Pre-exam consultation session

The pre-examination consultation session is scheduled for:

2pm-4pm
Thursday 31st May 2012
Building H, room 7.84

The session will begin at 2pm and finish when all the students have left or 4pm when we get kicked out :-) So if you have questions to ask about the course, the sample exam or anything else related to game AI, you will need to be at the session from 2pm!

Please RSVP your intention to attend to me (the lecturer) via email so that I know how many people to expect. Study hard :-)

P.S. I am happy to go over your answers to "sample exam" questions during the session --- but only if you have had a go at answering them yourself first!

Code modifications suggested...

Some of you have been having trouble between separate Pirate games with the restarting of your AIControllers afresh at the commencement of each new game. Here is some code to add to the files of the application that I hope will solve your problem. It explicitly deletes your AIController after each game.

1) Add this method to the Ship class in ShipBase.cpp

AIController* Ship::getControllerPtr(void)
{ return controller; }

2) Add this line to ShipBase.h within the Ship class

AIController* getControllerPtr(void);

3) Add these lines at the top of the destructor Sea::~Sea(void) in Sea.cpp

for (int a=0; a < numShips; a++)
{
tmpContollerPtr = shipArray[a].getControllerPtr();
delete tmpContollerPtr;
}

4) At the shell prompt type:

make clean

5) at the shell prompt, type:

make

6) See if the code resets the AIController now when you run the game multiple times

...code on! :-)

Welcome!

Welcome to AI For Gaming 2012!

Please note that labs don't start until week 2. For this week, visit the labs in your own time, login to test that your unix / linux account works, and complete the UNIX tutorials as suggested so that you are ready to go in week 2.

See you in the lecture!

Pre-exam consultation

I have scheduled the pre-exam consultation as follows in order to give you a few days to prepare by doing the sample exam and going over your notes! I will discuss the answers to the sample exam and answer your questions about the course during this session.

Please leave a comment to this post if you *will* be attending the session so that I know to turn up! I don't want to sit by myself in an empty room :-)

Dates: Friday 03/06/2011
Time: 11:30 AM till 12:30 PM (can be extended by demand)
Room: CA_H/HB32 (Caulfield campus)

NOTE: If this session needs to be cancelled at the last minute due to reasons discussed during semester, I will endeavour to post a note here or contact somebody in the office and have them come down to put a note on the door.

Otherwise, I will see you soon!

Feedback on the course

Based on discussions in the final lecture, these are what I understand to be the suggestions for course improvements.

1. Page numbers on the lecture notes
2. Sample solutions to the practice exam
3. Sample solutions to the laboratory exercises
4. A better explanation of why tree developmental models are relevant

Did I miss anything? Please email me your suggestions!

Pirate Fleet : demo lab session (this Thurs)

This week's lab includes you demonstrating your Pirate Fleet software against the PixSail. Here is a description of what you will need to do.

The PixSail controller code will be released in the lab. You will then need to:

1. Demonstrate your code, compiling error free, classes properly named, fully commented, no shared static or global variables, under UNIX with the PixSail controller;
2. Explain your coordinated attack and search strategy;
3. Demonstrate your fleet fighting the PixSail and searching for gold;
4. Restart the game with the world filled with gold (and no PixSail) to demonstrate the search strategy.

Game configuration:

• 10 - number of gold markers for step 3 above. (600 gold markers for step 4 above)
  
• 11 - number of ships (including your fleet of 10 and 1 PixSail)
• 35 - sea grid size
• 300 - number of rocks
• 4000 - number of time steps in a game*
• 1 - number of games to be played (1 game for each of step 3 & 4 above)
  
• Globals::oneAgainstMany - type of game to be played

* If you think you need a few more time steps in the game to demonstrate its behaviour, anything up to 10,000 is fine as long as the game runs fast enough for me to watch it in a few minutes.

After the demonstration, you still have until Friday at the listed deadline to fix up your controller before submission. This demo. is a hurdle requirement though! You will just receive "ticks and crosses" to say whether or not you completed it. I.e. all students must present their work during the demonstration as noted in the course outline.

The lecture will be partly taken up with revision time... be sure to bring along your questions about the course or the sample exam!

Pirate Fleet v2.0 assignment code online

A new version of PirateFleet (v2.0) has just been posted online.

Fixes: Bug fix involving the ship flag setting routines. Previously there was not a proper separation between current and future states of the ship signalling flags. Some ships were looking at the future state of other ships' flags.

This has been fixed! Please advise me if you spot any further problems.