Gamebots and Unreal Tournament 2003

1
Gamebots and Unreal Tournament 2003

• Joe Manojlovich
• (josephm_at_sis.pitt.edu)
• University of Pittsburgh
• School of Information Sciences

2
What is Unreal Tournament?

• UT is a multiplayer video game
• Produced by Epic games (http//www.epicgames.com)
• Runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh, PlayStation,
  and soon Xbox
• http//www.unrealtournament.com

3
Old Versions of Unreal

• Unreal I
• The original Unreal game
• Single player
• Obsolete and unsold
• Unreal Tournament
• Multiplayer Unreal game
• Obsolete and unsold as of early 2002

4
New Versions of Unreal

• Unreal Tournament 2003
• Multiplayer
• Released fall 2003
• Unreal 2
• Single player
• Due 2003
• Unreal Forever
• Xbox
• Due 2003

5
Why Program UT?

• By using UT as a basis for other research, you
  can avoid needless reinventing while benefiting
  from a proven development platform
• UT is designed for programming, and many tools
  and resources are available to assist you

6
Why Program UT? (cont.)

• UT provides a high resolution GUI for simulations
• The new UT 2003 now uses a very high fidelity
  physics engine for extremely realistic physical
  modeling

7
How to Program Unreal Tournament

• UnrealScript
• Source code level
• Level Programming
• Graphics level
• Scenes
• People
• Weapons

8
Common Terms

• Bots Players in game under human or AI control
• Level self-contained environment containing
  bots and their surroundings
• Maps a level, without the bots
• Game a level, with active bots, running on a UT
  server

9
The Unreal Virtual Machine
Actor(s)
Tournament Male
Level
DM-Tutorial
Game Type
Death Match
Client(s)
Game Code
Engine
Network
OpenGL, DirectX, etc.
Underlying Hardware/Operating System
10
What is Gamebots?

• ... 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...

11
What is Gamebots? (cont.)

• Gamebots is a UT mod (see presentation
  Programming Unreal Tournament 2003)
• Gamebots allows one to control a bot in UT, to
  take advantage of the UT engine, but from an
  external program, using standard TCP/IP socket
  calls

12
Installing UT 2003

• Gamebots does not rely on the UT GUI
• You can run a Gamebot server, and run Gamebots,
  without the UT GUI
• This is a good option if you are low on hard disk
  space, or have a older computer that lacks the
  modern graphics hardware

13
Installing UT 2003 (cont.)

• You can borrow a copy of UT 2003 from our lab
• You can download the command line only server
  from the Internet, and from the USL web server
• We keep the latest patches on the USL web server
• Ill be giving the Windows instructions, but
  everything also runs on Linux

14
UT 2003 Dedicated Server

• Download the dedicated server from
• http//usl.sis.pitt.edu/trurl/stuff/UT2003/UT2003D
  edicatedServer2186.zip
• Unzip the file somewhere convenient
• Suggest C\ and then renaming the UT2003Server
  folder to UT2003

15
UT 2003 Full Game

• Pick up the CDs from the lab downstairs
• After installing the game, download the newest
  patch from the USL server
• http//usl.sis.pitt.edu/trurl/stuff/UT2003/ut2003-
  winpatch2186release.exe
• If youre having problems with the game asking
  for CD 1, but never reading it when you insert
  it, download another patch
• http//usl.sis.pitt.edu/trurl/stuff/UT2003/UT2003.
  exe
• Install in C\UT2003\System over existing file

16
Installing Gamebots

• Download the Gamebots add-on package from the USL
  web server
• http//usl.sis.pitt.edu/trurl/Research
• Unzip the file into C\UT2003
• Make sure the file C\UT2003\System\BotAPI.u
  exists

17
Running a Gamebots Server

• You can start a server directly from the UT GUI
• Unfortunately, the GUI elements does not support
  the free-for-all game style
• You can also start a server from the command
  line
• For example (from the folder C\UT2003\System,
  using the command prompt)

ucc server dm-serpentine?gameBotAPI.BotDeathMatch
18
Running a Gamebot

• Once you have the server running, you create a
  Gamebot by opening a TCP/IP connection to port
  3000 on the server
• The Gamebots authors have TCL and Java Gamebot
  examples for download, including map visualizers
• http//www-2.cs.cmu.edu/galk/GameBots/WEB/downloa
  ds.html

19
Gamebot Commands

• To make your Gamebot perform actions, such as
  moving to a new location or firing its weapon,
  you simply write the command to the Gamebot
  socket
• Common commands include RUNTO, which will tell
  your Gamebot to go somewhere, and GETPATH which
  will return a list of nodes forming a path to
  somewhere
• http//www-2.cs.cmu.edu/galk/GameBots/WEB/docapi.
  html

20
Sensory Information

• Gamebots will send your program various sensory
  messages, of 2 types
• Synchronous These come as groups every specified
  time slice. They contain information on what the
  bot sees, and the status of the bot.
• Asynchronous These come when an important event
  occurs to the bot. This includes things such as
  getting shot and running into a wall.
• See the Gamebots Network API web page
• http//www.cs.cmu.edu/galk/GameBots/WEB/docapi.h
  tml

21
JavaBot

• The Gamebots authors are working on a Java GUI
  interface to Gamebots
• Download it from
• http//usl.sis.pitt.edu/trurl/JavaBot- all-0.11.
  zip
• Homepage
• http//utbot.sourceforge.net
• JavaDoc
• http//utbot.sourceforge.net/doc

22
JavaBot (cont.)

• Unzip the file, and double click on the file
  JavaBots.jar
• You may have to install Java first
• You will be presented with the Java GUI, where
  you can add multiple Gamebots that are either
  fully automatic or human controlled
• http//utbot.sourceforge.net/javabot_screenshots.
  shtml

23
Seeing a Gamebot

• You can view your Gamebot by starting the UT 2003
  GUI, and connecting to the Gamebot server
• If you connect as a spectator to the server, you
  can attach your view to the Gamebot and
  automatically follow it around the map

24
Resources

• http//www-2.cs.cmu.edu/galk/GameBots/WEB/index.h
  tml
• http//wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki
• http//usl.sis.pitt.edu/trurl/Research
• http//utbot.sourceforge.net
• http//students.washington.edu/miked/real/links.ht
  m