BroodMind

An AI learning to control the Swarm using reinforcement learning.

Play BroodWar v1.16.1

Blizzard officially made free StarCraft BroodWar, however the remaining challenge is to have it running on a modern computer.

Especially, the whole AI competition ecosystem is built upon the canonical v1.16.1, which is no longer distributed.

A portable version of SCBW v1.16.1 may be found on archive.org. Rename StarCraft ( Click here ).exe to StarCraft.exe.

On a Linux x86 platform, use Chaoslauncher:

wine /path/to/the/game/Starcraft\ Brood\ War/Chaoslauncher.exe

Define the path to StarCraft.exe from the Settings tab, activate W-MODE 1.02 and launch the game.

Having a working SCBW version is especially important to watch replays and follow the progression of the bot.

Set up the work station

Build sc-docker

Clone the sc-docker repository from the Basil-Ladder fork:

git clone https://github.com/basil-ladder/sc-docker

The build script tries to download the game from http://files.theabyss.ru/sc/starcraft.zip, a host that no longer resolves. From the archive.org portable game version, the file should be formatted in the expected form, zipped and positionned in the appropriate folder:

cd /path/to/game/files/starcraft
zip -r /path/to/repo/sc-docker/scbw/local_docker/starcraft.zip .

The archive contains the exact following arborescence:

starcraft.zip

.
├── Ashworld.pal
├── Attack.ani
├── AviDummy.bmp
├── Badlands.pal
├── battle.snp
├── BROODAT.MPQ
├── BroodWar.mpq
├── characters
├── Desert.pal
├── EditLocal.dll
├── Farbpalette.pal
├── Ice.pal
├── Jungle.pal
├── Local.dll
├── maps
├── Menu1.pal
├── Menu2.pal
├── Menu3.pal
├── MenuButtonsPressed.bmp
├── Menu.pal
├── patch_rt.mpq
├── Points.bmp
├── ProLoss.pal
├── ProtossHud.bmp
├── ProWin.pal
├── psapi.dll
├── ReplayHud.bmp
├── Resources.bmp
├── Riched20.dll
├── Select.ani
├── Smackw32.dll
├── Space.pal
├── standard.snp
├── StarCraft.ani
├── StarCraft.exe
├── StarCraft.mpq
├── STARDAT.MPQ
├── StarEdit.exe
├── storm.dll
├── Target1.ani
├── TerLoss.pal
├── TerranHud.bmp
├── TerWin.pal
├── TopMenu.bmp
├── Twilight.pal
├── ZergHud.bmp
├── ZergLoss.pal
└── ZergWin.pal

Build all images using the build_images.sh helper:

cd /path/to/sc-docker/docker
./build_images.sh 2>&1 | tee /tmp/build.log

Finally, create a dedicated docker network:

docker network create sc_net

Install the Python wrapper

Install the Python wrapper in a virtual environment:

conda create -n bw python=3.10 -y
conda activate bw
cd /path/to/sc-docker
python -m pip install .

Fetch all maps and the BWTA caches:

scbw.play --install

This populates ~/.scbw/ with the SSCAI map pack, the 2019 season maps and the BWTA caches. These come from GitHub Releases and are still available.

Running games

Bots are resolved through http://sscaitournament.com/api/bots.php, downloaded on demand into ~/.scbw/bots/, then mounted as volumes. Nothing bot-related lives inside the images, so iterating on a bot never requires a rebuild.

To launch a game:

conda activate bw
scbw.play --bots "Stardust" "PurpleWave" --map "sscai/(2)Benzene.scx" --headless --game_speed 0

Launching Stardust versus PurpleWave in this illustrative example.

Results, logs and replays land in ~/.scbw/games/GAME_XXXXXXXX/. To watch a replay in a native (non-dockerized) StarCraft installation:

mkdir -p "/path/to/StarCraft/maps/replays"
cp ~/.scbw/games/GAME_XXXXXXXX/player_0.rep "/path/to/the/game/Starcraft\ Brood\ War/maps/replays/"

The map used for the game must also be present in /path/to/the/game/Starcraft\ Brood\ War/maps/sscai/

Step 1 - Train the critic

Generate parties between existing bots

First of all an inventory of all available bots and maps must be produced:

cd inventory
python inventorize.py
cd ..

Then, a set of parties can be launched:

cd play
python play.py --cpu 8 --games 32 --seed 42 --elo-min 2300
cd ..

Extract the features from selected frames

The dumper module has to be built:

make win32builder
make dumper
make clean
make bwapi
make install

Step 2 - Train the actor

License

The license is MIT with an added condition that forks may not be submitted to StarCraft AI competitions without written consent of the author.