Maemo Wiki Mirror - User contributions [en]

Miniature

2010-02-25T12:10:26Z

85.183.48.167: /* Contributors */

[[Category:Miniature]]
[[Category:Games]]
You love chess. You love Maemo and its devices. You believe they fit so well... yet you haven't found a convincing implementation of a chess game for Maemo. '''Miniature''' to the rescue!

== The concept ==
Miniature is a chess board that is always with you, ready to let you play and learn wherever you go.

* The main use case is playing online against other players at http://www.freechess.org/ (FICS)
* Now imagine that you can also chat with the other player.
* Learning is important: watch games live, review stored games and also process offline the lessons offered at FICS.
* Play P2P games against other players next to you or in your Contacts.
* And not only regular chess. See also Antichess, Chess960...

Miniature is based on Qt, targets Maemo as primary platform and plans to have ports for Symbian, Windows Mobile and desktop OSs (Linux, Windows, Mac).

== News ==
* 2009-12-21: Miniature learns to use animations (0.1.5-1). Miniature is now using exclusive features of Qt 4.6.
* 2009-12-20: Miniature got a [https://bugs.maemo.org/buglist.cgi?product=Miniature bug tracker component], thanks to André!
* 2009-11-28: [https://garage.maemo.org/pipermail/chess-developer/2009-November/000079.html First bug report]. :)
* 2009-11-27: Miniature 0.1.2-1 released for [http://maemo.org/packages/package_instance/view/fremantle_extras-devel_free_armel/miniature/0.1.2-1 Maemo] and [https://launchpad.net/~michael-hasselmann/+archive/miniature/+sourcepub/882639/+listing-archive-extra Ubuntu] with first Chess rules applied.
* 2009-11-17: [https://launchpad.net/~michael-hasselmann/+archive/miniature/+packages Miniature available for your desktop PC]
* 2009-11-16: A first & dummy [http://maemo.org/packages/view/miniature/ .deb package of Miniature] is available in Maemo 5 extras-devel.
* 2009-11-11: "(10:52:48 PM) mikhas: well, it's confirmed: Miniature runs on Qt 4.6, on the N900"
* 2009-11-10: Talk thread started: [http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=371747 Miniature development: Play chess games online]
* 2009-11-09: [http://taschenorakel.de/michael/2009/11/09/miniature-it-moves/ Miniature - it moves!], first blog post from Michael Hasselmann.
* 2009-11-08: [http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=368538&postcount=117 First running example] mimicking the "first realistic mockup".
* 2009-11-06: Code repository created: http://gitorious.org/miniature - source code exists since the beginning.
* 2009-11-06: [http://wiki.maemo.org/images/2/26/Miniature-playgame-portrait.png First realistic mockup for playing basic online chess] (portrait).
* 2009-10-31: First idea proposed in a Talk thread: [http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=33764 Contributors needed: the killer free chess game for Maemo]

== Features ==
Miniature is still not ready for end users. It doesn't play offline games and doesn't even know how to go online. If you still want obtain an unstable release then please refer to the [[Miniature/Development#Download|development section]].

[http://maemo.org/packages/package_instance/view/fremantle_extras-devel_free_armel/miniature/0.1.3-1 Miniature 0.1.3-1] is available in Maemo 5 [[Extras-devel]], a repository recommended only to developers. End users will do good staying far from it, but there is a [https://launchpad.net/~michael-hasselmann/+archive/miniature launchpad PPA] with irregularly updated Ubuntu 9.04 packages.

New features in the last version:
* Candidate UI to move pieces: one click to select piece, second click to select destination square and click to an external button to confirm the move. Pieces and squares can be changed at will before clicking the confirmation button.
* Checks are detected now.
* Backend fixes improving the responsiveness of the moves.

Features implemented in previous releases:
* Boot a screen in portrait mode.
* Display a nice-looking board.
* Set the pieces in starting position.
* Enforce basic chess rules except:
** Checkmate
** Stalemate
** Castling
** En-passant
** Pawn promotion (works in the desktop version)

Check [[Miniature/Development]] to follow the latest status and to get involved.

== Screenshots ==
This is how the real application will look like in v0.1.x-x.
<gallery widths=200px>
Image:Miniature-between_the_turns.png |<div style="padding:0em .5em;">Cool little animation to show that pieces turn around between the moves</div>
Image:Miniature-Down_under.png |<div style="padding:0em .5em;">Situation after white's move: The player with the black pieces also is able to see it's pieces from his/her point of view</div>
Image:Miniature-20091219-1.png |<div style="padding:0em .5em;">Starting position for human vs human, face to face.</div>
Image:Screenshot-20091219-2.png |<div style="padding:0em .5em;">Selecting one piece to move.</div>
Image:Miniature-20091219-3.png |<div style="padding:0em .5em;">Selecting destination square.</div>
Image:Miniature_rooks_and_knights.jpg|<div style="padding:0em .5em;">Miniature learns chess in korius' development branch. Here rooks and knights know how to behave with each other.</div>
</div>
</gallery>

=== Mockups ===
How things should look like in the future. (We are looking for real designers!)

<gallery widths=200px>
Image:Miniature-playgame-portrait-start.png|<div style="padding:0em .5em;">First boot.</div>
</gallery>

== Contact us ==
Questions, feedback and contributions are welcome!

* Talk discussion thread: [http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34242 Miniature development: Play chess games online].
* With some luck you will find us online at #miniature in irc.freenode.net.

== Development ==
See [[/Development]] for more information on developing Miniature.

There are some [[/Policies | policies]] that we follow in the project.

== Contributors ==
* [http://maemo.org/profile/view/mikhas Michael Hasselmann]: lead developer.
* [http://maemo.org/profile/view/kore Dennis Stötzel]: chess logics.
* [http://maemo.org/profile/view/hasselmm Mathias Hasselmann]: veteran programmer.
* [http://gitorious.org/~Malcolm Dariusz Mikulski]: P2P telepathy integration.
* [http://maemo.org/profile/view/qgil Quim Gil]: documentation.
* [http://maemo.org/profile/view/kittykat Ekaterina Gerasimova]: Game icon.

Special thanks to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cburnett Colin M.L. Burnett] for his free piece set used by Wikipedia.

Miniature/Development/Instructions

2010-02-24T15:53:24Z

85.183.48.167: /* Scratchbox installation */

[[Category:Miniature|Development]]

== Two choices ==
A) Be hardcore and install sbox semi-manual using the CLI installer script,
B) Be clever and [http://www.forum.nokia.com/Tools_Docs_and_Code/Tools/Platforms/Maemo/ download the GUI installer for the Maemo 5 SDK] from Forum Nokia!

=== You choose A ===
Continue with "Getting started - plot summary".

=== You choose B ===
Choice B will reward you with a fully working sbox and two targets (X86, ARMEL) so you can directly jump installing the Qt libs in their sbox environment.

Inside sbox:
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] > fakeroot apt-get install libqt4-maemo5-dev

Repeat for the ARMEL target:
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] sb-conf select FREMANTLE_ARMEL
[sbox-FREMANTLE_ARMEL: ~] > fakeroot apt-get install libqt4-maemo5-dev

Continue with "Compiling Miniature inside Scratchbox".

== Getting started - plot summary ==
WARNING: This list does not necessarily explain what every step does, nor will it help you in case you run into problems! Also, I will assume your host machine has a i386 architecture (I use Jaunty, 64 bit installation instructions are not covered here).

=== Scratchbox installation ===
[[Documentation/Maemo5_Final_Installation|Read the director's cut]] if you run into problems, it has become very accurate! Again, you have been warned. This stuff is potentially dangerous.

On the host machine (= your computer, the other side is inside scratchbox, your cross compiling environment to create binaries/packages for the N900):
$ sudo vi /etc/sysctl.conf
Copy and paste those three lines to the top:
#maemo
vm.vdso_enabled = 0
vm.mmap_min_addr = 4096

(NB: Its "abi.vsyscall32=0" for Linux kernels newer than 2.6.25)

Save with <ESC> :wq (or use nano as an editor). Then reload sysctl.conf with:
sudo sysctl -p

Start with the Maemo SDK installation:
$ sudo apt-get install xserver-xephyr
$ wget http://repository.maemo.org/stable/5.0/maemo-scratchbox-install_5.0.sh
$ wget http://repository.maemo.org/stable/5.0/maemo-sdk-install_5.0.sh
$ chmod a+x ./maemo-scratchbox-install_5.0.sh
$ sudo ./maemo-scratchbox-install_5.0.sh -u USER
$ newgrp sbox
$ chmod a+x ./maemo-sdk-install_5.0.sh
$ ./maemo-sdk-install_5.0.sh
$ /scratchbox/login

Install Qt 4.6 [http://wiki.maemo.org/Qt here]

[http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/eula/index.php Get tokenized Maemo/Nokia repo here], enter token code and keep page open. You'll soon need the repo link.

Inside scratchbox:
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] > fakeroot echo "<repo link from token page>" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] > fakeroot apt-get update #simply repeat if it aborts in-between, ignore bad GPG
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] > fakeroot apt-get install nokia-binaries #repeat if interrupted/incomplete
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] > fakeroot apt-get install libqt4-maemo5-dev
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] > fakeroot apt-get install maemo-debug-scripts #enables native-gdb and other neat stuff

Now do the same for the ARMEL target (= same architecture as device):
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] sb-conf select FREMANTLE_ARMEL
[sbox-FREMANTLE_ARMEL: ~] > fakeroot echo "<repo link from token page>" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
[sbox-FREMANTLE_ARMEL: ~] > fakeroot apt-get update #simply repeat if it aborts in-between, ignore bad GPG
[sbox-FREMANTLE_ARMEL: ~] > fakeroot apt-get install nokia-binaries #repeat if interrupted/incomplete
[sbox-FREMANTLE_ARMEL: ~] > fakeroot apt-get install libqt4-maemo5-dev

=== Compiling Miniature inside Scratchbox ===
Back to the FREMANTLE_X86 target, so you can run Miniature from inside scratchbox. Use your *private* gitorious url instead of the public clone url if you want to push changes, too.
[sbox-FREMANTLE_ARMEL: ~] sb-conf select FREMANTLE_X86
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] mkdir source
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] cd source
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] git clone git://gitorious.org/miniature/miniature.git
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] cd miniature
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] ./autogen.sh QT_PATH=/opt/qt4-maemo5/bin && make

On your host machine (i.e., outside of scratchbox, do not close your sb session though):
$ Xephyr -ac -host-cursor -br -screen 480x800x16 :2

Back to scratchbox (keep the Xephyr server running, of course):
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] export DISPLAY=:2
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] af-sb-init.sh start
Lots of lines of useless information flow by, give it 10 seconds and test with <ENTER> whether you can continue typing. Then start miniature:
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] run-standalone.sh src/miniature

On your host machine, go to your Xephyr server and enjoy Miniature.

If you managed to do all this in under one hour consider yourself lucky - you saved yourself a alot of time!

=== Compiling binaries for the N900 ===
This is of course the cool part, and it also shows why we want to keep autotools/autotroll as our build system (I am serious).

Inside scratchbox:
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] sb-conf select FREMANTLE_ARMEL
[sbox-FREMANTLE_ARMEL: ~] cd ~/source/miniature
[sbox-FREMANTLE_ARMEL: ~] make distclean # dont worry if this fails
[sbox-FREMANTLE_ARMEL: ~] ./autogen.sh QT_PATH=/opt/qt4-maemo5/bin && make

Copy the binary onto the device (even if totally unsecure: let's just assume opensshd is installed and running on your N900):
[sbox-FREMANTLE_ARMEL: ~] scp src/miniature root@<IP_ADDRESS_OF_N900>/home/user/
I usually copy the binary using scp *from* the device. It allows me to remove the ssh server and to only keep the client. But there are many more ways to get the binary onto the device. The only important part is to move the binary away from the FAT partition (that is why we used /home/user above) - you cannot mark files as executable on VFAT.

On the N900:
* Open a terminal
$ cd ..
$ ./miniature

Enjoy!

=== Closing scratchbox ===
Do *not* ignore this section, sb uses dark symlink magic which can mess up your system! This is extra advice to cleanly shutdown scratchbox after you're done.

Inside scratchbox:
[sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] sb-menu
Go to "Killall", confirm with enter twice. Only now close your session

On your host:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/scratchbox-core stop

If you get an error message be very careful with what you delete and what data you move around. Scratchbox might still have active symlink pointing to folders on your *host machine*. Your best solution, if you don't know what else to do, is a clean restart of your host machine!