Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

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mpvank
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Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by mpvank »

Hi there,

does anyone know how I can get the Dragon 3.3 UCI engine to work?
I do get the error message: not a valid UCI engine...

Menno
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SchuBi
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Location: Recklinghausen

Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by SchuBi »

Which Version of HCE do you use?
Windows or Mac
The official Komodo-Website states
https://komodochess.com/dragon-3.3.htm
Compatable GUIs
Chessbase
Fritz
Aquarium
Chess Assistant
Hiarcs Chess Explorer
Shredder (Classic)
Arena
Tarrash
System requirements
Minimum: 64-bit processor, Pentium 4 F-series, 1024 MB ram
Recommended: Processor with AVX2 strongly recommended (most computers since 2013 have this). No need for GPU.
Operating system: Windows, Linux, Mac OSX 10.7 or higher (Android version available only from Google).
Wenn Null besonders groß ist, ist es beinahe so groß wie ein bißchen Eins.
mpvank
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Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by mpvank »

Oh yes, sorry! Mac.
Have been using windows for years (Chessbase and the like), never a problem. Mac OS is more complicated.

Menno
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SchuBi
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Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by SchuBi »

Does yor Mac run on an Intel processor or Apple Silicon?
Wenn Null besonders groß ist, ist es beinahe so groß wie ein bißchen Eins.
Hilinder
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Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by Hilinder »

Did you set the permission ?
You can find the description therefore in the readme.txt
Alexander
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Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by Alexander »

You probably need to do the following key steps

1. Make the file execuatable - do this with a terminal command chmod +x then (drag the file into the terminal screen). Better instructions here or google how to make a chess engine file execuatable on Mac or something similar.
2. Give the file permission to run on your mac- You need to allow your mac to open the file as max security is tight and won’t let you run just any file downloaded from the internet. Open a new terminal window and drag the file into it and hit enter and make it run. When the pop up appears telling you it won’t run just hit okay and then go to settings in your mac, then privacy and security and then allow the engine file to run.

These are the 2 steps you need to do before HIARCs will run the engines you download, not just Dragon but nearly all of them.

There’s better instructions here in the link I’ve copied below, that someone else has written but hopefully you’ll get the gist.

https://www.chessengeria.eu/post/how-to ... tura-newer
Hilinder
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Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by Hilinder »

and I always change the name of the app by deleting the dots, e.g. from "dragon-3.3-macos-avx2" to "dragon-3_3-macos-avx2" cause I got the experience, my Mac doesn´t like dots in the name of an app ;-)
mpvank
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Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by mpvank »

Thank you very much! I followed all the steps, including the one in which my Mac was saying it was malicious...
But now I am still getting the error message: This is not a valid UCI engine.
What can I possibly have been doing wrong? Does this engine nog work with an M2 processor?
mpvank
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Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by mpvank »

For the Stockfish engine I must use brew install stockfish.
Anything like this available for Dragon 3.3?
herO
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Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by herO »

This is also one of the reasons why I don't like Mac at all. It has very poor compatibility. The only compatibility is mainly ensured with software that is directly developed by Apple. All other software, despite all efforts, have difficulties. See Stockfish. Such a simple program that is well-tuned and well-implemented in software, and yet people have a lot of trouble using it on the iOS platform. And what was most ridiculous was that there were a lot of people here who started writing on the forum about how Hiarcs Chess Explorer is buggy because Stockfish doesn't work on it, and all the while the fault was on the side of their non-functional iOS.
mpvank
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Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by mpvank »

I agree. But still, it must be possible to get it working....
Terry
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Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by Terry »

Is this Dragon 3.3 really so good comparing to other engines? Anybody have any tests?
Alexander
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Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by Alexander »

Well in terms of engine playing strength then you can go https://www.computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/404/ to see what approximate rating the various engines have. For playing games against an engine I still think HIARCS is the most fun to play, although I do also think Dragon (and if you don't want to pay then the older Komodo 14) are good if you put the setting on human and reduce the playing strength a lot.

Dragon 3.3 is obviously incredibly strong, but personally I don't think it really matters if you're only using the engine for post game analysis. Anything above 3000 will surely pick up on inaccurate moves and missed tactics. For me I use Dragon as it for some reason run very quickly on my Intel Mac chip in HIARCS, but that might just be luck more than anything. Stockfish 16 works well for me in macos, despite others saying there's problems.

Regarding Dragon on your m2 mac.
I can only suggest that maybe you add 'sudo' before the chmod + x command in terminal. And try it again. Sudo is the superuser command.
Also try and add some other engines into HIARCS like Stockfish or Beserk [these are free] so that you're familiar with the process of making file executable and allowing the macos to run it. So you know you're doing this bit right.
And then finally try all the downloadable mac files from dragon. I don't have 3.3 but have 3.2 and that comes with a file called dragon-3.2-macos-m1 This is the one I would try - and also rename as suggested above to remove the dot ' . ' as someone above suggested. There isn't a file ending macos-m2 though.
You may need to contact the Dragon at komodochesshelp@gmail.com to find out if they have a version that will run on m2 chip or not.

If you really are getting desperate and have time on your hands, then my last suggestion is try running it in Banksuigui (which is free to download) and see if that runs Dragon - or your other engines. You can then eliminate whether it's the chess engine compatibility issue with your m2 chip or a problem with the chess software.
olfreddy
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Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by olfreddy »

so with Dragon 3.1 it works as follows

1. Open Terminal und Finder
2. Terminal: chmod +x ´now drag the file "dragon-3.1-macos-m1" from the Finder into the terminal`and Enter

example:
olaf@Air-von-Olaf ~ % chmod +x /Users/olaf/Documents/Olaf/Schach/dragon-3.1_d960d7dc/MacOS/dragon-3.1-macos-m1

3. now confirm the security prompt below in the system settings/data protection & security

4. Engine can now be integrated into Hiarcs

Engine can now be integrated into HiarcsIf there is still a problem, then in the terminal after step 2:

olaf@Air-von-Olaf ~ % $ xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine dragon-3.1-macos-m1

then Step 3

I did it this way with a Macbook with m2. Nevertheless left in the designation m1.
Frank Rahde
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Re: Dragon 3.3. UCI engine

Post by Frank Rahde »

Alexander wrote: Wed Nov 08, 2023 5:19 pm
There’s better instructions here in the link I’ve copied below, that someone else has written but hopefully you’ll get the gist.

https://www.chessengeria.eu/post/how-to ... tura-newer
Thanks, Alexander, the mentioned instruction helped me a lot!
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