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OK, great. My regular Shogi implementation and Tori Shogi now use bare kanji, and Chu Shogi pictograms. But I will probably make bare-kanji sprites, pictograms and the mnemonic piece set of each of those. For the pictograms I can use the XBoard pieces.

Modifying a diffusemap is not really different from creating one from scratch. Provided there is enough unused room in the existing map to paste the newly created stuff there.

The problem seems to be that the maps you create are not the actual maps used on the piece, but that Jocly still seems to modify them before use. I think this is what causes the dark bands on the wings I made. The Machine also has such dark streaks on its outside. But when I look at its diffusemap these aren't there. I had to squeeze a wing image in a pretty small area of the diffusemap, so any detail in that map will get magnified a lot; this is probably why the dark band on the wings are so wide.

I had some success in creating cylindrically symmetric pieces. How about this:

Now I don't see any disturbance on the diffusemap, which was evenly colored. While the normalmap had color #8080ff, which should code for flat surfaces. (But I put in enough resolution that even without reflection trickery the construct looks reasonably smooth, 16 points around the circumference, and 23 levels.) The shadow is purely due to the rendering algorithm paying attention to the lighting.

A next step would be to let the program also generate the normalmap, in such a way that it creates the illusion of roundness; then 8 points around the circumference would probably be enough.

The uvs the program generates are such that the entire 512x512 area of the maps is mapped onto the surface: one coordinate is the height, the other the distance around the circumference. This is probably not the smartest thing to do: it would be better to measure the distance on the surface along a 'meridian', to paint nearly horizontal surfaces with sufficient resolution.

I have done some refactoring on branch trial to use the fairy move model. I will do more to move the hmtl and images to res/rules if you can retrieve my modifications without conflicts.

You can add package-lock.json in .gitignore if you want.

I have done some refactoring on branch trial to use the fairy move model. I will do more to move the hmtl and images to res/rules if you can retrieve my modifications without conflicts.

You can add package-lock.json in .gitignore if you want.

I can see the wings on the queen now. I had a cache issue before. The result seems acceptable to me. The dark band look like shade and light. On my browser the result is OK.

I wonder what kind of 2d sprite you will choose for phoenix/kirin. It is an important choice since It should always be kept for this kind of piece in Jocly. Will you choose a new bird icon for phoenix or ferz/elepahnt composed icone?

I think shades like those on the wings are caused by the normalmap. But I thought I had made that completely neutral too. As I made them by hand I might have mesed up, and the mapping to the uvs might not be continuous.

Anyway, I just arrived at the bottom of the learning curve, and in a few days I can probably do much better. E.g. the wings now are razor sharp, which makes them invisible when viewed edge on. (You would still see the other, but it still looks unnatural.) This can be avoided by not making them completely planar, and give them a thickness. (The need two sides anyway, as all surfaces act like one-way mirrors.)

I have created some 3d pieces with the piece-creation tool I am developing. It can now also make elliptic and excentric levels. (But still all strictly horizontal.) This increases the possibilities. It also creates the maps, as uncompressed Windows BMP files. (But with the Linux command 'convert'  I can then turn them into JPG. On Windows I would do that with MS Paint.)

At the moment it still creates a completely neutral normalmap, and it uses false colors (red, green and blue) for the diffusemap. Teese colors alternate between horizontal sections of the piece, so that you can use a drawing program to fill them with the desired colors. With a sufficiently advanced drawing program you might even create smooth color gradient. (But I don't seem to have such a program; GIMP is either very primitive or I don't know how to use it.) Of course the generation tool could very easily create the color gradients, if it only knew what colors to use.

I suppose we could derive a mapping tilt-ange to color from the existing Jocly pieces, and then let the program smoothen those with a gradient when the angle between neighboring surfaces is small (but keep discontinuous jumps when the angle becomes acute). The same way it should do it for the normalmap.

I made some new pieces, which I intend to use for the Shogi generals and the Omega Champion. I currently replaced the N, B and Q of the Staunton set with those ( http://hgm.nubati.net/jocly/jocly-master/examples/browser/control.html?game=classic-chess ). With a little improvement of the maps I think they would be very acceptable. I still intend to paint stars on the caps of the generals to better distinguish those from each other.

As for the Phoenix: I am quite satisfied depicting the Phoenix as a Stork. (After all, it was a mythical bird, so no one knows exactly how it looked. But it was not a bird of prey, so it would not have looked like an Eagle!) Like I already do in 3d (even though the Stork there still needs some work). I would try to match that in the 2d graphic. Even if it means I have to draw it myself. Using an Elephant for Phoenix strikes me as horrid. For the Kirin I am quite happy with the Giraffe, which is good quality both in 3d and 2d. (And in 3d it is about equally tall as my Stork, which is also nice.)

I am not sure if the representation has to be constant over games. In Makromachy I used the Bow for the Phoenix, because that fits with the theme of the flying pieces. I can always use the excuse there that it is not a normal Phoenix, as it blocks flying pieces, onlike any other normal piece.

The 2d stork idea sounds good to me.

Here is a svg on the hieroglyph H18 : meaning to speak, to say in Ptolemaic egyptian

It looks small but it can get bigger easily (svg) :

https://thotsignlist.org/images/pictures/shapes/H18.svg

There's an artistic dimension to the hieorglyphs that could help you to make good sprite for jocly.

By the way, we have received an application for the position of 'terror' in minjiku shogi, let me know if you think the profile is suitable :

http://biscandine.fr/variantes/test/examples/browser/control.html?game=elephantine-chess

It might become opensource if you think it is worth asking.

I definitely like that one a lot more than the old Dragon. (Which is hardly recognizable.) The 2d Stotk is also nice, but it would not fit in a square very well. I  would prefer one looking down diagonally.

With the aid of MS Paint I could put some more details in the diffusemap, and the pieces really start to look usable already:

Ok I'll add it to github when I get the musketterchess agreement to put it under the license of jocly :

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/#

2024 is the Year of the Dragon in China. We will be ready, we've just received our 2nd dragon in branch trial

The piece-creator tool now produces reasobly good results. I created a number of pieces: Wizard, Champion, Gold & Silver General, Scout and Berolina Pawn:

The tool takes a list of measures, like this:

16
0.000 0.720
0.075 0.755
0.211 0.660
0.337 0.710
0.705 0.521
0.992 0.342
1.571 0.241
1.620 0.413
1.750 0.264
1.830 0.348
1.955 0.420
2.115 0.450
2.273 0.420
2.400 0.348
2.433 0.310
2.440 0.480: 0.75 0.165
2.520 0.320
2.710 0.360
2.711 0
out: gold
ridge: 0.700 -0.08 0.10
ridge: 0.800 -0.08 0.05
ridge: 0.384 0.15 -0.08
ridge: 0.384 -0.15 -0.108

and then produces the mesh file and the diffuse and normal maps. The diffusemap looks like this:

It can be post-edited, like I did here to paint the cap's overhang black, and inscribe a star on the top of it. The red/green markers indicate the various sections of the piece.

I replaced the Staunton set in the Jocly on my website by this. (But you might not be able to see it without directly refreshing all the /res/staunton/*/* files in the dist tree to flush the ordinary staunton pieces from the cache.)

http://hgm.nubati.net/jocly/jocly-master/examples/browser/control.html?game=classic-chess

It is not yet a Phoenix, but I am getting proficient now also in the fabrication of birds:

I now also made it possible to give color instructions for each section separately in the input file. These come in two kinds: a hexadecimal number after a 'paint:' keyword would force the corresponding color homogeneously on the section. That would also overpaint any wood grain. The number given after a 'shade:' keyword would just be added to the default coloring everywhere in that section.

I also added a command for specifying eyes (by height along the surface, angle along the circumference and size) ad dips in the normalmap.

Great work, H.G.!

Nice Goose piece!

I see a nice Flamingo here!

Some new creations: Stork, Owl, Rhino, Flamingo and Phoenix.

The pieces I make this way are much more similar in style to Staunton pieces than the Musketeer pieces. The latter are much too detailed. (Staunton King and Queen don't even have eyes!) I consider abstraction a good thing in a chess piece; details just distract from the game. The Rhino that was in the Jocly fairy set was a bit too abstract for me, though...

@Aurelia: I am nearly done with the Jocly pieces, and then I will help you.

Those look delightful, H.G.!

(Clearly, though, the Owl here is not the same Owl that I use.) ;)

Are there suggestions for pieces that we are still sorely missing in Jocly? A Kirin seems to be a chimera of a dragon and a deer, but since no one probably knows that anyway we might as well stick to a Giraffe for that. Antlers would still be difficult to do for me. In Mechalomachy I use a Ram; the horns of that would also need a fair amount of post editing of the mesh file.

Hello H.G.

I fully agree with you about the needed level of abstraction in chess variant set.

You have rapidly improved your skills in 3D drawing, this is impressive.

The Rhino in Jocly was awful and I'm glad you have re-done it. Actually, it looks a bit offside in the image you posted. Do you have a link of a Jocly board so I can see it from different angles?

Kirin/Giraffe is OK. In case it is needed, you had also a nice horned dragon that you have shown few days ago I think.

I don't know if it can be useful, you might have a look on my own work on Thingiverse with a selection of CV pieces needed for my own games.

https://www.thingiverse.com/kazo65/designs

BTW, is there any possibility of exporting or at least linking a piece for Jocly and a .stl file?

If I consider the usage of the lighthouse (a piece used when we miss the right one) : I think we need a feminine figure : (for the duchess for instance) may be like this one :

http://biscandine.fr/variantes/pieces/t4/blanc/2-femme%20fatale*1.stl

It would be usefull to have a mage or a champion as well :

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/omega-chess-champion/similar-designs

We miss also a snake, (half rhino) It would be better to use a snake than the dragon for this usage.

And You will probably add silver and gold general for your variants

I've moved rules, descriptions to res/rules for all variants except those in the decimal and shogi directories to avoid conflicts with your modifications. I hope you'll be able to retrieve them easily from :

https://github.com/fhoudebert/jocly

The existing antelope 3d with a different 2d picture was an option for the kirin, we are used to kirin as a fantastic deer in Miyazaki animation film or japanese beer.

But a giraffe is also an acceptable compromise since if I remember correctly, giraffes brought back to China were presented as kirin in the past.

For a distinctive Kirin (in case someone *koff koff* wants to do something with both a that and a Giraffe), my image searches have come up with a dragon-unicorn, sometimes (this being the case for my models/icons) with the single horn headed straight back off the forehead.

(That said, for some reason my current search is bearing out your description, even though my earlier searches showed mainly my latter one.)

Also, since you have a Flamingo (1,6), you might as well have an Ibis (1,5).

Anything else I can think of would get too little use to be worth the work.

The Rhino in Jocly was awful and I'm glad you have re-done it. Actually, it looks a bit offside in the image you posted. Do you have a link of a Jocly board so I can see it from different angles?

I uploaded all new pieces to my website now, and created a dummy game to show them all:

http://hgm.nubati.net/jocly/jocly-master/examples/browser/control.html?game=piece-display

(This is a clone of Scirocco where I replaced the images without regard to what the original pieces was, so don't be surprised if they move in a very funny way.)

BTW, is there any possibility of exporting or at least linking a piece for Jocly and a .stl file?

I don't know enough of Jocly to answer that. All I did was look at how the pieces that did come with Jocly were encoded, and mimic that. My guess would be that this is not possible.