder off somehow: either in the config.txt file or in the UI setting.

Regards,
Vlad.

[vladstamate]

Just verifying this again. When using Arena you MUST have Ponder=1 in the config.txt file AND Pondering on in the Menu under Engines, otherwise it won't ponder.

I assume you probably turned that off when you wrongly thought it uses 4 CPUs.

Regards,
Vlad.

[beachknight]

If you see 0% CPU utilization it means you have ponder off somehow: either in the config.txt file or in the UI setting.

Yep. in the config.txt ponder=0

just changed the engine type from wb to uci.

I have also unchecked the ponder option in uci settings.
The behaviour is same. 3 and 4 cores were being used.
I dont see a numberthreads option in uci settings, though.

Best,

[vladstamate]

Ok,

Let me make one thing clear: with default settings Plisk uses just one core and ponders correctly. The behaviors you are seeing are because you altered the config file. That should be a good lesson for me for the next release.


Please overwrite your config.txt file with the text below then unload the engine and play again (exit Arena if you have too).

Code: Select all

DepthSearch=40
UseOpeningBook=1
PawnHashSize=10
EvalHashSize=50
TTHashSize=70
AspirationWindow=200
StartIDDepth=1
UseMP=1
NumberThreads=1
Book=book3_1.bk
Contempt=0
MaxNumExtPerDepth=100
Ponder=1

You should see only one core usage and pondering.

Plisk, because it is not an SMP engine it will ignore the UI's thread settings (if any).

Regards,
Vlad.

[beachknight]

Ok,

Let me make one thing clear: with default settings Plisk uses just one core and ponders correctly. The behaviors you are seeing are because you altered the config file. That should be a good lesson for me for the next release.


Please overwrite your config.txt file with the text below then unload the engine and play again (exit Arena if you have too).

Code: Select all

DepthSearch=40
UseOpeningBook=1
PawnHashSize=10
EvalHashSize=50
TTHashSize=70
AspirationWindow=200
StartIDDepth=1
UseMP=1
NumberThreads=1
Book=book3_1.bk
Contempt=0
MaxNumExtPerDepth=100
Ponder=1

You should see only one core usage and pondering.

Plisk, because it is not an SMP engine it will ignore the UI's thread settings (if any).

Regards,
Vlad.

Just made the changes you suggested. Only one cpu is used this time.
I'll remove "4cpu" from the name.

Best,