Hi all,
BGBlitz 3.2.0 is available (Deutsche version anschließend). Some new features, a lot of usability improvements and bug fixes.
The most important new features:
Some may know the graphics Alex Eshagian presents to analyze why a move is better than another. You now have the first two diagrams under
"Game / Move / Analysis". Ask if you want to see more diagrams.
A lot of new themes and three(!) new artists.
I licensed a theme from Rain that cork lovers will appreciate.
Rich Jenkins created a new Theme "Andromeda" with some color variations and
Support for red/green blindness ("Setup / Miscellaneous Settings / Other / better color for red/green blind").
The Tutor-LED, move arrows and colours in the dice distribution etc. use blue instead of green.
GnuBG (if installed) can be used as an AI in BGBlitz the same way as TachiAI can be used. Why did I include GnuBG?
If you look at chess or Go you have a flourishing scene of AI. Why is it not the same for Backgammon? The smaller community is one reason for sure, but imagine you write a top backgammon AI .... and now?
You have to invest another 5-10 years to get a complete program. Backgammon lacks a plugin mechanism. In chess you can not only plugin the leading AI Stockfish in Fritz or Shredder, Stockfish has no UI at all! We don't have such a thing. BGBlitz was always intended to support plugins (that is the reason why the AI of BGBlitz has it's own name TachiAI). I dropped the idea of internal plugins some years ago and I tried to include GnuBG as an external AI. First as a PoC and BGBlitz then supports already 2 of the current relevant AIs. If someone contacts me I'll provide an API for
general use. BTW because I don't include GnuBG in any way but use only an installed version, I don't see any license issues. GnuBG can be used in BGBlitz on Windows, Linux and MacOS (you have to install it on MacOS with macports)
support of xgp-files. Either drag&drop or copy/paste as you will do with pos-files. Comments are shown in Evalbox and BestMoves. Because documentation and reality dont seem to match, send me the file if you have any issues.
Thank you for developing BGBlitz.
This is very welcome news!
We are very happy to hear this, because XG is in a situation where development has been halted and no new features can be added.
Please let us know about the publicity so that BGBlitz can be used by many players.
(1) Are the features that XG possesses included?
Importantly, is the function to manually input the game record of a game that has been taken included?
Also, are there enough shortcuts for smooth game record input?
What is the motivation for switching from ②XG to BGBlitz?
Does BGBlitz offer any useful features that XG does not?
"Are the features that XG possesses included?"
That is not easy to answer because I don't have a comprehensive list. The probably correct answer is no, because there are certainly features that BGBlitz does not have. And it's not as if you can keep them 1 to 1 next to each other, how well it was implemented is also important.
"Importantly, is the function to manually input the game record of a game that has been taken included?"
I started half a year ago to transcribe my matches. Yes it is possible and I think it is working reasonable. The only real drawback is you can't enter an illegal move but has to save the game, edit position and stitch both files together. Sounds complicated, but it isn't. If entering illegal moves is important for you, I can raise its priority to implement it.
"Also, are there enough shortcuts for smooth game record input?"
Have you some example? (I use XG only for quality control)
"What is the motivation for switching from ②XG to BGBlitz?"
A few reasons why you might consider BGBlitz
First, if you have a Mac or use Linux you have first class support.
If you mistrust an evaluation of XG, then what? My suggestion: check with BGBlitz or GnuBG.
And no XG is not always better and no if XG is wrong it doesn't have to be a minor error and no rollouts don't always fix that
it is actively developed. XG is dead and GnuBG is slow (e.g. no Mac version anymore, no multithreading for game play(i.e. just one core is used), uses GTK2). If you want a feature chances are not bad that I implement it.
support (usually response within 24 hours)
one license for all your computers
no copy protection (runs from a USB-Stick; no issues with license servers)
user-friendly update policy (1 major, all minor updates are free. For version 1.0 buyers there were 20 years of free updates)
"Does BGBlitz offer any useful features that XG does not?""
I suggest just try it (or read the user guide for an overview). There is no time limit, some functions are just a demo in the free version, but a view things:
more than 170 free themes, see Themes - Backgammon Shareware for Windows | Mac | Linux (and don't forget the sub pages with Jorges and Debbies themes). Many are really stunning and ALL of them are free and comfortable to change
an "all score map" i.e. what's you cube decision for different scores
the recent move/dice analysis that Alex E. often shows. Different to XG you have the same colors for different moves so you can compare them easily,
a match database
as a first step to pluggable AIs you could use GnuBG as an AI. The idea is to have an ecosystem like chess where e.g. Stockfish has no UI at all but works as plugin in Shredder or Fritz. It is far less effort to write an AI than a complete program and I hope that we get some more AIs that way
in the next version is an Isight trainer (finished already)
probably some more things
With the next version there will be an integrated blunder database (probably this summer)
And most importantly: if something doesn't suit you or is missing: let me know. I can only include what you tell me.
And.....what are the alternatives to BGBlitz? It is right now the only software actively developed and how many new ones reached the market in the last 20 years? How many will be developed in the next 10 years? The answers are 1 (XG) and most probably 0.
Jorge provided so many that he gets a page for himself ( Jorges Themes - Backgammon Shareware for Windows | Mac | Linux )