USFIRST Simulator 2004 (Play the playingfield in 3d)

FIRST General Forum
1

Well…i brought something similar to this to my team last year, never finished it unfortunately. so, i figured i’d put somethin together for this year :wink:
its not done yet, but the physics are in place and all thats really left is making it user friendly to mod and start playing with different drive types, arms, features, so forth.

Capabilities:
Full integration of all obstacles/objects on the playing field
Dual-channel commands for 2 driver systems (as shown)
6 drive-shaft support (3 force applicators each side or whatever u want)
10 additional usable “joints” for functions in our imaginations
Generally handles at 210fps with over 80 moving objects on the screen.
Average poly count limit of 3500 (depending on your system really…)
Physics calculated: friction, viscosity(balls squish when proper force is applied and piping bends), torque, acceleration, gravity (yes you can change it ;p), mass (gravity wouldn’t be much without mass now would it?), collisions, misc other things nobody thinks about often, and soon to be heat tolerance. All will be exportable to an excel document for later analysis; test database ports range in size from 10kb to 1.8mb.

In progress (and well on their way too)
USB joystick support (sidewinders are useful for this one - 15-pin works too…but how many people have 2x 15pin ports in their box?)
Non-code intensive modding system (just assign the variables)
C and PBASIC(leftovers from last year) code parser for testing
Its Shockwave/Macromedia Director™ based and ColdFusionMX is my best friend on this one. Online based 2v2’s are coming…I’ll host a server when I get it running (peer to peer is a pain in the rear because I’m too lazy to go and code another xtra just to do it…the physics for this are bad enough ;p)

Well, heres the link, and go ahead and enjoy :wink:
USFirst Simulator 2004
Oh btw…yes…the bot is a box…why? because i didn’t feel like shoving anymore graphics onto an alpha test :slight_smile:
And yes, I know there are field objects missing (like this is a hard problem to fix…) the core program is literally an engine - pseudocode generates the objects on the level itself for easy modification.

Controls: (temporary joystick for drive only)
the drive operates independant of the chassis
Q W E
A – D
Z X C
Left/Right arrows - rotate chassis for positioning
Up/Down arrows - when stationary, these will pop the respective front/back sides of the bot (based on drive angle, not chassis) off the ground in order to climb the stairs (or you could use tires/treads but I’m just showing off the physics now ;p). Be fore-warned, the up/down arrows have no restrictions for debug purposes, if you hold them down, your bot will continue to rotate, and eventually cart-wheel out of the arena only to return when you exit/restart the program ;p

Notes:
ctrl+click the red mobile goal to push it around a bit; debug tool
one of the purple balls (start clicking) can be clicked/dragged about to try throwing it into the closer of the stationary goals (yes, it will bounce off of each of the individual pipes properly). The mobile goals only work properly with the 2X ball atm so if you manage to get it up there, take a screen shot ;p
If you encounter any scipt errors, or any problems, please post them here or contact me other wise so that I may start fixing them.
email: craftgod@earthlink.net
aim: Fenrisul
back-up email: wind@xdtech.net

Oh yeah, one last thing…no Autodesk products were used in the making of this simulator, NEWTEK FOR LIFE!!! (and of course macromedia :cool: )
Till then, peace. (And keep building!)

2

Awesome :smiley: , not too many objects, but its fun when you have nothing to do

3

Wow!!! i thought i was the only one that away wanted one of these. cool! :smiley:

Im not Game Programer so i must ask how do u modify it?

Id like to be able to see the field from another camera angle

4

That is so cool.

I moved the red goal and it hit the blue goal and flew off the screen. Then I stood the robot on end and drove it into a pile of balls against the wall and…welll…it’s gone now too. :smiley:

Eric

5

Nifty. I love this little program!

One suggestion: could you possibly make it so that ALL of the balls are user-movable? That would make this little gem an even better timewaster… :slight_smile:

[edit]It’s already been suggested, but an option for multiple camera angles would be nice too. Then again, I can’t program games very well, so I have no idea how hard it would be to do. Again, great job.[/edit]

6

there are only a few objects on the field for debugging purposes, no reason to clutter it yet, but i assure you it works :wink:
Camera angles are coming, in the fashion of birdseye view (starcraft style ;p), freefly, drivers perspective, from each of their respective locations, audience view, and robo-cam (which will appear in a small side window and probably have some sort of avi-recording capability if i have enough time, but that stuff isn’t on the top of my list)
modifying these things will be a snap, it’ll be just like using a really simple CAD program, and placing objects such as motors, hydrolics, telescoping poles, and other misc things that will save to a file when you are done, allowing (when i finish the inet play anyway) other players to ‘download’ your design and play against it.
Due to the nature of this program, I didn’t make it to look pretty, noting the lack of any kind of texture what so ever. It is designed to provide accurate results for testing out a design concept without actually having to physically build it first. I think if I put enough work into this…rapid development of conceptualized bots wont feel quite the same afterwards…
This whole thing is gonna be open source when I get it to a nice clean point and put in a bunch of comments/guides, till then if anybody here is familiar with Director, Lightwave, 3ds max, ColdfusionMX, or PHP, please by all means feel free to offer some talent.

7

Wow. Very nice job. I see this really going somewhere.
3d stuff is not an easy feat. I speak from(limited) experience. You should feel proud.

<chopy sentences>Its pretty primitive at this point, but a feat none the less… The balls squish? I can’t get that to happen. Nor can i get the bars to bend. Model heat tolerances? But why? Will there be texturing? The lighting is a bit dark. </choppy sentences>

8

Call me sadistic, but I love throwing robots and goals out of the field like they were pieces of paper, only to see them fly off the field and into the abyss.

Improve the graphics, add a build-a-robot option, include AI, and you can really have a good product here! Imagine playing against human AI from famous FIRST teams! This has infinate possablilites!

9

OMG, this is so cool! I just cant wait for you to finish! You probably have already though of this, but when you come out with the next release, could you put something on the robot so we can tell which way is front and which is back?

Has anyone done this before in past years?

10

Wow. Very nice job. I see this really going somewhere.

from coder to coder, thanks :cool:

Improve the graphics, add a build-a-robot option

the graphics are going to stay like that until I find a reason to improve them, its designed to test concepts, not looks. however once the core is done and the arena functions completely properly and i’ve worked out more of the physics based on De Anza’s practice field, you’d better believe i’m going to use up all 3500 of those excess poly’s per model and weld some running lights on to the bottom of my bot ;p
and in terms of build a bot, i already said its being added, heh, mostly done too…just need to clean it up so i dont have uber traffic when i put up the multiplayer server ;p

you can really have a good product here!

This is for USFIRST, which means its used for learning and development of skills; not for selling or personal profit, thats what Event Alpha is for :cool: On top of that…I’m only 16…poor white boy livin in a relatively ghetto area, have the laptop i built, have a g/f, and am leaving HS in 4 days to go into the world a bit further before full time college, what do i need money for :slight_smile: potatoes for me thank you very much ;p

Oh yea…and for all of you out there who have been flipping my green box bot off the edge then dropping the goals on top of it in the abyss, i’m going to need some beta testers to push the limits and glitches out of my core; aim/email me ;p

11

But the glitches are the fun part! :smiley:

12

I like ur way of thinking…:wink:

Tis quite nice, however, as you said, the user interface needs some work. I was wondering why my robot and mobile goal kept cartwheeling out of control and flying off the field. Overall tho, tis a pretty good program …:D. Keep up the good work!

13

I agree totally with you. FIRST should always be non-profit for everything unless impossable. Mabey I should clarify my last statement. When I mean product, it probably ment something like a freeware app, not a cost per unit thing. Mabey the better word instead of product would have been service, or even software for basics. I’m just saying that the compelation of software, time, and other things could make this very good.

14

Don’t you gamers have a Robot to build? 4.5 weeks left…

Good job though…

15

Is there any chance you might be willing to release the source code? Maybe then people could put their own bots into to it…

16

Is there any chance you might be willing to release the source code? Maybe then people could put their own bots into to it…

please read my posts more thuroughly, both source and built-in basic cad designs are coming.

on a side note to that gamer comment…this can be used to quickly conceptualize strategies and test them again and again without having to physically do much of anything. If you want to sit around, waste time, and play games with it thats your thing, but i see it as a tool to trial many different situations in a short period of time. and perhaps for those teams that dont have their own practice field, a general reference. As well as that, I said there will be a working code parser to test autonomous functions, as well as additional bot functions as far as it can without me having to literally re-code something. Did you hop in to an XAF and take off from an aircraft carrier without training first? or did you use a simulator?

Anyway, next release a little bit later today…got nothin left to do but tech stuff at HS, I’ll find some time.

Peace,
–Mitch

17

WOW>… :ahh:

18

It’s a really fun program, thanks for creating it. If I can make a suggestion, could you make an option for tank style driving? I know we would all love to have swerve steer, but for most of us it’s not an option.

And I found something else fun to do with the program, if you hold the up and down arrows, you can make the bot levitate, and then fly off the screen. Fun!

19

I’ll make a trade with you. I did the entire kick-off animation with Lightwave, including all the models, texturing and rendering (the whole thing was done in 18 days, while interleaving work, family and about 5 minutes of sleep per day :slight_smile: next year, I REALLY want some more lead time so I can make it more photo-realistic!). I will happily send you all the .lwo and texture files for incorporation into your simulator. In exchange, can you make a Macintosh (OS X)-compatible version?

-dave

20

All of us on Team Mercury agree that this is way too much fun (flying robots are cool).