Re: [computer-go] Evaluation function / move ordering for gnugo

[Gunnar Farnebäck <gunnar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jeffrey wrote:
> I've developped an evaluation function for Go that I'd like to test in an
> existing program. Is it easy to replace gnugo's move ordering and/or
> evaluation function by another one ?

Not particularly. If you're talking about a whole board evaluation
function which should be combined with a whole board search you would
have to throw out the entire move generation and replace it with your
own. If you're talking about something else it could be anywhere on
the scale from somewhat complex and up.

> Also, any pointers on which program would be easiest to replace the
> evaluation function, would be glady appreciated.

That depends on what kind of supporting features you need. If you only
need a minimum of board logic I would recommend Brown
(http://www.lysator.liu.se/~gunnar/gtp/brown-1.0.tar.gz), which gives
you a GTP interface in addition to the board code but otherwise keeps
the complexity minimal.

If you need liberty counts, information about neighbor strings, or any
kind of local reading (tactical stability, connections, life and
death, semeai) I would recommend starting with GNU Go. Depending on
the nature of your algorithm you could either start with rewriting
do_genmove() in engine/genmove.c or do it all through the GTP
interface, which would shield you from all internals of GNU Go and
give you free choice of programming language.

I wouldn't really bother with any of the other programs which come
with source code. Most of them are quite dated and generally in worse
shape than the ones above. Also I don't think any of them includes a
full board search framework, so if you need that you would have to
write it yourself in any case.

/Gunnar
_______________________________________________
computer-go mailing list
computer-go@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go