Re: [XBoard-devel] XBoard 4.7.3: Full board textures + maximize window

[H.G. Muller]

Joshua Pettus schreef op 9/16/2014 1:06 AM:
> I wonder if we can use a SVG board instead?
This would work for an even board with a grid, but SVG is not really 
suitable for textures. As it is the code is completely specific for 
cutting out bitmaps, and cannot handle SVG. It is conceivable that we 
would equip it with a 'pre-processor' which would first render the SVG 
to a raster image of the exact full board size, and apply the existing 
cutting algortithm to that.

But, considering the very different requirements for a true texture and 
a drawn, scalable grid, it would be better (and not more difficult to 
program) to not use an SVG board image in stead of a PNG, but next to it 
as an overlay.

I have already been working on text overlays for pieces, and this would 
be a similar thing for the board. The text overlays should work by 
having a -pieceToKanji UTF8 string option that would assign an UTF8 
character to each white piece type. That character would then be drawn 
over each piece of that type. This would allow you to only provide SVG 
images of the 'koma' of Shogi pieces, and have XBoard take care of the 
inscribed kanji. This already works for inscribing Latin letters, but I 
could not get it to work with actual kanji (probably because I am 
lacking some language packages), and I haven't put in the code to 
actually flip the kanji for the side playing down the board (I think).

Once this feature works, it would be possible to have XBoard support 
large Shogi variants without the need for making more piece SVGs. Of 
course the notation problem would still have to be addressed as well, 
for variants with more than 26 pieces.