Working on some mame engine extensions...

[Dirk]

Picochess now can show the internal evaluation, depth and hint move of the mame engines if the engine

a) does have this information in the mame emulation itself and 

b) we have plugin support for reading this information (eg from Guido's Mysticum Touch project)

I only adapt all these plugins for picochess instead of mysticum application - unfortunately they won't run 1:1 under picochess - so lots of adjustments to figure out and do :-(

 The Montreux for example does have this information:

Pressing "+" displays the move the engine's current best move it is thinking about

 

Pressing "-" displays the current engines evaluation and depth:

:-)

Dirk

[Dirk]

I have now added the "Retro-Sound" option to the menu (and of course to the picochess.ini).

No these are not old instruments sounds played in harmony with your chess moves (although kind of I think again ;-) but the emulated mame sounds of the chess machines.

I must admit that I quite like these old beep sounds (or the "mechanical" voices of the chess champions or the voice of chesster and want to hear them).

But now the mame retro sounds can easily switched on or off by menu (or by editing picochess.ini but why would you if you have the menu option):

For this there is a new menu: Retro-Engine Settings...

...having two submenus:

1. Retro-Speed (the already existing one) and...

2. Retro Sound Setting

After changing one of these two key fugures (speed or sound) the retro engine is restarted (and a new game must be played)

Here is a short demo with one of my first chess computers: Chess Champion Super System III

https://www.dropbox.com/s/27k8xtl4fijqwqg/retro_settings.MOV?dl=0

These enhancements will soon be pushed top Gerhards Picochess 3.1 repository...

Enjoy

Dirk

[Dirk]

Ok now I know why I always loose against CCMKIII:2500 Elo according to the PGN info above ;-))))))))))))))

I fixed the PGN display inm the meantime (now "correct" ELO and the retro speed factor are correctly displayed in the PGN header...

I guess even speeding up to 1000% the good old CCMKIII won't bring it near 1500 Elo....

Dirk

[Randy Reade]

Nice enhancement, Dirk.

I like those old sounds, too. Perhaps they could be recorded and used as an option with modern engines/voices. 😊

Randy

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PicoChess" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to picochess+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/3e9734a8-1e85-4945-adf2-2729e2953ff8n%40googlegroups.com.

[Dirk]

Hello,

I have finished the update of the mame plugins for showing the evaluation information.

For this I had tzo adopt the ini.lua file and all engine plugins providing this information.

These are lots of file changes so it would be good if some people could test or just use these new plugins...

I have put the new plugin folder in my dropbox:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4tekzvqhuotd1ms/AAATfs6BTjoUjqsK0AXJ7SoGa?dl=0

Just rename your current "plugin" folder in /opt/picochess/engines/mame_emulation to "plugin_old" and copy the new "plugin" folder into this directory.

Keep in mind that it would only work with newer mame versions supporting the new plugins (what should be the case for Randys images I think).

What to test ?

1. Most important: your retro engines should run like before!

2. Pressing +/- shoudl show the evaluation/hint information of the engines with the following restrictions:

 -  Not all retro engines support this feature or the corresponding plugin has not been enhanced for showing this information (see screenshot for a list of the plugins that should support it)

- The information (via +/- button) is not shown at every time and it might need some longer thinking times for the old timers to provide this information. Hint move might only shown  during thinking period of the engine etc.

-  In the last update coming to 3.1 version I have lengthened the time the evaluation information is displayed so even I can get all information ;-)

Would be great to get some test feedback.

Enjoy

Dirk

Dirk schrieb am Montag, 13. Februar 2023 um 23:59:33 UTC+1:

Picochess now can show the internal evaluation, depth and hint move of the mame engines if the engine

a) does have this information in the mame emulation itself and 

b) we have plugin support for reading this information (eg from Guido's Mysticum Touch project)

I only adapt all these plugins for picochess instead of mysticum application - unfortunately they won't run 1:1 under picochess - so lots of adjustments to figure out and do :-(

 The Montreux for example does have this information

Pressing "+" displays the move the engine's current best move it is thinking about

Pressing "-" displays the current engines evaluation and depth

:-)

Dirk

[Randy Reade]

Hi Dirk,

Just to confirm - the glasgow.lua file which is outside the chessengine folder in your Dropbox folder should replace the one inside chessengine/interfaces?

Thanks for sharing and the work done!

Randy

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PicoChess" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to picochess+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/b2e3f3e6-759d-449e-9bad-fc428210d9ban%40googlegroups.com.

[Dirk]

Uops - don't know what happened to that glasgow.lua file but after a quick look it looks the same like the one inside the folder so I deleted it.

Thanks for mentioning, Randy!

[Randy Reade]

Hi Dirk,

They aren't the same. See lines 16, 185, and 275 (depending on which file - I use a great program called Meld for comparisons, but diff would work as well).

Randy

[Dirk]

yep - now I remember: that was one of the files Guido just updated so I took tis version for the picochess modificaton (its getting confusing when you edit so many files ;-)

I replaced the one inside the folder with the newer one...

Thanks again

Dirk

[Randy Reade]

I know the feeling. 😁

Thanks Dirk. 

Randy

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PicoChess" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to picochess+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/c95c1daa-e1cd-4a8d-ba3e-a2725969cb6dn%40googlegroups.com.

[RandyR]

Hi Dirk,

I was about to load your new lua files and noticed they are not the same as the ones in my images or the ones from Dirk Summerfeld's PicoChessWeb images (which makes sense as he used my image as a base). It looks like you are using the lua files from the MameChess project as opposed to Sandro Ronco's ones (I don't think the CB-Emu ones by Franz are compatible with newer MAME versions). Should switch to the MAMEChess ones? I seem to recall we had a conversation about this at one time.

Randy

On Thursday, February 16, 2023 at 3:40:55 AM UTC-6 Dirk wrote:

Hello,

I have finished the update of the mame plugins for showing the evaluation information.

For this I had tzo adopt the ini.lua file and all engine plugins providing this information.

These are lots of file changes so it would be good if some people could test or just use these new plugins...

I have put the new plugin folder in my dropbox:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4tekzvqhuotd1ms/AAATfs6BTjoUjqsK0AXJ7SoGa?dl=0

Just rename your current "plugin" folder in /opt/picochess/engines/mame_emulation to "plugin_old" and copy the new "plugin" folder into this directory.

Keep in mind that it would only work with newer mame versions supporting the new plugins (what should be the case for Randys images I think).

What to test ?

1. Most important: your retro engines should run like before!

2. Pressing +/- shoudl show the evaluation/hint information of the engines with the following restrictions:

 -  Not all retro engines support this feature or the corresponding plugin has not been enhanced for showing this information (see screenshot for a list of the plugins that should support it)

- The information (via +/- button) is not shown at every time and it might need some longer thinking times for the old timers to provide this information. Hint move might only shown  during thinking period of the engine etc.

-  In the last update coming to 3.1 version I have lengthened the time the evaluation information is displayed so even I can get all information ;-)

Would be great to get some test feedback.

Enjoy

Dirk

:-)

[Dirk]

Hi Randy,

no these are newer ones which are based on Guido's Mysticum project (because he added the evaluation info etc.) which also uses newer mame versions (and these are based on Sandros).

If they would be the original MessChess lua files they wouldn't work in picochess with newer mame versions at all.

The new mame has the new lua framework with some syntax changes in the lua files eg:

old (MessChess) syntax: 

return  machine:outputs():get_indexed_value(tostring(x - 1)...

newer 

return  output:get_indexed_value(tostring(x - 1)...

I think I found the first bigger problem: promotion (when the engine wants to promote) is not working correctly (I assume problem with capital letters for the target piece)... 

Dirk

[Randy Reade]

Hi Dirk,

I installed your plugin files (in PicoChessWeb) and played against MM II. The first game I set to 30 sec/move and in the middle of the game heard 3 quick beeps. I think that means lost on time (didn't know it at the time). I pressed + and - and PicoChess would no longer respond (I suspect MAME didn't like the button presses or got stuck after I flagged?). I restarted picochess and set Level 5 (2 min/move). I played until I was basically lost and resigned with the kings. When I set up the board again and played my first move, picochess crashed. Here is what I see:

pi@picochess:/opt/picochess/engines/mame_emulation $ systemctl status picochess.service
● picochess.service - PicoChess stand-alone chess computer for DGT chessboards
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/picochess.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Thu 2023-02-16 15:16:50 CST; 51min ago
   Main PID: 4371 (python3)
      Tasks: 23 (limit: 4915)
        CPU: 19min 37.687s
     CGroup: /system.slice/picochess.service
             ├─4371 /usr/bin/python3 /opt/picochess/picochess.py
             ├─4409 /bin/sh -c rfcomm connect 123 68:27:19:F8:9E:51
             ├─4410 rfcomm connect 123 68:27:19:F8:9E:51
             ├─4792 /bin/bash /opt/picochess/engines/armv7l/mame/mm2 -speed 1.0
             └─4795 /opt/picochess/engines/mame_emulation/mess -speed 1.0 -video none -plugin chessengine mm2

Feb 16 15:51:52 picochess python3[4371]:     client.write_message(msg)
Feb 16 15:51:52 picochess python3[4371]:   File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/tornado/websocket.py", line 252, in write_message
Feb 16 15:51:52 picochess python3[4371]:     return self.ws_connection.write_message(message, binary=binary)
Feb 16 15:51:52 picochess python3[4371]:   File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/tornado/websocket.py", line 785, in write_message
Feb 16 15:51:52 picochess python3[4371]:     return self._write_frame(True, opcode, message, flags=flags)
Feb 16 15:51:52 picochess python3[4371]:   File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/tornado/websocket.py", line 768, in _write_frame
Feb 16 15:51:52 picochess python3[4371]:     return self.stream.write(frame)
Feb 16 15:51:52 picochess python3[4371]:   File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/tornado/iostream.py", line 395, in write
Feb 16 15:51:52 picochess python3[4371]:     self._write_buffer += data
Feb 16 15:51:52 picochess python3[4371]: BufferError: Existing exports of data: object cannot be re-sized

It doesn't look like an issue with your lua edits, rather a PicoChessWeb issue. Any ideas?

Also, you mention the +/- button. Which button does what? The display alternates between time, depth/score and "no move" without any button presses. Is this correct or is there updated code required from Gerhard's site? Is there a way to turn the move display OFF again?

Randy

[Dirk]

Hi Randy,

I am out the next few days but here are my first thoughts:

The first issue when you heard the beeps and the mame wants to resign/declare time lost or similar things is a general problem with our mame engines because in most cases the plugin does not handle this correction correct in mapping this to a correct uci command because these are machine dependent special cases (we had this in the past where I tried to fix this in picochess (but it should be in the plugin). 

So no problem with the buttons pressing as + and - only show information on the display and don't talk to the mame engine.

Furthermore after such situation happen a newgame is in most cases not possible and often the machine crashes and picochess cant handle this at the moment (there are other cases like some machines don't like restarting a new game when you do'nt have executed their answer move - then only switching on and off picochess is the only way unfortunately.)

So this would not be a problem of the new plugin I think.

Regarding the use of the + and - buttons:

That surprises me: How do check the current evaluation of a (standard uci) engine at the moment?

This is done by pressing + and - during (during computer thinking time or in your thinking time)

Here is the excerpt of the manual:

           

But from your description it looks like you have configured picochess.ini so that you se the rolling information display in normal mode.

That is not recommended especially for mame engines (because they couldnt show any useful up to now with these new plugins but even then I would not switch on the display for mame because it is not updated so often and with all information at all times). So I would only use thios rolling information display if necessary only in ponder (old brain) mode (then it is checked it the engine really provides this information etc).

Regarding updated code from Gerhards repository: it is always a good idea to update from time to time because besides new feature we fix lots of (some very old) bugs ;-)

But anyway: The plugins might still be faulty in some cases (like the promotion) ...

Dirk

        

               

[Randy Reade]

Hi Dirk,

Thanks for taking the time to provide such a thorough response. I remember you and Al mentioning MAME's quirks when interfacing with PicoChess. Thanks for the reminder. And glad to know the buttons don't interface with MAME.

I suspect rolling display is ON. I'll check today. I don't think I ever used it (or enabled it) in my images so thought I was seeing some new feature. 🤣

Randy

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "PicoChess" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/picochess/pRurb2vkGDk/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to picochess+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/42214664-443a-4f94-9fe5-66896b191650n%40googlegroups.com.

[RandyR]

Hi Dirk,

I did have rolling-display-normal enabled. Good catch.

I tested Mephisto MM II again using the new lua files and MAME would always hang when resetting the pieces for a new game. However, this does not happen with Sandro's version of the plugin. I could resign or just replace the pieces to the starting position and it worked every time. I think there might be a bug in there (mm2.lua or init.lua?). I'm using Al's 0.248a compile of MESS.

Randy

[Dirk]

I think was able to fix both problems: the newgame and promotion bug.

I have updated the init.lua file in the dropbbox link above and attach the file here.

Thanks for having a look Randy!

The problem the mame chess engine plugins is that we don' have any reference version any more (except the current one in Sandros repository which has none of the new features Franz or Guido added or fixed in the meantime).

Franz plugins are based on his older MessChess version but with lots of bug fixes and support of setting up a position or some(all?) engines (but I assume only for the WinBoard interface as for UIC it is not so easy) and changing the MHZ for the engines.

Guido has added the evaluation information, setting up positions, taking back moves and changing the frequency for his specific Mysticum (windows) software.

As picochess uses a "pure" UCI Interface (via python-chess) it is not so easy to add all non standard uci features.

So at least I wanted to add the evaluation information as a first step - we will see how stable the new plugins will get...

Dirk 

[Dirk]

and another bugfix for the speed option via the uci levels (already updated in dropbox).

Dirk

[Randy Reade]

Well, we certainly appreciate your efforts on adapting the files to work with PicoChess, Dirk. Thanks.

Maybe someday Franz will switch his code to the newer MAME and therefore update his chessengine plugin. But Guido has basically done the work with the plugin already. I wonder why he isn't publishing it on his Github site? I guess another option would be for Franz to share his MAME code and we could compile it for the Pi. 😁

Thanks for the quick init.lua fix.

Randy

[Dieter]

Thank you from me too, Dirk. I already noticed that you commented out the special frequency settings, that only work with Mysticum. I've been working on Guido's extensions for a while and then went back to my old plugins, because some things didn't work as they should. I will now test again with these plugins.

Dieter

[Dirk]

Hi Dieter,

thanks- yep I even fixed a bug  that it is/should also be in  the mysticism software itself and not only Picochess specific changes...

The frequency enhancement caused crashes and i guessed that they were for mysticum only so commented them out.

It looks like that all pure UCi GUIs need some GUI specific plugin changes :-(

Especially Picochess with the old Python-chess library sends  (during a normal game) either Position fen uci commands to the engine which is no problem for real uci engines but are a problem for mame engines which do not work stateless like an uci engine.

But for me the new plugins now look fine but the Matilda might be some bugs of course. But as you mentioned: with picochess we can also always use the old plugins as the basic features do work...

Dirk 

Von meinem iPad gesendet

Am 18.02.2023 um 16:54 schrieb Dieter <d.ku...@gmail.com>:



--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PicoChess" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to picochess+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/820e06b1-db48-4828-bb33-c7a62c9ad165n%40googlegroups.com.

[RandyR]

Hi Dirk,

I did a test using the new init.lua file (with your chessengine lua files), using MM II again. I wanted to test the promotion function but MAME hung at the promotion move. I have attached the pgn if you want to test it. The new game function is working now. Thanks.

Randy

[Dieter]

Hello Randy,

please replace the 3 lines in the "function interface.get_promotion(x, y)" in mm2.lua

    local d0 = output:get_value("digit3") & 0x7f

    local d1 = output:get_value("digit2") & 0x7f
    local d3 = output:get_value("digit0") & 0x7f

against these 3 lines

    local d3 = output:get_value("digit0") & 0x7f
    local d2 = output:get_value("digit1") & 0x7f

    local d0 = output:get_value("digit3") & 0x7f

[Randy Reade]

Thanks, Dieter.

I will test that. When using Sandro's plugin, MM II promotion works (I just checked).

Randy

[Dieter]

Hello Dirk,

next error ;):

cncchess2.lua (lines 52/53)

Instead of

    if (emu.item(machine.devices[':maincpu'].items['0/00000000-0000ffff']):read(0x13) == 0x04) then

this command

    if (machine.devices[':maincpu'].spaces['program']:read_u8(0x13) == 0x04) then

cncchess2.lua (lines 57/58)

Instead of

    if (emu.item(machine.devices[':maincpu'].items['0/00000000-0000ffff']):read(0x07) == 0x01) then

this command

    if (machine.devices[':maincpu'].spaces['program']:read_u8(0x07) == 0x01) then

Dieter

[Dirk]

Hi Dieter,

Will Guido fix all these things in his repository?

Maybe I just wait al little bit and apply the necessary picochess changes again later!?

Dirk

@Randy The promotion but I fixed was in case of the engines promotion not so layer ;-)

Looks like a capital letter problem again in this case also.

I Will check init.lua for own player promotion as well…

Thanks

Dirk

-- 

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PicoChess" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to picochess+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/1782bf3d-7fa0-4c22-bb22-337993585067n%40googlegroups.com.

[RandyR]

Hi Dieter,

I made the changes but PicoChess aborted (it is still running and I can make menu changes but when MM II was about to promote, it said "abort"). There are lots ov entries in the pi.log such as:

2023-02-18 12:42:11.843   ERROR        uci - _info: exception parsing pv
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/chess/uci.py", line 515, in _info
    pv.append(board.push_uci(token))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/chess/__init__.py", line 2647, in push_uci
    move = self.parse_uci(uci)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/chess/__init__.py", line 2634, in parse_uci
    raise ValueError("illegal uci: {0} in {1}".format(repr(uci), self.fen()))
ValueError: illegal uci: 'a2b1' in r1bqkbnr/ppp2ppp/2n1p3/8/P3P3/8/pPPP1PPP/1NB2KNR b kq - 1 7

2023-02-18 12:42:11.848   ERROR        uci - _info: exception parsing pv
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/chess/uci.py", line 515, in _info
    pv.append(board.push_uci(token))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/chess/__init__.py", line 2647, in push_uci
    move = self.parse_uci(uci)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/chess/__init__.py", line 2634, in parse_uci
    raise ValueError("illegal uci: {0} in {1}".format(repr(uci), self.fen()))
ValueError: illegal uci: 'b1c2' in r1bqkbnr/ppp2ppp/2n1p3/8/P3P3/8/pPPP1PPP/1NB2KNR b kq - 1 7

2023-02-18 12:42:11.849   ERROR        uci - _info: exception parsing pv
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/chess/uci.py", line 515, in _info
    pv.append(board.push_uci(token))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/chess/__init__.py", line 2647, in push_uci
    move = self.parse_uci(uci)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/chess/__init__.py", line 2634, in parse_uci
    raise ValueError("illegal uci: {0} in {1}".format(repr(uci), self.fen()))
ValueError: illegal uci: 'f2f4' in r1bqkbnr/ppp2ppp/2n1p3/8/P3P3/8/pPPP1PPP/1NB2KNR b kq - 1 7

and the last one:

2023-02-18 12:42:16.911   ERROR        uci - _bestmove: exception parsing bestmove
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/chess/uci.py", line 367, in _bestmove
    self.bestmove = self.board.parse_uci(tokens[0])
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/chess/__init__.py", line 2625, in parse_uci
    move = Move.from_uci(uci)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/chess/__init__.py", line 471, in from_uci
    promotion = PIECE_SYMBOLS.index(uci[4])
ValueError: 'Q' is not in list

which is probably the promotion issue. The other ones might be related to Dirk's init.lua changes for showing current engine move (+ button).

I'll attach the pgn again.

Randy

[Randy Reade]

Hi Dirk,

Not sure what you are trying to say here:

@Randy The promotion but I fixed was in case of the engines promotion not so layer ;-)

😊🍺

It looks like you are right about the capital letter.

Randy

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/8F421221-082F-4B89-BFE7-88DAE4430569%40googlemail.com.

[Dirk]

Yep, Apples auto correction gets better and better ;-)

I fixed the promotion bug for the engines pawn promotion not the players!

So I will check for the player as well…

Dirk

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/CAE5Wduvi%3D0QrJZ4Lx%3DzncceT9jnngPHMwxJEOvqci4oYtNF5xg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Randy Reade]

Ha ha.

However, it's the engine that is promoting its pawn, not me (the player).

Also, I think I was wrong about your init.lua button code causing the errors. It looks like it's only when promoting starts to get looked at by the engine. But you would know this better than me.

Randy

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/62721C5F-3D30-4D85-8373-8C64E7C29EC5%40googlemail.com.

[RandyR]

I tested again with the log set to debug and the errors begin right when the engine's pawn is about to promote (in this case, right after I play Rh2 in the game:

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. h3 d5 3. c4 dxc4 4. Qb3 cxb3 5. a4 Nc6 6. Ra2 bxa2 7. Rh2

Lot's of these:

ERROR        uci - _info: exception parsing pv

Then one of these:

ERROR        uci - _bestmove: exception parsing bestmove

And it aborts the game.

Randy