GNU Backgammon

Forum Archive : GNU Backgammon

 
Rollout settings

From:   Ian Dunstan
Address:   larrikin33@optusnet.com.au
Date:   6 August 2003
Subject:   Gnubg settings revisted
Forum:   GammOnLine

> Should we open up an new dialogue where GNU users voice their
> favorite rollout settings (preferably with justifications) or is the
> space so vast that in the end we'll have a favourite setting for
> each poster, and be no further along?

I think Gnubg users will all develop their own favourite settings from
personal experience, I know I have. That said, I've certainly been
influenced by the recent findings of Albert and Zorba, in particular.
Overall, I get the feeling that Gnubg users are getting closer to some
pretty robust, but time efficient rollout settings. For what it's
worth, here is what I consider to be pretty good settings at present.
I'll ignore the recent debate we've had about cubeless vs cubeful
rollouts and state everything in cubeful terms.

1) Comparing chequer plays that are close in intent and execution.

By this I mean plays that are not trying to do very different things,
such as a blitz play versus a priming play vs a running play etc. In a
lot of positions where we are comparing two (or more) similar plays I
think we overdo the need for a full rollout, truncated is quite often
sufficient IMO. In these cases I like:

Play: 0-ply Cubeful / Cube: 33% / Truncated at Depth = 12 (at
truncation point do 2-ply 50% Play evaluation)

I certainly haven't investigated this fully, but the truncation depth
can be quite important in terms of an odd/even effect. Eg, I find even
depths are generally a much better choice than odd depths. You might
think, 11 vs 12, what difference can that make? Quite a lot from some
positions I've looked at; even seems to give you equities closer to a
full rollout result than do odd plys in my experience. In part, I'm
pretty sure this has something to do with Gnubg's often "bad" 1-ply
and sometimes "doubtful" (Albert may disagree) 3-ply evaluations
(Proviso: I can remember a couple of fairly recent positions [last six
months] where 1-ply and 3-ply evaluations were vastly better than
0-ply and 2-ply).

The cube 33% value is a sort of "hedge your bets" option with me. In
some of my previous full rollout trials I found anything less than
100% cube was left wanting; 50% was usually ok. On the other hand,
Albert did a lot of trials and found 25% cube to be good in many (if
not most) situations. The original benchmark positions that I trialled
a few months ago were deliberately pretty tough, but in light of
Albert's findings, I've now compromised to doing all my "everyday"
cubeful rollouts at 33%. Hardly a very scientific approach I know.

2) Full rollouts (Quickies)

Play: 0-ply Cubeful / Cube: 33%

0-ply plays pretty well so I don't have too many problems using it.
Maybe 0-ply cube is ok in a lot of positions too (was there a problem
with 0-ply cube and money positions a while back, I think there was?),
but it didn't do very well in my benchmark trials (mostly money
positions) so I've tended to avoid it (I've noticed Zorba likes 0-ply
Cube for a lot of his quick rollouts).

If I want to beef the rollout up a bit and use 2-ply Play, I've
settled with the following:

Play: 50% speed Skip 1-ply pruning and add upto 3 moves for 2-ply
evaluation if they are within 0.03 of 0-ply's top choice.

This may seem pretty skimpy, but it worked pretty well in my trials.
Also, I've been playing against Gnubg's Supremo setting in matches
over the last few weeks and analysing my play and Gnubg's moves with
the above 2-ply settings. In what must be close to 1000 moves made by
Supremo settings, the reduced strength settings I've advocated above
have only said Supremo was "wrong" on about 5 occasions (I wish they
had been so kind to my plays :). Each time the equity involved was <
0.015 and this gives me confidence that I have some pretty strong
settings for doing rollouts with. Also, Zorba did some excellent
trials quite recently where he showed that 2-ply 50% Play was very
good (and 33% was reasonable), but 25% was a bit dubious. This is my
interpretation of his results, not his.

If you want to start a rollout at 2-ply and finish it at 0-ply, I
would choose a separate evaluation depth of between 6 and 12. I don't
think the even/odd effect is so important here, but I still usually
stick to an even number. I'm sure 12 will get you a better result than
6, but depth 12 changeover rollouts can take a long time, even 6 is
slow.

These are just my recommendations to date, I make no claim to them
being ideal. If I've misinterpreted or misrepresented other findings
mentioned here (Albert or Zorba) please let me know.
 
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GNU Backgammon

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Rollout settings  (Robert-Jan Veldhuizen, Mar 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
Rollout settings  (Ian Dunstan, Aug 2003)  [GammOnLine forum]
Rollout settings for the impatient  (Robert-Jan Veldhuizen, June 2004)  [GammOnLine forum]
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