Uber Chess

[NecroDOME]

We finished Uber Chess. A project we worked on the past 3-4 weeks. This will show the power of Necro3D Game Engine. I was amazed myself how fast you could build a 3D game with the engine.

So here's a link to my site: http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Project.nss?project=Game_Uber%20Chess

And of course a screenshot:
http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Projects/Game_Uber%20Chess/ChessTumb.jpg

We also released the source code!!

[grudzio]

The game is beautiful but there are two things:
- The positions of kings and queens should be switched (The kings should be on "e" column)
- The white's left corner should be black not white.

[Traveler]

I was actually looking forward to this game, when you mentioned it a few weeks ago. First let me congratulate you on this speedy job. You've already mentioned in the readme yourself, but it's indeed pretty amazing to see how fast you're able to create a new game with your engine.

Although the game- and chess engine appears to do it's jobs well, I can't help but wonder if your mind(s?) where set to create a more visually appealing game rather than focused on playability.

You've got all kinds of fancy stuff going on, like gloweffects, explosions, physics, etc. Which are all well executed. However, some aspects make it very difficult to play this game. I've looked for a setting in the readme, and pushed all buttons on my keyboard, but there appears to be no way to place the camera in a different view. In the current setting it is, especially in the midgame, very difficult to get a good overview of the board.

Also, the selector is not always positioned where you would expect it. If I play with white, I expect it to appear near my own pieces and not near black's pieces.

Something you really need to change is the board setup.
The king and queen need to switch places and the most right field (h1) should be white.

I also noticed an Fatal Exception error when creating a new game and pressing the spacebar.

All in all, its a good game. But you really should invest more time in how its played.

[S.Producer]

Beautiful engine. Great idea (developing the Game Building Environment).

[NecroDOME]

Thanks for the feedback:

About the positions, I think they are correct as we don't use our own chess engine. Not sure about this...
About the board your correct, it's just a .map file and is easy to change.

We where indeed looking for a more visual approach.

About the camera, you can stop pushing buttons now :P , we didn't program a button to change the camera's view point. However every map has it's own camera positions. For some maps you don't have any good view on the board, on some maps it's somewhat better done.

I know the rules of chess, but I'm not an expert, so I apologizes for the chess mistakes (board and king/queen positions).

[technomage]

Nice work, well done. I got beaten first time round. :D It's been a while since I played chess :wink:

[WILL]

Hey, there he is! Thats the guy that ruined chess! Get him!!! :evil: :rambo: :pirate: :viking: :pharao: :cylon: :elephant: :hellspawn: :alien: :spidey:

:lol: (j/k)

Awesome job man. Probably the nicest chess set I've ever see. ;)

[grudzio]

About the positions, I think they are correct as we don't use our own chess engine. Not sure about this...

Unfortunatelly they are not. Take a look here:
http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=EE101
I do hope you find the way to fix it beacause those misplaced kings make the game allmost unplayable for me :cry:

I also agree with Traveler's point on camera view. The ability to rotate a view would be a great help.

Another thing is the tron map. It is too dark and it is allmost impossible for me to see the black pieces.

Anyway, as I said before the graphics is great, sounds also. Well done.

[FPK]

The problem isn't that the king and queen are switched but the scene is mirrored. The white queen must be on a white field, the black on a black one, this is correct. But the white queen must be on the left side of the king while the black one must be on the right side. Further, the lower left corner field must be black. So simply draw the whole scene mirrored and everything is fine :)

[grudzio]

One more thing. Can you add that player can choose what his pawn will be promoted to? I know that in 99% of situations queen is enough, but sometimes there is a need for something else.

[WILL]

You know technically you don't have to go with traditional colors... You could say change the Tron Map so that you have Red and Blue lined pieces like in the Tron movie/games...

Any other themes you planning?


Either way I'm playin' this when I get home in an hour. :)

[Traveler]

Hmm, it appears I made a typo in my post about the Fatal Exception error.
It occurs in the menu when creating a new game and you press the spacebar.

[cronodragon]

Wow, the screenshot looks impressive.

I downloaded the game but can't play. I got an access violation in the engine dll... any idea how to solve it? I want to play it. :D

[chronozphere]

wow... Respect:)..that snapshot looks freak'n awesome. :clap: :razz: :shock:

I can only say one thing "I WANT SUCH AN ENGINE TOO".
Unfortunatly it will take some weeks work before i'll get anything usefull out of it.
I feel kinda small when i compare my work to yours.
I am anxious to know how your engine works and how you were able to code this game in such a short time. It would be very nice if you would publish a good description (not only a list of features) of your engine on your site.. i think we could all learn from it. :)

Very kind of you to release the source.. i really like to know how the game works. :)

[NecroDOME]

The game is beautiful but there are two things:
- The positions of kings and queens should be switched (The kings should be on "e" column)
- The white's left corner should be black not white.

FIXED - :D


Hmm, it appears I made a typo in my post about the Fatal Exception error.
It occurs in the menu when creating a new game and you press the spacebar.

FIXED - :P


I've looked for a setting in the readme, and pushed all buttons on my keyboard, but there appears to be no way to place the camera in a different view.
...
I also agree with Traveler's point on camera view

FIXED - When you press the 'C' the camera moves to an hard coded position above the field to have a nice view.

When turning off the glow effect, it gives also an exception when starting a new map. I fixed that 2 :P

Thanks for you feedback!!

New Uber Chess is uploaded to my server, http://necrodome.homeftp.net/Project.nss?project=Game_Uber%20Chess (Same URL as above)

[NecroDOME]

Any other themes you planning?
Nope, just 4 maps. We still need to fix .S.C.A.G. :scratch: :read: progress is realy, realy slooooooow.....(we have 2 maps thats need to finish...before next compo!!)...


I can only say one thing "I WANT SUCH AN ENGINE TOO".
You can use it as you like, just download the SDK :P !!


I am anxious to know how your engine works and how you were able to code this game in such a short time. It would be very nice if you would publish a good description (not only a list of features) of your engine on your site.. i think we could all learn from it. Smile
What other things would you like to see??


I got an access violation in the engine dll... any idea how to solve it?
Did you turn off the GLOW effect? If yes, leave it on or download new version! When did it occur?

Thanx for comment/feedback, sorry for double post...

[WILL]

Double poster! There he is again! Get him!!! :evil: :rambo: :pirate: :viking: :pharao: :cylon: :elephant: :hellspawn: :alien: :spidey:

:lol: (I think it's out of my system now. :P)




Any other themes you planning?
Nope, just 4 maps. We still need to fix .S.C.A.G. :scratch: :read: progress is realy, realy slooooooow.....(we have 2 maps thats need to finish...before next compo!!)...

Why not a .S.C.A.G. Theme? :)

[grudzio]

From me only bad news :( . The castling is broken. My favourite move :!:

[NecroDOME]

Castling broke? damn... stupid chess engine... thought I could just change king with queen :| ... well, try to fix it tomorrow...

We already thought about a .S.C.A.G. theme :P , like planes fly over etc... only need a bit of time to make it... Weekend will be very busy so I don't have much time... Next week I got some exams to make, give another presentation...

[chronozphere]

You can use it as you like, just download the SDK Razz !!

Yeah i know... what i actually ment is that i hope that somewere in the future my engine will be as great as Necro3d. :razz: But i think, that will take a while.
I have checked out your API reference and i noticed that Necro3d doesn't have many routines, so the whole thing is kept simple and easy to use.
However.. it still enables you to make great games with tons of special effects etc.. :) Good job!


What other things would you like to see??


I was thinking of an 'about Necro3d' page.
On this page, there are some facts listed, e.g How long it took to develop Necro3d, how many Units... Lines of code, maybe some info on the Engine's architecture, problems/sollutions during development, what are your plans etc..
I have seen some nice games running on Necro3d an i'm getting quiet curious how the engine is developed. :razz:

[NecroDOME]

a 'Necro3D Page' we already have, it only has lack of updates/information etc.

But I will update it soon.

Some information:
Lines: Lots!!
Dev time: 1.5 years
Architecture: Your App --> My Engine --> DirectX :P (will update this to a more visual picture when I have the time...)
Plans: Creating a good Game Engine so every one can create nice 3D games with an easy to use editor (lots of engine DO NOT HAVE THAT!!)

EDIT
I still need to update the DLL listed in the my website, it's currenly Alpha 3, soon it will be alpha 4 :) (includes GUI etc.)

[NecroDOME]

FIXED: Castling!!!

You may download new version from my website!

[grudzio]

The castling works :D But I've found two more things:
1. When playing white computer does not make first move. I have to move for him and after that everything is allright.
2. When white castles announcer says "black castling" and vice versa. After quick look at the source i think it can be fixed by changing the if statement in TMainForm.CastleMove from


if ChessBoard.WhiteToMove=False then

to


if ChessBoard.WhiteToMove=true then

[NecroDOME]

yeps, it's easy to fix.

And indeed, computer does not make the first move :( It's more like hes asleep or something :(

But it works when you set the first move :)

[NecroDOME]

Just a notification: Uber Chess is downloaded 985 time!! (within a few days!)
I must have done something right :D

( or somebody clicked the download button a few times )

[grudzio]

Just a notification: Uber Chess is downloaded 985 time!! (within a few days!)
I must have done something right :D



Maybe it is a good chess game? Nay, too obvious :wink:

[Rahakasvi]

Is there a possibility to play over internet?

[NecroDOME]

No multi player, onl comp vs. comp, player vs player or comp vs player...
However you can try to make a networked game as I released the source.