Life In 19x19
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Cinderblock Go Server
http://www.lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6849		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  zpmorgan [ Sat Sep 29, 2012 6:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Cinderblock Go Server
Hi, all. I have set up another server.

What Cinderblock has:
  • A couple variants (irregular size, cylindrical, toroidal).
  • Play in real-time or turn-based.
  • A simple & easy invitation system.
  • graphics & sound, and .

What Cinderblock currently lacks:
  • Ratings.
  • User accounts.
  • A time system.
  • Any means of ending a game properly.
  • Any means of reasonable communication with other players.
  • IE compatibility? I'd be shocked if this works in IE.

I'd love it if you gave Cinderblock a try; I'd like to see what sort of load it can support. And Toroidal Go is surprisingly fun.

Image
Author:  EdLee [ Sat Sep 29, 2012 7:37 pm ]
Post subject: 
I can only play the first move as Black. :) What else can I do?
Author:  zpmorgan [ Sat Sep 29, 2012 7:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Cinderblock Go Server
EdLee wrote:
I can only play the first move as Black. What else can I do?


To the left of the board there's an invite URL. Maybe you can give it to a friend; the code only works the first time it's entered.
Author:  EdLee [ Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:45 pm ]
Post subject: 
zpmorgan, thanks!
Quick suggestions:
1. Rotate the board graphics so that the grains run vertically, not horizontally.
2. Add the 9 star points for 19x19 (adjust different star points for other board sizes).
3. Try other wood patterns -- the current one looks a bit strange...
See below for gIGo's board and a rotated Cinderblock's board:
gIGO's board:
Attachment:
gIGO.jpg
gIGO.jpg [ 86.32 KiB | Viewed 13219 times ]
Cinderblock's board, rotated 90 degrees:
Attachment:
Cinderblock .jpg
Cinderblock .jpg [ 75.09 KiB | Viewed 13219 times ]
Author:  skydyr [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Cinderblock Go Server
zpmorgan wrote:
EdLee wrote:
I can only play the first move as Black. What else can I do?


To the left of the board there's an invite URL. Maybe you can give it to a friend; the code only works the first time it's entered.



FYI, that URL points to 127.0.0.1 which is always the local machine you are on, so it only works if you are logged on to the computer running the server.
Author:  Phelan [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:57 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Cinderblock Go Server
zpmorgan wrote:
Hi, all. I have set up another server.

Nice to hear you're back! I loved Basilisk!

Will try it later. :)
Author:  zpmorgan [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 8:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re:
EdLee wrote:
zpmorgan, thanks!
Quick suggestions:
1. Rotate the board graphics so that the grains run vertically, not horizontally.
2. Add the 9 star points for 19x19 (adjust different star points for other board sizes).
3. Try other wood patterns -- the current one looks a bit strange...
See below for gIGo's board and a rotated Cinderblock's board:
gIGO's board:
Attachment:
gIGO.jpg
Cinderblock's board, rotated 90 degrees:
Attachment:
Cinderblock.jpg


http://cinderblock.zpmorgan.com/game/65
I took your advice, except for the texture graphic. None of the royalty-free textures that I found were much better, I think.

skydyr wrote:
FYI, that URL points to 127.0.0.1 which is always the local machine you are on, so it only works if you are logged on to the computer running the server.


Hi, skydyr. That's because when I took the screenshot, the system was running on my home computer. It gives a URL based on the one in the http request. :)

Phelan wrote:
Nice to hear you're back! I loved Basilisk!

Will try it later.


Hi again, Phelan. You're welcome to email me an invite. (...@gmail.com)
Author:  EdLee [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 10:10 am ]
Post subject: 
zpmorgan, thanks! Could you change the star points from small squares to small circles (anti-aliased, if possible)?
Author:  zpmorgan [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 10:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re:
EdLee wrote:
zpmorgan, thanks! Could you change the star points from small squares to small circles (anti-aliased, if possible)?


I just did that :)

I've looked into aliasing on the html5 canvas; it turns out that there's no real standard and anti-aliasing is browser dependent. Is your board aliased? What browser are you using?
Author:  gnome [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 12:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Cinderblock Go Server
Dear zpmorgan,

Does this news mean that Basilisk is down for good? To be replaced by Cinderblock in the future?

I had just discovered Basilisk and began a couple of games on there so it's slightly sad. I really hope The Cinderblock Project turns out ok so that me and everyone else can play cylindrical Go again.

Best of luck in your endeavors,
the Gnome.
Author:  zpmorgan [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 1:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Cinderblock Go Server
gnome wrote:
Dear zpmorgan,

Does this news mean that Basilisk is down for good? To be replaced by Cinderblock in the future?

I had just discovered Basilisk and began a couple of games on there so it's slightly sad. I really hope The Cinderblock Project turns out ok so that me and everyone else can play cylindrical Go again.

Best of luck in your endeavors,
the Gnome.


It's probably down for good. Sorry to interrupt your games. With its level of interest, it really wasn't worth maintaining though.

Cinderblock is (slightly) based on Basilisk; it works in real-time and I just added a sandbox mode: http://cinderblock.zpmorgan.com/new_game/
Author:  Phelan [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 2:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Cinderblock Go Server
Everyone feel free to send me Cinderblock challenges of around 9x9, any board configuration. PM me.
Author:  EdLee [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 2:23 pm ]
Post subject: 
zpmorgan wrote:
I just did that :)
I've looked into aliasing on the html5 canvas; it turns out that there's no real standard and anti-aliasing is browser dependent. Is your board aliased? What browser are you using?
Thanks! Smaller request: reduce the diameter of the star points (try 50% smaller) -- they're just a little too big.
The star points and the stones look anti-aliased in FireFox 15.0.1:
Attachment:
anti-aliased.jpg
anti-aliased.jpg [ 44.99 KiB | Viewed 13101 times ]
I can post screen shots of the star points for IE and Chrome, next...
Author:  EdLee [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 2:51 pm ]
Post subject: 
Chrome 22.0.*: anti-aliased star point and stone:
Attachment:
chrome.jpg
chrome.jpg [ 38.6 KiB | Viewed 13098 times ]
Author:  EdLee [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 2:54 pm ]
Post subject: 
IE 9.0.*: anti-aliased star point and stone:
Attachment:
IE.jpg
IE.jpg [ 37.35 KiB | Viewed 13097 times ]
Author:  zpmorgan [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 3:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Cinderblock Go Server
Thanks for testing those browsers. It's surprising that it worked at all in IE9 though.

Does anything seem broken? I don't see why else it should be; I'm relying on canvas methods & jquery for most of the DOM interaction.
Author:  gnome [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 4:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Cinderblock Go Server
zpmorgan wrote:
gnome wrote:
Dear zpmorgan,

Does this news mean that Basilisk is down for good? To be replaced by Cinderblock in the future?

I had just discovered Basilisk and began a couple of games on there so it's slightly sad. I really hope The Cinderblock Project turns out ok so that me and everyone else can play cylindrical Go again.

Best of luck in your endeavors,
the Gnome.


It's probably down for good. Sorry to interrupt your games. With its level of interest, it really wasn't worth maintaining though.

Cinderblock is (slightly) based on Basilisk; it works in real-time and I just added a sandbox mode: http://cinderblock.zpmorgan.com/new_game/


Thanks, Cinderblock looks really nice. Playing go variants in real time really does sound great. Sandbox mode is something i missed with basilisk.

Less popular variations probably still need to be played as (partly) turn-based because of the lack of willing players.

I really hope this project takes off nicely. It looks really sexy. I would probably shiver with anticipation were I the shivering type.

EDIT: One thing that makes toroidal and cylindrical games more easily followable is a "zoom out" feature, for example with the mousewheel, which makes some board intersections appear in more than one location. I don't know whether implementing something like that would be nontrivial or not though. Sorry, I know you are not taking feature requests. Just something to think about.
Author:  Phelan [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 6:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Cinderblock Go Server
I've been using the WASD keys to see the board connections. Seems to work so far.
Author:  zpmorgan [ Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Cinderblock Go Server
gnome wrote:
I really hope this project takes off nicely. It looks really sexy. I would probably shiver with anticipation were I the shivering type.

EDIT: One thing that makes toroidal and cylindrical games more easily followable is a "zoom out" feature, for example with the mousewheel, which makes some board intersections appear in more than one location. I don't know whether implementing something like that would be nontrivial or not though. Sorry, I know you are not taking feature requests. Just something to think about.


I'm seriously honored by that.

Zooming out wouldn't be that hard; it's already drawing a canvas on another canvas a few times. However, I think I take issue with the premise. I don't think that stones being in several places at once could help to understand the situation or the topology.

At the moment, I quite like how dimensional wrapping is handled. Have you tried dragging the board with the right mouse button?
Author:  gnome [ Mon Oct 01, 2012 4:30 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Cinderblock Go Server
Quote:
Zooming out wouldn't be that hard; it's already drawing a canvas on another canvas a few times. However, I think I take issue with the premise. I don't think that stones being in several places at once could help to understand the situation or the topology.

At the moment, I quite like how dimensional wrapping is handled. Have you tried dragging the board with the right mouse button?


Yeah, the dragging works great. It's what made me think of using the mouse wheel to zoom. Mouse wheel might not be the best option though, since when someone unfamiliar with the interface accidentally zooms out with the mouse wheel, [s]he might get slightly confused. Which is why perhaps it might be better if there were buttons for 1x, (1,5x, (golden ratio)x ?) and 2x zoom.

Zooming is not necessary, but when I tried out the toroidal boards in the sandbox (my first time using toroidal boards), I found myself dragging the board around a lot before making a move to get a general picture of the board. I'm not acquainted with toroidal go, but it seems to me that keeping track of the global situation is very important and to do so you have to drag the board around a lot. Especially so with smaller boards.

This dragging is a bit tiresome and since it takes a bit of time, your turns take longer. This probably does not matter with a turn-based server, but since Cinderblock is real-time, it might be worth taking note of.

EDIT: Then again, I've no idea how helpful zooming would actually be, it was just something I thought of while playing that *might* be helpful.

EDIT2: And perhaps you don't even need to do much dragging if you have played a lot of toroidal go and you can picture the board well enough.

EDIT3: So never mind this post. Probably.
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