Boondoggle Combat Simulator!
The Boondoggle simulator serves as the primary development and testing environment for the Drone Control Units that you can build to supply to the Drones in the Boondoggle world. The simulator works differently for the different language implementaitons.
Download the Simulator by clicking here
This is a work in progress. Text in orange is not yet implemented. Text In Green Is Partially Complete or Changed.
Simulator UI.
1 – Load an assembly. Select the Assembly that you wish to load that has your DCU in it. Once you select an assembly a list of the compatible types in that assembly will be displayed. Click on one of the types to load it into the Simulator.
2 – Once the DCU is loaded the simulate button becomes enabled. Press the start button to start running the simulation.
3 – The simulator output window.
4 – Black Box Area. Each DCU comes fitted with a black box that can be retrieved after the battle to analyse what happened. During the simulator a feed is sent back from the black box to the simulator window – if the tick is selected then you will see a real time refresh of the black box log. After the battle the black box log will be here.
5 – Scanner Visualisation. Each time that the DCU requests a scan the scan will be visualised here. Its important to note that during a non simulated exercise you will not be able to visualise the scans yourself so this gives you a way of visualising and testing your scans.
6 – Speed Control. The simulator can run at three different speeds – select >>> for the fastest simulation. Note that the UI updates at a consistent rate so that running full speed will display only frames at the same consistent rate even though the battle runs faster.
7 – Turn Limit. The simulator environment does not drain power when the bot is stopped therefore if you simply sit and wait the battle will not end. Use a reasonable turn limit while developing to ensure that your battle does indeed end!
8 – Status Display. Details of your Drones heading / location / power remaining and life remaining are displayed here during the battle.
9 – Map visualisation. The overall world map for the simulator is displayed here. This allows you to visualise the simulated world that your drone is in – however – during a real battle you do not have such a view and the drone can only “see” what it has scanned. Therefore this visualisation helps you work out the kinks in your AI but will not be there during the real runs.