Author: John Merlino
Date: 19:20:48 04/04/02
Go up one level in this thread
On April 04, 2002 at 16:45:33, Roy Eassa wrote: >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. You are correct. However, we had the ENTIRE font (all 254 non-blank characters) hinted at three different weights. This included all of the text and board printing characters, plus a few other special characters. And, somewhat late in the development of CM7000, somebody said, "Hey, how about a totally sizeable piece set". So, we used the chess font that we had. And, as mentioned above, it didn't look all that good. Instead of taking the time (or paying somebody else) to hint the 12 characters (that's the way we did it) for lots of different weights, we decided to remove the feature altogether. And, so, in CM9000, with true 3D boards/pieces, the "vector set" is obsolete. jm
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