Trax Forum

Hi

I've been looking for a personal programing project and I've decided to possibly start writing a program to play Trax. But before I start, I have a few questions:

* I would prefer to focus on writing the engine first (in C++, GNU license) rather than the GUI. But I obviously need a GUI as well. Ideally, I would like to re-use an existing GUI if there is one already available and plug my engine to it. Is there such and existing Trax GUI program already available? If none exists, would someone else be interested in teaming up and writing a GUI?

* I would prefer the GUI and the engine to be separate programs and plug them together with a simple protocol, like the UCI protocol for chess for example (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Chess_Interface). Is there already such a protocol for Trax?

* I'm curious whether there are other Trax engines already available to compare my program with.

* Is there is a site where my Trax engine could play online automatically, to evaluate it against human players or other computers?

* What other resources exist for creating a Trax program? Is there any opening book available? Any hint on evaluating positions? Are there tournaments for Trax programs?

Thanks for sharing information.

--
Dominique, http://dominiko.livejournal.com

Please contact me at ypercube(at)gmail.com

Pandelis

If you want to develop in Java, you could base your
engine on the Trax at Boardspace.net - and if you're
reasonably successful, your 'bot could play there
permanantly.

DGB's Trax program already has Doby as a "plug-in". I have copies with and without the plug-in. I do not know what kind of interface he used.

I would at least like to be kept in the loop on open source C++ development. Java's good too :-). I am also trying to improve my C#. I will have little time but lots of opinions!

Cheers,

Lyman

It would be nice to see a cross-platform Trax game. I would love to see this in something like Flash. Then I could play trax on my Mac

Or dare I say it - an iPad trax app???

Hi,

At my site http://gnutrax.com/ you can find some
GPL java-source and maybe most important a threat database.

Regards
Martin

I found a Trax iPhone app by mudra games, and mindteck. However, despite it all looking ok, the mudra website is now parked, and mindteck.com appears to be a consultancy. Does anybody know what the position is on the app?

I did buy the app as a 2x it comes up well on an iPad. I just wished it were a proper iPad app and could play unlimited trax.

Mudra Games sought and obtained a licence to program Trax for posting on IPods etc and did so earlier this year.
The mechanics are Okay but the robot is pathetic. It is therefore still suitable for good players playing each other.

Recently Mudra have defaulted on their licence agreement with me so anyone wishing to post a better application robot-wise on hend held devices is welcome to contact me about that on Trax@xtra.co.nz

Yes the robot is a trifle dim. It casually ignores L threats of any colour, and seems to attack more often than not. Still, on level three it provides not a bad diversion for a pound. I think that the iPad would offer a better platform, but admit to bias in that opinion.