Need Help adding a difficulty option for User func

Question

Quick question, I have developed 3 A.I's each with a different depth.

Currently to choose what A.I you want to play against you have to go into the java file called Main.java and change it to whichever one you want. The line to change is:

chessGame.setPlayer(Piece.COLOR_BLACK, ai3);//Here A.I is assigned 

I want to allow the user to have an option at the start of the game to choose the A.I. I was hoping for some help with the interface, I was thinking something something like a JOptionpane might work.

(I'm just not sure how to do one for the A.I selection)

Current A.I's

ai1 ai2 ai3

package chess;
import chess.ai.SimpleAiPlayerHandler;

import chess.gui.ChessGui;
import chess.logic.ChessGame;
import chess.logic.Piece;


public class Main {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        // Creating the Game 
        ChessGame chessGame = new ChessGame();

        // Creating the Human Player 
        //Human Player is the Object chessGui
        ChessGui chessGui = new ChessGui(chessGame);
        //Creating the A.I's
        SimpleAiPlayerHandler ai1 = new SimpleAiPlayerHandler(chessGame);//Super Dumb
        SimpleAiPlayerHandler ai2 = new SimpleAiPlayerHandler(chessGame);//Dumb
        SimpleAiPlayerHandler ai3 = new SimpleAiPlayerHandler(chessGame);//Not So Dumb

        // Set strength of AI, how far they can see ahead 
        ai1.maxDepth = 1;
        ai1.maxDepth = 2;
        ai3.maxDepth = 3;

        //Assign the Human to White 
        chessGame.setPlayer(Piece.COLOR_WHITE, chessGui);
        //Assign the not so dumb A.I to black 
        chessGame.setPlayer(Piece.COLOR_BLACK, ai3);

        // in the end we start the game
        new Thread(chessGame).start();
    }

}

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

You should probably use a JComboBox to allow the user to select among the 3 options available. If you make a splash JFrame with this JComboBox you can then create your main game frame afterward and pass it the value from the JComboBox.

For example, you could have the JComboBox give options of difficulty setting Easy, Medium, and Hard. Using an action listener on a JButton get the selected value from the JComboBox and convert it to int value appropriate for your minimax algorithm. That is, pass 1 for easy, 2 for medium, and 3 for hard.

Next change your ai class so that maxDepth is in the constructor. Then when you instantiate your ai, just give it the value that was passed forward from the previous frame and you will have created the only ai you need at the right difficulty setting.

EDIT:

It looks like you managed to get something similar working which is great! In case it helps you, I have included a brief example of how I would have done this below. Note that I also set it up such that your SimpleAiPlayerHandler constructor also takes an int value for instantiating the maxDepth variable. You'll need to add this. Since it uses classes I don't have, I can't compile it. However, if anyone else needs to do something similar, just remove everything in the DifficultyListener except the print statement and the line that get's the difficulty from the JComboBox and you'll see it working (and compiling).

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

public class ChessSplash extends JFrame {
    private final JComboBox<Difficulty> difficultySetting;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                ChessSplash gui = new ChessSplash();
                gui.setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }

    public enum Difficulty {
        EASY(1, "Easy"), MEDIUM(2, "Medium"), HARD(3, "Hard");

        private final int intValue;
        private final String stringValue;

        private Difficulty(int intValue, String stringValue) {
            this.intValue = intValue;
            this.stringValue = stringValue;
        }

        @Override
        public String toString() {
            return stringValue;
        }
    };

    public ChessSplash() {
        super("Chess Game");
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        difficultySetting = new JComboBox<>(Difficulty.values());
        JButton startButton = new JButton("Start Game");
        startButton.addActionListener(new DifficultyListener());
        JPanel mainPanel = new JPanel();
        add(mainPanel);
        mainPanel.add(difficultySetting);
        mainPanel.add(startButton);
        pack();
    }

    private class DifficultyListener implements ActionListener {
        @Override
        public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
            //Declare AI
            SimpleAiPlayerHandler ai;

            //Declare and Instantiate Chess Game
            ChessGame chessGame = new ChessGame();

            //Human Player is the Object chessGui
            ChessGui chessGui = new ChessGui(chessGame);
            //Assign Human Player to White
            chessGame.setPlayer(Piece.COLOR_WHITE, chessGui);

            //Get the selected difficulty setting
            Difficulty difficulty = (Difficulty)difficultySetting.getSelectedItem();

            //Instantiate Computer AI pass it the maxDepth for use in the constructor
            ai = new SimpleAiPlayerHandler(difficulty.intValue, chessGame);
            //Assign Computer Player to Black
            chessGame.setPlayer(Piece.COLOR_BLACK, ai);
            //Demonstrate the enum combobox works
            System.out.println(difficulty.intValue);

            //Dispose of the splash JFrame
            ChessSplash.this.dispose();

            //Start your game thread (I would probably do something to move this
            //onto the EDT if you're doing this is swing personally
            new Thread(chessGame).start();
        }
    }
}