[hrothgar]

No real experience with Fun Bridge
Anyone have any thoughts?

(Really dislike the look / feel of the Fun Bridge UI however rumor has it that their bots are significantly better than GIB)

[johnu]

Zero experience with Fun Bridge. I don't know if their playing code is better than GIB but if the buyout doesn't include a service contract with the Fun Bridge bot author, it seems unlikely that their bot will substantially improve based on the GIB experience.

[croquetfan]

It's really annoying to play as you click on a suit and it pops up. So easy to misclick as the cards jump about.
I wrote to funbridge previously to point this out and they had no idea what I was talking about!

[thepossum]

hrothgar, on 2018-December-15, 18:10, said:

No real experience with Fun Bridge
Anyone have any thoughts?

(Really dislike the look / feel of the Fun Bridge UI however rumor has it that their bots are significantly better than GIB)

I havent used it much but I agree that the playing interface on FunBridge is not very nice (or friendly to play). BBO has a great playing interface. However FunBridge has some other good features, especially the convention card editor (5 or six major systems and with 3 levels - Beginner to Tournament), and some of the tournament and challenge stuff is good too so hopefully there will be synergies

BTW Have GIB and FunBridge ever competed in a competition

P

[hrothgar]

thepossum, on 2018-December-15, 23:30, said:

BTW Have GIB and FunBridge ever competed in a competition

Once upon a time, GIB competed in the World Computer Championships, did extremely well, and won a few times, however, that was decades ago.
My impression is that once the computer generated bidding system work failed to pan out, Ginsberg lost interest in the card playing engine.

No idea what engine FunBridge is using for bidding / card play.

[pescetom]

hrothgar, on 2018-December-16, 04:39, said:

No idea what engine FunBridge is using for bidding / card play.

It's called 'Argine' and has been around for six years now. They dub it as "artificial intelligence" but I understand it works by sampling deals much like GIB does, just with better programming and bug-fixing. I was impressed by the capability to play multiple CCs and to customise these not just in terms of conventions but even nuances like discipline and aggressivity. It will be great news if BBO can quickly and successfully integrate it.

I agree strongly with the comment about hating the need to click on a hand and have it spread the cards. But there are many things I dislike in the BBO interface too and I hope BBO won't disband the french development team too early.

[gordontd]

Since I started playing on Funbridge I have almost stopped playing on BBO apart from the forum challenges. I think the Funbridge bots play much more like real players and I much prefer the Funbridge algorithm that gives you more than your share of good hands without the crass consequences that come from "best hand" games.

I had no idea it was to be bought out. Where did the news come from?

[gordontd]

Looking for more information about this, I found a video on Youtube that compares Funbridge with BBO.

[smerriman]

croquetfan, on 2018-December-15, 20:46, said:

It's really annoying to play as you click on a suit and it pops up. So easy to misclick as the cards jump about.
I wrote to funbridge previously to point this out and they had no idea what I was talking about!

pescetom, on 2018-December-16, 07:42, said:

I agree strongly with the comment about hating the need to click on a hand and have it spread the cards.

You can easily disable this in their settings so that a single click plays the card.

[thepossum]

gordontd, on 2018-December-16, 12:13, said:

I think the Funbridge bots play much more like real players and I much prefer the Funbridge algorithm that gives you more than your share of good hands without the crass consequences that come from "best hand" games.

Agree. Best hand isn't bridge. Also who decided that bridge is more fun if you always have best hand. Clearly not a true bridge player

[pescetom]

gordontd, on 2018-December-16, 12:13, said:

I had no idea it was to be bought out. Where did the news come from?

Me too. I took the news from this topic. I hope it's true. And if it is, maybe Fred owes me a beer

[gordontd]

pescetom, on 2018-December-16, 14:11, said:

Me too. I took the news from this topic. I hope it's true. And if it is, maybe Fred owes me a beer

It’s on the BBO site though not yet on Funbridge.

[smerriman]

I saw https://webutil.brid...tch.php?id=5065 but to be honest had no idea what it meant - it seemed rather lacking in details.

[TylerE]

pescetom, on 2018-December-16, 07:42, said:

I was impressed by the capability to play multiple CCs and to customise these not just in terms of conventions but even nuances like discipline and aggressivity.

GIB supported that 20 years ago. BBO just never offer the option.

[BillHiggin]

hrothgar, on 2018-December-15, 18:10, said:

No real experience with Fun Bridge
Anyone have any thoughts?

(Really dislike the look / feel of the Fun Bridge UI however rumor has it that their bots are significantly better than GIB)

So, I went to have a look-see. Mac, win, iphone, android all supported -- linux not! I gave it a try using the win version and wine, but have not yet had any luck.
grumble!

[dcrc2]

croquetfan, on 2018-December-15, 20:46, said:

It's really annoying to play as you click on a suit and it pops up. So easy to misclick as the cards jump about.

If you're playing on a touch screen (phone or tablet) I think the Funbridge way is massively better. Playing BBO on a phone is horrible because of how difficult it is to pick out the right card - the Funbridge design solves this completely. I would agree that if you have a mouse then the BBO method is better. More generally I think Funbridge is optimized for playing on a phone, whereas BBO's phone UIs are poor.

[pescetom]

dcrc2, on 2018-December-19, 04:36, said:

If you're playing on a touch screen (phone or tablet) I think the Funbridge way is massively better. Playing BBO on a phone is horrible because of how difficult it is to pick out the right card - the Funbridge design solves this completely. I would agree that if you have a mouse then the BBO method is better. More generally I think Funbridge is optimized for playing on a phone, whereas BBO's phone UIs are poor.

Playing on a phone, I dislike both the Funbridge way and the BBO way. It would be much better if I could just tap to select a card and then if the right one pops up I tap in the centre of the board to actually play it. If the wrong one pops up, tapping at the left or right end of the hand should move the pop up in that direction. BBO does offer a confirm option, but unless things have changed you have to tap precisely again, which is unnerving at tournament tempo.
But someone above said that Funbridge can be configured differently, so I'll try that. I agree that on the whole Funbridge is better optimized for playing on a phone.

[TylerE]

You can set Funbridge up that way... it's in the settings. Something like "Suit Preselection" set to "none" or "off".