Chess
 

Chess for vbulletin.

This mod turns an existing forum into a forum for playing chess in. Members can then play games against each other as easilly as posting a new post in a regular forum.

NB: the beta version of this dosn't enforce the rules of chess so illegal moves are possible - this does have the advantage of allowing handicap matches and variations on standard chess rules.

beta

This mod is a beta mod, this means that i have all the functions working on my board however there may be unforseen problems and conflicts on different vb setups. I'm 95% confidant that there are no major isseus left in the core code, the only issues that may arrise are from the new ajax features. If this is a problem for you, you can disable the ajax features in the admin cp.

Demo

A live demo can be seen here: http://www.giveupalready.com/forumdisplay.php?f=349 (running v1.0.1 till i've time to upgrade it)

Screenshots

Screen shot shows new UI

Version History

1.1b (beta): current version
- improved user interface (if you've changed the chess template you will need to revert/apply the changes manually)
- back/forward buttons for local moves (unsaved. Full backward/forward movement will be added in a later version)
- highlight for currently selected square.

1.0.1b (beta):
- fixed a couple of misisng TABLE_PREFIX's
- fixed table spacing issue

1.0b (beta):
- forced quick reply to be enabled.
- added reset board link + javascript to reset the board without reloading.
- ajax posting of moves.
- board updates itself every 10 secs via ajax.
- added option to flip layout of board.

0.2b (beta):
- added some javascript to update piece replacments instantly.
- templates are now fully phrased.

0.1b (beta):
- added faq entries to product file
- (hopefully) improved compatablity with vbseo
- modified instal instructions to avoid potential javascript problems.
- changed version numbering scheme.

beta:
- re-exported product file to contain all the settings fields.

alpha:
- changed image paths to allow for customised images.

Known Issues

- Table sizes are inconsistant
- If min post length is greater than 7 moves wont post without a comment.

Compatability

This mod was written on vb 3.6.0 and has been tested on 3.6.7 compatablity with other versions is unknown. Reported working on 3.6.8

Instalation

1. Backup your Database
2. Upload images into your images directory.
3. new for v1.0b Upload Chess.php to your main forum directory.
4. Turn your board off.
5. Create a new forum, browse to it and make a note of its forum id.
6. Disable Html, bb code,smilies,[img] code and post icons in this new forum
7. Import the chess product
8. In the vbulletin settings change the forumid to the new forum you created. You can also change the piece colour to better match your forums style.
9. (Optional) Create a link forum to point to the chess faq which explains how to play.
10. Turn your board back on
11. Click installed.

Upgrade from < 1.0b

1. Backup your Database
2. Upload Chess.php to your main forum directory.
3. Import the chess product (allow overwrite must be set to yes)
4. Check the new settings are set to your liking.

Upgrade from 1.0b

1. Import the chess product (allow overwrite must be set to yes)

Support

As all of my boards have been upgraded to vbulletin 4, I am no longer actively maintaining any of my vb3.x mods. Free support for all of my 3.x mods is being removed from the 31st of March 2010 after this date, I will only be offering paid support for 3.x mods; downloading and usage of the mods will remain free but unsupported.

For support of 3.x mods, please pm me as I won't be checking the threads very often.

Liscense
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

You may modify this software to suit your own purposes but may only distribute said modifications within this thread and with my approval.

Credits

Images were modified from icon files downloaded from http://www.enpassant.dk/chess/grafeng.htm

Checkers

Untill i get arround to coding and releasing a checkers game you can play checkers using this mod using the following instructions provided by one of my forum members:

Custom Images

You can add image sets by uploading a gfx for each piece identified by its initial into a new directory within the /images/chess/ directory and then changing the image settings in the admincp.

If anyone has any custom image sets that they can legally distribute pm me a link and i'll link to them in this post.

Feature requests
- Leader board
- Other games (checkers, monopoly,risk, go)

There seems to be an issue with your zip file. Please check & reupload.

! C:\......CHESS\chess.zip: Unknown method in product-chess(2).xml
! C:\......CHESS\chess.zip: No files to extract

coool

odd... it extracts fine for me... what are you using to extract it?

ok, i uploaded a version which is just stored and not compressed. That should help avoid any errors.

WinRAR

well, i compressed it using 7zip if the new file dosn't work correctly i'll try something different to zip with.

Can you post the direct .xml file? That's all that didn't extract. The images came out fine.

Nice Mod!

interesting, going to have to check this out!

demo forum is down :(

Looks great. Too bad I dont have enough people on my forums that know how to play chess.

antivirus: you must have hit it in the 3 mins it was down while i was making a change to one of my other mods :p

ok i've uploaded the product file seperatly as well now

Thanks!

great mod!!! very original

I can't find the options after the import

i dont see any settings in vbulletin options. where is this located?

there should be an aditional settings group named 'chess' at the bottom of your settings.

For some reason the settings weren't exported in the product file. They are there this time.

Keeping an eye on this one... very interesting.

Thanks :)

**Downloaded**

This Forums-Game is very nice :-) Is there a way to move the
figures in the next or later Update with ajax?? thx

can u make monopoly?

Good work!
If Minimum Characters Per Post is big, moves don't work.

Ajax is one of the things i will be wanting to add before it comes out of beta.

As for monopoly... thats a different style of game but should be in theory possible to do in a similar way, next on my list thou is draughts/checkers. After that i've had a couple of requests for Go and risk. There are 100's of possibilities just a matter of having the time to code them i guess :p

hmmm... i've got min chars set at 2 (smods were complaingin they couldn't post 'no' as a mod vote) i'll look into a fix for that in the next release.

Genius.
I love it!

ps: it goes on VB 3.6.8

pps: in my board the javascript for the quick edit doesn't go. It's not a javascript problem 'cause in your board it does. Do you have any ideas?
http://www.czeta.it/forum/showthread.php?t=13827

Great! will be installed so soon :)

are you refering to the quick reply ajax post? If so i'm gunna assume this is caused by a change made in 3.6.8 i'll look into it further in the morning.

I guess mine don't work because of Vbseo! Anyone have Vbseo and got this hack here working?

Great Mods.

By the way how to make all replies and thread on this chess forum not counting on stats?
Why quick reply button not showing on chess forum?

My forumid is 105 but VbSeo converts it to forums/chess.html

Does it allow anyone to post moves? Or just the first two players?

Sounds awesome! I'm definitely installing this! :)

very interesting, I look forward to seeing how this progresses! nice work.

turn off the post count in the chess forum.

i'd suggest trying to set that as the forumid instead However i've a feeling that wont work

i'll have to look into compatability with vbseo

only the first two posters, alternativly theres a command (see faq) that allows the first player in the thread to specify who can post moves

waiting for the ajax, then mod of the month ;)

would you happen to have a template for a fixed width style...I was trying to mess around with it but I keep messing it up.

I tried that already and after the setting is saved it just reverts back to forumid 0.

Nevermind...I figured it out.

Can this take moves back? Since illegal moves can be made, someones going to do it and it would be nice to be able to fix it rather than have to start over.

Is there an estimated time for the Checkers mod? :-)

i'd better start reading up on vbulltings ajax implmentation then :p

you can take moves back by making the reverse move. (a4,d5) can be reversed with (d5,a4) you can also replace pieces with the control pannel

There isn't but it is the first game i'm going to do after this one - not sure if i should prioritise making more games or improving this one thou.