I’ve been working on my final project for my AI class. We have to write an rule-based expert system in CLIPS which plays a game of Blokus. Of course, the only things we’ve done in CLIPS thus far is a boring text based 8-puzzle solver, and entering full Blokus moves into the CLIPS command line doesn’t seem very functional. So, if I’m going to have to write the rules and such anyway, I’ve decided to write a graphical version of the game which interfaces with the CLIPS engine.

I’ve used XNA 3.0 to write and display the game’s graphics content. I’ve also used the latest CLIPS .Net release from ProAI. The work is on-going, and I’ll have to finish it by December 10th, but it’s going really, really well. I’m pretty proud of the speed at which it is being developed and will post it under the closed-sourced section of the site when it’s done.

For anyone interested, after Boot Camping my new Macbook Pro (late 2008) and loading the partition into Parallels 4.0, I was able to build and run a default XNA 3.0 project. I’m assuming because of the improvements in 4.0 and support for Shader Model 2.0. Parallels 3.0 did not have the capacity to run any XNA build because of the lack of supported “hardware” (rather ironic term when talking about visualization). Either way, I’ll post a screen shot when I get some 3D content loaded in.

So I’ve taken the plunge and splurged on the newest Macbook Pro model (late 2008). The Apple Store had the stock 2.53GHz model in, and $2700 later, I own what I affectionately call the “Cadillac of Notebooks.” I mean, honestly, what else would you call a notebook that dynamically readjusts the screen brightness based on the amount room lighting. This thing is most definitely the whhhhhhhhip!

A couple of things regarding gaming on my new rig:

1. Using Codeweavers’ “Crossover Games for Mac” to play Team Fortress 2/Half-Life 2/Counter-Strike: Source is doable; however, it’s drains the battery more than necessary, therefore, I’m going to Boot Camp the harddrive for native fraggin’.
2. Also in Crossover, all Source games were forced into using the DirectX 8.1 renderer. No need for that when I spent all this money on the dedicated Nvidia 9600M GT! I do own a copy of Parallels 4.0, but again, it, too, has to route all my gaming through a software layer first.

I loathe the thought of Boot Camp for the simple reason that I’m too dependent on Mac OS X now. Even with my first generation white Macbook, everything was extremely snappy, responsive and familiar...and mind you, when I got it in 2006, it was my first Mac ever. What the hell do I do if I want to listen to music AND play games!? Ohhhh no.

But I suppose now I must concede to the idea that no one operating system has it all. I need Windows for gaming and XNA development (pretty important stuff), and I need Mac OS X for everything else.