What it is

This is a plugin for Russian AI Cup local runner that can be controlled by the strategy a player is developing. Plugin is based on the source that was provided by AI Cup committee.

How to control

Plugin is controlled by the property file named visualizer-plugin.properties placed in the same directory where .properties file which is used by local runner is stored. Properties are:

• plugin-port-number - port which plugin listens for incoming connections. Default value is 13579.
• plugin-do-tick-sync - whether to do a sync between local runner and debug client, see "re-playing games" for more.

How to use

Plugin starts a server thread that accepts only one connection to its port number. Then it starts communicating with other party using line-level text protocol.

Currently known commands are:

• begin pre / begin post - start queueing commands to be displayed either before or after main drawing
• end pre / end post - mark either "pre" or "post" queue of commands as ready to be displayed
• circle x0 y0 r0 <color> - draw a circle at (x0, y0) with radius r0 and color color
• fill_circle x0 y0 r0 <color> - draw a filled circle at (x0, y0) with radius r0 and color color
• rect x1 y1 x2 y2 <color> - draw a rect with corners at (x1, y1) to (x2, y2) with color color
• fill_rect x1 y1 x2 y2 <color> - draw a filled rect with corners at (x1, y1) to (x2, y2) with color color
• line x1 y1 x2 y2 <color> - draw a line from (x1, y1) to (x2, y2) with color color
• text x0 y0 msg <color> - show msg at coordinates (x0, y0) with color color
• arc x y r startAngle arcAngle <color> - draw an arc with center at (x, y) with radius r, begins at startAngle and extends for arcAngle. All angles are in radians
• fill_arc x y r startAngle arcAngle <color> - draw a sector with center at (x, y) with radius r, begins at startAngle and extends for arcAngle. All angles are in radians

Color <color> is actually an r g b triple of floats where 0.0 0.0 0.0 will be black and 1.0 1.0 1.0 will be white.

Re-playing games from russianaicup.ru with visual debug

NOTE: currently it is untested if it works with replays from AI cup 2016

To support that your debug client has to support syncing model. It is currently done as follows:

1. Each tick plugin sends to the client SYNC <TICK_NUMBER> line and waits for ACK from client
2. Debug client should respond with ACK as soon as the strategy using this client has finished computing <TICK_NUMBER> tick

This mode has to be enabled in visualizer-plugin.properties with setting plugin-do-tick-sync to either true or to auto. Auto mode will detect replay mode by checking names of players and assuming that if there is NO MyStrategy then it is a replay and it requires sync mode.

How strategy can use it

Well, this is actually up to the user... currently there is very simple debug client implemented in Python provided.