Saitek Modules

[Ralf Schmoll]

Hi,

I could no find any entries for the Saitek Maesto/Analyst modules on all_retro.ini. The relevant scripts and plugins seem to be available. I would like to play these modules in a Galileo Board. Can someone help me with zhe setup?

Kind regards

Ralf

[RandyR]

Hi Ralf,

The current aarch64/mame scripts would need some corrections (for the Maestro at least) but the MAME chessengine plugin (leonardo.lua) would need updating to support the module levels. Dirk may have further info.

Randy

[Dirk]

These modules are not that interesting for me that much - that why I did not check them or know anything about these.

Biut I found an entry in my retro.ini for the analystd2 and it seems to work fine (although I did not check the levels etc.).

If this entry is missing in your retro.ini (in /picochess/engines/aarch64) just add (in the Saitek section):

[mame/analystd2]
name = Saitek Analyst
small =
medium =
large = S.AnalystD2
web = Saitek Analyst
elo = 1870

Nice artwork should be already installed:

If you don't have the corresponding start scripts and uci levels, just uncompress the attached archive and put the files into the /opt/picochess/engines/aarch64/mame folder.

Enjoy

Dirk

[Ralf Schmoll]

Hi Dirk,

thanks for the information. I tried some things myself in the last few days. First, the files in the .zip file are identical to the ones in the image. Your entry to retro.ini works for me too, only the entries in the .uci file seem to have no effect as the machine always starts with level 'a1' no matter what I select in the GUI.
In my original post I referred to Maestro and Analyst modules. For some reason I did not test the Analyst modules but their Maestro counterparts. The Maestro modules actually don't work. At first I thought this is because the script files have a bug. Lets compare analystd2 against. maestrod2:

analystd1:
cd /opt/picochess/engines/mame_emulation; SDL_VIDEODRIVER=dummy /opt/picochess/engines/mame_emulation/mess $1 -video none -plugin chessengine leonardo -exp analyst,bios=5 -rom egr2

maestrod2:
cd /opt/picochess/engines/mame_emulation; SDL_VIDEODRIVER=dummy /opt/picochess/engines/mame_emulation/mess $1 -video none -plugin chessengine maestro -exp maestro,bios=6 -rom egr2

The obvious and expected difference is in the -exp option. But analyst uses chessengine leonardo while maestro uses chessengine maesto

I could not find a maestro.lua in the plugins folder but I tested a modified version of the maestrod2 file using chessengine leonardo:

cd /opt/picochess/engines/mame_emulation; SDL_VIDEODRIVER=dummy /opt/picochess/engines/mame_emulation/mess $1 -video none -plugin chessengine leonardo -exp maestro,bios=6 -rom egr2

Unfortionately this did not work either. Anyway I am glad that the Analyst modules is ok. It would be find if you had a fix for the unoperational levels setting.

one more thing slightly out of context. In the current version of all_retro.ini there is no entry for the Mephisto Briketts II and III. Other entries might also be missing. Noops like me tend to just copy a cleanrd up version of this file to retro.ini. Therefor @Randy can you please add these machines to the all_retro.ini. They work fine as I exerienced when I put them into my retro.ini.

Kind Regards
Ralf

[Dirk]

Ralf,

I don’t have time at the moment but it looks we have to update the plugins thats why the uci levels are not set correctly for analyst (with board Leonardo).

For analyst try the attached plugin leonardo.lua and replace it in mame_emulation plugin folder.

For maestro in Galileo board try  these maestro start scripts (make them executable! if they are not by default) - maybe thats it but I have not tested not (cause see sentence 1 ;-)

[Ralf Schmoll]

Just for your information, not to be misunderstood as an urgent request ;-): The levels are still not set correctly with the new leonardo.lua. the maestrod2 file works, but again the uci levels are not set and the maetrod2_art shows a leonardo with Analyst Module. I had expected a Galileo.

Ralf

[Dirk]

Hi Ralf,

yeah there are still the uci setting issues with ALL the module enabled chess computers like Saitec Leonardo, Galileo and Renaissance when adding additional modules.

I talked with Franz (the Plugin King ;-) and he uses his special adopted MessChess version  of supporting these features by either implementing these modules as separate engines or by adding a new MOD flag which shows if a module is applied or not.

In PicoChess we use an almost stock MAME version so we don't have these features and thats why we can't detect in the plugins if the main engine is running on its own or if a module has been inserted (which we would need for setting up the UCI levels for these modules as they are different from the main engines).

But I have found a way to support this I guess: I added the logic to our engine start scripts so that depending on the modules a different plugin supporting different uci level logics is copied and used before we start the engine.

You can test with the attached zipped files if you are interested (just replace them in their corresponding folder and check if the scripts are still executable)....

Regarding the artwork: qs we don't have separate engines for the modules the artwork won't change depending on the modules and reading the mein boards we only can use the artworks which are there - so the board might be a Leonardo although you run a Galileo (although they look pretty similar I think but you will see at least the correct name for the main engine in the artwork (meaning Galileo eg.)

The analyst display is shown there for all variants but only used if the module supports this.

I added the SPARC module to Renaissance to be tested ;-)

Dirk

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r62klk6g7vqglqwcqe35s/new_module_engines.zip?rlkey=mc2haf5ijrw24nvv4hd6h9os8&dl=0

@Randy: We could add these to your image if it really works ;-)

[Ralf Schmoll]

Hi Dirk,

sure, I will try this as soon as possible and report here. But because of time restrictions it my take spme days.

Regards

Ralf

[Dirk]

Thanks to Randy (the new plugin king?) we have found a much simpler way to support different modules in the plugins.

So we  no longer need all the different copies of the Leonardo or Renaissance plugins!

I have updated my dropbox link with the new plugins:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r62klk6g7vqglqwcqe35s/new_module_engines.zip?rlkey=mc2haf5ijrw24nvv4hd6h9os8&dl=0

Before you copy the plugins in the plugin folder interfaces just delete all old leonardo and  renaissance variations of the plugins.

Copy the new plugins and replace all mame start scripts again (the copy command inside the old ones is no longer necessary).

@Randy: When tests are fine you could add your solution ;-) to your images again. Thanks for finding this cool solution!

Dirk

[Randy Reade]

Thanks, Dirk, for doing all the real work. I'll have a look today and will add them to my next image update.

Randy

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[Ralf Schmoll]

Great work! Thanks to both of you. Finally I have all my real machines available in Picochess.

Regards

Ralf