Re: Racing and raging robots

Hi

Your comments are welcome, although I do not share your experience. I 
posted an article on www.torcs.org, have a look at the two quickrace videos.

Btw. if a car stands still on the track there is a "slowly push through" 
behaviour implemented, this is to avoid large pile ups of cars waiting 
the other car to move away.

Best regards

Bernhard

On 08/27/2012 11:39 AM, [email protected] wrote:
>
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 25, 2012, at 04:59 AM, Bernhard Wymann wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> Beware, there are 3 different AI driver engines in TORCS currently, and
>> they behave differently. I have myself no such problems when racing, to
>> be honest, but I have run more than 20000 laps in various racing
>> simulation games and joined hundreds of online races against human
>> players (not with TORCS obviously). Compared to human opponents or real
>> races the robots in TORCS are really kind, ever watched a GT, ALMS or
>> stock car race?
>>
>> The robots run exactly the same physics as you on "semi pro", this level
>> adjusts just the grip and damage which is applied. TORCS main purpose is
>> not to rival commercial racing games, if you want such a thing, just go
>> to the shop and buy one. The "unique selling proposition" is that it is
>> easy to play around with it and that it runs on many platforms (so you
>> can quickly build and modify it or the game content). To make this
>> possible it is like it is (small, not many annoying dependencies,
>> compatible).
>>
>> There are forks of TORCS out there which go in your desired direction,
>> and of course other projects.
>>
>> Best regards
>>
>> Bernhard
>>
>
> Thanks for the reply. It's just baffling to me that even when I'm
> minding my own business in a race, not trying to block the robot racers
> or anything, they still come pushing my car from behind or either side,
> totally recklessly, even when there's plenty of room around me (like on
> an oval track). Can't they "see" the human car at all, and react to its
> proximity? Just the other day, when I was trying another race, now on an
> oval, one of those wreckers just plowed into me on a straightaway wide
> like an airport runway, my car spun wildly at 300 km/h, and the offender
> just sped off. That kind of robotic rage attack has happened frequently
> in races, and besides ruining the race for me, really kills the
> enjoyment.
>
> As far as the car physics angle, I still think the robots have some
> advantage in that they can spin my car pretty easily without suffering
> themselves while my attempt to spin theirs always results in my spinning
> and their driving away without a scratch. I've also noticed that even
> when some robot car spins, on its own or after contact with a fellow
> robot, it usually just bounces off the wall and regains control in no
> time, losing very little time in the process. It's astonishing they may
> pull off such miraculous maneuvers behind the wheel but fail to pass the
> human racer cleanly.
>
> I definitely don't mind the robots driving fast (some do, while others
> tend to be rather slow). Their brutality and getting away with
> everything (since there are no yellow flags or penalties for violators)
> is what troubles me.
>
> I hope you don't perceive any of my comments and criticism as a personal
> attack. That's certainly not my intention.
>
> Thanks,
> st
>
> PS. This is totally unrelated, but I might add it here anyway: in the
> race results screen, at least in 1.3.3., it says "Damages", but
> shouldn't that be "Damage"?
>


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