net.viktorc.detroid.framework

Class EngineFramework

Object

EngineFramework

All Implemented Interfaces:

Runnable

public final class EngineFramework
extends Object
implements Runnable

The application that serves as a chess engine framework handling communication via the UCI protocol, providing a GUI, and offering flexible engine parameter tuning methods using machine learning. The application framework offers six main functionalities: GUI mode, UCI mode, tuning, PGN file generation, EPD file generation, EPD file filtering, and parameter conversion. The default launch mode is the GUI mode which provides an interface that allows for playing chess games against an engine and track its search statistics. The UCI mode implements the Universal Chess Interface protocol as described at http://wbec-ridderkerk.nl/html/UCIProtocol.html by Stefan-Meyer Kahlen. Two different tuning methods are supported; an evolutionary algorithm for optimizing all or only a certain type of engine parameters using self-play to assess the fitness of the different parameter sets generated, and an adaptive stochastic gradient descent algorithm for training the engine by optimizing the static evaluation parameters using the "Texel" cost function ( https://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Texel's+Tuning+Method) based on an EPD file which contain position descriptions labelled by the side that won the game in which the position occurred. The EPD file generation mode provides the functionalities needed to generate the files used for static evaluation tuning. They can be generated by providing a PGN file to convert. PGN files can also be generated through self-play. The EPD file filtering mode allows for removing draws or tactical positions from the EPD file which can, in certain cases, improve the tuning results. Last but not least, the conversion mode allows for converting the numbers logged by the tuning methods into XML files that the engine can read its parameters' values from. The game play optimization algorithm logs the probability vector, while the static evaluation tuning method logs the optimal values of the parameter fields.

Author:

Viktor

Constructor Summary

Constructors

Constructor and Description
EngineFramework(EngineFactory factory, String[] args) Constructs an instance of the application framework that is available for running with the specified arguments using the engine instances built by the provided engine factory.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
void	run()

Methods inherited from class Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

EngineFramework

public EngineFramework(EngineFactory factory,
                       String[] args)

Constructs an instance of the application framework that is available for running with the specified arguments using the engine instances built by the provided engine factory. If there are no program arguments, the application is started in GUI mode.

Parameters:

factory - An instance of a class extending the EngineFactory interface. It provides the engine instances required for different parameters of the framework.

args - The program arguments. If it is null or empty, the engine is started in GUI mode; else:
UCI mode: -u
Self play tuning: -t selfplay -population <integer> -games <integer> -tc <integer> [--paramtype <eval | control | management | eval+control | control+management | all> {all}] [--learningrate <decimal> {.1}] [--neglearningrate <decimal> {.05}] [--mutationprob <decimal> {.025}] [--mutationshift <decimal> {.05}] [--generations <integer>] [--inc <integer> {0}] [--validfactor <decimal> {0}] [--initprobvector <quoted_comma_separated_decimals>] [--trybook <bool> {false}] [--tryhash <integer>] [--trythreads <integer>] [--log <string> {log.txt}] [--concurrency <integer>] {1}]
Texel tuning: -t texel -epdfile <string> -batchsize <integer> [--labelopcode <string> {Gr}] [--epochs <integer>] [--testdataprop <decimal> {.2}] [--h <decimal> {1}] [--learningrate <decimal> {1}] [--annealingrate <decimal> {.99}] [--l1reg <decimal> {.001}] [--l2reg <decimal> {.0001}] [--costbatchsize <integer>] [--k <decimal>] [--log <string> {log.txt}] [--concurrency <integer> {1}]
EPD file generation from a PGN file: -g epd -pgnfile <string> [--maxgames <integer>] [--minelo <integer>] [--labelopcode <string> {Gr}] [--minhalfmoveind <integer>] [--destfile <string> {positions.epd}]
PGN file generation by self-play: -g pgn -games <integer> -tc <integer> [--inc <integer> {0}] [--trybook <bool> {false}] [--tryhash <integer>] [--trythreads <integer>] [--destfile <string> {games.pgn}] [--concurrency <integer> {1}]
Removing draws from an EPD file: -f draw -sourcefile <string> [--labelopcode <string> {Gr}] [--destfile <string> {games.pgn}]
Removing tactical positions from an EPD file: -f tactical -sourcefile <string> [--destfile <string> {positions.epd}]
Removing unbalanced positions from an EPD file: -f unbalanced -sourcefile <string> -imbalance <integer> [--destfile <string> {positions.epd}]
Probability vector conversion to parameters file: -c probvector -value <quoted_comma_separated_decimals> [--paramtype <eval | control | management | eval+control | control+management | all> {all}] [--paramsfile <string> {params.xml}]
Parameter value array conversion to parameters file: -c parameters -value <quoted_comma_separated_decimals> [--paramsfile <string> {params.xml}]

Method Detail

run

public void run()

Specified by:

run in interface Runnable