Glaurung 2.2 UCI parameters - explanations?

[peter]

Thanks again for the prompt answer, as long as this I was just able to hold my breath

[Kaj Soderberg]

I downloaded the Glaurung PC version for the first time a few days ago, and have been playing around with it quite a bit. Looks good, and what also looks good is the Mac interface which i hope to enjoy when buying a Mac in the weekend.

The GUI, unfortunately, is not quite as good as I would like. It sometimes crashes during startup (but just restarting it works, so it isn't a very serious problem), and has fewer features than most other chess GUIs. It satisfies all my very modest needs from a chess program, but apparently not many other users are happy with it. Working on the now almost completed iPhone version of Glaurung has given me a number of ideas for how to improve the GUI, but I am not sure when I will find the time to do it. There are so many projects competing about my limited hobby programming time -- I sometimes feel envious at the many programmers who just have a UCI engine to maintain.

I have one question right now. How much hash can Glaurung handle to its benefit?

The answer is the same as for most other programs: It doesn't make a huge difference, but more hash is always better, as long as you have enough memory left.

Tord

Got myself the Mac already. The Glaurung GUI is working stable in its first hours. Something that puzzels me though is that the engine speed is relatively lower than on Windows PC's. This happens also under the Shredder interface, with Glaurung, Shredder and also Fruit. 2x1,83 ghz in Windows makes more kn/s than 2x2.53ghz in Mac OSX10.5, both when using 1 or 2 cores. Any ideas?

Best regards,
Kaj

[Tord Romstad]

Got myself the Mac already. The Glaurung GUI is working stable in its first hours. Something that puzzels me though is that the engine speed is relatively lower than on Windows PC's. This happens also under the Shredder interface, with Glaurung, Shredder and also Fruit. 2x1,83 ghz in Windows makes more kn/s than 2x2.53ghz in Mac OSX10.5, both when using 1 or 2 cores. Any ideas?

There is probably some other CPU-intensive process running on the computer. Try opening "Activity Monitor" (under /Applications/Utilities/) and set it to sort processes by CPU, and see if you notice something.

If your Mac arrived today, it's quite possible that it is busy indexing your hard disk. Completing this process takes a few hours. It's probably not a good idea to abort it: Just let it complete its work, and try benchmarking the chess programs again tomorrow.

Tord

[Kaj Soderberg]

Thanks for the tip Tord,

Indeed i got the Mac today. I just had a look at the activity monitor, but couldn't spot anything extraordinary. Well, maybe the beast is about ready settling itself into its new environment. I'll leave him awake for a few more hours without chess activity to slow him down in doing whatever he is doing. Good to know that the Mac should be fast relative to its CPU speed. Tomorrrow may be a great day. Glaurung may rock!

My best,

Kaj

[PK]

hi Tord,

it seems that there's a problem with a Glaurung version playing in the New Year's Tourney - in blitz games it looses on time after the third opening move.

[Kaj Soderberg]

Hi Tord, and other Mac connoisseurs,

Benchmarked today again, but no difference. Changed some energy settings for maximum performance, but only marginally faster. Nothing extraordinry to see in the Activity Monitor. The computer had been switched on for more than 6 hours in order to complete any internal processes first. The 2x2,53 Mac runs at 2/3 speed of my 2x1,83 PC, when i would expect an increase at around 50% based on cpu speed and more L2 cache. Any ideas coming to mind?

Best regards,

Kaj

[ernest]

Hi,
Is there any way in the Fritz GUI (except by increasing the screen resolution) to be able to manage Glaurung's Engine parameters window, which is too big?

[royb]

Hi,
Is there any way in the Fritz GUI (except by increasing the screen resolution) to be able to manage Glaurung's Engine parameters window, which is too big?

I do not know of one. Try SCID (a free download) it puts scrollbars on the UCI engine properties window so no matter what your resolution, you can edit all of the parameters.

I don't use ChessBase products anymore for a LOT of reasons -- that's one of them and a pretty big one.

Roy

[Kaj Soderberg]

I fear that the problem is not Fritz related, as the Glaurung parameters window is too big in the Shredder interface as well. Important buttons below are beyond reach. So basically it sounds like a resolution issue, but maybe that Scid stuff that i do not know except for the name itself may provide a solution.

My best,

Kaj

[royb]

I fear that the problem is not Fritz related, as the Glaurung parameters window is too big in the Shredder interface as well. Important buttons below are beyond reach. So basically it sounds like a resolution issue, but maybe that Scid stuff that i do not know except for the name itself may provide a solution.

My best,

Kaj

There are other engines that also have huge parameter lists and ChessBase GUIs cannot allow you to edit parameters off the screen for those engines either.

It's not just a Glaurung problem. It *is* a ChessBase problem but they refuse to fix it as "their" engines don't have that issue. Hey, if you are going to support UCI, that comes with the territory in my opinion. <Rant off>