The uphill struggle

Since I have heard so many good things about PMB's hpb bot I decided to use it in my school AI project. However I am baffled as to where to start. Now I have gathered that I will need to have a server to run CS on, admin mod and meta mod, However apart from that I am totaly clueless. I have downloaded template 4 and read through the read me a few times to get my barings on the code but I still have two imediate questions from reading the read me.

1. Is the template already have the code to deal with CS.
2. Is the template complete ( meaning is there anything that I need to add to get it to work, if so what)..... I know I know I should just compile it and see what happens but just figured I should give the forum a shot first. before I go conquer this mountain.

more general questions are how do I handle debugging the code... the way I normally handle understanding code is runnning it through the VC debugger and stepping through the parts I dont quite get ( note I am developing the bot on a windows platform at this momment in tiime I dont care about any other platform. I know I am probably asking alot but if you guys would be kind enough to point me in the right direction I would be very much indebted to you....
Ideally I just want to be able to play around with the AI code using different things like genetic algos, genetic programming, baysian networks... stuff like that. Finally, I wanted to know if it is possible to through some C++ classes in the code or does all the programming need to be in C.


Thank you for you time

[stefanhendriks]

1. as far as i know the template also works for CS (ie, bots join the game , choose a team and model)
2. the template is not written for CS , so its not complete for that.

And... you can write stuff in C/C++, no problem with that.

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

Yes, the bots run on CS, but since CS was not a mod botman wrote his bot for, the bots don't buy weapons and don't go for the maps objectives.

You can debug these bots easily on a dedicated server, just set up MSVC accordingly (exe name: hlds.exe, parameters: the hlds launch parameters). Unfortunately with CS you can't debug them on a listen server (i.e non dedicated), because CS has code that makes the game refuse to start if it detects a debugger. If you think you are able to fool the IsDebuggerPresent() call in kernel32.dll, you will be able to use the debugger on a listen server. Get in touch with Austin from these forums, he knows how to hack the kernel32.dll

The function you will be interested in if you want to test new things in the bot is BotThink(). This is the root-level function of a bot's AI (whereas the root-level function of the game, would be StartFrame()).

Best luck and happy hacking



P.S. btw it's not PMB's HPB_Bot, it's botman's HPB_Bot ported to metamod. I have made NO changes to the bot code

Thanks for all that information..... PMB sorry for the mix up, keep seing your nick everywhere inthe forum guess my brain did a switcch on me...

"You can debug these bots easily on a dedicated server, just set up MSVC accordingly (exe name: hlds.exe, parameters: the hlds launch parameters). Unfortunately with CS you can't debug them on a listen server (i.e non dedicated)." I dont get this part PMB.

can I use MSVC todebug CS bots ... if so How?

[Cheeseh]

I wouldn't do anything like this for AI project, even If I do already have a bot thats 100% working. Because probably more than 90 % of bot creating is not AI related. I'd stick to a simple windows program I'm not surprised you are baffled o_O

[Pierre-Marie Baty]

You can use MSVC to debug CS bots, but ONLY on dedicated CS servers. Not on listen servers.

There are two types of HL/CS servers: dedicated servers and listen servers. Look up the difference between these two first...

ok did not know that.... kool thanks

I got admin mod and metamod downlaoded and hlds installed... as for what else I will be needing I am unsure as to wether or not I will need the hl sdk... since the hpb readme said that botman basically re wrote the entire sdk for his bot making purposes... do I still need the latest hl sdk?

fianlly what is the process of setting up msvc for debuging a compiled bot