ZunTzu 1.1 is out!

[Jerome]

ZunTzu has been in version 1.1 for a while now. Here is a list of all features added since version 1.0:

• Support of all "usual" dice types: four-, six-, eight-, ten-, twelve- and twenty-sided.
  
• Videoconferencing for webcams owners: in the ZunTzu menu click Settings then choose "Video".
• Support of playing cards (see the "Poker" game box in the Files section).
  
• Better networking: improved router traversal.

[GrimFinger]

Hi! I found out about it, today, and will be downloading it shortly to give it a try.

It looks promising.

[bennyb]

This is fantastic. I've done some work on the VASSAL project but I've always hoped it would move away from Java. I especially like the way you have implemented the counters and map zoom. One of the most time-consuming tasks in creating VASSAL modules is creating all the individual counter images.

a few questions:
- Do you plan to support PBEM?
- Will you eventually have a central server for organizing games a-la VASSAL?
- Is there a way to conceal pieces from your opponent? e.g. In the OCS series of games your opponent is not allowed to inspect the contents of your stacks.
- Is there a chit-draw feature? In A Victory Lost and others, you place counters in a cup and draw them randomly to activate certain formations.
- Is there a chance Zuntsu will eventually become Open Source to allow others to create the features they want?

VASSAL has gone through many, many evolutions to allow most war-games to be ported, it may be worth your time to have a longer look at how they have done things to save you having to re-invent the wheel. Many war-games have mechanics which will require extra features.



Ben

[Jerome]

Hi! I found out about it, today, and will be downloading it shortly to give it a try.
It looks promising.

Welcome GrimFinger! Thanks to try ZunTzu.

[Jerome]

This is fantastic. I've done some work on the VASSAL project but I've always hoped it would move away from Java. I especially like the way you have implemented the counters and map zoom.

Thanks!

Do you plan to support PBEM?

Yes, but probably not before 2008. I would like Play-By-Email to fit seamlessly into the user experience. At the moment I'm considering having players send voice logs to each other. It can't be done without replacing the entire audio-conference code (which is something I have planned to do anyway).

Will you eventually have a central server for organizing games a-la VASSAL?

Yes, there will be a matchmaking service hosted on this site. Suggestions and ideas about this feature are welcome.

Is there a way to conceal pieces from your opponent? e.g. In the OCS series of games your opponent is not allowed to inspect the contents of your stacks

Not yet because I couldn't figure out how to implement it in an elegant way. I agree it's an important feature.
I suppose the rule can be relaxed when its purpose is more to speed up the game than to provide fog of war.

Is there a chit-draw feature? In A Victory Lost and others, you place counters in a cup and draw them randomly to activate certain formations.

Yes, that same mechanism is used in the Jena 1806 game box (in the Files section). To emulate the random drawing of Activation Markers from a cup, organize all markers face down in a single stack then shuffle the stack with the "Shuffle" function (indicated by this icon in the stack inspector). Each time you need to draw a marker, remove the marker at the top of the stack and reveal it. It's even better if the markers are implemented as playing cards (which weren't supported at the time I made the Jena 1806 box).

Is there a chance Zuntsu will eventually become Open Source to allow others to create the features they want?

I'm not considering disclosing the source code for the foreseeable future, but I would certainly disclose it if I was no longer in a position to work on it or if it wasn't fun anymore.
Don't be disappointed though: although the idea of having others create additional features may seem good, in practice I doubt it would happen given the small size of the community, the average age (and thus the life-style) of its members and the skills required to work on the code.

VASSAL has gone through many, many evolutions to allow most war-games to be ported, it may be worth your time to have a longer look at how they have done things to save you having to re-invent the wheel. Many war-games have mechanics which will require extra features.

That's why your experience and feedback is valuable to me.
I'm aware that ZunTzu is lacking key features at the moment, and on the other hand I would like to keep the number of features low. It's important that ZunTzu remains easy to use. Also I would like the game box design process to stay simple. The philosophy of ZunTzu is the "virtual game table" and it should stick to it. It means that ideally new features should be close to what players expect in a face-to-face game around a table (forget about sorting dice by result for instance). And it's even better when a single feature has several uses (just like the "Shuffle" function for the drawing of activation chips).

Version 1.2 will focus on terrains and geomorphic boards.

So now what feature would you like to see implemented?

[GJK]

I gave ZunTzu a test run yesterday using the VG Civil War gamebox. I was quite impressed with what I saw. As a long time VASSAL user that has contributed to that community by supplying several modules, I'd be interested in creating some gameboxes for this program - eventually. I think that it's very close, but will need a few features to really make it robust. As BennyB wrote, a look at some of the assets that VASSAL has may give an idea of what needs or could be added - and I'm confident that work is and will continue to progress on this platform.

I really like the way that the zoom/scroll works, excellent job!

The package has a very professional look, great animations and the multiplayer functions seem top notch.

Overall, great job - again, very impressed with what I have seen so far.

I'm curious (if you care to divulge) what programming language is this written in? Is this a .net architecture?

Thanks and keep up the good work, I will be keeping an eye on this project and will be happy to help contribute when my time allows!

Edit:

I should expand upon what I see could be additional features that ZT might include if possible (and apologies if some of these are already in there, I haven't had a lot of time to dedicate to testing this program as of yet):

• hexgrid, snap to grid or zone/area, snap to zone (for centering counters in hexes)
• LOS tool (thread)
• "marked moved" feature for moved pieces
• text tool for adding comments to pieces
• grouping of pieces. For example, you might specify that a piece is a "marker" and that marker can be placed upon other pieces via a mouse click or keyboard shortcut (not sure if this is possible)
• Clone and Delete traits(features) for pieces - for markers or other pieces that are frequently used and then removed from the map during play.
• "Does not stack" trait that can be applied to pieces that shouldn't be stacked with other pieces
• center on opponents move feature
• hidden/masked pieces - set ownership to a certain player (as mentioned before)

Those are off the top of my head, I'll add to the list if you like as I recall other features of VASSAL. Some Cyberboard users may throw some suggestions in here as well as it has some nice features that VASSAL doesn't offer (make the best of all worlds! )

[Jerome]

I gave ZunTzu a test run yesterday using the VG Civil War gamebox. I was quite impressed with what I saw.

Thanks for your feedback. I'm glad you liked ZunTzu.

I'm curious (if you care to divulge) what programming language is this written in? Is this a .net architecture?

ZunTzu is written in C# for the .NET Framework 2.0, and it also interfaces with a few non-.NET technologies. I found out that real-time animation and garbage collection don't go well together but I managed to mitigate the problem (animations are still not completely fluid though). I believe choosing C# over C++ was a good decision because the time I can allocate to this project is limited and .NET proved a lot more productive and easier to debug.

Although ZunTzu is 2D (the dice being a notable exception) all the graphics are implemented in 3D through Direct3D (which is not part of .NET but can be used from .NET). Graphics are broken down into mip-mapped tiles, compressed using a dedicated algorithm and than stored in video memory. That's probably smarter than what people come to expect from a small freeware tool, but that's what makes ZunTzu capable of handling huge maps and still doing smooth zooms.

The networking code is built on top of DirectPlay which is itsef built on top of the UDP protocol. It may come to a surprise but it was the part of ZunTzu that was the most difficult to get right: players actions must not conflict, it's real-time and actions can be undone!

Voice communication is currently through DirectPlay Voice, but it will be implemented in a different way in the future.

The videoconferencing code uses DirectShow for capture. It's an eye candy but it still required a lot of effort because no .NET API exists for DirectShow so everything had to be done through COM/.NET interop. Video is compressed using a codec designed specially for ZunTzu.

Now you know everything!

Happy Bastille Day!

[Jerome]

I should expand upon what I see could be additional features that ZT might include if possible (and apologies if some of these are already in there, I haven't had a lot of time to dedicate to testing this program as of yet)

Thanks for the list!
Some of the features are indeed already there: "LOS tool" (keep both mouse buttons down) and "center on opponents move" (it's always on).

I have to object to "snap to grid", "does not stack", "comments to pieces". We don't have them in the context of an ordinary face-to-face game around a real table, and I don't feel we miss them.
Let me tell you why I think "snap to grid" is especially bad. That feature seems like a good idea but it would complicate the game box design process. Authors would have to make sure that the hexs are aligned. They would have to define exceptions for various areas around the map and for markers meant to sit on hexsides. Add a few features like this one and users will start to complain that creating a game box is complicated!
It's not because it's in Vassal that it should be in ZunTzu. Features which are meant to enforce rules should be avoided: arguable benefit to players, extra work from authors.

On the other hand I can see the comfort that "marked move" and "clone" would provide although they don't exist in face-to-face and thus are not strictly necessary.

[bennyb]

The voice feature is excellent Jerome but be aware that a lot of gamers feel more comfortable communicating via text; I wouldn't be surprised if the figure is above 50%. I myself have found voice communication lag between countries can often be a hindrance to smooth play.

I just wanted to flag that with you.

cheers
Ben

[GJK]

The voice feature is excellent Jerome but be aware that a lot of gamers feel more comfortable communicating via text; I wouldn't be surprised if the figure is above 50%. I myself have found voice communication lag between countries can often be a hindrance to smooth play.

I just wanted to flag that with you.

cheers
Ben

I have to agree with Ben - more times than not I prefer to text chat as it's just easier (lazier, less personal, who knows). However I do understand Jerome's design philosophy in that if two people sitting at a table playing the actual physical game don't have it, then it won't be in this program; and I can respect that though personally I feel that if it's something that could be added and that feature would assist the player in overcoming the differences between playing live face-to-face and playing over the internet on the computer, then perhaps it should be added. Obviously that's up to Jerome though.

[Jerome]

I feel that if it's something that could be added and that feature would assist the player in overcoming the differences between playing live face-to-face and playing over the internet on the computer, then perhaps it should be added.

Good point.

[GJK]

Adding a text chat would be the first (big?) step in adding pbem support as well Jerome - instead of having large logs/files that have either voice and/or video, if the movement on the board as well as text sent to the chat window could be captured along a timeline, then you'd be able to pbem as well as play live (this is in essence how VASSAL handles it).

[Jerome]

Adding a text chat

Text chat is already available (actually it has always been).
Start typing. A text box will appear. Just press ENTER to send your message.

[AlMightyBob]

Being able to create boxes to type text in that could be placed on the game boards would be a good feature just to denote maybe a discard/draw pile or where certain cards/counters should go. Or maybe even just notes to yourself.

[Jerome]

Hi AlMightyBob.
That feature is already part of the roadmap. I call it "sticky notes".