gametechmods

Robot Arena => Discussion => Topic started by: Fracture on September 24, 2011, 10:06:32 PM

Title: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Fracture on September 24, 2011, 10:06:32 PM
Would it be possible to have a bot start, if needed, (i.e. a command should activate it) upside down in the Test Garage? It would be rather convenient when you're testing for invertibility.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: MassimoV on September 24, 2011, 10:37:16 PM
Don't think that's possible buddy. Good idea though. Maybe a floor flipper in the test gaarage possibly.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: G.K. on September 25, 2011, 04:12:42 AM
Just use the ramps.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Conraaa on September 25, 2011, 04:26:59 AM
I see what he means, sometimes i've been testing bots in the garage that are nigh on impossible to flip on their own. Some form of flipper would probably work well. The fun part is making it.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: NFX on September 25, 2011, 05:43:31 AM
The ramps could help, but they're not always doable. I prefer to use the Octagon Arena against a really <expletive> opponent, and just drive onto the flipper things.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: JoeBlo on September 25, 2011, 06:16:07 AM
Why use an opponent?

I put my robot human controlled in twice and enter it into the octagon

You can conduct 2 tests at once :P
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: MassimoV on September 25, 2011, 09:06:13 AM
You clever person Joe.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Fracture on September 25, 2011, 09:20:53 AM
Half the time I land right side up and half the time I'm thrown OOTA so I can't see the bot when I try it in the Octagon. D: (plus going back to the menu and starting an exhibition match, choosing the bots, arena, etc. is pretty tedious)
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Mr. AS on September 25, 2011, 09:24:30 AM
You could try replacing \Scripts\Practice.py with octagon.py, and import all the hazards in.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: NFX on September 25, 2011, 10:03:10 AM
Half the time I land right side up and half the time I'm thrown OOTA so I can't see the bot when I try it in the Octagon. D: (plus going back to the menu and starting an exhibition match, choosing the bots, arena, etc. is pretty tedious)
You can simply change the camera to Orbit Cam (F4), and then it follows your robot wherever it goes.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: RpJk on September 25, 2011, 12:15:41 PM
I think a floor flipper in the test garage would work even though I'm not into invertable robots.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Trovaner on September 26, 2011, 03:07:42 PM
Unfortunately, we can't add hinges or prismatics to the practice arena (or cameras for that matter). The only workaround that I'm aware of involves using a complicated GMF object with gravity moving it and force holding the player's bot down. Doing things this way would be difficult to do and have extremely sloppy results. Due to gravity equally distributing itself to components while force only applying itself to the bot's chassis, any sidelong forces will cause an unbalanced bot to turn.

Madiaba made a mod to the DSL practice arena that included a second floor from which bots could fall to the lower floor. IIRC, he released it to the general public but it was originally intended for StarcoreV4. You may be able to find a download for it somewhere...

My highly modded practice arena has an option to use an inverted started point after just a couple in-game clicks. My garage sounds like what you want but unfortunately it isn't ready for a public release.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: G.K. on September 26, 2011, 03:36:18 PM
http://www.madiaba.gametechmods.com/SCstuff-9.rar (http://www.madiaba.gametechmods.com/SCstuff-9.rar) is the arena Mad did, I believe.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Squirrel_Monkey on September 26, 2011, 03:38:54 PM
My garage sounds like what you want but unfortunately it isn't ready for a public release.
Wow, I bet you have so much unreleased stuff lying around. Weird how so many ideas have already been thought of. Also, I agree with the "what's wrong with the ramp?" principle.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: GoldenFox93 on September 26, 2011, 03:40:35 PM
Might be good for testing Srimechs too, by the looks of things.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Trovaner on September 26, 2011, 11:14:52 PM
My garage sounds like what you want but unfortunately it isn't ready for a public release.
Wow, I bet you have so much unreleased stuff lying around. Weird how so many ideas have already been thought of. Also, I agree with the "what's wrong with the ramp?" principle.
Yeah, I've been meaning to start a mods showcase just to motivate myself and give a little teaser for you guys. I do a lot of behind the scenes work for people but most of my big projects fall on the back-burner and I lose interest. I've also co-worked with Mad on a bunch of projects including the StarcoreV4 garage.

Considering the game has been around for 8 years, its no surprise that people repeat high-demand features (auto-AIing, invert testing, scale for height bar, more bots in the arena, semi-transparent chassis skins, extended weight limit, etc.).

In DSL, the "Flipper" (DSL ramp) was designed to test invertability. It uses a technique that for all intensive purposes inverts controls (has to do with how mobility is calculated for each wheel) so holding forward on a fast top-heavy/front-heavy bot will flip the bot.
In stock, it is much harder to flip your bot because the ramps are too low and close. If you have a wedge on a fast bot, I'd recommend ramming the wall until the bot flips. If you have a slow bot with wheels sticking out the back, I'd recommend backing into the wall until the bot lifts itself off the ground.

Another solution would be to use the FPS window to push or force the bot off the ground. You may even attempt to add a force or push line to your practice arena's buttons but you may be better off just using Mad's StarcoreV4 garage (thanks G.K. for the link). Backing into the air tanks would have a similar effect but you may prefer falling off the ledge.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Clickbeetle on October 07, 2011, 10:17:56 PM
Slight bump.
 
Whenever I need to test invertibility/self-righteousness, I just fire up FB's cheat mode in the F9 window and type cheats.fly().  Then keep hitting enter until the bot lands upside down.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Badnik96 on October 07, 2011, 10:23:47 PM
027 made the DSL practice arena playable and the second player starts next to the first spot but upside-down.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Mr. AS on October 07, 2011, 10:31:48 PM
027 made the DSL practice arena playable and the second player starts next to the first spot but upside-down.
Not to burst his bubble, but someone else already made the practice arena playable:
https://gametechmods.com/Robot_Arena2/Arenas/Practice_Arena1-1.zip (https://gametechmods.com/Robot_Arena2/Arenas/Practice_Arena1-1.zip)
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: 090901 on October 07, 2011, 10:35:22 PM
027 made the DSL practice arena playable and the second player starts next to the first spot but upside-down.
Not to burst his bubble, but someone else already made the practice arena playable:
https://gametechmods.com/Robot_Arena2/Arenas/Practice_Arena1-1.zip (https://gametechmods.com/Robot_Arena2/Arenas/Practice_Arena1-1.zip)
Not to burst you bubble, but IIRC, thats the stock test arena, not the DSL test arena
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Mr. AS on October 07, 2011, 10:44:37 PM
027 made the DSL practice arena playable and the second player starts next to the first spot but upside-down.
Not to burst his bubble, but someone else already made the practice arena playable:
https://gametechmods.com/Robot_Arena2/Arenas/Practice_Arena1-1.zip (https://gametechmods.com/Robot_Arena2/Arenas/Practice_Arena1-1.zip)
Not to burst you bubble, but IIRC, thats the stock test arena, not the DSL test arena
Well. I can't tell what it looks like in-game, but the preview looks like this:
(https://gametechmods.com/uploads/images/9946practice_preview.png)
Which should give you an idea of what it looks like.
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: JoeBlo on October 07, 2011, 10:47:02 PM
its the stock one with some modifications ...

It doesnt take very much to make them playable.. just add start points..
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Badnik96 on October 08, 2011, 09:07:28 AM
He also unhid both event results arenas
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: MassimoV on October 08, 2011, 08:44:41 PM
^That would be cool to see.^
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Serge on October 09, 2011, 02:50:49 PM
What about changing the transformation matrix in the spawn point to rotate it upside-down?
Title: Re: Invertibility Tester
Post by: Trovaner on October 09, 2011, 11:46:32 PM
^^^ Thats exactly what I did. I also set it up so that I could change the practice arena in-game thereby  making invertability a matter of seconds to check.