Author: Keith Evans
Date: 19:45:47 04/04/02
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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: >>> >>> >>>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. > ... >jm But I don't think that it's any easier to create a 3D board that can be sized to any size and look good than it is do do that for 2D. You would still need some form of hinting. I understand why you would prefer to work on the 3D sets - it's because they look good on the box and will sell copies. (Plus the developers are probably having fun.) But I can't believe that they solve the legibility problem that Roy is concerned about. When you use/test Chessmaster 9000 do you prefer to use the 3D board now? Keith (who just wishes that CM9 would support Win2k and get rid of the annoying copy protection)
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