Hi All,

I hope this is the right place for this post - I am new to TORCS and just starting a project in Visual Studio 2012 with managed C# that will be accessing many of the TORCS physics functionality. I have TORCS compiled and running in debug from VS2012 and can share my experiences if anyone else is planning to do the same.

I have been looking at different ways to get access from managed C#. Writing a wrapper is probably the right way but it would be very boring and laborious. ( Unless of course *a bit cheeky* but does anyone have a wrapper they are willing to share? )

Has anyone else tried a different approach or is a wrapper the best way to go?

NB Please tell me to go somewhere else or shut up if I am out of order asking dumb questions.

--
Cheers,

Hello,

I am still running into program crashes once in awhile, but for a different reason this time. It seemed that my sensors were picking up bad values sometimes. (I use offset centerline etc. for some calculations.)

My bot currently turns hard right sometimes straight into the wall at the beginning of the race. Since I am using a neural network this is expected for some runs. So I added this bit of code into my drive funciton:

static void
drive(int index, tCarElt* car, tSituation *situation)
{
    std::cout << "Positition = ("
        << car->pub.DynGC.pos.x << ", "
        << car->pub.DynGC.pos.y << ", "
        << car->pub.DynGC.pos.z << ") " <<std::endl;
    ...
}

The output is:

...
Positition = (667.472, 1163.4, 3.84071)
Positition = (667.472, 1163.4, 3.84074)
Positition = (667.472, 1163.4, 3.84076)
Positition = (667.472, 1163.4, 3.84079)
Positition = (667.472, 1163.4, 3.84081)
Positition = (667.472, 1163.4, 3.84083)
Positition = (667.472, 1163.4, 3.84084)
Positition = (667.472, 1163.4, 3.84086)
Positition = (667.472, 1163.4, 3.84087)
Positition = (667.472, 1163.4, 3.84088)
Positition = (667.472, 1163.4, 3.84089)
Positition = (667.472, 1163.4, 3.8409)
Positition = (-nan, nan, -nan)
/usr/local/bin/torcs: line 53:  7428 Segmentation fault      (core dumped) $LIBDIR/torcs-bin -l $LOCAL_CONF -L $LIBDIR -D $DATADIR $*


Once the position is nan or -nan, my program crashes because these values are ultimately used to index an array that I store approximations of a sigmoid in. (I don't imagine most others would do something like this.) My solution will be to check for nan of course, but I thought I'd mention it here in case it is a bug with TORCS. Perhaps some bad geometry at the edge of the track? Perhaps it's just my code again, but I definitely do not attempt to update position directly in my code, only the gas, brake and steering commands.

At the very least, someone might check the geometry at the above position and see if there is anything funky there just in case. (I have no idea how to check it myself.) This should be a rare case since my bot did 1270 runs before this happened. Subsequent loads of my 1271st network will cause it to crash at the same point every time. (I have a separate program generating the networks, so I have been able to load that network in via XML as a first run multiple times)

Feel free to let me know if I'm completely of my rocker here!

Jim

Greetings,

I've been running Torcs-1.3.3 and have had a couple problems. First, when running my bot at a faster speed than real-time, my bot will sometimes float straight up, then off to the side of the track and the race will end. (This issue seems like a bug, but I'm reluctant to say so since I've modified the TORCS code.) Second, I am having trouble with shifting.

I have noticed this code in other bots:
http://codepad.org/bwc5LY4q

I have tried to copy/paste this into my drive() fuction (from other drivers code) but all I see is the gear bouncing between 1st and 2nd gear, so I feel I must be missing something. I didn't understand what the code was doing so I tried a bunch of variations with _gear and _gearCmd and and even tried manipulating the clutch. Is there any documentation on how gear changing is supposed to work?

I have tried upgrading to TORCS-1.3.4 to see if my issue with the bot leaving the course would be fixed, but it crashes once I select a track when configuring the race. (It seems to be crashing sometime after the constructor is called for my bot, but before any other function in that class.) Is there anything I need to know to move my bot to the newer version?

Any advice on any of the issues I currently have would be appreciated.

Thank you,
James Ihrig

P.S.

The full code I am currently working with is here:
code.google.com/p/aiproj2012/source/checkout

To speed up the race, I have added the following line to the bottom of ReOneStep() in raceengine.cpp

    ReInfo->_reTimeMult = 1.0;

I'd also like to note that none of the links in the FAQ seem to be working right now.

Greetings,

I am looking to train some neural networks to drive vehicles in Torcs. I have a TON of questions, hopefully someone can answer at least a few for me. I've been digging into the code for about a week now and have amassed plenty of questions. I apologize an advance for the length.

First some background:

I have found a program that implements HyperNEAT that I would like to use in conjunction with torcs. This program however is just that, a program, not a library. So I will be looking to run it as a program simultaneously with torcs, and have the two processes communicate with eachother via XML.

To do this, I would like to:

1) Read XML configuration and populate drivers with neural network data. (One driver per race.)
2) Skip all menu's, and go straight to some default race.
3) Run a race until X time has passed, or Y laps complete.
4) Write results to XML and wait for new configuration to re-populate drivers with neural network data.

rinse and repeat.

Right now, I'm just trying to see if I can skip the menus and read in the XML file at an appropriate place. (I see ANN.cpp and ANN.h specify an loadANN() function, but I don't see the file format specified anywhere.)

I have found what looks to be a way to skip the menus. I have tried to call torcs with
torcs -r $FULL_PATH_TO_SRC/quickrace.xml
and got the message:
Human drivers not allowed in console race, fix race setup.
Which tells me I'm probably on the right track, but I can't find any documentation on how or what to change to fix the setup.

Also, I have already created a driver that attempts to follow the center of the road using a basic tutorial I have found.

My actual questions:
Is there any UML documentation for the control flow of the program?

What would be the best way to start a race without going through menus?

Is there a good way to restart a race after a race is completed without menus?

On a race restart, I will need a new ANN, which I can read from a file, which holds about 100 individual AI's to test. Is there a way I can track how many I've tested? Is 'index' in Driver::newrace(int index, tCarElt* car, tSituation *s) something I can use for this? (I can't find documentation saying what index is.)

Are there any pre-existing classes that are good for detecting environment such as track edges? (range finders?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKAULFV8tXw&feature=related

If not, is there an easy way to find a track edge to do an intersection test of my own with?


Any help would be appreciated, even if it's just pointing to new documentation I haven't yet found.

-Jim

P.S. For clarity, I am also attaching a sample input file similar to what I intend to use for this project. I generate an input file of 1 generation, which is about 100 individuals, to be tested, one at a time. Once they are all tested, a new input file will be automatically generated that I would like to read in without restarting torcs. There can be any number of new input files to be tested that I would like to automate.