Difference between revisions of "Robocode/My First Robot"

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This is the classic '''My First Robot Tutorial''' that tells how to create your first robot.
 
 
Will be finished by [[User:FlemmingLarsen]]
 
  
 
== Creating a Robot ==
 
== Creating a Robot ==
Here's the fun stuff: This is what Robocode is all about!  
+
Here's the fun stuff: This is what [[Robocode]] is all about!  
  
Creating a robot can be easy. Making your robot a winner is not. You can spend only a few minutes on it, or you can spend months and months. I'll warn you that writing a robot can be addictive! Once you get going, you'll watch your creation as it goes through growing pains, making mistakes and missing critical shots. But as you learn, you'll be able to teach your robot how to act and what to do, where to go, who to avoid, and where to fire. Should it hide in a corner, or jump into the fray?  
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{|
 +
| Creating a robot can be easy. Making your robot a winner is not. You can spend only a few minutes on it, or you can spend months and months. I'll warn you that writing a robot can be addictive! Once you get going, you'll watch your creation as it goes through growing pains, making mistakes and missing critical shots. But as you learn, you'll be able to teach your robot how to act and what to do, where to go, who to avoid, and where to fire. Should it hide in a corner, or jump into the fray?
 +
|| [[Image:MatBot.jpg|Picture of the robot named MatBot, which is one Mathew Nelson's robots]]
 +
|}
  
== My First Robot ==
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= My First Robot =
 
Ready to create your first robot? I hope you'll find that it's easy, straightforward, fun, and addictive!
 
Ready to create your first robot? I hope you'll find that it's easy, straightforward, fun, and addictive!
  
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In this section, we'll use the Robot Editor to create your very own, brand new robot.
 
In this section, we'll use the Robot Editor to create your very own, brand new robot.
  
=== First Step ===
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== The Robot Editor ==
The first step is to open up the Robot Editor. From the main Robocode screen, click on the '''Robot''' menu, then select '''Editor'''.
+
The first step is to open up the Robot Editor. From the main Robocode screen, click on the '''Robot''' menu, then select '''Source Editor'''.
  
 
When the editor window comes up, click on the '''File''' menu, then select '''New Robot'''.
 
When the editor window comes up, click on the '''File''' menu, then select '''New Robot'''.
Line 24: Line 25:
 
Voila! You now see the code for your own robot.
 
Voila! You now see the code for your own robot.
  
=== Cool. So what am I looking at? ===
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== A New Robot ==
 
This is what you should be looking at (names have been changed to protect the innocent):
 
This is what you should be looking at (names have been changed to protect the innocent):
  
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We're only concerned with the bits in '''<span style="color:green">bold</span>''' here... you won't need to change anything else. Not that much, right?
 
We're only concerned with the bits in '''<span style="color:green">bold</span>''' here... you won't need to change anything else. Not that much, right?
  
By the way, if you're REALLY concerned about the rest of it, right now, I describe it here..
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By the way, if you're REALLY concerned about the rest of it, right now, I describe it here:
  
 
   package man;
 
   package man;
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   }
 
   }
  
{|class="wikitable" border="1" style="text-align:left"
+
{| border="1" style="text-align:left"
 
! import robocode.*;
 
! import robocode.*;
 
| Tells Java that you're going to use Robocode objects in your robot.
 
| Tells Java that you're going to use Robocode objects in your robot.
 
|-
 
|-
 
! public class MyFirstRobot extends Robot
 
! public class MyFirstRobot extends Robot
| Tells Java: "The object I'm describing here is a type of Robot, named MyFirstRobot".
+
| Tells Java: "The object I'm describing here is a type of [[Robot]], named MyFirstRobot".
 
|-
 
|-
 
! public void run() { }
 
! public void run() { }
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|}
 
|}
  
=== Let's do something ===
+
 
 +
== Let's move somewhere ==
 
Let's add a couple lines so that it will do something.
 
Let's add a couple lines so that it will do something.
  
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   }
 
   }
  
'''while(true) { }''' means: "While the condition ''true'' is true, do everything between the curly brackets { }".  
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<code>while(true) { }</code> means: "While the condition <code>true</code> is true, do everything between the curly brackets { }".
Since ''true'' is always true (no kidding? ;-), it means: "Do the stuff inside my curly brackets, forever".  
+
 
 +
Since <code>true</code> is always true, it means: "Do the stuff inside my curly brackets, forever".  
  
 
So this robot will:
 
So this robot will:
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# turn the gun left/back by 360 degrees
 
# turn the gun left/back by 360 degrees
  
The robot will continue doing this over and over and over, until it dies, due to the '''while(true) { }''' statement.
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The robot will continue doing this over and over and over, until it dies, due to the <code>while(true)</code> statement.
 +
 
 +
Not so bad, right?
 +
 
 +
== Fire at Will! ==
 +
When our radar scans a robot, we want to fire:
 +
 
 +
  public void onScannedRobot(ScannedRobotEvent e) {
 +
      fire(1);
 +
  }
 +
 
 +
The game calls your '''onScannedRobot''' method whenever—during one of the actions—you see another robot.
 +
It sends along an event that can tell us lots of information about the robot—its name, how much life it has, where it is, where it's heading, how fast it's going, etc.
 +
 
 +
However, since this is a simple robot, we're not going to look at any of that stuff. Let's just fire!
 +
 
 +
== Compile your robot ==
 +
First, save your robot by selecting the '''Save''' in the '''File''' menu. Follow the prompts to save your robot.
 +
 
 +
Now, compile it by selecting '''Compile''' in the '''Compiler''' menu.
 +
 
 +
If your robot compiles without any errors, you can start a new battle with your robot. Start a new battle by selecting '''New''' in the '''Battle''' menu. If you cannot see your robot, you might have to refresh the list of robots by '''pressing Ctrl + R'''. Add your robot to the battle together with at least one other robot as e.g. sample.Target, and press the '''Start Battle''' button to let the games begin!
 +
 
 +
== What's next? ==
 +
You should have a look at all the sample robots to see how certain things are done.
 +
 
 +
You'll eventually want to look at the [http://robocode.sourceforge.net/docs/robocode/ Robocode API] to see all the other things your robot can do.
 +
 
 +
Above all, good luck, have fun, and enjoy!
 +
 
 +
== See also ==
 +
 
 +
=== Robot API ===
 +
* [http://robocode.sourceforge.net/docs/robocode/ Robot API]
 +
 
 +
=== Tutorials ===
 +
* [[Robocode/System Requirements|System Requirements for Robocode]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Download|How to download and install Robocode]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Robot Anatomy|The anatomy of a robot]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Getting Started|Getting started with Robocode]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Game Physics|Robocode Game Physics]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Scoring|Scoring in Robocode]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Robot Console|Using the robot console]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Downloading_Robots|Downloading other robots]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Learning from Robots|Learning from other robots]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Package Robot|Package your robot]]
 +
* [[Robocode/FAQ|Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Articles|Articles about Robocode]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Console Usage|Starting Robocode from the command line]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Graphical_Debugging|Graphical debugging]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Eclipse|Using Eclipse as IDE]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Eclipse/Create_a_Project|Creating a project for your robots]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Eclipse/Create_a_Robot|Creating a robot in Eclipse]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Running from Eclipse|Running your robot from Eclipse]]
 +
* [[Robocode/Eclipse/Debugging Robot|Debugging your robot with Eclipse]]
 +
 
 +
=== News and Releases ===
 +
* [http://sourceforge.net/export/rss2_project.php?group_id=37202 RSS Feeds for the Robocode project]
 +
* [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=37202&package_id=29609 Robocode file releases]
  
Not so bad, right?
+
=== Home pages ===
 +
* [http://robocode.sourceforge.net/ Classic homepage]
 +
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/robocode Robocode project at SourceForge]
 +
* [http://robocoderepository.com/ Robocode Repository]
 +
* [[wikipedia:Robocode|Wikipediaentry for Robocode]]
  
 
[[Category:Robocode Documentation]]
 
[[Category:Robocode Documentation]]
 +
[[Category:Tutorials]]

Revision as of 20:36, 1 December 2016

This is the classic My First Robot Tutorial that tells how to create your first robot.

Creating a Robot

Here's the fun stuff: This is what Robocode is all about!

Creating a robot can be easy. Making your robot a winner is not. You can spend only a few minutes on it, or you can spend months and months. I'll warn you that writing a robot can be addictive! Once you get going, you'll watch your creation as it goes through growing pains, making mistakes and missing critical shots. But as you learn, you'll be able to teach your robot how to act and what to do, where to go, who to avoid, and where to fire. Should it hide in a corner, or jump into the fray? Picture of the robot named MatBot, which is one Mathew Nelson's robots

My First Robot

Ready to create your first robot? I hope you'll find that it's easy, straightforward, fun, and addictive!

Robocode ships with a number of sample robots that you can look at for ideas, and to see how things work. You can use the Robot Editor to look at all of them.

In this section, we'll use the Robot Editor to create your very own, brand new robot.

The Robot Editor

The first step is to open up the Robot Editor. From the main Robocode screen, click on the Robot menu, then select Source Editor.

When the editor window comes up, click on the File menu, then select New Robot.

In the dialogs that follow, type in a name for your robot, and enter your initials.

Voila! You now see the code for your own robot.

A New Robot

This is what you should be looking at (names have been changed to protect the innocent):

 package man;
 import robocode.*;
  
 public class MyFirstRobot extends Robot {
     public void run() {
         while (true) {
             ahead(100);
             turnGunRight(360);
             back(100);
             turnGunRight(360);
         }
     }
  
     public void onScannedRobot(ScannedRobotEvent e) {
         fire(1);
     }
 }

We're only concerned with the bits in bold here... you won't need to change anything else. Not that much, right?

By the way, if you're REALLY concerned about the rest of it, right now, I describe it here:

 package man;
 import robocode.*;
  
 public class MyFirstRobot extends Robot {
     public void run() {
     }
 }
import robocode.*; Tells Java that you're going to use Robocode objects in your robot.
public class MyFirstRobot extends Robot Tells Java: "The object I'm describing here is a type of Robot, named MyFirstRobot".
public void run() { } The game calls your run() method when the battle begins.
{ } "Curly brackets" ( { } ) group things together. In this case, they're grouping together all the code for the robot.


Let's move somewhere

Let's add a couple lines so that it will do something.

First, we'll examine the run() method:

 while (true) {
     ahead(100);
     turnGunRight(360);
     back(100);
     turnGunRight(360);
 }

while(true) { } means: "While the condition true is true, do everything between the curly brackets { }".

Since true is always true, it means: "Do the stuff inside my curly brackets, forever".

So this robot will:

  1. move ahead 100 pixels
  2. turn the gun right by 360 degrees
  3. move back 100 pixels
  4. turn the gun left/back by 360 degrees

The robot will continue doing this over and over and over, until it dies, due to the while(true) statement.

Not so bad, right?

Fire at Will!

When our radar scans a robot, we want to fire:

 public void onScannedRobot(ScannedRobotEvent e) {
     fire(1);
 }

The game calls your onScannedRobot method whenever—during one of the actions—you see another robot. It sends along an event that can tell us lots of information about the robot—its name, how much life it has, where it is, where it's heading, how fast it's going, etc.

However, since this is a simple robot, we're not going to look at any of that stuff. Let's just fire!

Compile your robot

First, save your robot by selecting the Save in the File menu. Follow the prompts to save your robot.

Now, compile it by selecting Compile in the Compiler menu.

If your robot compiles without any errors, you can start a new battle with your robot. Start a new battle by selecting New in the Battle menu. If you cannot see your robot, you might have to refresh the list of robots by pressing Ctrl + R. Add your robot to the battle together with at least one other robot as e.g. sample.Target, and press the Start Battle button to let the games begin!

What's next?

You should have a look at all the sample robots to see how certain things are done.

You'll eventually want to look at the Robocode API to see all the other things your robot can do.

Above all, good luck, have fun, and enjoy!

See also

Robot API

Tutorials

News and Releases

Home pages