So, today I was auto-switched to the new way for the first time. Perhaps not surprisingly , I found it disturbing and ended up using the discreet widget on the bottom of the theme settings page to switch back.
That said, it was not too bad. The two sticking points were:
The white stones, all variants except plain, have an extra bright border, 1 or 2 pixels wide, on the lower right side only. I think this might be because the shadow (which in itself is very nice) is applied to the âwrongâ place by that amount, so it leaves the original white visible beneath it.
The coordinate âfontâ (I donât know if it is a real font or just drawn shapes) is thicker than the classic one, and I find that distracts my attention from the position.
By the way, I would be fine with using the plain stones, if the white ones had no black contour. Maybe itâs worth adding another variant for that? I guess thereâs a pattern to all my grumbling: I really, really want to minimize any visual noise that interferes with the position.
Update: I wrote too hastily. There is another problem with the new rendering, which is more serious than the 2 above.
There is a clear discontinuity between rows 10 and 11. The shadows of stones in row 10 are cut off abruptly and donât extend a bit into row 11 as they naturally should. If you allow me again to speculate, it looks like the board is drawn in 2 passes, one from the top down to row 10 and then a second up from the bottom to row 11, overwriting the correct artifacts of stones from row 10 with the complete fresh images of stones + intersections in row 11.
This is only visible when the game is far enough that there are touching groups around these rows, thatâs why I missed it when looking at first.
( We almost need a new cockpit meme with a panel for that )
One teensy bug-ish feeling thing is that toggling âShow variation move numbersâ doesnât do anything visible on the little display next to the toggle:
Although itâs a bit off-topic, Iâd love to see an option to draw arrows and mark intersections, similar to what most chess servers offer â where you can draw arrows or mark squares using the right mouse button.
Letâs be honest, Go isnât the most spectator-friendly sport, especially for beginners who often have no clue whatâs going on. I think adding this feature would be a game-changer for streamers, making Go way more interesting to watch. Itâd give them a tool to actually illustrate their thought process to viewers in real-time.
Good news for you, OGS has this feature and has had it longer than any other server.
Use the pen tool in analysis mode to draw freely on the board in any color. You can get into analysis mode either from the side bar, or press Shift+A. If you want to share the drawings with everyone in chat, press Share above the chat. To get out of analysis, press Back to Game, or Shift+P or Esc.
Iâm aware of the analysis mode, and itâs great for post-game reviews and such. But this is quite different from what I was suggesting.
Iâm talking about a quick, on-the-fly way to draw arrows or mark intersections during live games. Just right-click and drag to make an arrow, or right-click to highlight a point. No need to enter a separate mode to use a pen tool. Plus, the analysis tool isnât even available in automatch.
This feature would be incredibly useful for streamers to instantly show their thought process without interrupting the game flow. It would make Go streams much more engaging and easier to follow, especially for beginners.
Many Go streamers currently use separate software for this (like dwyrin with âEpic Penâ app) and others donât even bother and just stream as is. If such a feature was available with just a right-click, it would greatly improve the viewing experience.
Just watch any chess Twitch stream - streamers use this functionality every second when explaining things to viewers. Itâs a small change that could have a big impact on making Go more accessible and exciting to watch.
Doesnât epic pen also require you to âswitch toâ it to start drawing? You are of course right that the analysis tools are one more click away, which might deter the UI convenience purists. The integrated analysis has other advantages, such as being able to share the marks with others and to have Go-specific markup on the board.
The separation between game-playing and analysis is a deep-rooted design decision on OGS that has been there forever. It does not seem like a small change to me, but maybe someone involved with OGS development is more qualified to comment on that. Unfortunately I donât see much hope for your feature request on those technical grounds.
As for reviews, OGS does have a review mode with analysis tools always-on. This review feature is much better for reviews than in-game analysis, because it stays on the server where others can see it. Analysis happens only on your machine and is indeed intended to be a quick, on-the-fly tool, even if you donât see it that way.
It is not available in automatch not for technical reasons, but because of concerned users who regard it as cheating.
What did you find that was terrible about the new one? The old renderer will be removed eventually, so Iâd like to ensure we get the new one perfect before that happens
For me the stones look dull, a little like opaque. Regardless wich stones I try. Not the pretty Slate-like stones I get with the old rendering. With the old rendering OGS is the best looking server for me. That is not the case anymore with the new one.
New stones are a bit bigger, old were smaller as was the shadow because they both had to fit within the box so we didnât have rendering artifacts caused by overlap.
When I say identical, Iâm referring to âFor me the stones look dull, a little like opaque.â, that shouldnât be the case.
I am a very textual guy, so I do a screenshot about once in a blue moon. But Iâll give it a try if you insist. Have you seen my update to the post that revived this topic? I think that last (added) item is quite important, makes it look quite amateurish IMO.
Update: wow, it looks like 2 of the âproblemsâ are already fixed! No bright sickle outline next to white stones, and no âcleftâ board. Great job!
That leaves the fat coordinates, but that is really minor. Hereâs a suggestion: have an option to turn off coordinates completely.
, I found it disturbing and ended up using the discreet widget on the bottom of the theme settings page to switch back.
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The integrated analysis has other advantages, such as being able to share the marks with others and to have Go-specific markup on the board.