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There appears to be a mismatch between the shogi graphics on CVP and that in the current source code. On CVP there are directories .../chessbase/res/shogi and .../chessbase/res/shogi2. The first contains the tile meshes and diffusemap for mini-Shogi, the second for Chu and Tenjiku Shogi. The current source code was derived from the latter, even though it reorganized the location where the diffusemaps are stored.

The problem occurs because the newly made Seireigi diffusemaps are made according to the Tenjiku design, (and placed so the view files can find them), but use the mini-Shogi tile mesh files. And it appears that these mesh files specify the use of a different part of the diffusemap for painting the top face: the mini-Shogi tiles use the top-left quarter, while the Chu-Shogi tiles use the bottom-left quarter of the maps.

I fixed the problem by editing the chu-seireigi-view.js file, to make it use the mesh files from the shogi2 folder. The kanji then appear. But apparently not all mesh files used by seireigi are there, as some of the pieces now disappear completely.

[Edit] The problem was in the map files: some Seireigi pieces use the diffusemap of Chu-Shogi pieces, and these are in a different location on CVP from where they are in the current source code (and have different filenames too). I adapted the path for the diffusemaps of Copper, Kirin, Phoenix, Lion and Queen to where these images are on CVP, and now the initial position of Chu Seireigi is correctly displayed.

For some reason, the 3d graphics for Seireigi and Chu Seireigi are only showing as blank Shogi pieces, and in the case of certain Chu Seireigi pieces, not showing at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I noticed a bug in the Hectochess file, where, when castling, the Champion starting square is not checked to see if a piece is there or not.

Therefore Fergus created separate HTML pages for individual variants, which embed the Jocly applet preconfigured to run the corresponding variant, with a rule description. The overview page you refer to contains links to those individual game pages.

While I used to make separate HTML pages for individual variants, I replaced this practice with a PHP script that gets called through a semantic URL whose relative part starts with "/play/jocly/". If you want to review its code to see how it works, you can find the script at "/play/jocly/control.php". It relies on certain files being in place to display the description, rules and credits. It should work with games that have not been indexed yet, and if you do use it with unindexed games, you can, as an editor, add them to the index.

Edit: Also, Hectochess doesn't have the 3d Queen, Marshall, and Cardinal for some reason...

Indeed, I noticed that too. I did upload a newer fairy-sprites file, and that made the Champion and Wizard appear.

[Edit] OK, that should be fixed now too. Hectochess was using the proper-*.js files for these 3d pieces, which differ from the original ones by a scale factor, to give them a more natural size. But these were not present on CVP.

[Edit2] I now moved a lot of the new 3d pieces to the CVP Jocly install as well. I had never payed much attention to the version here as far as updates go, because the CloudFlare caching made it pracically impossible to see any changes. But now that Fergus has exempted Jocly from this, it makes sense to bring the version here up to date as well. Makromachy already works. For Minjiku Shogi some of the promoted pieces seem to be still missing.

Hectochess now works, albeit with a few sprites missing. I just need to upload the sprites and diffusemaps for the Chanpion and Wizard.

Edit: Also, Hectochess doesn't have the 3d Queen, Marshall, and Cardinal for some reason...

As the matter of fact, why don't you update that page "Play Chess Variants with Jocly" which was listing all available games until last year?

The problem is that it is a matter of taste what 'available game' means. The Jocly applet itself allows you to select any game that is implemented, through the 'other jocly games' link. But this applet is not able to show rule descriptions or credits, which are also available for most of these games in the Jocly source package.

Therefore Fergus created separate HTML pages for individual variants, which embed the Jocly applet preconfigured to run the corresponding variant, with a rule description. The overview page you refer to contains links to those individual game pages.

In general the reason for there being no link to a certain variant in this overview page is that there doesn't exist such a separate HTML page for that game yet. Someone would first have to create those pages.

@ HG: "If you want to see a running install featuring the newly added games, you can use the one on CVP (just select any of the dedicated variant links on the Jocly overview page, and then click 'other jocly games' at the bottom right to select a game)"

Yes, that's what I wanted. Thanks.

I also know the address for François's Biscandine.

As the matter of fact, why don't you update that page "Play Chess Variants with Jocly" which was listing all available games until last year?

Maybe it is what you plan to do later on?

Apparently the jocly.game.js was still the original one from 2017. The addition of LetsTwist (to make the Mersenne Twister random generator available to the game-specific code) is the only modification I ever made in the Jocly core. I have now replaced that file with the one on my website; this should make it work.

You also have to add a line to /play/jocly/dist/browser/jocly-allgames.js to make Jocly notice the files that you placed in /play/jocly/dist/browser/games/chessbase/.

I've done that. It shows up on the Other Jocly games panel, but when I try to load it, it doesn't work. I get the following error:

hectochess-model.js:257 Uncaught (in promise) TypeError: JocGame.LetsTwist is not a function
    at ZobristInit (hectochess-model.js:257:20)
    at Model.Game.InitGame (hectochess-model.js:354:3)
    at JocGame.GameInitGame (jocly.game.js:3:7385)
    at JocGame.Init (jocly.game.js:3:1572)
    at e (jocly.core.js:1:1233)
    at eval (jocly.core.js:1:2511)

Where can your work on Jocly with François, HG, can be found?

That depends on what exactly you want. The source code is in my on-line git repository, but it is currently not possible to view that interactively on line because the hosting company disabled the viewer for that ('GtitWeb'), and I haven't had time to fix that. It is still possible to pull from the repository with 'git', to view the source code locally. And I suppose François has a mirror of it on GitHub.

If you want to see a running install featuring the newly added games, you can use the one on CVP (just select any of the dedicated variant links on the Jocly overview page, and then click 'other jocly games' at the bottom right to select a game), or the one on my website, which are old Jocly installs that I hacked to add some variants. I suppose that François has put up a version directly compiled from the most recent source code somewhere.

You also have to add a line to /play/jocly/dist/browser/jocly-allgames.js to make Jocly notice the files that you placed in /play/jocly/dist/browser/games/chessbase/ . I think Fergus exempted the Jocly files from CloudFlare caching, so you should see new games immediately after flushing your browser cache. To do that I sometimes have to access the modified .js files (including jocly-allgames.js) directly with the browser.

Unfortunately the wikipedia-fairy-sprites.png file on CVP is not entirely compatible with the one that is now in the source repository.

@Adam: you wrote "uploadnig a new Jocly game to the site." Which site are you talking about? The one linked to this comment brings to a page where the last update is from 2023. And that page has a hyperlink on "Jocly" word which is broken.

Where can your work on Jocly with François, HG, can be found?

Thanks

I have uploaded François Houdebert's files for the Hectochess implementation to the site. I guess now it's just a matter of waiting for the server cache to clear, unless I need to do something else when uploadnig a new Jocly game to the site.

Yes the lance might be suitable.

I'd also wondered about the captain, and you may consider using the machine that is used with the same movements in other variants. But the choice of the lighthouse is perhaps aesthetic, as its 3d representation is more successful or better proportioned than the machine.

What do you think about switching to the Lance picto-sprite for the Hoplit in Spartan Chess? Then it would have a different symbol from the FIDE Pawns. And I doubt that any western variant will ever want to use a piece that moves as the Shogi Lance. (But they might of course want to use it for a piece with another move for which there is no dedicated representation available.)

Let's just say that I thought it would be interesting to complete the fairyset, but if the idea doesn't meet with unanimous approval, we can think about it later.

As for spartan, it's a point of detail, since the set is already well developed, but it would probably be better to have a V or a spike on the top of the black pawn to distinguish them from the white.

In short, I'm not doing anything on pullreq, I'm just testing on my personal branch.

Does Jocly currently support any variant that uses Berolina Pawns at all? The 3d realization was made mostly as a test case for the initial version of the Tube tool (it is a purely cylindrical design). In that sense the committing of it was a bit premature, like for the Flamingo.

The design you have here looks a lot like the Alfaerie design, which is a variation on the Alfaerie normal Pawn. But the Wikipedia set uses an entirely different Pawn design. If we want to add new Pawn types, I think we should use that as basis.

Spartan Chess is an implemented variant that uses a different Pawn type, for the Spartans. These 'Hoplits' are very close to a Berolina Pawn, but not exactly equal, because their initial double push can jump, and isn't subject to e.p. capture. They do have their own 3d image, (a Pawn modified to carry a lance), but also use the normal Pawn image in 2d. If we want to distinguish the Pawns in 2d it seems more urgent to do find a symbol for those. In the WinBoard implementation I use the Lance pictogram for those. We could also do that in Jocly (now that we added the Lance). But it would still not have its own picto-sprite in that case. (But who would want to use a Lance and a Hoplit in the same variant...)

I am not sure we should go for a double-head design in 2d if we did not also do that in 3d. An alternative would be to write a V on their breast, to symbolize their non-capturing move.

And what about the Asian Pawn, for the western skins of the Shogi variants? These now also use the normal Pawn symbol.

I made a second attempt to find a 2d representation for the berolina pawn with less white on the black pawn.

I'd like to add it if the result is acceptable because i find it preferable to have a different representation instead of the ordinary pawn if possible.

It might be interesting to add a 2d sprite for the berolina pawn since there's a 3d representation in the fairy set.

It could be inspired by alfaery sometimes like that

or may be a more pointed pawn to go with the 3d image.

Indeed, Pulling still works!

So I am still trying to figure out what to do that would keep everybody happy.

Suggestion: Contact the admins at the hosting company, and ask. Barring anything else (meaning, if you don't get a reply after two tries), leave the "disabled" cgi in place but copy it to a new regular one.

Well, this is a bit tricky, since the webspace I use there is not really my own, but is hosted by someone I cooperated with long ago for the development of XBoard. And the problem appears to be that someone (not that person, so presumably someone from the hosting company itself with root access) renamed the gitweb.cgi script to 'gitweb.cgi_disabled_by_HL'. Now I could of course rename it back, but I suppose they intervened with the private files of their customers for a good reason (probably to do with security), and don't want to anger the hosting company and create trouble for the person that allows me to use his webspace. So I am still trying to figure out what to do that would keep everybody happy.

BTW, that gitweb.cgi is no longer there should not prevent you from pulling from the repository.

Do you have a way to reactivate your git server, I haven't retrieved the patch from base-model.js yet.

your git server seems stopped