GNOME Chess - 3D Chess View Not Working - PLEASE HELP with GTKGLExt install

[securetech (oc)]

I have been trying to get 3D chess View to display in GNOME Chess for over an hour.

According to GNOME Chess documentation “Python OpenGL” and “Python GTKGLExt” must be installed for 3D Chess View to work for the GNOME Chess.

The following is what I did.
1: I successfully installed Python OpenGL
2: Tried to install “Python GTKGLExt” but I cant install Python GTKGLExt

I’m running on Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS Jammy. GTKGLExt is not available in the APT repository for my system. Its available in Ubuntu 18 but not my version. Can Someone please kindly be a life saver and help me get it installed on Ubuntu Jammy. As much detail as possible would be great.

Thanks
Looking forward to some help please

[mcatanzaro (Michael Catanzaro)]

Hi, the last version of GNOME Chess to support 3D mode was 3.12, so you’ll have to build that if you want to try it. I think it was a pretty cool tech demo, but it wasn’t up to modern design standards, and the chances of anyone updating the 3D artwork seemed pretty low.

I looked through the documentation, but didn’t see the references that you mention. In particular, the word “python” is not used anywhere in the user help. So I’m not sure what documentation you’re looking at.

I found this mailing list post as a reference. Looks like I was even more fond of saying “we” when I really meant “I” than I am today…

[securetech (oc)]

Hi Michael,
Thanks for updating me , so if you have a look at this page https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-chess/stable/playing-gnome-chess.html.en the page mentions “Python GTKGLExt” under View->3D Chess View.

Where can I download 3.12 maybe I’ll give it a try.

P.S I have some experience with 3D Game dev, maybe I will contribute in the future, a little busy at the moment but, maybe I can make this a weekend project. How would I go about contributing to the game?

[mcatanzaro (Michael Catanzaro)]

@securetech

Hi Michael,
Thanks for updating me , so if you have a look at this page Playing GNOME Chess the page mentions “Python GTKGLExt” under View->3D Chess View.

Ugh, what a disaster. The https://help.gnome.org is showing documentation from 2017 as if it’s the latest version. It looks like documentation updates have been broken for a long time. What a shame. Honestly we might need to consider turning the website off, as old info is arguably worse than no info.

I would look at the in-game help for a more up-to-date reference, although it’s pretty sparse.

P.S I have some experience with 3D Game dev, maybe I will contribute in the future, a little busy at the moment but, maybe I can make this a weekend project. How would I go about contributing to the game?

I’m not sure that I’ll accept a merge request to bring back the 3D support, but if you want to give it a try anyway, you’ll want to attempt to revert this commit. There will be a lot of conflicts because it’s over 8 years old, but it should be doable.