The dice from file feature allows a sufficiently motivated sceptic to prove that gnubg cheats by showing that it makes different moves based on what the upcoming dice are. Or fail to do so.
They could even record all the numbers generated by the rng during a game and see whether gnubg plays the rolls the same when loaded from a file. Duh! Ian On Fri, 9 May 2025, 13:45 Øystein Schønning-Johansen, <[email protected]> wrote: > fre. 9. mai 2025 kl. 12:54 skrev MK <[email protected]>: > >> Did you read the instructions? It says there it won't work if you >> resize your dice window. >> > > Yes, I did! But I also read the GNU Backgammon source code. The dice input > window is actually sized based on the screen resolution of the computer - > your code will therefore work on one computer screen resolution but not on > another. > > >> It's not any more funny thing to do than a bot offering a manual >> dice rolling feature! >> > > I indeed find your solution very nice, since this method of > mimicking mouse-clicks - it is general and can be applied to other > backgammon applications. Very clever. > > >> If the bot doesn't cheat, why bother with all that crap features >> like manual dice, dice manipulation, etc...?? >> > > Yeah - you ask me!? Why do _you_ bother? > > >> The idea with the bot offering manual dice function is that any >> time the bot has access to upcoming dice, it may be cheating. >> > > Well - GNU Backgammon is indeed an open source program and you are free to > examine the source code and point out the lines of code that exploit the > functionality of accessing future dice rolls. > > When reading from a file, bot can know the upcoming dice. It's >> not the same as manual dice. Duh! >> > > I actually agree with you that reading from a file is not the same > feature as manual dice. > The manual dice feature was added to be able to transcribe live games - > back in the 90s players sometimes paid a transcribing person to record all > rolls and moves of a match - after that the games were entered into the > computer system, typically with the manual dice setting activated. > > When it comes to your solution it is actually a bit better for the sake of > non-cheating verification - as in your tool the file of dice roll is open > in another process of the OS. I'll give you credit for that! If you are > using the GNU Backgammon feature "read from file" (which gives the exact > same dice rolls), the file is open in the same process as move selection > code, and it is easier to hide any cheating by looking forward. But of > course there is a really simple way to check this now, since you have both > methods of inputting dice rolls from a file. Play a match twice - first > with your tool for selecting dice rolls from a file - then with the > build-in feature - If GNU Backgammon does not make the same actions in > these two matches - it is indeed a smoking gun. But I am willing to bet > pretty much that if this test is conducted - all actions by GNU > Backgammon will be the same. > > -Øystein >
