1.1 Robot Skeleton

Generate the Robot Skeleton

Before you start make sure that you have installed TORCS according to the installation section, because that is where it is explained how to set up some required environment variables and permissions. If you do not have a proper setup you will not be able to compile or install your robot. To generate the initial set of files for your robot you have to download the robotgen script (you need exactly this version to follow the tutorial). Put it in your TORCS source directory and make it executable.

$ cd $TORCS_BASE
$ cp /path_to_downloaded_files/robotgen.gz .
$ gzip -d robotgen.gz
$ chmod 755 robotgen

You have to tell the script the robots name, your name, the car you choose, and optional a description and if you want GPL headers. You can look up the available cars with

$ ls /usr/local/share/games/torcs/cars

155-DTM     CORW61    acura-nsx-sz   cg-nascar-rwd  lotus-gt1    porsche-gt3rs
206W10      EVOWRC61  baja-bug       clkdtm         mclaren-f1   torcs
306W61      FOCW61    buggy          corvette       p406         viper-gts-r
360-modena  SWRC62    cg-nascar-fwd  gt40           porsche-gt1  xj-220

The result depends on what TORCS car packages you have installed. To follow the tutorial you should choose cg-nascar-rwd for the car. It is very easy to change that later to your favourite car, so don't worry. I would run now the robotgen script with

$ cd $TORCS_BASE
$ ./robotgen -n "bt" -a "Bernhard Wymann" -c "cg-nascar-rwd" --gpl

Generation of robot bt author Bernhard Wymann
Generating src/drivers/bt/Makefile ... done
Generating src/drivers/bt/bt.xml ... done
Generating src/drivers/bt/bt.cpp ... done
Generating src/drivers/bt/bt.def ... done
Generating src/drivers/bt/bt.dsp ... done

You should run the script with your name and a fancy name for your robot. Keep in mind on further instructions to replace bt by your robots name. To check if everything worked we compile and install now your driver. Don't worry about the files, I'll explain them on demand.

Summary

  • You have generated the files.
  • You are aware to replace bt with your robots name.