Black Knight - a BlitzMax game

Black Knight (early version) is available for download from here:

http://www.elliottproductions.co.uk/temp/BlackKnight.zip

Could you give me your FPS scores for the 4 graphics modes available? Just press enter to clear the dialogue box first - here are my test results:

1024 X 768 16 bit colour = 703 FPS
1024 X 768 32 bit colour = 588 FPS
1280 X 1024 16 bit colour = 588 FPS
1280 X 1024 32 bit colour = 474 FPS

Pentium 4 - 3.2Ghz, 1024Mb RAM, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.

Some results with the background off would also be helpful - please add your specs when posting.

Thanks.

1024 X 768 16 bit colour = 545 FPS
1024 X 768 32 bit colour = 548 FPS
1280 X 1024 16 bit colour = 445 FPS
1280 X 1024 32 bit colour = 448 FPS

Thanks Perturbatio. Some good FPS there.

1024 X 768 16 bit colour = 1185 FPS
1024 X 768 32 bit colour = 1000 FPS
1280 X 1024 16 bit colour = 925 FPS
1280 X 1024 32 bit colour = 750 FPS

Ran on the AMD machine in my sig below.

Whoah! Amazing speed there Dragon57! That is encouraging.

actually, I think there must've been something running in the background before I get about 100fps higher now.

1024 x 768 16 bit = 515
1024 x 768 32 bit = 359
1280 x 1024 16 bit = 419
1280 x 1024 32 bit = 298

See .sig for specs

Good scores. Keep the FPS feedback coming.

Thanks.

1024 X 768 16 bit colour = 827 FPS
1024 X 768 32 bit colour = 827 FPS
1280 X 1024 16 bit colour = 676 FPS
1280 X 1024 32 bit colour = 666 FPS...8oO

A64 3500+ / 1GB / GF6600GT (71.89) / Flakey XP Pro SP2

1024 X 768 16 bit colour = 575 FPS
1024 X 768 32 bit colour = 505 FPS


AMD XP2700 / 1GB / Radeon 9700 Pro


Monitor can't do 1280x1024, so that's all I can give ya.

Is everybody getting high scores?

Time for a new monitor Sybixsus - it looks much better in 1280 X 1024. ;-)

Stayed at maximum 71FPS in all modes on my laptop:
Sony Viao ATI Mobility 9200 64MB Graphics, Dx9c

Toggling background on/off has no effect.

Probably a known issue but if I toggle the shadows OFF the screen drawing goes haywire.
That is, the hand pointer leaves trails although the chess pieces and info box are drawn ok.

Oops! Thanks for pointing out the shadows bug jb - fixed now.

What do you mean toggling background on/off has no effect? To the FPS value you mean? That is strange because no background = CLS only - ie no background drawing at all. But if you don't get any variation across the modes then your OpenGL drivers must be locking to the refresh rate and not allowing the 'flip false' action.

Yes. FPS stays consistent.
I have my 'wait for vertical sync' as [default on] so that explains the fps limit.

I would have waited to get a decent AI before doing the interface... I did a recursive chess AI once, with a brute force algorithm: to see 3 moves ahead and then evaluate the position by counting left pieces it took about 1 minute...

Are you going to put AI? It will be a very tough project

Well firstly it's not just an interface, all the internal data structures are in-place and the legal move generator is nearly done.

And yes I am going to add AI and yes it's a tough project. But I've written chess programs before and have many chess books and idea's for the AI - it'll take a while to produce something competitive though.

good luck then. A chess program is a formidable task, make one and you will know for sure you are a good programmer.

The one I did some time ago computed all possible moves chessboard positions N moves ahead, remembering from which sequence they came from, then used a kind of recursive minimax scoring approach to solve the game backwards, terribly inefficient, but in theory it could calculate to any depth.

Crazy thing is I wrote it in matlab as an exercise to learn it: it had many cool features that made the programming simpler, but was pretty slow

here is the code, if you ever happen to get on matlab (though it doesn't have an interface, it just generates a random position, shows it as a 8x8 matrix, and then tells you which move he would do)

%1=pawn
%3=knight
%4=alfiere
%5=torre
%9=regina
%88=re
%
%la variabile servono varie variabili "contamosse": una di una dimensione


% incateni sulla prima dimensione le mosse e fai un vettore delle mosse unidimensionale...
% poi incateni 

function matteochessprogram2

depth=3;


mosseprime=zeros(4,50);
mosseseconde=zeros(4,50,50);
mosseterze=zeros(4,50,50,50);
mossequarte=zeros(4,50,50,50,50);


board=zeros(8,8);

contamosse=0;

for i=1:8
    board(2,i)=1;
    board(7,i)=-1;
end

board(1,1)=5;board(1,2)=3;board(1,3)=4;board(1,4)=88;board(1,5)=9;board(1,6)=4;board(1,7)=3;board(1,8)=5;
board(8,1)=-5;board(8,2)=-3;board(8,3)=-4;board(8,4)=-88;board(8,5)=-9;board(8,6)=-4;board(8,7)=-3;board(8,8)=-5;


%for i=1:8
%for j=1:2
%    board(j,i)=randompiece(1);
%     board(9-j,i)=randompiece(-1);
%end
%end

player=1

for t=1:40
    t
    ottimo=evaluate(board,player,depth);
    mossafatta=ottimo(1:4);
    board=applymove(mossafatta,board);
    board
    player=-player;
end



function ra=randompiece(player)
y=rand(1)*100;
if y<50
    ra=1;
elseif y<60 
    ra=5;
elseif y<70 
    ra=3;
elseif y<80 
    ra=4;
elseif y<90 
    ra=9;
else
    ra=88;
end
ra=ra*player;
    
    







function ottimo=evaluate(board,player,depth)

if depth==1
ottimo=evaluate1(board,player);
end

if depth>1

posizioni1=zeros(8,8,27,8,8);
rispottima=zeros(5,27,8,8);

for row1=1:8
    for column1=1:8
        
        
        if (sign (board(row1,column1))==player)
            mosse1(:,:,row1,column1)=computemovesperpiece(player,board,[row1,column1]);
            s1=1;
            while mosse1(s1,1,row1,column1)>0
                posizioni1(:,:,s1,row1,column1)=applymove([row1,column1,mosse1(s1,1,row1,column1),mosse1(s1,2,row1,column1)],board);
                s1=s1+1 ;
            end
        end
    end
end


for row1=1:8
    for column1=1:8
        for s1=1:27
            if any (posizioni1(:,:,s1,row1,column1))
                rispottima(:,s1,row1,column1)=evaluate(posizioni1(:,:,s1,row1,column1),-player,depth-1);
                rating=-rispottima(5,:,:,:)-(rispottima(5,:,:,:)==0)*10000;
            end
        end
    end
end

rating;

[C,I] = max(rating);

[C2,I2]=max(C);

[C3,I3]=max(C2);

C3;

colottima=I3;
rowottima=I2(I3);
mossaottima=I(1,1,rowottima,colottima);

arrivoottimo=mosse1(mossaottima,:,rowottima,colottima);



rating(1,mossaottima,rowottima,colottima);        


ottimo=[rowottima colottima arrivoottimo(1) arrivoottimo(2) rating(1,mossaottima,rowottima,colottima)];



end


function ottimo=evaluate1(board,player)

rating=zeros(27,8,8);

for row=1:8
    for column=1:8
        if (sign (board(row,column))==player)
            mosse(:,:,row,column)=computemovesperpiece(player,board,[row,column]);
            s=1;
            while mosse(s,1,row,column)>0
                posizioni(:,:,s,row,column)=applymove([row,column,mosse(s,1,row,column),mosse(s,2,row,column)],board);
                rating (s,row,column)=sum(sum(posizioni(:,:,s,row,column)))*player+1000;
                s=s+1 ;
            end
        end
    end
end

[C,I] = max(rating);

[C2,I2]=max(C);

[C3,I3]=max(C2);

colottima=I3;
rowottima=I2(I3);
mossaottima=I(1,rowottima,colottima);

arrivoottimo=mosse(mossaottima,:,rowottima,colottima);

ottimo=[rowottima colottima arrivoottimo(1) arrivoottimo(2) rating(mossaottima,rowottima,colottima)];

rating(mossaottima,rowottima,colottima);

function newboard=applymove(move,board)
newboard=board;
newboard(move(1),move(2))=0;
newboard(move(3),move(4))=board(move(1),move(2));





function possiblemoves=computemovesahead(player,board,position,direction,range)

possiblemoves=zeros(0,2);

i=0;
numberofmoves=0;
blocked=0;

while blocked==0 & i<range
    i=i+1;
    
    if (position(1)+direction(1)*i<1) | (position(1)+direction(1)*i>8) | (position(2)+direction(2)*i<1) | (position(2)+direction(2)*i>8)
        blocked=1;
    else
        if board(position(1)+direction(1)*i,position(2)+direction(2)*i)==0
            numberofmoves=numberofmoves+1;
            %possiblemoves(numberofmoves,:)=position+direction*i;
            possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves,position+direction*i);
        elseif sign (board(position(1)+direction(1)*i,position(2)+direction(2)*i))~=player
            numberofmoves=numberofmoves+1;
            %possiblemoves(numberofmoves,:)=position+direction*i;
            possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves,position+direction*i);
            blocked=1;
        elseif sign (board(position(1)+direction(1)*i,position(2)+direction(2)*i))==player
            blocked=1;
        end
    end
end


function possiblemoves=computemovesperpiece(player,board,position)

possiblemoves=zeros(0,2);

totalmoves=0;

if abs(board(position(1),position(2)))==88 %RE
    for i=-1:1
        for j=-1:1
            possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves, computemovesahead(player,board,position,[i,j],1) );
        end
    end
end

if abs(board(position(1),position(2)))==9 %REGINA
    for i=-1:1
        for j=-1:1
            possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves, computemovesahead(player,board,position,[i,j],8) );
        end
    end
end

if abs(board(position(1),position(2)))==1 %pedone
    
    if position(2)<8 & position(2)>1 & sign ( board(position(1)+player,position(2)+1) )==-player & sign ( board(position(1)+player,position(2)-1) )== -player & board(position(1)+player,position(2))==0
        for j=-1:1
            possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves, computemovesahead(player,board,position,[player,j],1) );
        end
    elseif position(2)<8 & position(2)>1 & sign ( board(position(1)+player,position(2)+1) )==-player & sign ( board(position(1)+player,position(2)-1) )== -player
        for j=-1:2:1
            possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves, computemovesahead(player,board,position,[player,j],1) );
        end
        
        
        
        
    elseif position(2)<8 & sign ( board(position(1)+player,position(2)+1) )==-player & board(position(1)+player,position(2))==0
        for j=0:1
            possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves, computemovesahead(player,board,position,[player,j],1) );
        end
    elseif position(2)<8 & sign ( board(position(1)+player,position(2)+1) )==-player 
        for j=1:1
            possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves, computemovesahead(player,board,position,[player,j],1) );
        end
        
        
        
    elseif position(2)>1 & sign ( board(position(1)+player,position(2)-1) )== -player & board(position(1)+player,position(2))==0
        for j=-1:0
            possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves, computemovesahead(player,board,position,[player,j],1) );
        end
    elseif position(2)>1 & sign ( board(position(1)+player,position(2)-1) )== -player
        for j=-1:-1
            possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves, computemovesahead(player,board,position,[player,j],1) );
        end
        
        
        
    else if (board(position(1)+player,position(2))==0) 
            possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves, computemovesahead(player,board,position,[player,0],1) );
        end
    end
end
    
    if abs(board(position(1),position(2)))==5 %torre
        for i=-1:1
            for j=-1:1
                if i*j==0
                    possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves, computemovesahead(player,board,position,[i,j],8) );
                end
            end
        end
    end
    
    
    if abs(board(position(1),position(2)))==4 %alfio
        for i=-1:1
            for j=-1:1
                if i*j~=0
                    possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves, computemovesahead(player,board,position,[i,j],8) );
                end
            end
        end
    end
    
    if abs(board(position(1),position(2)))==3 %cavallo
        for i=-2:2
            for j=-2:2
                if abs(i*j)==2
                    possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves, computemovesahead(player,board,position,[i,j],1) );
                end
            end
        end
    end
    
    
    if size(possiblemoves,1)<28
        possiblemoves=vertcat(possiblemoves,zeros( 28-size(possiblemoves,1),2));
    end

    
    
    
    function rate(board,player)
    

btw, are you a good chess player? I have around 1600 elo on yahoo

Too lazy to post the other FPS :

1280x1024 32bit : 1060-1160FPS

AMD64 3200+
1gb DDR RAM
256mb MSI GF6800 GT

BTW, I must say those are some very nice graphics, love the way the playing pieces get "skew" in the towards the opposite side of the board (left/right-wise) they're on.

Najdorf, thanks for the encouragement and code. btw is that why your sig is Najdorf - because you like the Sicilian Defense? Or just your name? :-D

Am I good chess player? Not really, I tend to have good strategy but poor tactics so lose because of it. Although one of my goals is to improve my chess through reading the chess books, playing lots against my program and to introduce some sort of coaching facility into Black Knight.

Thanks for the FPS feedback Genexi2 - speed looks good on Black Knight it seems.

I'm glad you noticed the varying angle of the pieces - my attention to detail hasn't been wasted (it does look odd if they're all at the same angle). I'm quite happy with the realtime scaling of the selected piece and the accurate placement on the 3d board also - quite a few headaches there initially.

lol, yeah, Najdorf because of Miguel Najdorf, the argentinian chess player, that popularized one of the most famous defenses :P

Congrats you're the first that got it!

I have also an entire book on the najdorf defense, though I never really studied it (just randomly browsed) and never really played it in serious games.

I like the sound of it (spell "naydorf"), so I took it as a nickname ;-)

I used to play tournaments when I was 18-19, never was too good though

LOL - do I win a prize?

Yeah I've got to read those books of mine properly now as well.

42 fps at max settings on Celeron 2,53 GHz, Intel Extreme Graphics 2. Seems like the rendering problem is a no problem problem, now, bring in some AI.

Heh heh - and there's me hopeing to tweak the graphics some more before AI. Point taken.