Re: Looking for some advice an creating and training a new AI in torcs.

Hi Jim

On 10/08/2012 04:32 AM, James Ihrig wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I am looking to train some neural networks to drive vehicles in Torcs. I
> have a TON of questions, hopefully someone can answer at least a few for
> me. I've been digging into the code for about a week now and have
> amassed plenty of questions. I apologize an advance for the length.
>
> *First some background:*
>
> I have found a program that implements HyperNEAT that I would like to
> use in conjunction with torcs. This program however is just that, a
> program, not a library. So I will be looking to run it as a program
> simultaneously with torcs, and have the two processes communicate with
> eachother via XML.
>
> To do this, I would like to:
>
> 1) Read XML configuration and populate drivers with neural network data.
> (One driver per race.)
> 2) Skip all menu's, and go straight to some default race.
> 3) Run a race until X time has passed, or Y laps complete.
> 4) Write results to XML and wait for new configuration to re-populate
> drivers with neural network data.
>
> rinse and repeat.
>
> Right now, I'm just trying to see if I can skip the menus and read in
> the XML file at an appropriate place. (I see ANN.cpp and ANN.h specify
> an loadANN() function, but I don't see the file format specified anywhere.)

Command line mode exists since TORCS 1.3.3, see 
http://torcs.sourceforge.net/index.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=30#c6_7

>
> I have found what looks to be a way to skip the menus. I have tried to
> call torcs with
> torcs -r $FULL_PATH_TO_SRC/quickrace.xml
> and got the message:
> Human drivers not allowed in console race, fix race setup.
> Which tells me I'm probably on the right track, but I can't find any
> documentation on how or what to change to fix the setup.

Just open TORCS as usual and configure the race, this will alter the 
XML, the message means that no human driver is allowed in a command line 
race (I thought this is straightforward;-) ), so just remove the human 
driver from the race ("Player" in the standard distribution without 
adding more players), then it will work.

Beware, on Windows Vista or higher the virtual store might be a bit 
confusing, but if you pass the right file, it will work.

> Also, I have already created a driver that attempts to follow the center
> of the road using a basic tutorial I have found.
> *
> My actual questions:*
> Is there any UML documentation for the control flow of the program?

No. But various people have drawn some things in the past, have a look 
at the existing papers (English wikipedia entry, 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cig/files/).

> What would be the best way to start a race without going through menus?
>
> Is there a good way to restart a race after a race is completed without
> menus?

See 
http://torcs.sourceforge.net/index.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=30#c6_8, 
basically you can taylor the race state engine to your needs.

> On a race restart, I will need a new ANN, which I can read from a file,
> which holds about 100 individual AI's to test. Is there a way I can
> track how many I've tested? Is 'index' in Driver::newrace(int index,
> tCarElt* car, tSituation *s) something I can use for this? (I can't find
> documentation saying what index is.)

I guess no, have a look into the robot tutorial. A module (so, dll) can 
currently handle up to 10 robots, so to know which one is meant to drive 
the index is given. You can save something during the shutdown of your 
module, e.g. see the bt robots distributed with TORCS, they save a 
"karma" file.

> Are there any pre-existing classes that are good for detecting
> environment such as track edges? (range finders?)
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKAULFV8tXw&feature=related
>
> If not, is there an easy way to find a track edge to do an intersection
> test of my own with?

No idea, but as well here you could find something: 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cig/files/

> Any help would be appreciated, even if it's just pointing to new
> documentation I haven't yet found.

- English wikipedia entry (TORCS, uppercase)
- http://sourceforge.net/projects/cig/files/
- http://cig.dei.polimi.it/
- http://games.ws.dei.polimi.it/competitions/scr/

Hope this helps

Best regards

Bernhard

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