Author: Roy Eassa
Date: 13:45:33 04/04/02
Go up one level in this thread
On April 04, 2002 at 16:38:26, John Merlino wrote: >On April 04, 2002 at 16:06:52, Roy Eassa wrote: > >>On April 04, 2002 at 16:02:15, John Merlino wrote: >> >>>On April 04, 2002 at 07:41:43, Randy Adams wrote: >>> >>>>Wondering what opinions are regarding the best looking 3D interface. Fritz 7 >>>>looks good, but takes a lot of time to get colors just right, etc. Is there >>>>anything better out there?? >>>>thanks in advance, >>>>Randy A >>> >>>The next version of Chessmaster (due to be released in about four months) is >>>going to have true 3D boards and pieces that are, IMHO, incredible. I would >>>definitely go so far as to say they are "photo-realistic". There will be >>>approximately 30 different boards and 30 different piece sets (more or less) >>>that you will be able to combine, size and rotate any way that you like. There >>>will also be about 10 "flat" piece sets, for people who like to play on a 2D >>>board. >>> >>>Although there has been very little optimization that has been done, I could >>>send any who are interested some screenshots. Just send me a private e-mail at >>>jmerlino@ubisoft.com if you are interested. >>> >>>jm >> >> >>How about simple, clear 2D pieces (and board) that can be resized to ANY size >>and still look smooth? > >Not as easy as you might think. This pretty much requires using a chess font, >which was attempted with Chessmaster 7000 (the "Vector Board"). But we had only >one font and it did not look very good at all at smaller sizes. "Hinting" a font >so that it can look good at many different sizes is a very difficult and >time-consuming process (and quite expensive if you have a company that >specializes in fonts do it for you -- as we did). Forcing users to use Windows' >"font smoothing" option is another possibility, but it shouldn't be required >just to make CM look good. > >Therefore, as far as 2D goes, CM gives the users three different "sizes" of >boards to choose from. But, these 3D sets look quite good, and since the display >does not need to be updated unless a piece is being moved (by either the user or >as a result of a computer move), the 3D display system only takes a few CPU >cycles away from any engine(s) that may be running during screen updates. > >jm John, I know something about fonts and hinting. Creating a hinted font with 128 different characters that look good at a wide range of sizes is indeed time-consuming (although people do it all the time and there are good GUI tools that make it a lot easier). Creating a hinted font with six characters -- the six chess men (you don't have to reinvent the wheel for White versus Black or dark squares versus light squares) -- that looks good in a range of sizes is really NOT that hard IMHO.
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