1.2 Build the Robot

Introduction

So, you want to build your robot? Ok, here is some basic information about that. As you know from the installation section, everything is already set up fine (remember the test compilation of tanhoj). The directory where your robots sources are is $TORCS_BASE/src/drivers/bt. To build your robot you will use "make". Make is a powerful tool which will track dependencies for you and much more. But don't worry, everything is already set up.
You will recognise that we have to do stuff in more than one directory, so it makes sense to use more than one shell. I use the Konsole from KDE and have one shell for every directory.

• /usr/local/share/games/torcs to run TORCS and look up if the installation worked.
• $TORCS_BASE/src/drivers/bt to work on the robot.
• $TORCS_BASE/export/include/ to search in the header files.

I would suggest using an editor which supports at least syntax highlighting, easy to use are nedit and kate (choose C++ mode). I prefer kate.

Compile and Install Your Robot

$ cd $TORCS_BASE/src/drivers/bt
$ make

It should now be compiled. If you get errors, check the installation and the environment variables. If everything worked fine install your robot with

$ make install

In case you get errors here check if the compilation worked and if the permissions are correct in /usr/local/share/games/torcs. If everything worked fine, start TORCS and choose practice, choose your robot and start a practice session. Here it is and stays and stays and... Cool!

Summary

• You know where your robots sources are located.
• You know how to compile and install your robot.
• You know how to start TORCS and run a practice session.
• The build environment is set up properly.
• You decided which editor you want to use.