Duels framework

Ongoing work for basic 1 vs 1 programming contests.

This repository contains the code generation scripts and several C++ header files (mostly netcode) to have people (e.g. students) develop AI's for various games. Games can be "played" against the internal AI of against another person, through a local network.

Denomination

This framework uses up to 3 programs when playing a game:

• the server is the game itself and includes a default AI with possibly several difficulty levels
• the client is the user (or player) code, that receives the game state and sends back its input
• the display is in Python and runs on the user computer. It receives display data from the game but does not send anything

Creating a new game

Generation of boilerplate files

For the framework, a duel game is defined by a yaml file (see examples) stating four kinds of messages:

• init_display: what should be sent by the game at initialization
• input: the expected player input
• feedback: the feedback from the game to a player
• display: what is required to display the state (not accessible to the player)

These messages are defined as a list of variables that will be the final structure of the message:

• int x will create a int x member variable
• float x() will create a std::vector<float> x
• float x(2) will create std::array<float,2> x

Built-in smart structures are also available:

• duels::Orientation: can be LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN and has methods to rotate
• duels::Position2D: a (x,y) position with int coordinates
• duels::Pose2D: a (x,y,Orientation) structure with int coordinates, that can rotate and move

Custom structures can be defined in the yaml file, under the structs key (see examples/treasure_hunt.yaml). They may be:

• A list similar to the actual messages with known C++ types (for example Position: [int x, int y])
• A list with only names, in this case a corresponding enum class will be generated (for example Cell: [FREE,OCCUPIED,UNKNOWN])

To create a new game:

• create a folder with the name of the game
• create a yaml file with the same name, that contains the message information
• call python <path_to_installed_duels>/bin/gen_wrapper.py inside the game folder

It will create the core server.cpp file where the game mechanics and display should be defined. This is done through the created mechanics.h and game_ai.h files, to write the game rules and your local AI. It also creates a client_template directory, to be used by actual game player.

Developing the game

The server.cpp is the entry point for the game server. The local AI should take as argument a difficulty parameter. The default values for player 1 and player 2 appear in server.cpp when creating players.

Typically, AI level 0 should have no chance to win in order to let the player test their own AI. AI level 1 may win by chance. Higher difficulty AIs should actually try to win.

Binaries with developped games

The deb folder contains Debian files to install the framework either in Ubuntu Focal or Jammy. It will install in /opt/duels with:

sudo apt install /path/to/.deb

Available games are in /opt/duels/games. Just copy this folder to start testing your AI!