Cplusplus Community Chess Game

[3qX21hU5]

So recently some members of this forums decided to start up a new community project. This project will be a chess game with networking capabilities. So far this project is in its very very beginning stages. But we do have a github setup for the project and anyone is able to contribute if they want to.

Since this idea came up in another post not related to it I decided to create a new post just for this project. So if you would like to join us here is the link to the github any skill level is welcome, I'm sure there will many big and small tasks available once the outline for the game has been setup.

link: http://github.com/naraku9333/ChessPlusPlus

[devonrevenge]

Is there anything useful i could do at my level??

[LB]

Rubber Duck Debugging
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_Duck_Debugging

[Script Coder]

@L B That looks like an interesting way to debug hard to find problems. I will definitely be trying it.

[devonrevenge]

:D

[ResidentBiscuit]

It's actually a pretty solid way to debug. There's been countless times where I'll be stumped on a problem, so I go here to post a topic on it. And during writing what the issue is and giving a brief explanation of the code, the bug just pops out at me. You don't need a rubber duck or anything to talk to, just the act of describing the code step by step to yourself will generally reveal bugs.

About this topic,
I'd love to help out. I don't much care for the GUI part of stuff, but I can work on the backend logic of the game.

[Catfish3]

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Right... if you want my opinion, keep it 2D, and keep it simple (as in no AI).
You can plug in a ready-made (or a custom) chess engine, later.

[3qX21hU5]

I have to agree, the simpler the better in my opinion.

But then again I'm not a team leader just someone that was willing to contribute if the project goes forward. I believe Naruku said he would set it up but not sure.

[Thumper]

I'll start laying down some SFML core framework when I get home from class tonight. I've got a good bit made up for resource/event/state handling that I worked on for an abandoned 2D sidescroller I barely started a few months ago.

[naraku9333]

I've uploaded a couple images, a chess board and a game piece sheet. They game pieces are licensed creative commons, I don't know about the board. I figure we can use them until we find or make something better.

[S6k9GNh0]

I like simplicity but I'd like something that can easily be extended. There are *tons* of variations of chess and I'd like our codebase to be able to handle most of them given little modification.

[S6k9GNh0]

Also, if someone would care to design an interface with/for me, I'd be glad to help implement it... I came up with a really crap interface that I don't really like because I suck at designing software:

http://github.com/naraku9333/ChessPlusPlus/issues/2

[Thumper]

XML rule sets?

@computerquip
I've just left a fairly lengthy reply

[naraku9333]

I'm not familiar with any of the variations (I haven't even played chess in at least 15 years), I assume they are combinations of different rules and board configurations. And if that's the case maybe just use a tile based board.

[Thumper]

@naraku9333
I'm going to split each of the chess piece images into individual image files for easier access. It seems more intuitive for them to each have their own file (and saves a good bit of coding) as they're not necessarily related to each other, except for the fact that they're all pieces.

[Thumper]

Okay, so. As far as compilers, should we all use the same one? If so, we should decide on that.
As well as which SFML version we are going to use.

[naraku9333]

Definitely SFML2. As to compiler, I don't think we really need to use the same, but we should stick to the same standard (03 or 11).

[Thumper]

Okay, in that case, I'll go ahead and clone the most resent SFML2 commit and include it in the project repo so that we're all using the same version.

I'm comfortable with C++11, although probably sparingly because some compilers support more than others. For instance, initializer lists aren't supported in the most recent version of visual studio. But ranged based for, lambda functions and (i think) variadic templates are.

[cire]

I'm going to split each of the chess piece images into individual image files for easier access. It seems more intuitive for them to each have their own file (and saves a good bit of coding) as they're not necessarily related to each other, except for the fact that they're all pieces.

It makes a lot of sense to keep them together because they are all graphical representations of pieces, and it will save you a good bit of coding later if you can easily load them all into one texture (which, coincidentally, will also be more efficient for the graphics card to handle, although I'm sure performance won't need to take a front seat for this project.)

[Thumper]

The problem I have with keeping multiple images in one file (with the exception of sprite sheets) is that you have to worry about finding the rectangles in which they reside. Which, to me, means more coding. But I might not have the same mental picture you have, so I could be wrong.
How would you recommend graphics be handled?