Virtual Go by Glenn Fiedler

[EdLee]

Virtual Go by Glenn Fiedler

This guy is amazing.

I learned of Mr. Fiedler's website from a chat last night on Nova.gs, with Anoek, matburt, and others.
From his website:

x.jpg (32.73 KiB) Viewed 11433 times

[Mage]

Wow !

[Bantari]

Virtual Go by Glenn Fiedler

This guy is amazing.

I hate 'Me Too' posts, but... I second this motion!
One of the best things that I looked at in quite a while!

Thanks Ed for sharing that.

[Gaffer]

Hi guys, I'm the author of Virtual Go.

I want everybody to know I've been hard at work on a version of Virtual Go for touchscreen devices.

So far I'm targeting iPad, but I'll also be targeting Android and Windows 8 PC with touchscreen (I like BIIIIIIG touchscreens for 19x19 games...)

Here is a screenshot of the latest build I just finished tonight, with dynamic shadows, nice board and floor texture:



Please view the fullsize image here, the image above is half the resolution of the retina display output:

http://gafferongames.com/wp-content/upl ... enshot.jpg

This is all realtime @ 60fps, with dynamic shadows, and physics simulation of the stone...

You can also drag and move the stone, flick it and spin it with the touch screen. It feels great!

Next I'm working on stone placement with two fingers to mimic placing a stone IRL, and picking up a stone after Evan Cho (Insei) tried it last week he kept trying to pick up the stone! So I feel I have to add a two finger swipe to pick up now

Please let me know what you think so far, and if you have an iPad or iPhone please purchase the beta when it hits the app store shortly, if you would like to support the project.

Thanks!

[daal]

The wood looks very realistic, but it doesn't look like the kind of wood that you would want your go board made of - more like plywood than kaya. Are other woods planned upgrade options?

[Gaffer]

Yeah it's the wrong wood! It's just a stock texture for now, but eventually I'll be renting a high quality camera and sampling some real Kaya board textures.

Only tricky part is, you cannot capture a go board with lines on it -- because the camera will always have some distortion the lines aren't perfectly straight in game, so I render the lines myself.

So I'm left hunting for a go board that doesn't have lines on it yet, or taking pictures of the bottom side of go boards

[Inkwolf]

The amount of physics, work and calculation, that goes into something as apparently simple as animating a single object dropping, boggles the mind.

[Gaffer]

Hi guys, is there anybody here who wants to help me beta test Virtual Go?

If have an iPad 2,3 or 4 go here and sign up:

http://tflig.ht/Zy3J8Y

I'll have a build ready for you guys to play with later today

[EdLee]

...as apparently simple as...

Yes, Inkwolf, apparently is the key word. Go also looks apparently simple in the beginning.
And Mr. Fiedler is not even simulating any quantum mechanical effects! (Or is he...? )

[ez4u]

Hi guys, is there anybody here who wants to help me beta test Virtual Go?

If have an iPad 2,3 or 4 go here and sign up:

http://tflig.ht/Zy3J8Y

I'll have a build ready for you guys to play with later today

Ready when you are!

[Gaffer]

Ready when you are!

Unfortunately there is a delay with iOS provisioning profile setup, I'll see what I can do but might not be able to get a build out tonight

[Gaffer]

Actually I think I just got it working.

If you signed up you should now be able to go to the Testflight app on your iPad and install the build.

In the demo there are many different ways to interact with the go stone. See if you can discover them all

[Gaffer]

Hi everybody, here are all the different ways to interact with the stone:

You can tap the stone one the side and it will react by wobbling

You can select the stone by touching it and holding.

You can drag the stone.

If you release the stone while your finger is moving you can flick it.

If you swipe the screen away from the stone you can make the stone spin.

You can tilt your iPad slightly and make the stone slide around the board.

The gravity in the simulation corresponds to the accelerometer reading. You can do more than just tilting. Try holding the iPad on its side, or upside down over your head.

You can bump the board lightly and the stones will wobble in response.

You can lift the board up against gravity and the stone will launch in the air.

(Obviously there will be a "playing mode" where the board is not so free form, but the point of the accelerometer stuff is that you can do the atomic tesuji after you resign -- virtual go will remember the playing board state, so don't worry you won't lose your stuff)

Double tap toggles zoom in/out

Holding a touch on the screen damps the stone and makes it come to rest.

Coming soon:

1. Placement of stone with two fingers. First finger selects grid location, second finger confirms. No more misplaced stones, also feels like placing a stone IRL
2. Two finger swipe to pick up a stone
3. Game playing mode where the stone is constrained to the grid where it was placed via constraint (loosely, so it can still have irregular visual placement)
4. Double tap zoom zooms into the point you tapped on
5. Scrolling while zoomed in (maybe with two fingers? -- although this will fight with spinning the stone)

[EdLee]

Hi everybody, here are all the different ways to interact with the stone:

Hi Glenn/Gaffer, Amazing work. A (big) feature request: for the folks without an iPad (yet, like me), would you consider
porting to Windows or the Mac OS ? Thanks. (I understand if this is too much work. )
(...Like Angry Birds? Did it first come out on iOS, then later was ported to Windows and OS X?)

[lobotommy]

Hi guys, is there anybody here who wants to help me beta test Virtual Go?

If have an iPad 2,3 or 4 go here and sign up:

http://tflig.ht/Zy3J8Y

I'll have a build ready for you guys to play with later today

I'm ready for duty!