Re: Miniature development: Play chess games online
 

More screenies:

1. The stop resolution menu.
http://taschenorakel.de/pictures/scr...oard4_menu.png

2. Notifications
http://taschenorakel.de/pictures/scr...rd5_notify.png

3. Fullscreen!
http://taschenorakel.de/pictures/scr...fullscreen.png

4. Stop resolution menu for top player.
http://taschenorakel.de/pictures/scr...7_menu_top.png

This is all done within the QGraphicsView, and sometimes, that's a real pain =)

Re: Miniature development: Play chess games online
 

mikhas, this is just great!

I don't think we need to wait for better graphics for the first release targetting Extras. If they come, fine. If they don't, fine as well.

Do the "??" In the text string imply that localization is in place, or do they just mean to that those strings are not final?

Also, what are your current thoughts about rotating the whole board versus pieces of each color always positioned towards the corresponding player?

Re: Miniature development: Play chess games online
 

The "??" mean that a) they are not final (for example, the most critical button - resign game - should be on the bottom right, maybe with an alerting background color), and b) they dont work yet =)

Also, for pub mode I will just enforce fullscreen now (= I only have to align widgets for the 800x480 resolution), and perhaps have a "Send to background", "Switch to start screen" menu when you click the avatar. The other possibility is to append those two menu items to the stop resolution menu, below a nice menu separator.

Re: piece rotation. Keeping the pieces positioned towards each player was what I first started with. I thought it was OK, but jukey's proposal to rotate all pieces is actually less distracting to me. I guess I'll include an option for that and we'll find out what's better out in the field =)

Re: Miniature development: Play chess games online
 

A few questions regarding the buttons below the board:

There is a "Back" button. I'm not sure if it is really necessary in the offline- and online game mode. How often you go back a few moves in a real game? I think this happens not as often as a "draw" or "decline2 request. I think this type of button (together with a "foreward" button) could be useful in a "repeat game" or "PGN view" mode where you can see every step of a game and this kind buttons could be used to go one half move forward or backward.
My question also is: What happens if I press the backward button? Will there also appear a forward button?

The "play" button: Is this the button I have to press to confirm my move? If yes I would think it should be bigger but a real test will clarify this. :)

Last but not least there is a "stop" button which will bring up the menu options. I think the current square icon is not the best because most of the people would assume thaat the game is stopping after they pressed the button. My proposal would be a "menu" button.

So all in all I would say the area below the board should contain only two buttons "confirm move" and "bring up game options" which will get all the (width) space available beside the players picture.

What do you think?

Anyway I'm really impressed what has be done from the first days of the project until now. Thanks for all the hard work!

Re: Miniature development: Play chess games online
 

The main practical use for this for a real chessplayer, in my opinion, is to view games either online or in a chess book. You certainly need a "back" button for that. I see why "pub" mode was used to start, but I think that most people playing in pubs and thus in the same place at the same time should use a real chess set. Spectators are not going to be gathering around your tablet kibitzing, I predict.

There is every reason in the world to use electronic versions of chess for playing thru famous games because you can re-setup the pieces instantly, remember games, and analyze them.

The original charter of "Miniature" was to make it usable for online chess. I don't have it installed now because memory is precious and because there is not yet any use for it as far as I am concerned.

Re: Miniature development: Play chess games online
 

We'll get there, promised!

Re: Miniature development: Play chess games online
 

Specially aficionados do request moves back. This is the function of that button in "pub chess" and online games.

Maybe. :) We haven't even thought about the adaptations needed for the "Review game" UI.

No, the workflow is:

# Pressing the rewind button a player requests a move back.

1. The rewind button of the opposite player is highlighted and a "?" appears on top of it.
1. If the opposite player presses the rewind button the move is retracted.
2. If the opposite player moves a piece the request is ignored and the game continues.


I have been advocating for a bigger "play" button as well. But considering that mikhas is just "covering" joshua or whoever designer taking the lead, I think the current solution is just find. I'll also wait for real testing.

But it is common sense that there are different ways to stop a chess game, isn't it? Thy show up when you press Stop. Also detailed in the workflow:

Pressing the stop button a player requests some kind of resolution for the game. The options appear in his dashboard without overlapping the board:

1. "Pause" button requests to stop the clock.
2. "Draw" button requests a draw.
3. "Resign" button leads to a confirmation dialog to resign the game.
4. "Adjourn" button requests to save the game.
5. "Exit" button simply closes the application.
6. Moving a piece cancels the dialog and the game continues.

I think the current UI is better, more precise than a simple Confirm/Else, but let's wait for the real tests with real users. I find the mixture of a chess interface and a media player UI is at least provocative and I'm looking forward to users' reactions. :)

Re: Miniature development: Play chess games online
 

Real chessplayers go to pubs where the availability of real chess sets are given (if they don't bring the chess set under the arm themselves). However, the rest of us often meat in places where there is no board available and, in fact, nobody interested following our game.

One device is enough to capture the attention of the two players, just look the (real!) pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/quimgil/4284797879/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quimgil/4269447455/

geneven , I agree that it will take a while until Miniature is useful for advanced players. But if mikhas says that we will get there I won't be the one stopping him. ;)

Re: Miniature development: Play chess games online
 

Also, the right column (where it reads 42. Rc1 - sadly the preinstalled unicode fonts on the device dont include chess pieces) is reserved for the timer and the last n moves. The timer was an active element in one of the UI proposals, so it will need some button-ish look, too.

Re: Miniature development: Play chess games online
 

Should we pull a font with chess pieces as dependency?

The buttonish UI is needed only at the beginning of the game, since it's the only time when it can be clicked.