GUI

Users can observe the training and game progress using our PyGame GUI. In this page, we will describe some of the features of our GUI.

Our Xiangqi environment renders current game state with PyGame upon calling the environment object’s render() method.

The Board and Pieces

The rendered GUI contains the board and pieces. The piece colors are red and black with the ally side always rendered on the bottom side of the board and the enemy side on the top side of the board. Note that users have the choice to choose the ally’s and enemy’s colors when initializing the environment. For a detailed example of initializing and running the environment, take a look at the Examples section.

During game mode, the GUI interacts with users by observing user mouse clicks. Upon piece selection, the GUI will highlight the possible places on the board that the current selected piece can move to. If you are interested in learning how each piece moves, please read more about the basic rules on our Github Wiki page for a starting place.

Captured Log

Upon success capture of an enemy piece, the captured piece will be displayed in the captured log section of the GUI.

Sound Effects

There are two sound effects added to the GUI.

1. The background game music

2. Piece move sound effect

If you are tired of listening to the background music every time the GUI opens, just hit the ‘b’ on your keyboard to toggle the music on and off.