Caïssa Board cover
Caïssa Board screenshot
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Genre: Strategy

Caïssa Board

Hotfix
Hotfix: removed piece where displayed at a wrong spot

Development update
The migration from Unity to Unreal Engine has gone very well so far. It has brought order to the menus, helped me find a number of hard-to-detect errors and will allow us to add some very interesting possibilities in the future, such as dedicated servers, mods and scripting.

Unfortunately I can't show you many images, as I've done very little work on the display and user interface, concentrating mainly on adding all the systems that are part of Caïssa Board, namely :

* the game engines
* position editor
* the clock
* interface with the Lichess online platform
* PGN file import
* 2D and 3D boards


In addition to what existed previously, I've added the missing database functionality and the ability to save positions.

I still have to do:

* variants other than Chess960
* the display of tactics when viewing games.

Then I can concentrate on graphics and special effects. Next I'll add the help functionality, and finally once the application has stabilized we can think about extending it (mods, dedicated servers and scripting).

For the more intrepid among you, the beta version will be accessible as soon as the two points I've mentioned are done.

Development update
You are probably wondering how long this update will take since I decided to make the transition from Unity to Unreal Engine.

Well, there is still a lot of work to be done, but the essential features are already ready.

Indeed, the interface with the chess engines has just been ported and I've made good progress on the position editor.

So the wait shouldn't be too long. I should point out that I'm not starting from scratch, and that I can reuse almost all the features I developed with the Unity version.

It's still too early to say whether performance is up to scratch, as I haven't yet imported the PGN files, but I've been able to identify improvements to be made, as often happens when you rewrite your application.

This screenshot shows the main menu and a position on the chessboard. I'm planning to put a first version on the beta test channel soon, so that those of you who want to can try it out.

The next update is delayed
As you may know, Caïssa Board was developed using the Unity game engine. Recently, Unity has updated its terms of use in unacceptable terms, which led me to change the game engine. So I began the transition to Unreal Engine.

Since then, the conditions of use have improved, but I realized that Caïssa Board would benefit greatly from a switch to Unreal Engine. Indeed, I noticed that the camera was fluid and that the user interface navigation system was efficient.

As a result, I decided not to go back to Unity. In practice, I'm going to have a lot of work to do, but I'm not starting from scratch. The algorithms are done, the models and textures are the same and I simply have to transpose what was done on Unity to Unreal, while if possible improving it. Some special effects are specific to Unity and will be difficult to reproduce on Unreal Engine, but this won't have any major consequences.

I apologize for the extra delay, but I feel that I have made the best choice for Caissa Board.

Hotfix
Standard Chess did not generate moves correctly.

Stability Update
Fixed the Chess 960 castling issues

Fixed a variety of issues with Antichess

The promoted piece is now correctly displayed when using a gamepad or keyboard

Antichess is here!
As promised, chess variants are coming. After Chess 960 here is Antichess. In this variant you have to force your opponent to capture all your pieces to win.

Another improvement is that you can now start your Chess 960 games by choosing the starting position:



The promotion interface has been improved to work with Antichess.

Known issues:

Castling in chess 960 does not work in some positions.

Promoting pawns with the XBox controller or keyboard does not display the piece that will be promoted.

Various fixes
Added the possibility of pasting your PGN content into the Games list.

Fixed an issue where the status bar keys where incorrect.

Fixed an issue where a captured rook would still allow castling.

Improved support for variants.

Caissa Board update: user interface & game controller

What's new



The update of Caissa Board brings important new features:


  • Remote Play Together: it is now possible to invite your friends to play chess with you remotely.
  • Improved graphical interface: move list and comments no longer hide the board and are available at the bottom of the screen.
  • Changed the way tactics are displayed, they are also displayed in 2D mode

  • Added an information bar at the bottom of the screen to show you the available features
  • Replaced the help window by a screen with categories
  • Replacement of the game's music
  • Improved graphics rendering
  • Support for XBox type game controllers.
  • Improved support for chess engines with access to their options and a console window that displays the exchanges between Caissa Board and the selected engine.

  • Improved clock, with the ability to use tournament or friendly modes such as sandclock mode.

  • Rewriting of the internal engine to speed up the analysis of PGN files. 500 games are now read in fifteen seconds compared to almost a minute before.
  • Partial variant support, Chess 960 variant is available
  • Gull 3 replaced by Fairy Stockfish as default chess engine


Known issues




  • lists and multiple choices selectors can be difficult to access with the controller
  • tactics are not displayable with the controller
  • the move list may disappear in some cases.

The Caïssa Board update is wrapping up
Since my last blog post I have changed a few things that delayed the update further, in fact I have rewritten the internal engine to speed it up.

The gains in speed are a bit less than expected, however while doing it I have introduced the possibility of adding chess variants. Actually only Chess 960 is available but more will come in the future.

I have also removed Gull3 as the default chess engine and replaced it with Fairy Stockfish which supports a great number of variants. I have also added support for the engine options.



Among these options, the one named Skill Level allows you to lower the engine difficulty so that you get more chances to beat it. However be careful about how you change these options because they could break the engine and Caïssa Board! In this case there is a Reset button that will help you fix it.

You can check these changes today by suscribing to the unstable channel or wait some more until the release is ready.



The update will finally be published when I'm done with new screenshots and videos, and naturally fix the last minute bugs I may find along the way.

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