NEWS.md

In piecepackr: Board Game Graphics

piecepackr 1.13.11

• Bumps version of {rayrender} in the DESCRIPTION to v0.34.3 to avoid a bug introduced in v0.34.2 that affected piece() (#344).

piecepackr 1.13.10

• Bumps version of {rayvertex} in the DESCRIPTION to v0.10.4 to avoid a bug introduced in v0.10.3 that affected piece_mesh() (#339).

piecepackr 1.13.8

• Wraps get_embedded_font() example with try() and skips test on CRAN.

• This prevents R CMD check ERRORS on CRAN machines with buggy versions of cairo installed (#333).

• In particular cairo versions 1.17.4 to 1.17.8 may be buggy (#334). We'll now also raise a warning if a user tries to use get_embedded_font() with these cairo versions. These warnings have class "piecepackr_buggy_cairo" and can also be suppressed by setting options(piecepackr.check.cairo = FALSE).

piecepackr 1.13.6

• Tweak documentation examples to make CRAN happy (#332).

piecepackr 1.13.3

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• is_color_invisible() now accepts col values of length greater than one.
• basicPieceGrob() no longer shrinks its background and gridlines grobs if they would overlap with a transparent mat.

piecepackr 1.13.1

Breaking changes

• pp_shape("kite") with default theta and radius arguments now returns a slightly different "kite" shape. Explicitly set radius = 0.25 i.e. pp_shape("kite", radius = 0.25) to get the old "kite" shape (previously the "kite" shape couldn't be altered at all by the theta and radius arguments but with this release it can).
• The suggested package {xmpdf} is now required to embed bookmarks and XMP/documentation info metadata into the pdf files generated by save_print_and_play(). Please install the suggested R package {xmpdf} and depending on what you metadata you want to embed either the ghostscript, pdftk-java, and/or exiftool command-line tools. If you use save_print_and_play() to create a pdf file and don't have these suggested software installed you'll get message informing you that {piecepackr} was unable to embed certain metadata. These messages have class "piecepackr_embed_metadata" and can also be suppressed by setting options(piecepackr.metadata.inform = FALSE).

• Some features which were deprecated by v1.10.3 (2022-03-23) have been removed:

• The use_pictureGrob argument of grid.piece() / pieceGrob() which was deprecated in v1.8.1 (2021-08-11) has been removed. Use type = "picture" instead of use_pictureGrob = TRUE. The ... has also been moved sooner to where use_pictureGrob used to be in the argument order so the arguments width, height, depth, op_scale, op_angle, default.units, envir, name, gp, and vp must now always be named arguments (instead of positional arguments).

• The pp_cfg() R6 class public method get_shadow_fn() which was deprecated in v1.10.1 (2022-02-22) has been removed. The public method get_op_grob() returns the complete oblique projection grob.
• animate_pieces()'s annotate argument must now always be set as a named argument (or rely on its default value). Setting it positionally was deprecated in v1.10.3 (2022-03-23).

Deprecated features

• The use of the command-line utility pdffonts (usually found in poppler-utils) in get_embedded_font() is now deprecated. Please install the suggested R package {pdftools} (we now preferably use its pdf_fonts() function instead).

New features

• The following enhancements to the configurations returned by game_systems():

• New configuration dice_d4 which provide four-sided dice in six color schemes (color controlled by their suit). Tetrahedrons with the rank as a numeral at the top point (#286).

• New configuration dice_numeral which provide six-sided dice with numerals instead of pips in six color schemes (#311).
• New configuration dice_d8 which provide eight-sided dice in six color schemes (color controlled by their suit). Octahedrons with the rank as a numeral at the top face (#312).
• New configuration dice_d10 which provide ten-sided dice in six color schemes (color controlled by their suit). Pentagonal trapezohedrons with the rank as a numeral at the top face. The rank of ten is represented by a zero (#315).
• New configuration dice_d10_percentile which provide ten-sided dice in six color schemes (color controlled by their suit). Pentagonal trapezohedrons with the rank as a numeral followed by a zero at the top face. The rank of ten is represented by a zero (#322).
• New configuration dice_d12 which provide twelve-sided dice in six color schemes (color controlled by their suit). Dodecahedrons with the rank as a numeral at the top face (#316).
• New configuration dice_d20 which provide twenty-sided dice in six color schemes (color controlled by their suit). Icosahedrons with the rank as a numeral at the top face (#317).

• New configurations dominoes_chinese and dominoes_chinese_black which provide Chinese dominoes and Asian-style dice. dominoes_chinese has a white background with black and red pips while dominoes_chinese_black has a black background with white and red pips (#308).

• save_print_and_play() now uses {xmpdf} to embed bookmarks, documentation info, and XMP metadata into the pdf files generated by save_print_and_play().

• The suggested package {xmpdf} is now required to embed metadata.

• If available it will continue to use ghostscript to embed bookmarks and documentation info but can now also fallback to using pdftk to embed bookmarks and documentation info.
• Can now use exiftool to embed XMP metadata including document license information.
• save_print_and_play() will now inform users if unable to embed metadata into the generated pdf file. These messages have class "piecepackr_embed_metadata" and can also be suppressed by setting options(piecepackr.metadata.inform = FALSE).

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• Fixes a misrendering bug when using the new affine transformation feature that affected a small subset of game piece faces (#309).
• Border lines in oblique projected pyramids are now correctly made thicker/thinner when scale is different from 1 (#310).
• pp_shape()'s gridlines() and shape() methods takes new argument mat_width which can be used to shrink them (to not overlap/extend past a target "mat" effect) for most shapes that support a "mat" effect (but not "halma" or "roundrect" shapes which will quietly ignore the mat_width argument). This is now used in the default grob functions.
• The "kite" shape returned by pp_shape("kite") can now be adjusted by its theta and radius arguments.

• The following enhancements to the configurations returned by game_systems():

• The dice in chess1 and chess2 now have larger chess symbols (#318).

• In dual_piecepacks_expansion:

  • The border color for "Moons" dice and pawns is now "black" instead of "grey40".
  • The "Moons" suit color is now "black" instead of "grey30" for "board_face" pieces.

• In piecepack

  • The "Moons" suit color is now "black" instead of "grey30" except for "bit" and "matchstick" pieces.
  • The "Moons" suit color is now "grey30" instead of "black" for "bit" pieces.

• In piecepack_inverted:

  • Pieces no longer have a "mat" effect except for the "tile_back"
  • The edges of "coin" and "tile" pieces are now "white".
  • The "coin_face" and "card_back" backgrounds are now "grey30" instead of "black".
  • The "Moons" "board_face" and "matchstick" suit colors are now "black" instead of "grey30".

• In playing_cards_expansion:

  • The "Clubs" suit color is now "grey30" for "matchstick" pieces.
  • The "Clubs" and "Spades" suit color is now "grey30" for "bit" pieces.

piecepackr 1.12.2

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• In save_print_and_play() we fix rotation of pawn layout when bleed = FALSE and size is not "4x6".
• The default function used to create game pieces for use with the {rayrender} graphics system (via the piece() function) has been updated to handle some breaking changes in the arguments for rayrender::obj_model() (#304).
• piece_mesh() has been updated to handle some breaking changes in {rayvertex} (#307).

piecepackr 1.12.0

New features

• save_print_and_play() now supports new argument size_bleed to add an additional "bleed zone" to the edges of the print-and-play output size:

• A list with names "top", "right", "bottom", "left" containing numeric values indicating the inches "bleed" to add to the size of the print-and-play layout.

• The default NULL means no such bleed added to "letter", "A4", and "A5" size layouts and a small bleed added to "4x6" size layouts (1/16" to top/bottom and 3/32" to left/right). Light prototyping at my local photo print service indicates adding such a bleed delivers better results for 4x6 photo prints but your results my vary.
• Multiply millimeters by 0.0393700787 to convert to inches.
• We currently don't support an asymmetric left/right bleed combined with arrangement = "double-sided".
• Not to be confused with the bleed argument which if TRUE switches to an alternative layout which adds a bleed zone and crop marks around the game pieces.

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• Default resolution when generating bitmap images with save_print_and_play() is now 300 pixels per inch.
• Fixes the "hexpack" configuration returned by game_systems().

piecepackr 1.11.1

Breaking changes

• Some tweaks to the "bleed" zone feature introduced in v1.10.1:

• In grid.piece() / pieceGrob() if bleed = TRUE and width or height is not NA then width / height is now interpreted as the size of the piece before "bleed" zone is added.

• A non-unitary scale factor will now be applied to piece dimensions before "bleed" zone is added.

• If one of the "named slots" of the {grid} "grob" returned by a custom grob_with_bleed_fn function is bleed then pieceGrob() / grid.piece() will adjust that grob's bleed slot to the requested "bleed" zone margins.

• There were some tweaks on how custom function style elements (i.e. grob_fn, op_grob_fn, grob_with_bleed_fn, obj_fn, rayrender_fn, rayvertex_fn, rgl_fn) in configurations lists are internally called by {piecepackr}. If you use custom function style elements it is possible you may be affected:

• The arguments of custom functions are now called by name (via do.call()) instead of positionally. If your custom function uses the same argument names as any of {piecepackr}'s internal custom functions then there should be no problem. The order of arguments no longer matters but the names must match the names {piecepackr} expects.

• If one of the "named slots" of the {grid} "grob" returned by a custom grob_fn function is border then pieceGrob() / grid.piece() will adjust that named slot to FALSE and manually draw new border lines whenever distorting the grob via the affine transformation feature (#277).

• If one of the "named slots" of the {grid} "grob" returned by a custom grob_fn function is flip then pieceGrob() / grid.piece() will adjust that named slot to TRUE and draw it horizontally flipped (via affine transformation feature) when drawing the "flip" side. Currently most relevant when drawing on-their-side pyramids viewed from their bottom.

• If one of the "named slots" of the {grid} "grob" returned by a custom grob_fn, op_grob_fn, or grob_with_bleed_fn function is scale then pieceGrob() / grid.piece() will adjust that named slot rather than adjusting that grob's gp slot's cex and lex values when scale != 1. If your "grob" doesn't have a named slot scale you shouldn't be affected.

• A couple pp_cfg() R6 class active bindings which were deprecated in v1.7.1 (2021-03-25) have been removed:

• cache_shadow. Use the new cache_op_fn instead.

• i_unsuit. Add one to the n_suits field instead.

New features

• cropmarkGrob() / grid.cropmark() create/draw "crop mark" grobs (#262). Intended for use in creating print-and-play layouts.

• save_print_and_play() supports new argument bleed (#259). If bleed = TRUE we provide a new print-and-play layout with 1/8" bleed zones and "crop marks" indicating where to cut the pieces. Currently this feature only supports pieces = "piecepack", does not support size = "4x6", and requires more paper than the more compact legacy bleed = FALSE layout.

• geom_piece(), grid.piece(), pieceGrob(), pp_cfg()$get_grob(), and pp_cfg()$get_op_grob() now support argument type = "transformation" which uses the new affine transformation feature introduced in R 4.2.

This should be a faster alternative to the existing "picture" and "raster" types when wishing to "faithfully" draw game pieces outside their "normal" (viewport) sizes and/or dilate them in x/y directions but will only work in select graphic devices in R 4.2 (or later). You can tell if the active graphic device supports the affine transformation feature with isTRUE(dev.capabilities()$transformations).

• grid.piece() / pieceGrob() now has support for drawing two-sided tokens stood up on one of their sides i.e. ("top", "left", "right", or "base") in an oblique projection (#272).

grid.piece() / pieceGrob()` now also draws more sides of die and pyramid pieces when drawn in an oblique projection (#173, #257).

Fully rendering the visible sides of the pieces requires the new "affine transformation" feature which is only supported in select graphic devices in R 4.2 (most notably the "cairo" family of devices). If this feature is not detected we will output an inform() message() of class "piecepackr_affine_transformation" and fall back to either a grImport2::pictureGrob() or grid::polygonGrob() alternative. These messages may be suppressed by setting options(piecepackr.at.inform = FALSE).

• pp_cfg()'s die_arrangement "style" now supports comma-separated strings of six integers optionally followed by a ^, <, v, > which can be used to completely customize the arrangement of faces on six-sided dice (#175). The die_arrangement "style" continues to also support the values "counter_up", "opposites_sum_to_5", and "counter_down" (default) which provide aliases for three popular arrangements.

• The following enhancements to the configurations returned by game_systems():

• New configuration dice_fudge which provide Fudge dice in six color schemes (#287).

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• The op_angle, op_scale, alpha, and scale arguments of pieceGrob() / grid.piece() are now vectorized.
• The op_scale threshold when pieceGrob() / grid.piece() switches from "oblique projection" mode to "orthographic projection" mode has been lowered from 0.01 to 0.0001.
• If isTRUE(capabilities("cairo")) then pp_cfg()$get_raster() now always uses png(type = "cairo").
• grid::grobCoords() now returns slightly better values for dice, pyramids, and convex two-sided tokens when projected in an oblique projection by pieceGrob() / grid.piece() (#285).
• save_print_and_play()'s pieces argument now defaults to NULL. If the size / bleed arguments support the "matchsticks" and "pyramids" pieces it defaults to c("piecepack", "pyramids", "matchsticks") (as before) and if they do not suport those pieces it defaults to just "piecepack". We are now more selective of which piecepack credits to include based on which components are in the pieces argument.
• save_print_and_play() now shuffles tile back directions (#103). If a user makes tiles by double-sided printing or folding over the "gutter" and the tile backs are not perfectly symmetric then the tile backs will now leak less information about the "direction" of the tile faces.
• The default "bleed" function (as used by pp_cfg()$get_grob_with_bleed() and pieceGrob(bleed=TRUE)) now better extends "mat" and "gridlines" from the default "grob" function (#288).
• animate_piece() now correctly handles n_pauses != 1.
• If the file argument of animate_piece() ends in ".bmp", ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".png", or ".tiff" we will now save individual images of the animation frames. file must have a "C integer format" in the filename.
• Fixes bug generating textures in save_piece_obj() if options("piecepackr.op_scale") was set to a positive number (#293).

piecepackr 1.10.3

Breaking changes

• Upcoming breaking changes in R 4.2 for grid::grobCoords() and grid::grobPoints() required changes being made in {piecepackr} as well. However {piecepackr} users probably won't need to update any of their code due to these changes (#270).:

• {piecepackr} exports new S3 grobCoords() / grobPoints() methods that works for grob objects returned by pieceGrob() and pp_cfg()$get_grob() (for type = "normal") as well as grob objects returned by pmap_piece(). They return lists of lists with (x,y) coordinates of the polygons that bound the game pieces in the format expected for grid::grobCoords() methods according to the R version number.

• Instead of grobPoints.piece() we now export the S3 method grobPoints.pp_grobCoords() and the grob objects returned by pieceGrob() and pp_cfg()$get_grob() (for type = "normal") now inherit the additional class "pp_grobCoords".

Bug fixes

• Final page in "4x6" size layout produced by save_print_and_play() is no longer incorrectly rotated from landscape to portrait mode (#269).

Deprecated features

• Using animate_piece()'s annotate argument unnamed is now deprecated. Instead either use its annotate argument named e.g. annotate = "cartesian" or instead don't provide this argument (and let it use its default TRUE value). In a future version this argument will be moved behind the ....

piecepackr 1.10.1

Breaking changes

• save_print_and_play() no longer automatically assumes that the generated print-and-play file should automatically be released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. To continue to release under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license you should set the cfg argument's spdx_id style/binding to "CC-BY-SA-4.0" (i.e. cfg$spdx_id = "CC-BY-SA-4.0") before callingsave_print_and_play()`.

• Several features that were deprecated in 2020 have been removed:

• The following utility functions have been removed:

  • checkersGrob(c, s, t, n), use pp_shape(s, t)$checkers(n, gp=gpar(fill=c)) instead.
  • concaveGrobFn(n, t, r), use pp_shape(paste0("concave", n), t, r)$shape instead.
  • convexGrobFn(n, t), use pp_shape(paste0("convex", n), t)$shape instead.
  • get_shape_grob_fn(s, t, r, b), use pp_shape(s, t, r, b)$shape instead.
  • gridlinesGrob(c, s, t, l, n), use pp_shape(s, t)$gridlines(n, gp=gpar(col=c, lex=l)) instead.
  • halmaGrob(...), use pp_shape("halma")$shape(...) instead.
  • hexlinesGrob(c, s, n), use pp_shape(s)$hexlines(n, gp=gpar(col=c)) instead.
  • kiteGrob(...), use pp_shape("kite")$shape(...) instead.
  • matGrob(c, s, t, mw, n), use pp_shape(s, t)$mat(mw, n, gp=gpar(fill=c)) instead.
  • pyramidGrob(...), use pp_shape("pyramid")$shape(...) instead.

• The following pp_cfg() R6 class public method has been removed:

  • get_pictureGrob(), use get_grob(piece_type, suit, rank, type="picture") instead.

• The following pp_cfg() "style" has been removed:

  • shadow_fn, use op_grob_fn to indicate a custom function for drawing in an oblique projection.

New features

• animate_piece() can be used to create board game animations using either the suggested package {animation} or {gifski} (#251). Adding transition effects between moves (i.e. n_transitions > 0) requires the suggested package {tweenr}.

• scale_x_piece() and scale_y_piece() are wrappers around ggplot2::scale_x_continuous() and ggplot2::scale_y_continuous() with better defaults for board game diagrams. The functions returned by label_letter() labels with letters, label_counting() labels with counting numbers, and breaks_counting() generates breaks at the counting numbers to more easily generate (i.e. chess) algebraic notation coordinates as commonly used in board game diagrams (#252).

• The following enhancements to the configurations returned by game_systems():

• New piecepack_inverted configuration (#256). The standard piecepack with its color scheme inverted. Intended to aid in highlighting special pieces in diagrams.

• New reversi configuration (#258). "board_face" provides lined boards with colored backgrounds. "board_back" provides checkered boards. "bit_face" / "bit_back" provides circular game tokens with differently colored sides: red paired with green, black paired with white, and blue paired with yellow.

• Improvements to save_print_and_play():

• Now supports a dev argument and dev.args argument that allows one to customize which graphic device (and its arguments) is used to generate the print-and-play files.

• Now natively supports bitmap file formats "bmp", "jpeg", "png", and "tiff". but output_filename will need to have a "C integer format" in the string (e.g. "piecepack%02d.png") so it can generate multiple "pages".

• Now supports size "4x6" to create a piecepack print-and-play layout for 4x6 (photo print) size documents (#162).

  • Currently only supports pieces = "piecepack". Will throw an error if you try to create (piecepack) "pyramids", "matchsticks", or "subpack" print-and-play layouts.
  • For 4x6 photo prints will probably want to use a bitmap file format e.g. set output_filename = "piecepack%02d.png".

• The license of the generated print-and-play file is now customized by the cfg argument's spdx_id style/binding (#235). save_print_and_play() will then create a license section with that license's "full name", a URL, and in case of a Creative Commons license add a "button mark" badge. If left NULL we will now omit the license section but print a message saying we omitted it (unless quietly = TRUE).

• New argument quietly. Unless quietly = FALSE will now message() about missing metadata.

• The "title" page was tweaked and improved. In particular it should now be able to handle any license with a SPDX Identifier.

• Improvements to support adding a "bleed" zone around pieces:

• pieceGrob() and grid.piece() now support a bleed argument.

  • If bleed = TRUE we add a "bleed" zone around the piece.
  • width and height should be the width and height of the piece plus bleed zone. If width or height is NA we will add 1/8 inch bleeds (about 3.18 mm).
  • bleed = TRUE is incompatible with op_scale > 0.

• pp_cfg() now supports a grob_with_bleed_fn style that can be used to set a custom function for drawing the piece with bleed. The default grob_with_bleed_fn function tries to guess a good solid bleed color and draws it around the base piece.

• pp_cfg() supports a new spdx_id "style" and an associated active binding to update it. This is meant to refer to the SPDX Identifier for the graphical design license. save_print_and_play() can now use this field to customize the License info for the generated print-and-play layout (#235).

• spdx_license_list is a dataset for the SPDX License List. It is intended as an aid for developers writing print-and-play layout generators or board game ruleset generators.

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• render_piece() should now handle its dev.args argument properly.
• pmap_piece() now simply returns list() if its .l argument has zero length or number of rows (instead of throwing an error).
• The "saucer" pieces in game_systems()'s piecepack configurations have been improved. The suit text on the backs are better sized and the suit text has been removed from the faces.
• The "joystick" or "peg-doll" pawns now have support for piece_side = "pawn_base" with pieceGrob().

Deprecated features

The following pp_cfg() R6 class public method has been deprecated:

• get_shadow_fn(), use get_op_grob() to get complete oblique projection grob.

piecepackr 1.9.2

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• We now throw a more helpful error message if one uses save_piece_obj() on a "joystick" pawn (returned by some game_systems() configurations if pawn = "joystick"). In general we cannot save Wavefront OBJ files for "composite" pieces such as "joystick" pawns although "peg-doll" pawns are an exception.

piecepackr 1.9.1

New features

• New piece_mesh() function that creates {rayvertex} objects (#247).

• Requires suggested package {rayvertex}.

• Can further customize how piece_mesh() creates {rayvertex} object by setting rayvertex_fn in pp_cfg() configuration list.

• piece_mesh can be used as the .f argument in render_piece() (#255)

• The following enhancements to the configurations returned by game_systems():

• New "alquerque" configuration that produces board/pieces for Alquerque.

• Domino configurations now support up to double-18 sets (previously supported only up to double-12).
• New "morris" configuration that can produce Three/Six/Seven/Nine/Twelve Men's Morris boards in a variety of colors (#250).

piecepackr 1.8.1

New features

• New function render_piece() renders an image of game pieces to a file or graphics device. It is a wrapper around pmap_piece() that can auto-size files and graphic devices, apply axes offsets, annotate coordinates, and set up rayrender scenes (#245).

• New function geom_piece() provides {ggplot2} bindings (#209).

• Helper function aes_piece() helps create an appropriate matching ggplot2::aes() "mapping".

• geom_piece() requires a fixed scale coordinate system with an aspect ratio of 1 as provided by ggplot2::coord_fixed().
• geom_piece() also requires that cfg is a character vector (and not a pp_cfg() object). In particular if using op_transform() one should set its argument cfg_class = "character" if intending for use with geom_piece().

• Requires Suggested package {ggplot2}.

• New function aabb_piece() which calculates axis-aligned bounding box (AABB) for set of game pieces with and without an "oblique projection".

• New function has_font() which returns TRUE or FALSE if it detects a given font is provided by the OS. Needs either 1) Suggested package {systemfonts} or 2) R compiled with "cairo" support plus system tool pdffonts installed.
• The R6 object returned by pp_shape() now has a new pattern() method that fills the shape with a specified pattern. Requires the suggested package {gridpattern} (#228).
• pieceGrob() and grid.piece() now support a new type argument which modifies which type of grid grob is used. Can be either "normal" (default), "picture", or "raster". "picture" exports to (temporary) svg and re-imports as a grImport2::pictureGrob. "raster" exports to (temporary) png and re-imports as a grid::rasterGrob. The latter two can be useful if drawing pieces really big or small and don't want to mess with re-configuring fontsizes and linewidths.

• Now defaults for the following piecepackr function arguments may now be set globally via base::options():

• piecepackr.cfg Sets a new default for the cfg argument.

• piecepackr.default.units Sets a new default for the default.units argument.
• piecepackr.envir Sets a new default for the envir argument.
• piecepackr.op_angle Sets a new default for the op_angle argument.
• piecepackr.op_scale Sets a new default for the op_scale argument.
• piecepackr.trans Sets a new default for the trans argument.

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• If the suggested package {readobj} is installed then the default piece3d() method will import Wavefront OBJ files with readobj::read.obj() instead of rgl::readOBJ(). In particular readobj::read.obj() can successfully triangulate the "meeple" shape and the "roundrect" shape (#220).
• Fixes bug when setting alpha transparency parameter in grid.piece() / pieceGrob().
• game_systems() now provides a message() if style = "dejavu" and has_font("Dejavu Sans") is FALSE.
• Fixes bug in picturePieceGrobFn() when its filename_fn argument does not support a cfg argument.

Deprecated features

The use_pictureGrob argument of pieceGrob() and grid.piece() is now deprecated in favor of the new type argument. Use type = "picture" instead of use_pictureGrob = TRUE.

piecepackr 1.7.2

• No user-facing changes (we bumped the rgl package requirement to 0.106.8 in order to avoid a bug introduced by 0.106.6).

piecepackr 1.7.1

Breaking changes

The following changes in pp_cfg() configuration lists seem unlikely to affect any users (but theoretically could do so):

• By default "card_back" is now assumed to lack a "rank". To re-allow the appearance of "card_back" pieces to differ by rank set the new lacks_rank style of pp_cfg() to a character vector that does not include "card_back".
• A "piece_side" that is assumed to lack rank now is imputed a rank equal to n_ranks + 1L when drawn (instead of 0) and for a "piece_side" that is assumed to have a rank we impose an assumption that the rank will not exceed n_ranks + 2L (replacing with n_ranks + 2L if more than that). This now mirrors the pre-existing behaviour with suits. For example if n_ranks is set to 6 then the style background_color.r7 = "blue" will set the background color for pieces that lack a rank to "blue".

New features

• Function game_systems() pawn argument now supports a "joystick" value (#183). This allows one to draw a "joystick" style "pawn_top" in {grid}, {rgl}, and {rayrender} with the "piecepack" game system configurations.

• Currently Wavefront OBJ export is not supported for "joystick" pawns.

• Other pawn "sides" (e.g. "pawn_face") are not supported in grid.piece() / pieceGrob() but are supported in piece3d() (rgl) and piece() (rayrender).

• You may find it useful to set as_top = "pawn_face" in op_transform() (when using pmap_piece()).

• The configuration lists supported by pp_cfg() now support two new "styles" (#237):

• lacks_rank: a character vector of "piece_side"'s that we should assume do not vary by rank. By default these are the piecepack components that do not vary by rank plus "card_back".

• lacks_suit: a character vector of "piece_side"'s that we should assume do not vary by suit. By default these are the piecepack components that do not vary by suit plus "card_back".

• pp_cfg() objects now make their cache available as a public field named cache (#242):

• The cache can be replaced with a different cache that obeys the cachem package cache API. In particular one could choose replace it with cachem::cache_mem() to cap the amount of memory that can used by the cache. Note our cache uses keys that include hyphens and underscores which older versions of the cachem package did not support.

• Each pp_cfg() has a random prefix so (with a high probability) multiple objects could theoretically share the same cache.

• The default cache is a memory cache that does not prune. It has a reset() method which clears it.

• The function that can be passed into the filename_fn argument of picturePieceGrobFn() can now accept an optional fifth argument named cfg that will (if present) be passed a pp_cfg() object.

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• Can now draw "top", "left", "right", and "base" "edge" sides of two-sided tokens in grid (grid.piece() / pieceGrob()) if not using an 3D oblique projection (op_scale over 0) (#135).

• These "edge" sides are not properly supported in grid.piece() / pieceGrob() (grid) when using a 3D oblique projection (op_scale over 0) but are supported in piece3d() (rgl) and piece() (rayrender).

• The "peg-doll" pawn (available via game_systems() pawn argument) now has basic support for a piecepack "pawn_top" in grid (#184). Previously only had support in rgl and rayrender.

• Piecepack pyramid dimensions have been fixed to better reflect their actual physical size (#241). Their layout in the print-and-play layouts produced by save_print_and_play() has also been updated.
• The appearance of piecepack pyramids returned by game_systems() now more closely resemble the original piecepack pyramids.
• AA_to_R() is now more robust to minor numerical errors in axis_x and axis_y values.
• Fixed bug in op_transform() when calculating "z"-coordinate when a piece overlaps with multiple pieces and the "latest" one isn't actually the "highest" one.
• pp_cfg() objects now store more information in their internal lists (which can be exported via as.list()) including any inferred n_ranks and n_suits.
• pp_cfg()'s print() method now sorts fields by name and collapses vectors into a single string.
• Several of pp_cfg()'s R6 class's fields are now active bindings.
• Fixed bug when setting custom pp_cfg() configuration list "rgl_fn" values.

Deprecated features

The following pp_cfg() R6 class active bindings are now deprecated:

• cache_shadow. Use the new cache_op_fn instead.
• i_unsuit. Add one to the n_suits field instead.

piecepackr 1.6.5

No user-facing changes (we tweak our examples/tests so R CMD check passes without issue on CRAN's new 'M1mac' build).

piecepackr 1.6.3

New features

• Function game_systems() now returns the following new configurations:

• "go" to make "board" and "stone" "bit" pieces in six colors (#169, #176).

• "chess1", "chess2" to make "board", "die", and "bit" chess pieces in six colors (#167). "chess1"'s "board" has 1" cells while "chess2"'s "board" has 2" cells. Currently the chess piece's are print-and-play style discs instead of 3D Staunton style pieces.

• New alternative Wavefront OBJ file generating functions intended to be used with the obj_fn attribute in pp_cfg() "configuration lists":

• save_ellipsoid_obj() creates an ellipsoid piece colored with that piece's background_color. Currently used for the go "stones" in game_systems() "go" configuration. Could also be used for colored "marble / ball" pieces (#176).

• save_peg_doll_obj() creates a "peg doll" piece colored with that piece's edge_color and with a "pawn belt" around its "waist" controlled by that suit and rank's belt_face component (#184).

• Function game_systems() now accepts new argument round. If TRUE then the (retangular) tiles and cards will have a "roundrect" shape instead of a "rect" shape (the default) (#226). NB. piece3d (rgl bindings) currently cannot import the "roundrect" shape.

• Function game_systems() now accepts new argument pawn. If "token" (the default) piecepack pawns are a two-sided token with a "halma" shape. If "peg-doll" then piecepack pawns will be a "peg doll" with a "pawn belt" (#184). NB. grid.piece (grid bindings) currently cannot draw the "peg-doll" style pawn.

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• The center of the "face" and "joker" cards in the "playing_cards", "playing_cards_colored", and "playing_cards_tarot" configurations returned by game_systems() now have simple graphics using this packages built-in meeple shape (#193).
• The "playing_cards_tarot" configuration returned by game_systems() now supports a 15th "Joker" "rank" for the first four "suits". This means all the Playing cards in Unicode now has a corresponding card in the "playing_cards_tarot" configuration (suggested Joker mapping is "White" = suit 1, "Black" = suit 2, and "Red" = suit 4)
• Fixes a bug in the oblique projection of piece "backs" of thick convex-curved 2-sided tokens.
• pmap_piece() now simply returns list() if its output has zero observations.
• file2grob() fixes a bug when importing images using the magick package (currently any image that is not PNG, JPEG, or SVG).
• Fixes bug in save_piece_obj(): if multiple graphics devices are open it should no longer accidentally switch the "active" device (#239).
• The piecepack "matchsticks" page generated by save_print_and_play() now does six copies of the "matchstick_face" component for six ranks and four suits. It used to do four copies of the "matchstick_face" and "matchstick_back" component for six ranks and five suits but a "standard" set of matchsticks is six copies. If there is sufficient space it will also add some additional (piecepack) dice (#194).

piecepackr 1.5.1

Breaking changes

There are no user-facing breaking changes in piecepackr's API but the internal grid structure of the grobs drawn/returned by grid.piece(), pieceGrob(), and pmap_piece() have been changed to make it easier to query or edit the grid graphics post initial drawing with functions like grid::grid.get(), grid::grid.edit(), grid::grid.reorder() etc. (#205).

• The "grob" returned by grid.piece() and pieceGrob() now has a "piece" class and "named slots" which match the arguments of grid.piece().
• The new "piece" class grob only generates its content to draw at drawing time, one must use grid::grid.force() to view/edit its internal grob "children".
• The internal grob layout for included grob functions are better named and structured to more easily generate a matching grid::gPath.
• grobPoints() methods have been written for the "grob" returned by grid.piece() / pieceGrob() and the "grob" returned by pmap_piece().
• If no unique name in .l then pmap_piece() will now generate/replace a unique name by concatenating piece. with a unique id if it exists or if it does not then by row number in order to better label the "children" of the returned gTree grob object (#223).

Deprecated functions

The following utility functions have been deprecated in favor of methods provided by the new pp_shape() object:

• checkersGrob(c, s, t, n), use pp_shape(s, t)$checkers(n, gp=gpar(fill=c)) instead.
• concaveGrobFn(n, t, r), use pp_shape(paste0("concave", n), t, r)$shape instead.
• convexGrobFn(n, t), use pp_shape(paste0("convex", n), t)$shape instead.
• get_shape_grob_fn(s, t, r, b), use pp_shape(s, t, r, b)$shape instead.
• gridlinesGrob(c, s, t, l, n), use pp_shape(s, t)$gridlines(n, gp=gpar(col=c, lex=l)) instead.
• halmaGrob(...), use pp_shape("halma")$shape(...) instead.
• hexlinesGrob(c, s, n), use pp_shape(s)$hexlines(n, gp=gpar(col=c)) instead.
• kiteGrob(...), use pp_shape("kite")$shape(...) instead.
• matGrob(c, s, t, mw, n), use pp_shape(s, t)$mat(mw, n, gp=gpar(fill=c)) instead.
• pyramidGrob(...), use pp_shape("pyramid")$shape(...) instead.

New features

• New function pp_shape() returns an R6 object that provides the following methods to create various grobs for all the "shape"'s supported by pp_cfg():

• shape() returns a grob of the shape.

• mat() returns a grob of a matting "mat" within the shape. Its argument mat_width controls how "wide" the matting should be.
• gridlines() returns a grob of "gridlines" within the shape.
• checkers() returns a grob of "checkers" within the shape.
• hexlines() returns a grob of "hexlines" within the shape.

• polyclip() returns a grob that is an "intersection", "minus", "union", or "xor" of another grob. Note unlike gridGeometry::polyclipGrob it can directly work with a pieceGrob "clip grob" argument.

• Default functions used by save_piece_obj(), piece3d(), piece() now support a "top", "base", "left", and "right" side for the two-sided token components: "bit", "board", "card", "matchstick", "pawn", "saucer", and "tile" (#135).

• Function game_systems() now returns a "meeple" configuration with "standard" meeple "bit" pieces (#232).

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• pp_cfg() now supports a "roundrect" (rounded rectangle) shape (#214, #229). Curvature of the corners are controlled by the shape_r style.
• pp_cfg() now supports a "meeple" shape (#104). Meeple coordinates were extracted from Meeple icon by Delapouite / CC BY 3.0.
• pp_cfg() now supports setting multiple styles by using a greater-than-length-one vectors (as well as continuing to support previously-supported comma-separated strings).
• The default OBJ generating function (used by the default rgl and rayrender functions) now produces six-faced cubes for the dice component (#186).
• R_to_AA() now always returns an axis-angle parameterization with positive axis_z value (#219).
• Fixes bug in R_to_AA() for some 3D rotations with an "exactly" 180 degree angle (in the axis-angle representation).
• AA_to_R() now accepts an optional axis_z argument and automatically normalizes the axis vector. In particular R_to_AA(AA_to_R(...)) can now be used to normalize alternative axis-angle parameterizations with non-unit axis vectors and/or negative axis_z values.
• Improved drawing of oblique projection edges for the "oval" shape (#212) and the "halma" shape (#213).
• In oblique projection obscured edges are now drawn in case of transparent backgrounds (#221).
• is_color_invisible() will now correctly classify as "invisible" colors with an alpha channel value set to 0.
• The named list returned by pp_cfg()$get_piece_opt() now also contains a back value indicating whether this is a back of a piece (and hence for some shapes may need to be flipped across a vertical line) and a bleed_color value indicating a good color for a "bleed" effect (e.g. for print-and-play layouts) (#211).
• Fixes bug in "circle" shape "mat" when drawn in a non-square grid viewport.
• Fixes bug in op_transform() for pieces whose "shape" is a non-symmetric (across vertical axis) polygon.
• grid.piece() and pmap_piece() now returns the grob invisibly if draw=TRUE as documented (while continuing to draw the grob to the active graphics device).
• By default piece3d() will now try to infer a reasonable textype value by manually checking the png texture's alpha channel.

piecepackr 1.4.1

New features

• save_piece_obj(), piece3d() and piece() now have support for 3D rotations of pieces (#188) using an axis-angle representation parameterized by arguments angle, axis_x, and axis_y.
• New functions AA_to_R() and R_to_AA() convert back and forth between the axis-angle representation used by piecepackr and 3D rotation matrices (post-multiplied).
• New functions R_x(), R_y(), and R_z() create simple 3D rotation matrices (post-multiplied) for rotations around the x, y, and z axes.
• Newly exported geometry helper functions to_degrees() and to_radians() convert back and forth between degrees and radians.

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• pp_cfg() now supports new obj_fn, rayrender_fn, and rgl_fn styles allowing further piece customization within the 3D graphics functions save_piece_obj(), piece(), and piece3d() respectively (#200).
• piece3d() now supports user manually setting the piece's rgl "material" textype argument. When textures with alpha transparency are not needed then setting textype to "rgb" avoids a rglWebGL rendering bug (#187).
• Utility function get_shape_grob_fn() now has a back argument to indicate we are drawing the back of the shape and should reflect it across a vertical axis (#218).
• Some bug fixes and enhancements in the Wavefront OBJ export for certain shapes (#207, #208, #215).

piecepackr 1.3.1

New features

• Graphic functions now support more game pieces:
• board_face, board_back for representing boards (#153).
• card_face, card_back for representing cards (#124).
• bit_face, bit_back for representing miscellaneous game pieces (#155).
• Function game_systems() now returns more game systems:
• dice: Normal six-sided pipped dice in six color schemes (#166).
• checkers1, checkers2: Checkered boards and checkers. checkers1 has 1" cells and checkers2 has 2" cells (#168).
• dominoes, dominoes_black, dominoes_blue, dominoes_green, dominoes_red, dominoes_white, dominoes_yellow: Traditional Double-12 pipped dominoes in various color schemes (#159).
• playing_cards, playing_cards_colored, playing_cards_tarot (#170):
  • playing cards is a traditional (French-suited) deck of (Poker) playing cards.
  • playing_cards_colored has five suits: red hearts, black spades, green clubs, blue diamonds, and yellow stars.
  • playing_cards_tarot is a (French Bourgeois) tarot deck with four suits (hearts, spades, clubs, diamonds) with 14 ranks (including knights) plus 22 trump cards (1-21 plus an "excuse").
• New function save_piece_obj() for writing Waveform OBJ files (and associated MTL files and png textures) (#189, #190). Note support for dice and pawns are currently rather crude.
• New function piece3d() for making graphics with the rgl package (#76).
• New function piece() for making rayrender objects.

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• Configuration lists now support an "oval" shape (#182).
• Improved drawing of oblique projection edges for "concave" polygons (stars) and non-regular "convex" polygons (#174).
• Improved drawing of pyramids in the 3D oblique projection (#172).
• Fixes bug in op_transform() when sorting tile faces rotated in various directions (#163).
• op_transform() now accepts new argument pt_thicknessfor improved handling of stacked pyramid (tops).
• The edge_color for dice, pawns, and pyramids now defaults to the background color of piece_side.
• The edge_color for matchsticks now defaults to the background color of the matchstick_back.
• Font sizes and locations of piecepack matchsticks in game_systems() made more "standard".
• pmap_piece() now supports an .f function to specify the function to apply to the rows of the data frame. By default it uses the (backwards-compatible) pieceGrob.
• pp_cfg()$get_depth() now has better depth calculation for pyramid faces (representing laid down pyramids).
• pp_cfg() now supports a new op_grob_fn style indicating which function to draw pieces with when drawing with a 3D oblique projection in grid. The older shadow_fn style alternative is now deprecated.
• grid.piece() (and pieceGrob()) now support a scale and alpha argument (#201).

Deprecated features

The following pp_cfg() R6 class public method is now deprecated:

• get_pictureGrob(). Use get_grob(piece_type, suit, rank, type="picture") instead.

The following pp_cfg "style" is now deprecated:

• shadow_fn. Use the new op_grob_fn instead.

Breaking changes

• The function game_systems() no longer returns an icehouse_pieces configuration. Configurations for Looney Pyramids can be found at https://github.com/piecepackr/piecenikr

piecepackr 1.2.1

New features

• New function picturePieceGrobFn() which returns a "grob" function that imports graphics from files found in its directory argument (#152).

• New function game_systems() which returns a list of configuration objects for multiple game systems (#157):

• dual_piecepacks_expansion: A companion piecepack with a special suit scheme. See https://trevorldavis.com/piecepackr/dual-piecepacks-pnp.html.

• hexpack: A hexagonal extrapolation of the piecepack designed by Nathan Morse and Daniel Wilcox. See https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/35424/hexpack.

• piecepack: A public domain game system invented by James "Kyle" Droscha. See http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki. Configuration also contains the following piecepack accessories:

  • piecepack matchsticks: A public domain accessory developed by Dan Burkey. See http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki/PiecepackMatchsticks.
  • piecepack pyramids: A public domain accessory developed by Tim Schutz. See http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki/PiecepackPyramids.
  • piecepack saucers: A public domain accessory developed by Karol M. Boyle at Mesomorph Games. See https://web.archive.org/web/20190719155827/http://www.piecepack.org/Accessories.html
  • playing_cards_expansion: A piecepack with the standard "French" playing card suits. See http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki/PlayingCardsExpansion.
  • subpack: A "mini" piecepack. Designed to be used with the piecepack to make piecepack "stackpack" diagrams. See http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki/StackPack.

• Helper functions to_subpack() and to_hexpack() which given a piecepack configuration attempts to generate an appropriate matching (piecepack stackpack) subpack and hexpack (#161).

• New function file2grob() that imports a given image file as a grob.

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• Guesses made by op_transform() for whether two pieces overlap are now more accurate (#150).
• Fixes bug in op_transform() when computing bounding box for shapes when width and height are not equal.
• Fixes bug in op_transform() for inferring width/height of matchsticks and shape/depth of pyramids.
• Fixes bug in printing pp_cfg objects when a custom grob function had been set.
• Fixes bug in setting individual suit colors with configurations list styles like suit_color.s2="white"
• pp_cfg() objects' get_suit_color() function is now vectorized (and by default now returns the suit colors for each suit).

piecepackr 1.1.1

• New helper function op_transform() and new pmap_piece() argument trans to facilitate making graphics with an oblique projection (#138).
• Fixes bug when drawing non-regular-dimensioned "convex" shapes in an oblique 3D projection (#149)

piecepackr 1.0.2

• Initial "stable" release.

New features

• save_print_and_play() function now supports adding piecepack pyramids (#37), matchsticks (#69), and subpacks (aka "travel" piecepacks) (#129) to the print-and-play layout.
• Now supports drawing most pieces with a simple 3D oblique projection (#76).
• New pp_cfg() function (and R6 class) which on-the-fly builds a cache to speed up component drawing (#112, #122). Can also signal to rule diagram functions whether the piecepack lacks certain components (#130).
• Now exports several additional utility functions for those who would like to use their own custom draw function (#116). See help("pp_utils"), help("grob_fn_helpers"), and help("grid.piece") for more info.

Breaking changes

• component_opt color names are now _color instead of _col to better match "configuration lists".
• draw_component has been renamed grid.piece() (and many of its arguments vectorized) and draw_components has been renamed pmap_piece()(#123).
• make_images has been renamed save_piece_images() and make_pnp has been renamed save_print_and_play().
• The function arguments component_side, i_r, and i_s have been renamed piece_side, rank, and suit.
• Lots of configuration list style names were changed (#95, #121, #140).
• All executable Rscripts have been removed (#113).
• make_collection and make_preview functions removed.
• load_configurations and read_configuration functions removed.
• make_pnp print-and-play layouts have been radically re-configured and renamed to save_print_and_play (#54).
• Non-standard chip component no longer supported by piecepackr (#114)
• 'hexlines' and 'checkers' no longer supported by base piecepackr configuration (#115). NB. Can still add checkers and hexlines via a custom drawing function.
• make_pnp now gets deck title from the configuration element title (#118)
• ribbons are now mat (as in picture frame 'matting') (#117)
• Default pawn "belt" width is now ¾π" (#105).
• Default pawn "saucer" width is now ¾" and they now have a 'mat' coloring on the edge (#105)
• draw_preview function has been removed. Can now do grid.piece("preview_layout", cfg=cfg).
• Demos moved to companion website: https://trevorldavis.com/piecepackr

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• Bug in get_embedded_font() function fixed.
• save_print_and_play() function now supports the A5 page size and is more A4 page size friendly (#54).
• Can now specify fontface (#121) as well as width, height, and depth (#106) in configuration lists.
• Removed some package dependencies.
• pmap_piece() now supports angle=NA and grid.piece() no longer draws different output for components like tile_back if you specify a suit or rank (#120).
• "configuration lists" now support credit, copyright, and description fields which add extra info to the new "credit", "copyright", and "description" sections of the print-and-play layout.
• "configuration lists" now support coin_arrangement (#136).
• Also if ghostscript installed will automatically embed metadata in the print-and-play pdf (#93).
• "configuration lists" now support border_lex and gridline_lex to allow customizing the width of the border and grid lines.
• save_piece_images()'s format argument is now vectorized.
• save_print_and_play() can now save a print-and-play "svg" and "ps" file (besides "pdf").
• grid.piece() no longer throws a warning when use_pictureGrob==TRUE and angle!=0 (#148).

piecepackr 0.11.0

New features

• Can draw pyramid_face, pyramid_left, pyramid_left, pyramid_right, pyramid_top, and pyramid_layout components (progress on #37).
• Can draw matchstick_face and matchstick_back components (progress on #69)
• Can draw pawn_layout, die_layoutLF, die_layoutRF, suitdie_layoutLF, suitdie_layoutRF`',suitrankdie_layoutLF, andsuitrankdie_layoutRF`` components (#101)

piecepackr 0.10.0

• Generalized star shape to concave# and # shape to convex# shape (#100). Added "pyramid" triangle shape (progress on #37).
• New draw_components() function allows one to draw several piecepack components specified in a data frame (#96).
• New load_configurations() function allows one to load in several JSON configuration files and/or internal piecepackr configurations in a layered (cascading) manner (#81).
• Made several non-reverse-compatible API changes to configuration and piecepack image making functions and scripts.

• Increased the width of a pawn belt from 1.5" to 2" (so can fit around a 5/8" diameter pawn).

• Changed the "light"-french-suited symbols in the "dual" demo from "black" symbols to "white" symbols. Thanks Ron-Hale Evans for the suggestion.

• Changed default color scheme

piecepackr 0.9.0

• Added get_embedded_font() function and executable (#80).
• Dropped pdfjoin from list of system dependencies (#77).

• Added ability to configure by individual suits and/or ranks (#44).

• Added Yellow Crowns demo (#53)

piecepackr 0.8.0

• Added make_piecepack_images executable (#48). Renamed other executables and functions in API.
• Shrunk the pawn down to ½" by ⅞" and made them directional by default (#50).
• Exported component drawing function draw_component (#3, #58).
• Allow styles by general component (#57) and open up primary symbol theta and r (#51).
• Document exported functions in Rd pages.

• Option to configure piecepack dice arrangement (#13)

• Expanded Rainbow Deck demo (#64).

• Fixed bugs in "orthodox" pawns (#62).

piecepackr 0.7.1

• Added --border_color configuration option and fix bug in PnP border colors (#42).
• Added --header_font, --dm_r, --dm_r.*, and --suit_colors.* options.
• Added (or improved) --checker_colors, --gridline_colors, and --hexline_colors options.
• Renamed --background_color option to --background_colors which can now vary by suit (#52)
• Added --shape, --shape_theta, --shape.*, and --shape_theta.* options.
• Add new and rename existing pdf metadata options in exec/collect_piecepacks.
• Improved "preview" layout.
• Added additional suit die to accessories pages.

• Fix bug in the "suit-rank" die for 5-suited piecepacks (#41).

• Added Crown and Anchor suited piecepacks demo (#46).

• Added Rainbow Deck suited piecepack demo (#47).
• Added Reversi-friendly piecepack demo (#21).
• Added Chess-ranked piecepack demo (#24).

• Added Hex-friendly piecepack demo.

• Fix bugs in "orthodox" demo (#43).

• Tweaked configuration in "dual" demo so first two decks are more compatible with other decks.
• Tweaked fonts in all demos.
• Added Simplified Hanzi decks to Chinese zodiac demo.
• Tweaked "chip" shape in orthodox and Chineze zodiac demos.
• Tweaked background colors in 3rd hex demo.
• Tweaked background colors in 3rd crown-and-anchor demo.

piecepackr 0.7.0

• Improved print-and-play layout (#35).
• Added "Chinese zodiac" and "sixpack" demos to pre-existing "default", "dual", and "orthodox" demos (#38).

piecepackr documentation built on Sept. 11, 2024, 9:09 p.m.