Version 1.14 : putting an end to the hyper-inflation

/edit : upgraded to 1.14.1 due to a major bug introduced in the previous release...

As you may have seen this week, the overall population has grown to a point where it became very slow. It would be ok if the increasing size came with an increased complexity of the players, but it was not the case. What happened was that, to strengthen some connections, the neural network made additionnal connections between neurons instead of increasing the weigth of the existing connection. It led to a neural network where connections where duplicated up to 10 000 times. I think it happened on the 9x9 program because of the limited number of neurons and goban input, which makes duplicating connections more easy. I have added a cleaning function to the program, removing those extra connections and replacing them with one strong connection.

It works far better now, at least on my computers.

I won't be able to deliver a linux version though, I tried to make some cleaning in my project I can't get it back to a working version. I am currently working on adapting the whole thing to GTP, using GnuGo functions for go rules enforcement and scoring. It will be far easier to maintain when it will work, and will bring many interesting functionalities.

However, for the moment, here is what I suggest :

• for windows users, download the new program and run it as usual : Goia 9x9 1.14.1 for Windows.
• for linux users, probably the most effective way of running the program will be to erase every players on your local drive, and continue running 1.13. As long as there is enough windows client running in parallel, the players will be cleaned regularly and there should not be the same kind of inflation as we saw last week. I hope I will be able to realease a GTP version in two weeks from now, and this one will be rather easy to compile for linux.

9x9 version

As I have been told, go is hard enough that I should not start by trying to train a good 19x19 go player. This is undoubtedly wise, and very probably true. Whereas I still think that in an evolutionary approach, evolution is not linear thus evolution time does not grow exponentially with size, it can only be faster on a 9x9 board compared to 19x19 board. And I really don't have much to lose in the process of starting anew with 9x9 players.

So, here you are with the new goia program for 9x9 boards :

GOIA9x9.1.12 for Windows
GOIA9x9.1.12 for Ubuntu-Linux

Note that this version should not be installed in the same folder as the 19x19 one since players have the same name on the local drive. Hope this will save everyone some valuable memory too.

Version 1.12 available

Here is the new version of the program :

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v1.12
Changed : neuron inputs are now removed if no longer used and if their removal doesnt affect overall coherence of the neural network
Changed : endgame score is now used to sort player with the same number of victories in the tournament
Bug fix : only players 0 to 29 are now used on the distant server.

GOIA 1.12 for windows
GOIA 1.12 for Ubuntu-LINUX

Progress so far

The program has been running for about two months on various computers. Despite the numerous updates, the process involved has stayed quite the same across all versions. I will try to keep track of the advance of my players every two weeks from now, starting today. Each time I will dowload the players on the server, put them in "ThePit" with some of the past winners, and see who finishes first after a few generations (ThePit is a closed ecosystem where player mutate but dont travel). I will then examinate the winner. The evolution is followed using three criterions :

• Genealogy : Each player keeps track of every places he has been through and how long he has stayed in each place. This gives an indication about how old any given player is, although there is no guarantee that this is directly linked to its ability to play go. It is also a good way of letting everyone know wether their work has been useful or not.
• Size : The size of each player tends naturally to shrink since every mutation is skewed toward the disappearance of neurons versus creation of new ones. Beside, whereas this is meant to change soon, until now ties in tournament points were discriminated considering the size on disk to reflect the cost of having a big neural network. Increasing size is consequently a sign that positive mutation occured.
• Actual play : I play regularly against the winner of the final tournament. For the moment, I play by myself, I have never had any difficulty so far to beat the players, I rather try to see how the player is trying to win. There will soon be a way to let it play against other computer programs using Go Text Protocol. I will try to let you know about any interesting features the players are showing up.

And the winner is...

Weigth : 2.112 ko

Age : 710 generations

Welcome to Madison, and thanks to StIsmier/BuenosAires who made a great start only one week ago. If you wonder, the "." are linux players who start the program from the folder where it is situated using the command "./goia_ecosysteme.1.11.1". 

As for go skill ability, they are close to zero thus far, whereas not zero since it consistently beats random. It manages to make a few eyes and don't play in them. It seems at first glance weaker than the players from a few weeks ago. Interestingly, it plays lines, I can't figure why... Here is a game exemple, I am playing black and GOIA is playing white :

Version 1.11.1 for Linux

Here is the last version for linux. For some reason, it crashes at the end of the first and/or second tournament, I couldn't reproduce the crash in debug mode. It works fine after that though...

Goia 1.11.1 for Ubuntu-Linux

Version 1.11 for windows

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v1.11.1

Changed : notation mode, was 3pts per victory. Now, takes into account the score difference at the end of the game. reverted back in 1.11.1

Changed : mutation probability skewed in favor of diminishing the size of the player (on average).

Bug fix : added some exception handling in the mutation process to prevent the program from crashing.

Bug fix : don't crash anymore on the first launch.

Changed : added komi rule of 6.5.

Goia 1.11.1 for Windows

New version available

A new version is available, and can be downloaded here :

GOIA for Windows

GOIA for Linux

Changelog :

------------------------------------------------

v 1.9

changed : metamutation coefficient set at 0.002 (was: 0.05).

changed : duplication/deletion probability of any gene set at 1/2000 (was: 1/32000)

changed : Tournament result display changed, only display the winner ID with it's history and it's species.

changed : transfer method with the ftp server, only one player travel to and from the server for each tournament.

------------------------------------------------

v 1.10

bug fix : Player's memory (=input values for each neuron) is emptied before each game. Used to be emptied only when the player was loaded from the disk.

changed : players are randomly created when not present on disk.

changed : players are replaced by a random new player when error occur while loading the file. Prevents the program from crashing when downloading corrupted files.