Online position evaluator
under review
A
Alex Zamanian (z)
It would be a really useful thing for the BG community to have a site where one could go on their phone and input a position and get a Gnu analysis. I think this doesn't exist anywhere currently (?). This is especially useful since XG mobile is less available now and it isn't nearly as good as Gnu 2-ply anyways.
If you make it available to members only, you'd get people to pay for membership just to use it. I know I would pay $30/year for it even if I didn't use this site otherwise. You already have most of the infrastructure needed for it anyways, so you are in a great position to do something like this and profit from it!
B
Backgammon Hub Admin
under review
Alex Zamanian (z) would appreciate your input. Is GammonSnap a reasonable option (ignoring the image recognition feature, just for evaluating positions entered manually)?
Am putting this back to "under review" awaiting more feedback/votes.
A
Alex Zamanian (z)
Backgammon Hub Admin I wasn't aware you could manually input a position into GammonSnap and get a decent Gnu analysis. I think that would be sufficient if it works OK and it would mean there much not be much added value for implementing something similar in hub. I'll probably play around with it when I get a chance.
A
Alfie Kirkpatrick [Developer]
Alex Zamanian (z), Denis-George Constantin (playhunter)
How well is this requirement met by GammonSnap? I installed it and it seems to do a reasonable job, although the image recognition from Hub screen was not great and I had to edit before analysing.
The effort in this feature is actually not getting the GNUBG analysis, which I think would be quite straightforward. Most of the effort is in making a nice position editor!
D
Denis-George Constantin (playhunter)
Alfie Kirkpatrick [Developer] for me GammonSnap is not useful at all ! It never gets the position right. Tried it with both my phone and tablet. But I heard for others works okay. XG works on my mobile and that is just good enough for me. I find it easier to edit positions in XG than in GammonSnap.
A
Alfie Kirkpatrick [Developer]
Denis-George Constantin (playhunter) it did not get the board position for me either from camera (or not very well). A Hub online position evaluator would have no camera and need the player to set up the board manually from scratch each time also.
My question is really whether there is a need for another position evaluator as we have them already in XG and GammonSnap.
D
Denis-George Constantin (playhunter)
Alfie Kirkpatrick [Developer] ah, if we really need a position evaluator ?
For many XG mobile doesn't work anymore, it is no longer listed in Google Play Store I believe (but I think it was bought recently and I expect it to be revived sooner or later). I saved the apk and just install it on any phone I use (on some phones I need to skip / accept some warning messages, but in the end it installs and then it works just fine).
If / when GammonSnap (or a similar tool) will work flawlessly, then I think it will beat any position evaluator which does require manual input of the position (as long as the evaluation is good enough XG / GNUBG / BGBlitz).
B
Backgammon Hub Admin
planned
A
Alan Berlyn 🇬🇧 (66alan66)
If you have paid for XG Mobile, you can input positions into that.
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Alex Zamanian (z)
Alan Berlyn 🇬🇧 (66alan66) No longer available for my new android phone. And even when it was, I still wanted a way to get a more authoritative evaluation.
A
Alfie Kirkpatrick [Developer]
Alex Zamanian (z), I like this idea and it ties in with full bot play which I would like to implement sometime.
A
Alex Zamanian (z)
I mean, I heard some people run remote desktop on their phone to connect to their home computer and set up a position on XG running there to get a good evaluation. Which is such an absurd thing, but it's necessary if someone is away from home and wants an authoritative evaluation...
D
Denis-George Constantin (playhunter)
Alex Zamanian (z) I like your proposal, but I think it can be done for GNU Grandmaster or even 4-ply instead of GNU 2-ply, because these positions will not be stored in a database I think ? So maybe have GNU 2-ply free for everyone and GNU 4-ply for members only ?