Ego Eram Reputo Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 (edited) Confession: I'm a chess nerd :oops: I'm regularly drawing chess boards and chess diagrams for analysis and I thought to myself "wouldn't it be cool if I could do this in Paint.Net?". Well, now you can! Introducing ChessFEN (Updated 13 July 08) Description and function of the plug-in: Parses a FEN* string & draws the resultant chess position using the Chess Merida font. It is therefore ESSENTIAL to have Chess Merida font installed before running the plugin! You can get the Chess Merida Font here: http://www.enpassant.dk/chess/fonteng.htm#MERIDA *Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) is a notation for describing chess board positions. The purpose of FEN notation is to provide all the necessary information to restart a game from the given position. Wiki FEN for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEN The FEN string for the initial position of a chessboard looks like this: rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1 Here’s a sample positron for you to try (White to move and win): r3k2r/pb1nqppp/1p2p3/8/P1BN4/2P5/5PPP/R2QR1K1 w kq - 0 0 Configuration of the plugin couldn’t be easier: Board Size: sets the size of the board – obviously! Show Coordinates: Toggles the algebraic coordinates around the board on & off Show Game Info: Toggles additional game info (who is to move, castling rights, ep square) on or off. Use Initial Position: When checked, the initial chess position is shown. When unchecked, a FEN string is parsed from the window below. [edit] New 13 July 08! Draw Board Only: Draws a blank board, with or without coordinates. [/edit] Ya just gotta see it in action don't ya? Well, here you go..., First off, showing the initial chess position: Secondly, showing a FEN string in action: [edit] Previous incarnation of ChessFEN would break if you tried to build a FEN string by typing it directly into the textbox. This is no longer the case!. I have rebuilt the plugin as per the suggestions from Rick and Simon below. So now you can build a FEN string from scratch by typing directly into the textbox. Thanks guys for your suggestions. [/edit] Thanks to BoltBait for your encouragement, and of course, codelab Enjoy :!: Note: This plugin is now housed in my plugin pack http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/110145-eers-plugin-pack/ Edited May 10, 2018 by toe_head2001 Fixed broken Postimg image Quote ebook: Mastering Paint.NET | resources: Plugin Index | Stereogram Tut | proud supporter of Codelab plugins: EER's Plugin Pack | Planetoid | StickMan | WhichSymbol+ | Dr Scott's Markup Renderer | CSV Filetype | dwarf horde plugins: Plugin Browser | ShapeMaker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceFusion Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 I have played chess many times , but i didn't know about this FEN stuff. Where can I get more FEN strings? Thanks for the plugin! Quote Visit-> My Website <-Visit Please Call Me Elite Override The trick to flying is throwing yourself at the floor and missing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D3z Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 I must agree with Icefusion, this could be very useful. But is there a way of generating FEN strings? (FEBGEN? ) P.S Dont be afraind, you are not the only chess player EDIT: :shock: :shock: :shock: MINE DOESNT WORK All it shows is letters and numbers (the top line is as follows: t Mv WI V m T. The second line: O o O o O o O o.) Any idea why? Quote "Confusion is the welcome mat at the door of creativity." -Michaul Gelb My Gallery Check it out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LJXD Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 You have to install that font Quote |My Sig Tut| Deviant Art |Advanced Grunge Texture|My Gallery The Birthplace of Life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D3z Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Oh yes I tend to get into the habit of not reading the whole post :oops: Quote "Confusion is the welcome mat at the door of creativity." -Michaul Gelb My Gallery Check it out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Brewster Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Note: if you try to "build" a FEN string by typing it into the window, don't be surprised if the plug-in breaks. You have been warned! I suggest you paste in complete FEN strings and then uncheck the "Show Initial Position" checkbox. I'd suggest putting your parsing of the string around a try/catch block, and if an exception is raised just default to string.Empty. You can actually use the static Do.TryCatch() method to simplify this. Quote The Paint.NET Blog: https://blog.getpaint.net/ Donations are always appreciated! https://www.getpaint.net/donate.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Brown Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Note: if you try to "build" a FEN string by typing it into the window, don't be surprised if the plug-in breaks. You have been warned! I suggest you paste in complete FEN strings and then uncheck the "Show Initial Position" checkbox. I'd suggest putting your parsing of the string around a try/catch block, and if an exception is raised just default to string.Empty. You can actually use the static Do.TryCatch() method to simplify this. Or simply do not parse the string if there is an error. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ego Eram Reputo Posted July 12, 2008 Author Share Posted July 12, 2008 I have played chess many times , but i didn't know about this FEN stuff. Where can I get more FEN strings?Thanks for the plugin! You can build FEN strings from scratch, but its a bit of a pain. Many chess software programs will allow you to export a given position as a FEN string. This is how I get them: Chessbase Lite: [with your selected position showing in the game window] Game menu>Setup position>Copy FEN string (This is now held in an internal format, so you need to paste into a move comment. Now you can select the text and copy/paste it into any text editor) EPD strings should also work as they Extend the basic FEN string structure. I'm sure if you did a quick Google you would find many positions available. Quote ebook: Mastering Paint.NET | resources: Plugin Index | Stereogram Tut | proud supporter of Codelab plugins: EER's Plugin Pack | Planetoid | StickMan | WhichSymbol+ | Dr Scott's Markup Renderer | CSV Filetype | dwarf horde plugins: Plugin Browser | ShapeMaker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ego Eram Reputo Posted July 12, 2008 Author Share Posted July 12, 2008 Note: if you try to "build" a FEN string by typing it into the window, don't be surprised if the plug-in breaks. You have been warned! I suggest you paste in complete FEN strings and then uncheck the "Show Initial Position" checkbox. I'd suggest putting your parsing of the string around a try/catch block, and if an exception is raised just default to string.Empty. You can actually use the static Do.TryCatch() method to simplify this. I'm using this technique to perform some error checking, but its a bit flaky. E.G. if you paste in a FEN string and remove a random character from the middle, the parsing routine will give you an error (in RED text no less :shock: ). Is it possible that my attempts at more global error checking were thwarted by attempting to nest Try/Catch blocks? [edit] @ Rick & Simon: Thank you for your suggestions which have been incorporated into the new version of ChessFEN (see original post). [/edit] Quote ebook: Mastering Paint.NET | resources: Plugin Index | Stereogram Tut | proud supporter of Codelab plugins: EER's Plugin Pack | Planetoid | StickMan | WhichSymbol+ | Dr Scott's Markup Renderer | CSV Filetype | dwarf horde plugins: Plugin Browser | ShapeMaker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enormator Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 It would be nice, if the black fields of the board would have a different color from the black pieces and be solid. So everyone could more easily do individually styled images. The colors of the pieces are also not so easy editable if you would for example want a texture to fill them, you would want to select all white pieces at once and do a photo flood fill. But I don't know a good solution for that atm... white pieces just should be white maybe white rgb(254,254,254) in contrast to the white of the board rgb(255,255,255) I also like chess Quote :Link: website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Ryan Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 So, if I understand correctly: I can now play chess through Paint.NET? Awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Brown Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 So, if I understand correctly: I can now play chess through Paint.NET? Awesome. From what I can see the plugin renders a chess diagram from an FEN string. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ego Eram Reputo Posted July 14, 2008 Author Share Posted July 14, 2008 It would be nice, if the black fields of the board would have a different color from the black pieces and be solid. So everyone could more easily do individually styled images. The colors of the pieces are also not so easy editable if you would for example want a texture to fill them, you would want to select all white pieces at once and do a photo flood fill. But I don't know a good solution for that atm... white pieces just should be white maybe white rgb(254,254,254) in contrast to the white of the board rgb(255,255,255)I also like chess We're working with the Chess Merida font here, so all we can choose is the colour of the font. The pieces and squares are not individual images which are able to be edited. Change the color of the diagram by selecting a different primary color before running the plug-in. I suppose if you were really clever you could draw the board only on another layer, and then use this as a mask to change the squares under the pieces. This is a bit out of my league.., @ Mike: No, Simon has it correct. ChessFEN just draws diagrams. Quote ebook: Mastering Paint.NET | resources: Plugin Index | Stereogram Tut | proud supporter of Codelab plugins: EER's Plugin Pack | Planetoid | StickMan | WhichSymbol+ | Dr Scott's Markup Renderer | CSV Filetype | dwarf horde plugins: Plugin Browser | ShapeMaker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ego Eram Reputo Posted August 18, 2009 Author Share Posted August 18, 2009 Source of FEN strings for many openings: www.chessgames.com Quote ebook: Mastering Paint.NET | resources: Plugin Index | Stereogram Tut | proud supporter of Codelab plugins: EER's Plugin Pack | Planetoid | StickMan | WhichSymbol+ | Dr Scott's Markup Renderer | CSV Filetype | dwarf horde plugins: Plugin Browser | ShapeMaker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ego Eram Reputo Posted October 22, 2016 Author Share Posted October 22, 2016 The version of this plugin in my Plugin Pack has been updated (Plugin Browser preview image). You can now select which font to use from within the plugin (I'm still recommending Chess Merida ) Quote ebook: Mastering Paint.NET | resources: Plugin Index | Stereogram Tut | proud supporter of Codelab plugins: EER's Plugin Pack | Planetoid | StickMan | WhichSymbol+ | Dr Scott's Markup Renderer | CSV Filetype | dwarf horde plugins: Plugin Browser | ShapeMaker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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