JavaBot for Unreal Gamebots API

Java API to easily create Unreal Tournament Gamebots.

See:
Description

Packages

edu.cmu.gamebots	Contains CMU's modification of the ExampleBot.
edu.isi.gamebots.client	Contains the core classes needed to create a JavaBot.
edu.isi.gamebots.examples	Contains the USC-ISI examplebot.
edu.tamu.gamebots.humanbot	Contains the TAMU HumanBot.
edu.tamu.gamebots.ui	General ui stuff to watch the execution of our bots.

Java API to easily create Unreal Tournament Gamebots.

Overview of the Project

Unreal Tournament is a three-dimensional client/server based first person shooter game in which multiple players can compete in either individual or team games. A group at CMU created the Gamebots project which is a modification to Unreal Tournament that allows characters in the game to be controlled via network sockets connected to other programs. The game feeds sensory information for the character over the network connection. Based on this information, the client program can decide what actions the character should take and issues commands back over the network to the game to have the character move, shoot, talk, etc.. This sort of modification is perfect for use as an environment for AI research in intelligent agents. The purpose of the JavaBot architecture and API is to provide a higher level interface to the GameBots modification protocol and make it easier for reasearch groups to develop agents/bots for this rich domain. JavaBots can be created by extending java classes and working with objects without having to worry about network protocols, message parsing, etc.

Creating A New Bot

The first step in creating a new JavaBot is to extend the class edu.isi.gamebots.Bot abstract class. This class contains methods already written to do things like connect to a server and perform actions in the Unreal Tournament world. There are two methods by all classes (i.e. bots) which override the edu.isi.gamebots.Bot abstract class.

• public void handleSyncMessage(MessageBlock msgBlock);
  This describes what to do when you get a syncronous message block. Refer to Gamebot Network API for details into the synchronous messages that the bot can expect to recieve from the world. This document is not entirely correct; so I wouldn't take its word on blind faith - but it's accurate enough to get an idea of how the Gamebots TCP protocol works.
• public void handleASyncMessage(Message msg);
  This describes what to do when you get as asynchronous message. Same rules above apply here.

This is all you need to create your unreal tournament bot. Very easy... Other methods that are not required to override, but are optional are:

• public JComponent getView();
  Returns a JComponent (usually a JPanel) that is added to the BotRunnerApp as a tab as the interface. This allows the user to start new JavaBots and view their execution via the BotRunnerInterfacee.
• public void connected();
  An event handling method. Defines what to do directly after the bot is connected from the server.
• public void disconnected();
  An event handling method. Defines what to do directly after the bot is disconnected from the server.
• public void destroy();
  Event Handler. Override this method to define what to do when the bot is destroyed/disconnected by the user.

Current Bot Implementations

The following is a list of classes that you can currently type into BotRunnerApp to get a sample bot and an interface:

• edu.isi.gamebots.examples.ExampleBot
  This is a simple bot that is mainly a proof of concept. This bot simply moves from place to place and turns to map out a level.
• edu.cmu.gamebots.CMU_JBot
  This is another example bot that the folks at CMU put together that is mainly a copy and modification of the ExampleBot class that does a few more things.
• edu.tamu.gamebots.humanbot.HumanBot
  This is a class that the folks at Texas A&M developed to learn the GameBot protocol. It allows a human to view the messages sent from the server and choose actions for the agent. Note that this bot is in no way autonomous and that this is mainly a tool for learning the protocol of UT GameBots.