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Shogi ZIP file. Optimized ZRFs for Japanese Chess and some recent variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jean-Pierre Avy wrote on Mon, May 10, 2004 12:48 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
In fact, it is only the images contained in the repertoire '
Abstract-Shogi ' which put problem.
I opened the file ZRF and I abolished all the links corresponding to this
repertoire and, then, the ZRF opened normally.

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, May 4, 2004 11:30 PM UTC:
Yes, I think it has helped. XNView revealed to me a significant difference between those you can view and those you can't. You can view the regular bitmaps, but you can't view the RLE bitmaps. RLE is a form of compression used for bitmap images, but if I remember correctly, whether you can view RLE bitmaps depends upon whether your graphics card supports RLE. I will put together a new zip file later using only regular bitmaps.

Antoine Fourrière wrote on Tue, May 4, 2004 07:25 PM UTC:
I have Windows XP and the bmps I cannot open with Zillions are also those I
cannot open with Microsoft Paint. They usually date back to 2000 or 2001,
such as the hex6x6.bmp file for Glinski, or the boards for alf-grandchess,
alf-courier, alf-chinese... as I wrote in a comment for the Omega Chess
zrf.

Anyway, I cannot open with Microsoft Paint the bmps which belong to the
following subdirectories:
Abstract-Shogi/Flip (the bmps in Abstract-Shogi are all right)
Abstract-Shogi-Big, except the King
Abstract-Shogi-Big/Flip, except the King.

Hope this helps.

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, May 4, 2004 03:35 PM UTC:
Since I don't have Windows XP, I cannot investigate this matter myself.
But you can help me out. First, download this file:

http://www.chessvariants.com/programs.dir/zillions/Shogi-test.zrf

This file is just like the official Shogi.zrf except that only the
alldrops tuning is available, which eliminates the need to define two sets
of pieces, and the piecelist macro is no longer used to list the images
for each piece. Instead, each piece has its images listed separately.

After you download this file, follow this procedure:

Open the ZRF with Zillions. When it complains about a specific graphic
file, add the complete name of that file (directory + file name) to a
list. Then edit the ZRF by replacing the image that doesn't work with one
that does. It doesn't matter what image you use here. It could be the
same piece everytime. Any piece you already know works will do. Repeat
this procedure until Zillions no longer complains about any graphic files.
Then send me the list of images that would not work under Windows XP.

This list will help me figure out what is wrong with the files that don't
work. I may then send you some test files to see if I'm on the right
track.

Jean-Pierre Avy wrote on Tue, May 4, 2004 08:34 AM UTC:Poor ★
The new Shogi's ZRF does not work under Window XP.
The Images can not be loaded.

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Mar 20, 2003 01:14 AM UTC:
I just updated the Shogi ZRF again. I added a new tuning. This is tuning
#7, which currently stands at second place. The first place tuning is
currently #1, and #5 is coming in third.

My ZRF avoids bogus moves as much as possible. To raise the value of
pieces that can be dropped, it merely splits drops between the King and
the piece. Giving drops to the piece increases its value, but having the
King handle its drops does not. To increase the value of other pieces, I
give them a measured amount of drops. These drops could be used if they
showed up in-hand, but they never do. For optimization, I use directions
instead of zones to check whether a piece is in-hand. I use up and down
for in-hand areas, but I avoid using these directions on the main board.

Antoine Fourrière wrote on Wed, Mar 19, 2003 03:41 PM UTC:
(verify (not-in-zone? full-zone)) always discards <I>any</I> bogus move, whether there is a move priority or not. <BR>I have just asked Zillions to search the same position for one minute, with and without the line <BR>(move-priority normal-move bogus-move) <BR>and I got nearly the same depth: <BR>8/277000 with the move-priority and 8/268000 without the move-priority. <BR>So the move-priority doesn't seem very useful, after all.

Antoine Fourrière wrote on Wed, Mar 19, 2003 12:09 PM UTC:
(modified comment) <BR>I haven't yet studied the ZRF extensively, although it is Excellent if it works, and final-version-will-be-Excellent if it doesn't, but I wish to mention that in my soon-to-be-released Chess on a Larger Board with not-so-few Pieces Dropped - a 12x8 version with the later drop of supernumerary baroque pieces which do not find their place in the starting setup -, I use such macros as <BR>(define 1000-points ( <BR> (verify (not-in-zone? full-zone)) <BR> add add add add add add <BR>)) <BR>where full-zone is the game board and the squares carrying the pieces to be dropped, but <I>not</I> some extra bogus squares, such as White-Throne, WhiteKingMoved or OFF, which carry no actual piece. <BR>The (1000-points)s or (10000-points)s are embedded in a low-priority (bogus-moves) move-type which enables Zillions to discard them at once while adding their value to the piece values. <BR>Otherwise, Zillions would value my Can(n)on - a flip piece - more than a Queen, or a Halfling-Withdrawer just like a Halfling-Advancer. <BR>(The drop of a piece also creates a bogus piece Mark, which incites Zillions to drop the pieces when it has nothing better to do.) <BR>I wrote two hours ago that extra piece types change the value enhancement brought by such macros, because before I introduced my latest piece, (1000-points) required ten adds in lieu of the current six, and Zillions valued the Orthochess Pawn at 6000 points as opposed to the current 8000, but now I believe that the main reason is that I suppressed some extra bogus squares. Anyway, not-on-board? instead of (not-in-zone? full-zone) doesn't work.

🕸📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Wed, Mar 19, 2003 02:24 AM UTC:
I have just uploaded the beta version of a major new update to my Shogi ZRF. It includes more optimizations. It requires Zillions of Games 2.0. And most importantly, it can now use different tunings of piece values. I have discovered a technique for adjusting piece values, and I have used it to create settings with different piece values. This is a beta release, because I have not yet settled on which set of piece values is the best. This requires lots of testing, and I thought some of you may be interested enough to help find out. If you have ever wondered what the most accurate piece values are for Shogi pieces, this ZRF now gives you the opportunity to run experiments on different hypotheses. Please use this comment area as a forum to discuss the results of your experiments and tests with this ZRF.

Ben Good wrote on Thu, Sep 5, 2002 09:32 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
very nice, but i need to point out that if you go to the 'traditional board' variant, the pieces are setup shifted one square to the left, which means the leftmost column is off the board and just sort of floating in space, and the rightmost column is empty. fortunately the 'modern' and 'large' boards work fine, and the different piece sets are very nice.

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