[HN Gopher] 3D-Printed Dune Chess Set
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3D-Printed Dune Chess Set
Author : gnabgib
Score : 164 points
Date : 2024-12-15 18:11 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (parametric-architecture.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (parametric-architecture.com)
| michaelmcdonald wrote:
| I won't discredit how beautiful this set turned out, but by my
| eyes the pieces are not particularly easy to (quickly)
| distinguish from one another (i.e. rook vs pawn vs bishop).
| Gorgeous to look at though!
| kibwen wrote:
| Upvoted because as a work of art it's beautiful and as a product
| of technology it's neat to see that printing with quartz is
| possible. But it must be said that the distinguishability of the
| pieces is lacking.
| aziaziazi wrote:
| I thought the same in picture but in the article author says he
| used different texture (one smooth and one rippled) for both
| parties. I give I'm the benefit of the doubt because fine
| texture can appear very different in reality than photo.
|
| Edit:
|
| > For a game of chess to function effectively it's crucial you
| clearly differentiate between both opposition pieces, and, the
| alternate spaces on which those pieces play. In a mono-material
| set such as this, a binary contrast between rippled and smooth
| surfaces (reflective of the contrasting states of sand) become
| the primary signifier of this difference.
| krisoft wrote:
| I see the rippling and the smooth pieces, that one is ok. For
| me what is hard to distinguish are the individual pieces from
| each other within one colour. The knight from the bishop from
| the pawn, etc. It is possible to figure them out, but at
| least for me I can't see it at a glance. I have to think
| about it and compare them. (whereas with a more traditional
| set I see it immediately)
| oarsinsync wrote:
| I think a standard set optimises for usability over
| aesthetics.
|
| I think this artwork optimises for aesthetics over
| usability.
|
| Both sets are aesthetically pleasing and usable, just to
| different degrees.
|
| I think that's ok? I've seen many chess sets whose primary
| function was aesthetic rather than to be played.
|
| The thing with aesthetics is that it's highly subjective.
| pdpi wrote:
| Insofar as one of the defining characteristics of art is
| the constraints you impose upon yourself, one of the
| fundamental constraints of making an art piece out of
| something functional is that you should either preserve
| its usability, or break it in a way that makes a
| statement. This does neither.
|
| The concept is great, the board is absolutely beautiful,
| and, at first glance, the curve is aesthetically pleasing
| while not getting in the way of reading the board.
| Texture as the "colour" works great. The figures, though,
| just look like they ran out of steam, it's like the
| "horse drawing" meme. They're not evocative of chess
| pieces, they're not particularly evocative of sand
| structures either. They're just... there. They're pretty
| enough, I guess, but in a generic way.
|
| When you add to that that the photos have an impossible
| pawn formation, it kind of screams of "I don't actually
| care about the subject of my art piece".
| JustBreath wrote:
| It would certainly could serve as a fun challenge for
| experienced chess players.
|
| But I'm let down because my chess partner is a 9 year old
| who is still learning basic strategies.
| wongarsu wrote:
| The standard set optimizes for mass production. All
| pieces except the knight can be turned on a lathe, with
| minor post-processing to cut notches in the rook and
| bishop.
|
| Older chess sets like the Lewis Chessmen from the 1200s
| look substantially different, having both better
| aesthetics and usability than the currently popular set.
| Like having a bishop that is recognizable as a bishop,
| not a medium-height round thing with a notch in the top.
|
| If you don't want to imitate the standard chess set,
| improving on it isn't that difficult as long as you don't
| care about mass production from wood. This set somehow
| manages to be worse
| krisoft wrote:
| > I think that's ok?
|
| Oh yeah. That's a reasonable tradeoff.
|
| Just aziaziazi's comment made it sound like the only
| aspect where distinguisability matters is the colour. So
| I pointed out that I don't have a problem telling the
| sides apart, while have more of a problem distinguishing
| the piece's type.
|
| But as you say this is a decorative chess set, and in
| that regard I think it is a very sucesfull one.
| aziaziazi wrote:
| Oh got it now!
| thousand_nights wrote:
| i was gifted a glass set once where black's pieces were matte
| glass and white's pieces were clear glass, so quite a
| striking texture difference
|
| it was still unplayable and more of a decoration
| amelius wrote:
| I guess you can get the same effect by just printing with good
| old PLA, and then dipping it into glue and then into sand.
| HWR_14 wrote:
| That's a great idea. Do you have any other ideas for
| finishing the other half of the pieces. Graphite seems too
| messy, and I'm not sure the different sands will look
| different enough.
|
| I imagine the details that currently (and insufficiently in
| my opinion) distinguish the colors would be obliterated.
| x_may wrote:
| There's black sand! Volcanic sand from Iceland is perfectly
| black and would be a great way to distinguish them
| michaelmior wrote:
| You can also by any color of "sand" you like at your
| local craft/hobby shop.
| sparrish wrote:
| Glue on silica carbide. It's usually darker colored and has
| a very aggressive texture (used for grips on pistol handles
| and skateboards among other things).
| dr_kiszonka wrote:
| In the spirit of Dune, you should dip them in spice
| melange. However, given current shortages, you could get
| away with using iron oxide instead.
| tigrezno wrote:
| or any PLA plastic since you're covering it in sand
| SystemOut wrote:
| Fuzzy skin finish might also get you pretty close along with
| a wood PLA. They can do both wall and top layer fuzzy skin
| now.
| Vox_Leone wrote:
| Just beautiful. We are experimenting with ceramic gelcasting
| lately[1]. It involves the use of a gel-based slurry, typically
| made by mixing ceramic powders (such as zirconia, alumina, or
| silicon carbide) with a liquid binder and a gelling agent in a
| 3D printed mold. It is a versatile manufacturing method used to
| create complex ceramic parts.
|
| Upon reading the article it occurred to me that the same method
| could be used to make those kinds of "dune core" pieces, with
| sand instead of ceramic powders. There must be a sand-binder-
| gelling solution formulation that can handle the task.
|
| [1]https://voxleone.com/2024/03/05/3d-printing-im-
| making-a-500c...
| johanneskanybal wrote:
| I mean we all saw that but the entire text was about that they
| are very different because they feel different. Doubt you read
| it.
| bbarnett wrote:
| I'd actually prefer a Dune2000 derived chess set.
| swiftcoder wrote:
| Gorgeous, but I'd love to see some actual differentiation of form
| between the various pieces - going to the obvious source of
| inspiration, sand worms, stillsuits, the rocks of the seitch, and
| the insect-like forms of the ornithopter all could lend form to
| the pieces.
| pdpi wrote:
| It's "dune" as in a pile of sand, not "Dune" as in the novel.
| swiftcoder wrote:
| Yeah, I get that, but the mental association is there
| already, might as well lean into it
| mpalmer wrote:
| Wow, I've never seen a critique backed solely by word
| association. I am guessing the artist made exactly what
| they wanted to.
| accrual wrote:
| It's a beautiful set, I like how each side was translated to
| smooth/rippled and the textures are very pleasing to look at -
| like a miniature playable cast of desert characters. I agree the
| pieces are a bit difficult to distinguish though, especially the
| queen and bishops which seem to mostly differ in height but not
| so much in form.
| thorin wrote:
| Would be nice to see a Battle Chess [1] version of this!
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Chess
| KMnO4 wrote:
| Reminding me that this was a thing was a wonderful holiday
| gift. Thank you!
| thesuitonym wrote:
| That article has the longest path to Philosophy that I've ever
| seen.
| d--b wrote:
| To me, this is the worst kind of design.
|
| 1. Aesthetics completely annihilates function. I mean good luck
| figuring the pieces apart.
|
| 2. To me it looks like shit. I mean the pieces look ok-ish (I
| don't really like the curve stuff, I think they could be a lot
| better, but ok), but the board, oh my god it's hideous. The idea
| of the curved board is so bad. ugh. It's sad though cause the
| material is awesome.
|
| Come on architects, you can do a lot better than that.
| nottorp wrote:
| > 1. Aesthetics completely annihilates function. I mean good
| luck figuring the pieces apart.
|
| It's very modern. Like those web sites that are light grey on
| darker grey. And the fact that you can't see if a square is
| white or black when a piece is on it is like they hide
| interactable elements in web 3.99 or whatever they're at now.
| spaintech wrote:
| Dito on the upvote, esthetics are pleasing and I love the
| transition of the board. Not sure if that was sand or not... but
| now in hunting for the files... would make a nice gift for a
| friend that has it all, rated at 2000+ in chest.
| voidUpdate wrote:
| I can feel the texture of that in my spine just looking at the
| pictures :/ I don't think I'd ever want to touch any of that
| CodeCompost wrote:
| Makes me think of Bugles Corn Chips.
| breckenedge wrote:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20241217125401/https://parametri...
| wklauss wrote:
| More decorative than functional but beautiful nontheless and
| could be iterated to make it a better chess set. Maybe mixing
| different types of sand as a finishing coat on the pieces?
| (vocanic and coral for the pieces and quartz sand for the board)
| cies wrote:
| There is a whole market for chessboards that are not actually
| useful.
|
| I prefer the official sizes/shapes.
| btbuildem wrote:
| The artist definitely captured the atmosphere of the recent
| movies. Bravo!
|
| One thing that immediately jumps out at me about this chessboard
| is the use of varied ground plane -- how the back rows are high
| up, whereas the middle of the board is down below. The high
| ground really evokes a sense of power of the "senior" pieces, and
| casts the middle rows below as the inevitable battleground. One
| can imagine pieces mounting an uphill attack in the later stages
| of the game. Such a simple thing, and so effective!
| idunnoman1222 wrote:
| they could've made the board have different texture as well?
| Well, there's no STL so no one will ever even be able to use this
| might as well have left it as a 3-D render
| snapetom wrote:
| Sure, the article positions it as an art piece, but you're
| right. The fact that there is no STL puts this in the "ok cool.
| Next." bucket for the the vast majority of the 3d printing
| community.
| gorbachev wrote:
| btw, on sale at https://www.sandhelden.de/product-page/dune-
| chess-set for 3490 euros.
| edm0nd wrote:
| this price point is straight delusional imo
| tigrezno wrote:
| that's normal price for art though, any rich guy can afford
| it very easily
| snapetom wrote:
| Hopefully someone puts up knock off STLs in Makersworld,
| thingiverse, etc after this.
| 0x38B wrote:
| > Amidst this decline of everyday physical sensation; the Dune
| Chess Set represents an investigation into themes of tactility
| and intimacy in an attempt to catalyse connection between users,
| their bodies, and the world around them
|
| This is either a human writing overly complex, abstract prose, or
| an LLM. I'd hoped for interesting text to accompany the
| admittedly very unique chess set, but this is just overwrought
| and abstract for no good reason.
| handsaway wrote:
| This feels very similar to the register used on placards in
| contemporary art museums to me so I don't think there's reason
| to suspect an LLM.
| 0x38B wrote:
| Hm, fair point. All the AI-mania going on has me on edge, I
| suppose.
| sleepybrett wrote:
| I was hoping that someone had created a ruleset and prop
| reproduction of the 'chess' of the dune universe 'cheops'. The
| prop from dune 2 is so great but barely seen on screen:
| https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Cheops?file=Cheops_chess_game_c...
|
| It's got a nice 'go' feel especially with the bowls of pieces,
| that engraved board is great.. just a great prop. Big ups to the
| production designers.
| cryptozeus wrote:
| Possible gameplay addition in dune chess where certain piece ends
| up on a certain square and gets eaten by the worm
| ccozan wrote:
| Btw, is there any tabletop Dune game?
| jflans wrote:
| There is - Dune Imperium
| (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/316554/dune-imperium).
| It is quite good.
| ddlutz wrote:
| I couldn't find it in the article, maybe I missed it, but does
| anybody have more information on the printer / material used
| besides just quartz?
| koinedad wrote:
| Really cool design
| Terr_ wrote:
| Now I'm wondering about version of "Arrakis Chess": If too much
| movement happens in a section of the board too frequently, a 2x2
| sandworm eats everything.
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