More squares than necessary?

December 12, 2005 7:19 PM

Why does Chess.app look funky on my 12" PowerBook? (link to photo inside)

Unresized photo here.
Has anybody seen these weird artifacts before, and figured out how to get rid of them? Restarting the app merely repositions the blank spots, and repairing permissions didn't help.

posted by michaelkuznet to computers & internet (14 comments total)

Have you tried changing the appearance of the board via the Preferences? That would help you figure out if it was a problem with the entire program or just the files that make up the default board appearance.
posted by toddshot at 7:25 PM on December 12, 2005

Looks like it could be a video card or video memory problem. If you have a tool like TechTool Pro it can tell you. Are you noticing any other weirdness in your display? Have you tried another 3D game?
posted by lunarboy at 7:26 PM on December 12, 2005

Changing appearance of the chess board does not fix it....gah!
posted by michaelkuznet at 7:34 PM on December 12, 2005

Chess.app has been acting funky for other people recently as well.
posted by tomierna at 7:47 PM on December 12, 2005

I tried to install the Tony Hawk game that came with my iBook on my desktop machine and got something similar, and concluded that I was lacking support for the correct graphics card. Have you copied the game over from a dfferent computer?
posted by nowonmai at 7:48 PM on December 12, 2005

lunarboy: No other weirdness in my display. Don't have any other 3D games to play, but some of my more complex 3rd party screensavers seem to be ok...
tomierna: That's an interesting link, but it worked fine just last week and I haven't done any system upgrades since.
nowonmai: nope, "original" version of the application

Quite strange...I'll try another permissions repair and a power cycle.
posted by michaelkuznet at 7:58 PM on December 12, 2005

Judging by the stools and bottles and glasses, is there any chance you are playing in a bar and the display is fine?


(Sorry)
posted by leafwoman at 8:20 PM on December 12, 2005

What haxies (or whatever) are you running?
posted by kimota at 8:26 PM on December 12, 2005

leafwoman: Pink Lemonade and Diet Cokes, thank you very much!
kimota: Quicksilver, GeekTool, You Control Tunes, two displays (one at non-native resolution)-- problem persists even with all of these things off/disabled.
posted by michaelkuznet at 8:33 PM on December 12, 2005

I don't know anything about Powerbooks or chess.app, and very little about graphics cards, so I can't help you there.

But I looked at your picture, and I do know a thing or two about chess, and can't help but asking: How is that position White to move? Looks to me like White has made three moves, and Black two, so it should be Black to move.

And yes, I can see it's possible to construct a legal series of moves which would result in that position with White to move. But only by including moves that are beyond pointless in an actual game; in any reasonable game with that position it's Black's move.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:24 PM on December 12, 2005

I asumed, based on the floating knight at the top right - that White is in the process of moving. (sorry)
posted by vacapinta at 12:14 AM on December 13, 2005

Ah, that makes sense--sorry for the derail.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:46 AM on December 13, 2005

Try deleting (or moving) the preferences file for it (~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Chess.plist) ?

I can't see how a corrupt preferences could cause this, but I've seen them cause some funny stuff before.
posted by edd at 1:41 AM on December 13, 2005

DevilsAdvocate: I don't know-- I set the computer to play with itself, so I have no idea of whats going on in the game.
edd: not the chess.plist either :(
posted by michaelkuznet at 8:04 AM on December 13, 2005