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SensAI Go Devlog 0.4

SensAI Go Devlog 0.4

Hello dear early adopters,

I want to give an overview of the latest updates regarding SensAI Go, as we're nearing the end of my current sabbatical. I'll go back to work part-time starting next week (bills need to be paid after all), so updates will be a bit slower, but I have every intention of continuing to improve the platform for a long time to come.

The tldr:

  • New: Markup & Review tools
  • New: Automated Backups
  • New: SGF import & export

Markup & Review tools

SensAI Go is intended to be a learning/study platform for the game of Go, with the main innovation being the reinforcement learning approach, however that doesn't mean it's all AI-focused. I want it to become a platform for Go teachers as well, to make it as easy and convenient as possible to communicate their ideas with the community. In the last development cycle I set out to implement a first version of review and markup tools.

A short overview:

  • Quick tool wheel (and hotkeys) for lightning fast tool selection
  • Supports labels and standard SGF markers, plus area and highlight markers
  • Use privately or create shared review sessions that other users can join
  • Easily transfer control between participants
  • Chat support
  • Poll support (aka "Where would you play?")

I've published a tutorial video on how to use the new tools, please check it out and let me know what you think:

Automated backups

SensAI Go is still under heavy development, and will continue to evolve, however as more and more users join the platform I wanted to make sure that user data is safe and secure in case of disaster. So I implemented a first iteration of automated backups to make sure recovery is always possible.

Key facts:

  • Automated daily nightly dumps of my database
  • Dumps are stored on-site and off-site (in a different location)
  • Data is encrypted before it leaves the server
  • Keep last 7 daily, 4 weekly and 6 monthly dumps

SGF import/export

Before the latest updates the platform just supported downloading a finished game in SGF format, however with the introduction of the new tools SensAI Go becomes also a complete SGF editor with support for variations and markup. You can create game trees with markup from scratch (empty board) or existing games or imported SGF files, and edit and export those as well.

There are some SensAI Go specific markup options that are not supported by SGF, but you can still use and save those directly on the platform.

Outlook

As mentioned, my 3 months sabbatical is ending, and starting next week I'll return to my current position as a corporate software developer, however it will be part-time for the foreseeable future, and I'll continue to invest seriously in SensAI Go on the road to a 1.0 release. There will probably an adjustment period to my new schedule, and update frequency will drop a bit. Nevertheless I think SensAI Go has advanced massively in the past weeks and months, I'm very happy with the progress, and will continue to build on that.

Things to come sooner rather than later:

  • Time controls
  • More teaching and study tools
  • EGD API integration (experimental)
  • various QoL improvements

Thanks to all for staying in the loop, I hope you can make some time to try out the new features and provide me with feedback. And don't forget: I'm always up for a game and to show you around on SensAI Go.

Have a great day!