[uday]

Version 3.4.0 of our BBO software is now available for those bold users who want to mess with the next version of the software before it is "officially" released.

The primary enhancement is support for Tournaments.

You can upgrade to this version by downloading and running   http://www.bridgebas.../340upgrade.exe

If you'd rather download and run the full installation , you can get it from  
http://www.bridgebas...0/bbo_setup.exe

The full installation runs about 1.9 megabytes. The update comes in at  about 590 KB

The english version of the online help has been updated.
http://www.bridgebas...m/help/english/

if you install this version, have problems, and have to return to the production version of BBO, you can download the older version from the usual place: http://www.bridgebase.com/online/

I'm thinking of running a few short test tournaments over the next couple of days. To avoid impacting the scheduled Vugraph, I will probably schedule them at about 10 or 11AM EST, if we have enough interest.

But first things first.  Get installed; I'll post more information on the test tournaments  in a little while.

[uday]

Here is a little primer on how tournaments work on BBO


1) When you login you'll see a new button - Tournaments. This will show you a list of pending tournaments. You will see a single tournament, scheduled for some some point in the future.  In the future, of course, you'll see more tournaments.

2) To play in a tourney, you and your partner have to register to play. Both of you need to be online while registering, although you can log off and on as you wish after registering (the registration is preserved)

3) At gametime, every registered player is sucked into the tournament. You dont have to do anything but register; regardless of what you are doing on BBO when gametime rolls around, you will be moved into a table/seat. if you log off and on again, you will be taken to the proper seat.

4) You will notice a "Round Clock" on your screen. When this hits Zero, the round has ended, and you will be moved to the next table.
If you are still playing, both pairs will be assigned Average Minus scores.

5) When the tourney ends, you will be presented with a MOVIE window containing your results (not the other table results, just your own).

6) You can click on the "Tournament Results" button to view the final standings. You can use myhands - http://www.bridgebase.com/myhands - to look at the other-table results.

7) 30 minutes after the tournament has ended, it will be removed from the list






This first implementation of tournaments has some restrictions.

a) Only IMP/MP pairs are supported.
The movement is relatively simple - EW pairs are moved "up" a table at the end of each round.
c) A missing pair will cause a sitout
d) An odd number of pairs signed up will cause a sitout
e) Scores cannot be adjusted by the director. Try to achieve a result at the table

[inquiry]

I will try to be around to help beta test the tournment.

I have noticed a lock up twice. Once when one opponent left the table requiring permission during play and someone else tried to join. Don't know if that was a bug.

Also some lock up problems seem to happened if I was chatting and bidding. But maybe I had a bad connection. I am in an interesting game now, so I switched back to the standard version.. will test the beta when I don't have a good table.. :-)

[uday]

Reports suggest that sometimes the program gets itself tied into knots; this seems to happen if you press the TABLES/LOBBY button while playing at a table.

Naturally, we'll take a look into this.

In the meantime, if your program gets itself gummed up, a couple of workarounds:

a) click the CHAT button.
Click anywhere in the scroll bar; this seems to help

[Gweny_ivere]

I happy to help you uday. this td_4

[Rain]

Hi Uday,

I noticed the chat clears itself after a while.  Not sure its a bug, and it could be good, but when does it clear itself?  After 100 lines? hehe



Rain

[uday]

The chat clears itself after about 30,000 characters of chat.  We'll probably bump this up when we release the fix for that other bug.

[csdenmark]

The tables I played using beta version had severe problems to load cards, especially after claims. We all needed to disconnect.

I have now reinstalled the former version, pity!

Claus - csdenmark  ???

[mink]

I just loaded the thing and played some boards. All worked fine, including reload after claims.

I really didn't expect you to be so fast in launching it.

I am looking forward to the tourneys, but unfortunately I cannot attend the first one starting Friday, as I have already an appointment for Face-to-Face-Bridge at that time.

Karl

[julie5607]

I downloaded the beta software and played a few hands on it, twice it locked up during claims and wouldn't deal next hand.  Both times I had to start a new table.  After the second time I reinstalled the old software, sorry.

Julie

And yes, I was host both times, sorry i didn't mention that before. Also, although the claims were accepted, the hands didn't make it to the "my hands" viewer.

[ejfree]

Had the same issues with claims and "stuck hands", but only when I was the host. Will keep you informed.

Also, have the minutes countdown in the tournament area seems a little silly. 2000 minutes

[Libido]

Is it possible to clear the chat window anytime you want in new BBO version? Sometimes it causes problems when the window is full.

GR (Libido)

[uday]

The chat window cannot (currently) be cleared.
There is a known problem that you experience when

1) your screen is maximized (ie, you are running at more than 800x600)

2) You have clicked the TABLES or LOBBY ( to show a mini list of players or tables on top of the chat window)


We believe we have produced a fix and it will be part of the next beta version. In the meantime, the best workaround is to avoid the LOBBY/TABLES buttons when maximized).

If you do suffer the bug, pressing the CHAT button (the one on top of LOBBY/TABLES) again or pressing the UP arrow should clear things up.  Once things are cleared up, get rid of that mini list by clicking CHAT.

[inquiry]

Barring the horrible screen that can happen, I actually like the fact that the chat window carries over chat when you leave a table or join a table rather than clearing. Maybe a clear chat button would be nice, but this chat remaining from when you are in a lobby after you join a table or vice versa seems good to me.

Ben

[uday]

That "horrible screen" is a symptom of one of the most annoying bugs I've ever run across.  I  *think* we have it licked. Not positive, but i'm keeping my fingers crossed.   The fix will be part of the next beta.

We also have three possibly  inter-related bugs to deal with.  Mercifully, 2 of them are very rare. The third is of an unknown frequency. They are

1) Spontaneous redeal and a -47NT in the movie (rare)
2) Deal doesnt make it to myhands (rare)
3) Accepting opponents claim makes you "wait-for-next-deal" forever (you have to login again to continue)


We ran a little mini test tourney this morning - 3 tables + 8 boards - and it went very smoothly. I suspect we'll all have much fun with tourneys once the Cavendish (and these bugs) are behind us.

[Rain]

Hi uday

When I'm kibitzing at a table, sometimes I can see chats sent to lobby, sometimes I cannot...its very odd.  I haven't worked out why sometimes I can and sometimes I can't, do you have any idea why?  Is it that as long as table or me is invisible, we cannot see chat sent to lobby, if we are at table?



Rain

[inquiry]

Quote

Hi uday

When I'm kibitzing at a table, sometimes I can see chats sent to lobby, sometimes I cannot...its very odd.  I haven't worked out why sometimes I can and sometimes I can't, do you have any idea why?  Is it that as long as table or me is invisible, we cannot see chat sent to lobby, if we are at table?



Rain

Hi Rain,

As a yellow this probably doesn't apply to you. But when I check ignore "lobby chat" option, I still see all lobby chat sent by yellows, including you. I suspect that this is improtant as yellows often send important information to everyone. Could be this what you are describing.

Ben

[Rain]

Hi Ben,

No, thats not what I meant.  Yeah those yellows, annoying message senders

Sometimes I can see messages sent to lobby by people not from tables, sometimes I cannot.  I just would like to know when one can, when one cannot...if its not a regular thing, then its a bug, right?

But never forget our little bit of righteous propaganda.  BBO ROCKZ!



Rain

[inquiry]

Quote

Hi Ben,

No, thats not what I meant.  Yeah those yellows, annoying message senders

Sometimes I can see messages sent to lobby by people not from tables, sometimes I cannot.  I just would like to know when one can, when one cannot...if its not a regular thing, then its a bug, right?

But never forget our little bit of righteous propaganda.  BBO ROCKZ!



Rain

Ok... the other time you will see "lobby" messages then is when a kibitizer or a player at the table you are at (as either kibitizer or player) sends a message to the lobby. You see that message with (lobby) after it, just like you see all the message someone at your table sends. I guess this is to let you know it went public. As in "player wanted at inquiry table" or some such. Could this be what you are talking about?

Ben