GNU Backgammon

Forum Archive : GNU Backgammon

 
Setting up and saving a rollout

From:   Albert Silver
Address:   silver_albert@hotmail.com
Date:   26 December 2003
Subject:   Saving Gnu rollouts - step by step
Forum:   GammOnLine

> Can someone post some step-by-step instructions of how to enter an
> individual position in Gnu, rollout different checker plays (or the
> cube action) and then have the results saved in the file?

There are two tricky steps involved in this, and they are getting the
setup process started, presuming you just opened the program, and saving
your results.

1) As soon as you have started the program, select the New button, and
   choose Human vs. Human and Manual Dice. These are the important
   settings. Match length or Money game can and will be changed after,
   so feel free to leave the default setting.

2) If the board is in the wrong direction, such as being different from
   the board or book you are copying from, then press the Direction button
   at the top.

3) The Board Setup: Press the Edit button at the top. Setting up pieces
   follows the usual Snowie system, though to set the dice, just click on
   the board as you normally do to roll dice in GNU and the dice pane will
   pop-up. If you want the other side to be on roll, just 'roll' the dice
   by clciking on the other side of the board. A few tips all the same:

   - Clicking on the side of the board, where the checkers would be borne
     off, will either remove all the pieces or set the starting position.
     It varies according to the direction of the board. See 2).

   - To add more than 5 checkers to any column just keep adding checkers
     on top of the 5th checker. In other words keep clicking on it, and
     not above it as you might mistakenly try to do.

   - To remove the last checker from the bar, in case you mistakenly place
     one, or change your mind, click on it.

   - You probably know this, but in case others reading this don't, you
     can fill a board with a row of anchors/points in a single move by
     keeping the button pressed and sliding the mouse to the side. For
     example: suppose you want to fill the home board with an anchor of 2
     checkers from the ace point to the 6-point. Just right/left click on
     the ace point where the second checker would go, and without letting
     the mouse button go, drag the mouse to the side over the other points
     all the way to the 6 point. It will fill all the points as you do
     this.

4) The Match/Money Conditions: the match length can be edited below the
   board as you'll see. If you want to set this to a Money game, lower the
   score to 0 (zero). To change from a money game to a match of any length
   just raise it to the match length of your choice.

   Note: for some odd reason, you can only set it for Crawford when
   exiting the Edit mode, not in it. So if you want a Crawford game, set
   up everything the way you like, including the names of the players,
   exit Edit mode by pressing the Edit button again, and then select
   Crawford below.

5) Analyzing and Saving the Results:

   a) UNpress the Edit button. You cannot do analysis while it is pressed.

   b) Play a move. Forget about pressing the Hint button to analyse the
      move. You'll get a result but won't be able to save it. Play a move
      and pick up the dice. It will ask you to choose the dice for the
      next move. Select any. Even if you wish to enter a sequence later,
      you'll be able to change this roll without affecting the previous
      move's analysis. BTW, you can ask GNU for a Hint first before
      selecting your move of course. :-)

   c) Your move has been played and you want to see GNU's analysis and
      possibly run rollouts on it. Click on the move in the move list so
      that you see your choice, then go to the Analysis menu, and select
      Analyse move.

   d) The initial results should appear as you would expect to see in an
      analyzed match. Click on any of the moves to run 3-ply, 4-ply,
      whatever-ply, or rollouts, and run your analysis. Your results will
      be preserved when saving.

   e) To save the results, you MUST save the position as a MATCH or GAME,
      but absolutely NOT as a POSITION. I realize this is counter-
      intuitive, but that's the only way. If you save it as a position,
      it only saves the board setup and match conditions, but nothing
      else.

Merry Christmas. :-)

Albert
 
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GNU Backgammon

Analyzing GamesGrid matches  (Roy Passfield, Dec 2001) 
Batch analysis tool  (Øystein Johansen, June 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Cache size  (Ned Cross+, Mar 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Compiling for Windows  (Øystein Johansen, Jan 2002) 
Edit mode removing checker from bar  (Scott Steiner+, May 2003) 
Entering an annotated match  (Albert Silver, Dec 2003)  [GammOnLine forum]
Error rates: Gnu vs. Snowie  (Raccoon, Mar 2006)  [GammOnLine forum]
Even-ply/odd-ply effect  (Raccoon, Nov 2004) 
Even-ply/odd-ply effect  (Tom Keith+, Oct 2003) 
Even-ply/odd-ply effect  (Scott Steiner+, Dec 2002) 
Filter settings  (Robert-Jan Veldhuizen, Nov 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Gnu 0.13 versus Jellyfish and Snowie  (Torsten Schoop, Aug 2003) 
Gnu 0.13 vs. Snowie 4  (Albert Silver, June 2003) 
Gnu 0.14 vs. Jellyfish  (Michael Howard+, July 2003) 
Gnu versus Snowie and Jellyfish  (Michael Depreli, Oct 2005) 
How luck factor is calculated  (Gregg Cattanach, Aug 2002) 
How rollouts work  (Gary Wong, July 1999) 
How to enter an illegal move  (Øystein Johansen, Aug 2003)  [GammOnLine forum]
Importing .gam files  (PAR+, Mar 2005) 
Importing PartyGammon matches  (rew+, July 2006) 
Improving your game using GnuBG  (D.U.G.+, Nov 2002) 
Installing on Windows  (maareyes, Oct 2001) 
Interpreting JSD's  (Adrian Wright+, Feb 2005)  [GammOnLine forum]
JSD's and confidence intervals  (Daniel Murphy+, Jan 2005) 
Logging rollouts  (Øystein Johansen, Oct 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Luck rate  (Kees van den Doel+, May 2002) 
MWC versus Equity (EMG)  (Ken+, Apr 2005)  [GammOnLine forum]
Manually entering first roll  (Andreas Graf+, Apr 2005) 
Match equity tables  (Raccoon, July 2005)  [GammOnLine forum]
Personal reflections  (Louis Nardy Pillards, Sept 2002) 
Playing two computers against each other  (Stanley E. Richards+, Mar 2008)  [GammOnLine forum]
Python scripting  (Øystein Johansen+, Nov 2004) 
Quasi-random dice in rollouts  (Ian Shaw, Mar 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Question marks in game list  (Jim Segrave, July 2005) 
Questions and answers  (Jim Segrave+, Jan 2003) 
Questions and answers  (Jørn Thyssen, Aug 2002) 
Restarting a rollout with different settings  (Jim Segrave, Apr 2005)  [GammOnLine forum]
Restarting a rollout with different settings  (Robert-Jan Veldhuizen, Apr 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Rollout settings  (geoff arnold+, Apr 2007) 
Rollout settings  (Stick+, Nov 2005)  [GammOnLine forum]
Rollout settings  (Robert-Jan Veldhuizen, Mar 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Rollout settings  (Ian Dunstan, Aug 2003)  [GammOnLine forum]
Rollout settings for the impatient  (Robert-Jan Veldhuizen, June 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Running rollouts in background  (Bruce+, Apr 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Saving rollout results from command-line interface  (Jeremy Bagai+, Apr 2006)  [GammOnLine forum]
Saving rollouts  (Mislav Radica+, May 2006)  [GammOnLine forum]
Setting GnuBG's playing strength  (JP White, Sept 2001) 
Setting skill level  (Jim Segrave, Apr 2004) 
Setting up and saving a rollout  (Albert Silver, Dec 2003)  [GammOnLine forum]
What's GNU?  (Gary Wong, Oct 2001) 
Which player is player 0?  (Neil Kazaross+, Oct 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]

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