822: Getting Started Guide

Running a demo on the lab (NT) machines

  1. Find my machine: It is called ef-vidal and you will find it in the network neigborhood.
  2. Go to the Share/Robocup directory.
  3. Start the soccerserver: go to winserver/Release/ and doubleclick on ServerStart.
  4. Start the monitor: go to Robowin/ and doubleclick on Soccermonitor. When the monitor comes up go under soccermonitor->connect. On the pop up window, set the host to "localhost" or the hostname (or IP number) of the machine that is running the soccerserver.
  5. Run the User Interface Agent. This is a simple client that takes input from the keyboard and sends it to the server. That is, it allows you to become one of the players. Go to Robowin/Agent/Release/ and doubleclick on Basis. When the window pops up click on the "connect to server" button (top left). Set the team name (e.g. "usa") and host name of machine running soccerserver (e.g. "localhost"). You can then use the keys: i-forward, k-backward, j-turn left, l-turn right, and the space bar to kick the ball.
Notice how your player slows down if you make it run a lot. Basically, the players quickly get tired of running and need to rest in order to be able to run fast again. On the other hand, the player can always kick the ball really hard (say, to a teammate).

Programming a client in VC++

  1. You will find my simpleclient workspace on the Share given above. You probably do not want to copy the workspace since it might contain paths to my files, but it is a good place to check if your workspace is set up correctly.
  2. Make sure that under Project-->settings-->General, you have Microsoft Foundation Classes set to "Use MFC in a shared DLL". (and, for your sanity, you should know what that means).
  3. Also, under the "Link" tab you might have to add "wsock32.lib" to the object/library modules. In English: you will need to link with wsock32 library, if VC++ does not automagically do this for you, you will have to do it manually.

Jose M. Vidal
Last modified: Mon Jan 10 12:12:54 EST 2000