Banksia GUI released

[Wilhelm]

Hello,
I'm using the GUI for some week now and it's excellent. Many thanks for your work.

I'm having a problem with Deep Junior 11.1a when starting 12 games parallel. 5-7 games crashes. In the log file I see a initstring error. When I start one game and then all 5 sec. the next one all 12 are running without crash. Is there a way to set a time between the starts?

regards William

Thanks for the feedback.

Can you tell me more, I need to trace up and fix all errors/ideas I could: what is the content of that (error) inittring? Can you explain about "a time between the starts"?

If you mean about changing concurrency, no, that value should/could be changed manually - you may start the tournament with 1 concurrency, then increase/decrease its values whenever you want.

Other questions: After a while (after creating, running, crashing) can you start 12 games concurrency with that tournament? Can you start another 12-concurrency tournament with other engines but Deep Junnier 11.1a?

Thanks again.

I can start a tournament with concurrency 12 or 24 without problem. Only when I add DJ11.1 then more then the half games crashes. When I start with DJ11.1 and concurrency 1 then I can rise up the concurrency manualy to 24 with a delay of 4-5sec per game. So I finished a tournament of 400 games correct.
The problem seems to be the initializing with the DJ11.1 engine.

log file:

5.14:38:46 CM11 Morphy x64> id name CM11 Morphy x64
5.14:38:46 CM11 Morphy x64> id author Johan de Koning
5.14:38:46 CM11 Morphy x64> option name Hash type spin default 2 min 0 max 1024
5.14:38:46 CM11 Morphy x64> option name Ponder type check default true
5.14:38:46 CM11 Morphy x64> uciok
5.14:38:46 CM11 Morphy x64< setoption name Hash value 64
5.14:38:46 CM11 Morphy x64< setoption name Ponder value false
5.14:38:46 CM11 Morphy x64< isready
12.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI< uci
3.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI> info string Error (Cannot find engine module):
2.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI> id name Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI
2.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI> id author Amir Ban / Shay Bushinsky
2.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI> id copyright Amir Ban & Shay Bushinsky 2006-2010
2.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI> option name Hash type spin default 16 min 4 max 4096
2.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI> option name Ponder type check default false
2.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI> option name OwnBook type check default true
2.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI> option name MultiPV type spin default 1 min 1 max 50
2.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI> option name Book_file type string default jr11.bin
2.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI> option name Book_selectivity type spin default 5 min 0 max 30
2.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI> option name Contempt type spin default 0 min -500 max 500
2.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI> option name Depth_limit type spin default 60 min 3 max 60
2.14:38:46 Deep Junior 11.1a (Win32) UCI> option name Use_tablebases type check default true

regards

Thanks a lot for the info. That string ("info string Error (Cannot find engine module)") is just a message by DJ11.1a, thus there is no error/trouble between BSG and that engine.

I guess the problem with DJ's crash is that the way engine verifies the right/purchase key to run and there may be conflicts when multi-instances are doing the same things concurrently, say, read/write the same file and/or ask the server.

You may reduce the chance of DJ crashes, try one of the following tricks when creating a new tournament:
- Push DJ into the low/bottom of the Participants and set Shuffle to the carousel mode: let DJ games start later thus we can reduce the chance some of them start concurrently
- Set DJ as a GPU engine (in the Settings dialog box): BSG will never play two games with GPU engines concurrently thus you won't have two games/two instances of DJ start at the same time

GPU-mode is no option because a Gauntlet will run for days instead of a few hours.
So I will start DJ11 manualy, this takes only a minute to rise the concurrency. This has worked in the last gauntlet.
Maybe you find a way to prohibit BSG to start all concurrency at the same time.

Thank you, regards

[phhnguyen]

GPU-mode is no option because a Gauntlet will run for days instead of a few hours.
So I will start DJ11 manualy, this takes only a minute to rise the concurrency. This has worked in the last gauntlet.
Maybe you find a way to prohibit BSG to start all concurrency at the same time.

Thank you, regards

Adding that feature is not hard for me. However, it may be... hard for users since they may have to see, learn, understand many new things.

I have just read that someone gave up after trying for a while to create a new tournament with BSG - the work should be done in a few seconds! Perhaps I will create a new tutor video and/or find a way to simplify the interface.

[phhnguyen]

Version 0.50 released


Fixed bugs:
* Analysis may crash after working
* Lichess bots are still buggy: sometimes the completed games are not released; stoped when they think their opponents lost by time; chat templates may not be saved
* There is a bit of delay (max to 0.5s) when making each move from an opening book

Some minor bug fixes, some small improvements/adjustments

New features:
* Display original names and authors of engines in Strings/Stats panel and as tooltips on Engine info panel (Fig. 1)
* All panels’ top bars could be hidden. That could save some space, look more clean and tidy, avoid moving panels accidentally (but they are still resizable)
* Image viewers: could show movies, live-camera
* New dialog box to check and recover tournaments backup files (Fig. 2)
* Lichess bots: challenging dialog box becomes easier to use with more information about Win/Draw/Loss, it can monitor and limit the number of challenges per 24h (Fig. 3)
* The dialog box of Playing games is changed into a panel (Fig. 4)
* ECA back to work with some bug fixes and improvements


Notes:

• Showing names of engines and their authors in panels of Strings/Stats and Engine info is just a small improvement, usually, we don’t list such small improvements here. However, this time we list it as a new feature, just want to show our respects to the authors/developers of engines. Engines play very important roles in chess systems but so far it’s not easy to find their authors when playing. We prefer that information won’t take much precious space nor annoy users too much but still easily access and frequently be displayed. All engines, books, databases… in the download panel also come with authors names already (from previous versions)

• Image viewers are pushed to limit by implementing abilities to show movies and cameras. Just remind again this feature is mainly for decoration as well as vs… being bored

• For BSG the user's data is very precious. In the last versions, BSG applied multi ways to make tournament data be safer, from new/clever ways to write down, to create multiple backup files (by days and by times). In this release, BSG helps to verify and recover from those backup files in a visual and easy way

• Be aware Lichess has many limitations about chats, challenges, requests… Recently Lichess’s authors confirmed that bots (from an IP address) can challenge max to 200 times within 24h. Thus the new feature of limitation in the Challenge box can help your bots adopt the new rules

• We realized even the dialog box “Playing games” is one of the very useful features but rare to use. The main reason in previous versions it is displayed in a large pop-up dialog box that takes more space, covers some information and makes BSG looks messy. Thus in this release, we compact it a bit, convert it into a panel that could be docked with other panels. It still requires a large space when displaying multi games but that is arrangeable, especially for users with modern large screens

Fig. 1 Original names and authors of engines are listed in String/stats panel as well as tooltips on Engine Info panel


Fig. 2. Dialog box to view, check and reload a tournament from backup files


Fig. 3. Lichess challenge box can track the Win/Draw/Loss (WDL) and manage to challenge to adapt to the limit of 24h


Fig. 4. A “busy” screen. The panel “Playing games” shows all active games

[Wilhelm]

GPU-mode is no option because a Gauntlet will run for days instead of a few hours.
So I will start DJ11 manualy, this takes only a minute to rise the concurrency. This has worked in the last gauntlet.
Maybe you find a way to prohibit BSG to start all concurrency at the same time.

Thank you, regards

Adding that feature is not hard for me. However, it may be... hard for users since they may have to see, learn, understand many new things.

I have just read that someone gave up after trying for a while to create a new tournament with BSG - the work should be done in a few seconds! Perhaps I will create a new tutor video and/or find a way to simplify the interface.

I think you did a great job and setting up a tournament is not harder as in any other GUI. May be a tutorial video for beginners or technical not so perfect users could be helpfull.
What I would like to see is a material overview in the bottom of the notification. When running 24 games you can better see whats going on.
So far, many thanks.

regards

[Mark 1]

Many thanks !!!!

[AdminX]

Thanks! Still loving this GUI, especially the fact that I can perform engine vs engine matches locally over network using different computers.


Click image for larger view.

On a side note I could not install (GPU Version) ClassicAra 0.9.5, but it did detect MultiAra 0.9.5, so I had to copy the Json for MultiAra and edit it so I could get ClassicAra to work.

[Cornfed]

Sorry for the silly question, but it is discussed a lot in this thread.

What is a 'bot'? Are you saying you can hook up your computer to lichess with an engine open and allow others to simply play against your engine?

[AdminX]

Sorry for the silly question, but it is discussed a lot in this thread.

What is a 'bot'? Are you saying you can hook up your computer to lichess with an engine open and allow others to simply play against your engine?

Yes!

[Eduard]

Sorry for the silly question, but it is discussed a lot in this thread.

What is a 'bot'? Are you saying you can hook up your computer to lichess with an engine open and allow others to simply play against your engine?

On my Homepage, you can read about:

https://solista-chess.jimdosite.com/lichess/

Sorry, only in German, you have to translate it.

[AlexChess]

Thank you Pham!

All seems OK on Windows 11 ARM64. It has imported all my 1431 games already played and I'm continuing my SuperBlitz updating some engines. I have reconfigured only some changed GUI panels ( no more Engine Infos dance )

Best regards, Alex