Chess

A synced multiplayer 3D chess board. Moves are checked with chess.js. Made for SideQuest / AltspaceVR worlds, and it also works in Banter.

There is no server: players stay in sync through the space's shared state, and the game is plain static files served from https://chess.firer.at.

To try it, open https://chess.firer.at in Altspace or Banter.

Features

• Full chess rules, with legal move checking
• Reset button
• Several independent boards in one world
• Lit or unlit materials

Add it to an Altspace world (snippet)

In a Creator SDK world, add an empty GameObject at the origin, click Add Component > BS > Snippet and type chess. Or paste this into Assets/WebRoot/index.html, between the snippet section comments:

<!-- snippet section -->
<bs-snippet name="chess" title="Chess"
  description="Synced multiplayer chess board with a reset button."
  script="https://chess.firer.at/snippet.js"
  room=""
  position="0 1 2"
  rotation="0 0 0"
  scale="0.5"
  lit="true"
  add-lights="false"
  turn-cooldown="5"
  sound-volume="0.4"
  sound-near="2.5"
  sound-far="10"
  hide-ui="false"
  hide-board="false"
  pieces-opacity="1"
  reset-position="0 0 2.5"
  reset-rotation="0 0 0"
  reset-scale="1"
  mute-position="0 0 0"
  mute-rotation="0 0 0"
  mute-scale="1"
  scoreboard-position="0 0 0"
  scoreboard-rotation="0 0 0"
  scoreboard-scale="1">
  <bs-gizmo type="position" attribute="position"/>
  <bs-gizmo type="box" attribute="position" size="2 0.05 2"/>
</bs-snippet>
<!-- end snippet section -->

• Each placement is its own game. Its sync id is room, or the placement's own id when room is empty. Give placements the same room to share one game.
• position and rotation are Unity world values, and scale can be a single number. The other settings are listed under Settings. An empty setting uses the default.
• The Scene-view gizmo shows the board at its default size; it does not follow scale.
• Unity reads the snippet section as XML: quote every attribute, close every element, and write & as &.

Add it with a script tag

This works in an Altspace world's Assets/WebRoot/index.html (outside the snippet section) and in a Banter space's HTML:

<script src="https://chess.firer.at/Chess.js" position="0 1.1 -2" scale="0.8"></script>

For more than one board in a space, give each one its own instance:

<script src="https://chess.firer.at/Chess.js" instance="board1" position="-2 1.1 -2"></script>
<script src="https://chess.firer.at/Chess.js" instance="board2" position="2 1.1 -2"></script>

Settings can also go in the URL, as in older setups: https://chess.firer.at/Chess.js?boardPosition=0+1.1+-2&boardScale=0.8.

Settings

Setting	Also accepted	Default	Description
instance		page URL	Sync id. Boards with the same id share one game. In a snippet, use room instead.
boardPosition	position, board-position	0 1.1 -2	Board position (x y z).
boardRotation	rotation, board-rotation	0 0 0	Board rotation in degrees (x y z).
boardScale	scale, board-scale	1	Board scale: one number, or x y z.
resetPosition	reset-position	0 0 2.5	Reset button position, relative to the board.
resetRotation	reset-rotation	0 0 0	Reset button rotation, relative to the board.
resetScale	reset-scale	1	Reset button scale.
mutePosition	mute-position	0 0 0	Where the MUTE button goes, relative to the board. 0 0 0 puts it beside the Reset button, attached to it so it moves with it. MUTE only turns the sounds off for you, and is remembered on your device.
muteRotation	mute-rotation	0 0 0	Rotation of the MUTE button.
muteScale	mute-scale	1	Scale of the MUTE button.
hideUI	hide-ui	false	true makes the reset button invisible (it still works and its RESET label stays visible) and hides the turn display.
scoreboardPosition	scoreboard-position	0 0 0	Position of the sign showing whose turn it is, relative to the board.
scoreboardRotation	scoreboard-rotation	0 0 0	Turn sign rotation.
scoreboardScale	scoreboard-scale	1	Turn sign scale.
turnCooldown	turn-cooldown	5	Seconds after a move before the same person can move for the other side, so a double click or an eager player can't take the opponent's turn. Playing both sides alone still works after the wait. 0 turns it off.
volume	sound-volume	0.4	Volume of the sound effects (moves, captures, wins, resets), from 0 to 1, heard at full strength near the game. 0 turns them off.
soundNear	sound-near	2.5	Distance in metres from the game within which the sounds play at full sound-volume.
soundFar	sound-far	10	Distance in metres at which the sounds have faded out completely, so people elsewhere in the world aren't disturbed.
hideBoard	hide-board	false	true hides the board, e.g. to use your own.
lit		true	Uses materials that react to scene lights. false uses unlit materials that ignore lighting.
lighting		lit	Older form of lit: lit or unlit. lit wins if both are set.
addLights	add-lights	false	With lit="true", true adds a directional light, for worlds that have no lights of their own.
piecesOpacity	pieces-opacity	1	Piece opacity, 0 to 1.

Settings can be written as boardPosition or board-position; the snippet uses the hyphenated form.

A position of 0 0 0 means automatic: the turn sign sits in its default spot next to the board. Any other value places it relative to the board.

How to play

1. Click one of your pieces. Its square turns green.
2. Click the square to move it to.
3. Pawns that reach the far side become queens.

Files

• Chess.js: the game.
• models/White, models/Black: the piece models.
• snippet.js, snippet.html: the Creator SDK snippet and its definition.
• index.html: a test page with a floor and the game.

License

GPL-3.0. See LICENSE.