Quick Start (INWORK)

A playable implemetation of 3D Chess with planar moves and advancement squares. The 3D board is a cube of cubes (8x8x8). Each tile is the bottom of a cube.

An 8 color board includes the 2 bishop colors (tile faces) and the 4 duke colors (tile edges).

  • Bishop: white | black
  • Duke: gold | silver | ruby | jade

Active Panels:

  • Setup Panel: Click on the Make Board button to create a board.
  • AdvSq Panel: Click on the Place button to see an advancement square, then move it around.
    • Rook: red
    • Bishop: green
    • Duke: blue
  • Camera Panel: Play with zoom, POV, etc.
  • Game Panel: undo working for the AdvSq panel, not so much (yet) for the rest.

Inwork Panels: View, Moves, Gambits, Compasses.

Raycasting demonstrated by toggling circles on clicked tiles.

(You are witness to how the ‘sausage’ is made.) (No, pieces are not available…yet.)

Setup Panel

Click on Make Board to put a static 8x8x8 board into the scene.

AdvSq Panel

  • Click on Place.
    • A rook source tile shows up.
  • Click on Grow and Shrink a few times.
    • Changes size of the advancement square.
  • Play with the buttons (Next Quad, Next Plane, Next Piece).
    • Note the jargon used to describe advancement squares.
  • Also play with the Stride input field (move around the perimeter of the advsq).
    • Note how various properties of the stride tile change.
  • Uses vi keys (ijk, IJK) to move advsq around the board.
    • Note that tiles in advsqs can extend off the board.
    • Use the Offboard Visibility slider to affect their opacity.

Game Panel

  • Then try the undo/redo/rerun buttons.
  • Movement in 2D is natural, evolution has programmed us to perceive lines, and motion along them.
  • Movement in 3D chess is counter-intutitive.
  • A line has only two possible directions, but a quadrant has 4 (6 for the bishop).
  • 2D: there are only two types of lines, and only two of each, for a total of 8 directions.
  • 3D: there are three types of planes, three rook, four bishop, and six duke; thus a total of 60 directions.

Annoying bug - undoing back into board construction is not yet working.

Interface (in development)

This interface is designed to help you visualize how pieces move (and are blocked) in 3D chess.