Robocode News

Robocode 1.7.3.4

2011-12-04T22:56:00.002+01:00

Robocode version 1.7.3.4 is mostly a maintenance release.

Bugfixes

Bug [3435721] - Robocode can't find the ECJ (Eclipse Compiler for Java)

Bug [3409705] - Package name allows bad chars. Corrected text regarding use of lower-case letters in package name.

Bug: Changes to the rendering options did not take effect immediately for the battle view.

New Features

Req [3349400] - Calculate codesize after compile in editor.

Changes

Upgraded Eclipse Compiler for Java (ECJ) to version 3.7.1.

Download Robocode 1.7.3.4 from here
Download Robocode .NET plug-in 1.7.3.4 from here
Download Robot testing plug-in 1.7.3.4 from here

Robocode 1.7.3.3

2011-11-05T21:10:00.002+01:00

Robocode version 1.7.3.3 has now been released.

Bugfixes

Bug [3400398] - Unable to change drawing color in .NET (C#)

Bug [3409705] - Package name allows bad chars.

Bug [3406423] - Installer throws NumberFormatException on Linux 3.0.

Bug [3409844] - "About" window colors are awful.

Bug [3376538] - out.write(int) uses up allocated printing quickly.

Changes

The layout of the about box has been completely redesigned.

If running on Java 1.6+, OS/system based font antialiasing will be enabled.

Upgraded to Maven 2.2.1 for building Robocode. Cleaned up the build, improved the speed, and got rid of issue with building and testing every twice.

Upgraded Eclipse Compiler for Java (ECJ) to version 3.7.

Upgraded jni4net (Java <-> .NET bridge) to version 0.8.6.0.

Download Robocode 1.7.3.3 from here
Download Robocode .NET plug-in 1.7.3.3 from here
Download Robot testing plug-in 1.7.3.3 from here

Robocode 1.7.3.2

2011-08-23T22:42:00.003+02:00

Robocode version 1.7.3.2 has now been released.

Bugfixes

Bug [3387632] - Robocode .NET does not work on Java 7. - Robocode .NET does not work on Java 7.

Bug [3383580] - Enabling Paint Freezes Robocode.

Fixed problem with XML serialization of just killed robot.

Fixed bug in temporary record cleanup.

New features

Implemented deserialization of XML with short tags. The command line argument for replay now supports zipped XML.

Changes

Various optimizations to let RoboRumble start up and run faster. E.g. sound module and image loading is disabled when running the rumble.

Improved XML deserialization.

Patch [3365528] by Jerome Lavigne aka. Darkcanuck - Improved priority battle handling in RoboRumble:
- This change will help improve the efficiency of the RoboRumble system and allow battles to be distributed more evenly + fix some inconsistent console output.
- Improves RoboRumble client-side processing of priority battles received from the rumble server. Specifically:

Upgraded to jni4net 0.8.5.1 (fixes bug bug [3387632] - Robocode .NET does not work on Java 7)

Download Robocode 1.7.3.2 from here
Download Robocode .NET plug-in 1.7.3.2 from here
Download Robot testing plug-in 1.7.3.2 from here

Robocode .NET plug-in does not work with Java 7

2011-08-08T23:49:00.005+02:00

The current version of Robocode (version 1.7.3.1) + the .NET plugin does not work on Java 7. We are working on solving this issue. For now, stick to Java 6 in order to develop .NET robots for Robocode. Update: version 1.7.3.2 fixed the issue.

Robocode 1.7.3.1

2011-07-28T23:26:00.006+02:00

Robocode version 1.7.3.1 has now been released, which is a maintenance release compared to version 1.7.3.0.

Bugfixes

Bug [3312341] - Hide enemy name implementation bug.

Bug [3312402] - Bullet.equals semantic has been changed in 1.7.3.0 version.

Bug [3317837] - setColor(null) causes NPE.

Bug [3355603] - Rumble sh scripts for launching do not handle spaces in path.

Bug [3350136] - Teamrumble priority battles bug.

Bug [3370431] - ConcurrentModificationException in URLJarCollector.

Bug [3375882] - Robot in development generates * into filename.

Bug [3376501] - Interface Robot skips turns at end of round.

BulletHitEvent.getBullet().getVictim() always returned null.

New features

Req [3360953] - Twin Duel configuration files for the RoboRumble client are now included.

Changes

The Robot Editor is now saving and loading source files in UTF-8 (Unicode).

Upgraded to use jni4net v0.8.4.

Download Robocode 1.7.3.1 from here
Download Robocode .NET plug-in 1.7.3.1 from here
Download Robot testing plug-in 1.7.3.1 from here

Robocode 1.7.3.0 (final)

2011-05-20T12:58:00.004+02:00

Robocode version 1.7.3.0 (final) has now been released, with a few fixes compared to the beta version.

You can read about the previous bugfixes and changes made for the beta version here:

Robocode 1.7.3.0 Beta

Bugfix

Bug [3293679] - getTurnRateRadians incorrect for negative velocity.

Fixed issues with unit-testing and building Robocode on Linux.

Download Robocode 1.7.3.0 (final) from here
Download Robocode .NET plug-in 1.7.3.0 from here
Download Robot testing plug-in 1.7.3.0 from here

Robocode 1.7.3.0 Beta

2011-03-26T20:20:00.004+01:00

This is the beta version of Robocode version 1.7.3.0.

We encourage everybody to test this new Beta version as much as possible and report any bugs found at our Bugs Tracker at SourceForge. Then we will do everything we can to fix issues before the final release.

In the following we list the bugfixes, new features, and other changes made with the 1.7.3.0 Beta version.

Bugfixes

Bug [2832113] - The gun shot sound isn't working.

Bug [3196615] - x,y coords between BulletHitEvent & HitByBulletEvent differ.

Bug [3207405] - Custom events no longer firing after clearing event queue.

Fixed typo in the documentation with valid range of values for the battlefield width and height. Thanks goes to Tamás Balog for pointing this out.

New features

Added "Enable auto recording" option to the Common Options, which automatically generates a zipped XML record for every battle. Works only when "Enable replay recording" is enabled (is automatically set when enabling auto recording).

Req [3026852] - Ability to save the properties file for robots in development path.

Req [3066647] - Rules.getBulletSpeed(). Keep bullet power within 0.1 - 3.0, even when input is lesser or greater than this valid range.

Req [3034594] - In battle name hiding. A new game rule, "hide enemy names", can be enabled or disabled.

Changes

Upgraded to use jni4net v0.8.3.

Download Robocode 1.7.3.0 Beta from here
Download Robocode .NET Plugin 1.7.3.0 Beta from here
Download Robot Testing Plug-in 1.7.3.0 Beta from here

Capture the Flag

2011-01-28T22:24:00.002+01:00

Banaras Hindu University presents CodeFest - virtual combat event. Himanshu Singh used experimental branch of Robocode by Joshua Galecki, polished it a bit and packaged for the tournament.

To arms! Join the battle!

Robocode 1.7.2.2 (final)

2010-11-05T00:13:00.005+01:00

Robocode version 1.7.2.2 (final) has now been released, which only contains an issue with the Robot API documentation.

You can read about the previous bugfixes and changes made for the beta version here:

Robocode 1.7.2.2 Beta

Bugfix

Fixed "3 * PI / 4 means West." in the Robot API, which should be "3 * PI / 2 means West.". Thanks goes to Gottl Johannes for pointing this out.

Download Robocode 1.7.2.2 (final) from here
Download Robocode .NET plug-in 1.7.2.2 from here
Download Robot testing plug-in 1.7.2.2 from here

Robocode 1.7.2.2 Beta

2010-10-02T22:24:00.013+02:00

This is the beta version of Robocode version 1.7.2.2 that now includes a Robocode Control API with the .NET plug-in, which makes it possible to run battles from a .NET application and retrieve the results etc. Help files are included with Robocode, and the documentation of the new API is available here.

Robocode has also been upgraded to use jni4net v0.8.0 that includes CLR 4.0 support for .NET. This means that robots can be written in e.g. the F# language. Actually, the .NET plugin includes sample robot written in F#.

A ReadMe has also been added for Robocode in both HTML and text (using Markdown syntax). The ReadMe should give the reader a good overview of Robocode.

We encourage everybody to test this new Beta version as much as possible and report any bugs found at our Bugs Tracker at SourceForge. Then we will do everything we can to fix issues before the final release of version 1.7.2.2.

In the following we list the bugfixes, new features, and other changes made with the 1.7.2.2 Beta version.

Bugfixes

Bug [3043944] - Robot PrintStream doesn't handle write in a portable fashion.

Bug [3077562] - Wrong headings with the JuniorRobot. Thanks goes to Mr. Kschan for finding and providing a fix for this bug. :-)

Bug [3043884] - Development Options remove wrong item.

Bug [3043932] - JavaDoc missing _Robot and similar.

New Sample robots

Tuan Anh Nguyen provided a modified version of the Interactive sample robot named Interactive_v2, which use absolute movement (up, left, down, right) on the screen, which can be easier to control than the original Interactive sample robot. Both Interactive robots now use both the arrow keys and the W, A, S, D key for moving the robot.

SampleFs (written for .NET with the #F langugage) has been added along with the Visual Studio 2010 project file for it. This is available with the .NET plug-in.

New features

Robocode has been upgraded to use jni4net v0.8 with CLR 4.0 support.

Implemented Robocode .NET Control API plug-in (robocode.control.dll) with documentation.

Req [2932291] - Added ReadMe.txt (using Markdown syntax) and ReadMe.html. The ReadMe is also available from the Help menu.

Req [2973605] - Enable/disable development paths.

Req [2974806] - Provide JuniorRobot template for inexperienced users.

Changes

It is not necessary to specify -Dsun.io.useCanonCaches=false anymore with the startup scripts for Robocode and RoboRumble as Robocode sets this internally when running under Windows. Hence, this property has been removed from all .bat, .sh, and .command files for Robocode.

Robocode will not notify about Beta versions anymore per default. However, a new option in the Common Options (under Preferences) makes it possible to enable/disable notifications about new Beta versions.

The tabs for the Common and Development Options in the Preferences window are now the first tabs.

Download Robocode 1.7.2.2 Beta from here
Download Robocode .NET plugin 1.7.2.2 Beta from here

Robocode 1.7.2.1 (final)

2010-08-05T23:00:00.005+02:00

Robocode version 1.7.2.1 (final) has now been released, which contains lots of bug fixes compared to the beta, but also a few changes.

You can read about the previous bugfixes and changes made for the beta version here:

Robocode 1.7.2.1 Beta

In the following, the new bugfixes and changes made since the beta version are listed.

Bugfixes

Bug [3021140] - Possible for robot to kill other robot threads.

Bug [3029344] - Zipped robots data files are not extracted.

Bug [3026855] - Robot Packager doesn't package source file in Eclipse proj.

Bug [2828479] - Missed onRobotDeath events. Thanks goes to ForNeVeR for finding and solving this bug.

Bug [3019854] - Cannot see robot with no package in New Battle dialog.

Bug [3026856] - Robot Packaging Wizard doesn't save value for Next & Back.

Bug [3028102] - ClassNotFoundException at RobotClassLoader.java:271.

Bug [3032423] - "skipped" turns at start with -Ddebug=true

Bug [3032843] - Exclude filters not working.

Sometimes the compiler window was hanging for several seconds, even though the compiler had finished compiling.

Changes

The Robot Packing Wizard will now only allow word characters (letters, digits, dots, but no spaces) with the version field.

Added robocode.annotation.SafeStatic, which can be used to suppress warnings in the robot console for a robot uses static reference to a robot on a field. Note that this means that you need to clean the static field, when a new round is started. This annotation was suggested by Nat Pavasant. The annotation is used like this:


  @SafeStatic
  private static AdvancedRobot robot;

Added syntax highlightning on Java annotations for the Robot Editor.

Download Robocode 1.7.2.1 (final) from here
Download Robocode .NET plug-in 1.7.2.1 from here
Download Robot testing plug-in 1.7.2.1 from here

Robocode 1.7.2.1 Beta

2010-06-19T13:17:00.005+02:00

This is the beta version of Robocode version 1.7.2.1, where the Jikes 1.22 compiler has been replaced with the Eclipse Compiler for Java (ECJ) 3.5.2.

We encourage everybody to test this new Beta version as much as possible and report any bugs found at our Bugs Tracker at SourceForge. Then we will do everything we can to fix issues before the final release of version 1.7.2.1.

In the following we list the new bugfixes and changes made with the 1.7.2.1 Beta version.

Bugfixes

Bug [2867326] - Lockup on start if too many bots in robots dir (cont'd).

Fixed some issues with the robot repository when file URLs contains spaces, where robots were sometimes disappearing from the repository.

Changes

Req [2815450] - Move away from Jikes towards ECJ. Jikes 1.22 has been replaced with the Eclipse Compiler for Java (ECJ) 3.5.2.

Download Robocode 1.7.2.1 Beta from here
Download Robocode .NET plugin 1.7.2.1 Beta from here

Robocode 1.7.2.0 (final)

2010-05-28T23:39:00.006+02:00

The final version of Robocode version 1.7.2.0 has finally been released. As usual, lots of bugs have been found and fixed.

If you are new to Robocode 1.7.2.0 then please note that this version is the first version of Robocode that supports robots written for .NET. With the .NET plugin for Robocode, Java and .NET robots can participate in the same battles in the same time.

You can read our two first articles on the RoboWiki about
how to create and how to debug a .NET robot with Visual Studio.

If you want to know the differences between the Robot API for Java and the new one for .NET, you should read this article.

You can read about the bugfixes and changes with the previous beta versions here:

Beta (1)

Beta 2

Beta 3

In the following, the new bugfixes and changes made since the 1.7.2.0 Beta 3 version are listed.

Bugfixes

Bug: Robots were disabled when skipping 30 skipping non-consecutive turns (or 120 turns when performing I/O operations). Now, Robocode is only disabling robots when the robot skips 30 consecutive turns, which is the original behavior, and which has been broken since version 1.6.1.4.

Bug [2994724] - Duplicate version numbers prevents uploading.

Bug [2994732] - tzu.TheArtOfWar 1.2 gets NullPointerExceptions.

Bug [3003721] - Attempting to install Robocode over an existing install NPEs.

Bug [3005547] - The robocode.command is missing the execute permissions bit.

Bug [2999719] - Problems with Graphics2D.fill/draw(Shape).

Bug [3005111] - NPE when uploading results.

Bug [2994560] - "Ignoring" messages in rumble is duplicated.

Bug [2975871] - Minor visual bug - Currently selected robot gets covered.

Bug: A security exception was thrown with development robots trying to access their data directory.

Changes

Robocode will now only install batch files relevant to the hosting system, e.g., .bat files are not installed under Unix/Linux/Mac OS X, and .sh files are not installed under Windows. Furthermore, .command files are only installed under Mac OS X, and has now the execution permission bit set (due to bug [3005547]).

Robocode will now write out a warning in the robot console when a robot is detected that uses static references to a robot, i.e. static fields that are declared as e.g. a Robot, AdvancedRobot, TeamRobot etc. (typically references to the robot itself). A static reference to a robot can cause unwanted behavior with the robot accessing these. Hence, it is strongly recommended that static robot references in a robot class or within its helper classes are changed into non-static references and that the robot is recompiled afterwards. In every round, Robocode is creating new instances of the individual robot, meaning that static references to former Robot objects points to "dead" objects that are not used anymore in the game, and which cannot be garbage collected during the battle when there is static references to these.

Download Robocode 1.7.2.0 (final) from here
Download Robocode .NET plugin 1.7.2.0 from here
Download Robot testing framework 1.7.2.0 from here

Robocode 1.7.2.0 Beta 3

2010-04-30T00:52:00.005+02:00

This is the 3rd and last beta for Robocode version 1.7.2.0, where lots of bugs found in Beta 2 have been fixed.

We need to have the fixes verified and also let you check if we have introduced some unwanted side-effects with all the bug fixes we made. So if you have made a bug report for Robocode, please verify the fix the bug if it has been marked as "fixed", and update the tracker with a comment. That is, if the bug was fixed or not.

If you discover a new issue, then don't hesitate reporting it on SourceForge here with a note of which system and Java version you are running under.

If you are new to Robocode 1.7.2.0 then please note that this version is the first version of Robocode that supports robots written for .NET. With the .NET plugin for Robocode, Java and .NET robots can participate in the same battles in the same time.

You can read our two first articles on the RoboWiki about
how to create and how to debug a .NET robot with Visual Studio.

If you want to know the differences between the Robot API for Java and the new one for .NET, you should read this article.

We encourage everybody to test this new Beta version as much as possible and report any bugs found at our Bugs Tracker at SourceForge. Then we will do everything we can to fix issues before the final release of version 1.7.2.0.

You can read about the bugfixes and changed made with the first beta here and the second beta You can read about the bugfixes and changed made with the first beta here.

In the following we list the new bugfixes and changes since the 1.7.2.0 Beta 2 version.

Bugfixes

Bug [2976754] - Battle engine consumes more CPU power over time

Bug [2972932] - Strange issue first time running roborumble in 1.7.2.0 Beta 2.

Bug [2978825] - isTeammate() sometimes returns false with teammates.

Bug [2964562] - Cannot extract downloaded robot for editing in Robot Editor.

Bug [2976258] - Strange thread exceptions with kid.DeltaSquad in 1.7.

Bug [2974178] - Krabb.sliNk.Garm 0.9u freezes often in 1.7.

Bug [2970414] - Occasionally losing the bit of text in the robot console.

Bug [2954723] - java.lang.Error: Interrupted attempt to aquire read lock.

Bug: Teams with versions could not be found in a development path.

Bug: Files in /robots/.data or /robots/.robotcache dir were put into a underscore sub-directory.

Bug: The "Kill Robot" button in the robot console windows was often disabled.

Changes

The robot console now uses a rolling buffer so when the number of lines in the robot console exceeds the max number of lines (500), the oldest lines are removed, and "^^^ TEXT TRUNCATED ^^^" is written in the top. Previously half of the text was truncated when the max number of lines was reached.

Download Robocode 1.7.2.0 Beta 3 from here
Download Robocode .NET plugin 1.7.2.0 Beta 3 from here

Robocode 1.7.2.0 Beta 2

2010-03-14T22:18:00.016+01:00

This is the second Beta for Robocode version 1.7.2.0. Many issues were reported and found with the first Beta. We fixed many of these issues - especially regarding RoboRumble (also MeleeRumble and TeamRumble).

We need to have the fixes verified and also let you check if we have introduced some unwanted side-effects with all the bug fixes we made. So if you have made a bug report for Robocode, please verify the fix the bug if it has been marked as "fixed", and update the tracker with a comment. That is, if the bug was fixed or not.

If you discover a new issue, then don't hesitate reporting it on SourceForge here with a note of which system and Java version you are running under.

If you are new to Robocode 1.7.2.0 then please note that this version is the first version of Robocode that supports robots written for .NET. With the .NET plugin for Robocode, Java and .NET robots can participate in the same battles in the same time.

You can read our two first articles on the RoboWiki about
how to create and how to debug a .NET robot with Visual Studio.

If you want to know the differences between the Robot API for Java and the new one for .NET, you should read this article.

We encourage everybody to test this second Beta version as much as possible and report any bugs found at our Bugs Tracker at SourceForge. Then we will do everything we can to fix issues before the final release of version 1.7.2.0.

You can read about the bugfixes and changed made with the first beta here.

In the following we list the new bugfixes and changes since the first 1.7.2.0 Beta version.

Bugfixes

Bug [2953599] - Roborumble doesn't upload with EXECUTE=NOT.

Bug [2960836] - Team RoboRumble uploading is broken.

Bug [2964559] - TeamRumble: Cannot find robot in nested .jar files.

Bug [2930266] - Robot static data isn't being GCed after battle. More fixes were made.

Bug [2960870] - isTeammate() called on null gives NullPointerException.

Bug [2961489] - ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException when starting team battle.

Bug [2952496] - Installer installs AutoExtract$1.class.

Bug [2952549] - yk.JahRoslav 1.1 throws WinException.

Bug [2960894] - jlm.javaDisturbance loses substantial score in 1.7.2 Beta.

Bug [2962846] - (.NET) condition tested on concurrently modified collection.

License Change

We have changed license from Common Public License (CPL) v1.0 into Eclipse Puplic License (EPL) v1.0.

Download Robocode 1.7.2.0 Beta 2 from here
Download Robocode .NET plugin 1.7.2.0 Beta 2 from here

Get started with Robocode for .NET robots

2010-02-22T22:29:00.013+01:00

The biggest news for Robocode in a long time is the support for .NET robots.
So if you want to get started with .NET programming in a fun way, here is your chance to try it out and challenge your skills.

Get started by reading our two tutorials for .NET robots here:

These two tutorials contains everything needed to get started with programming .NET robots for Robocode.

If you are already familiar with programming Robocode robots in Java, you might be interested in extending your skills into .NET as well. You can read about the differences between .NET and Java robots here.

Download Robocode 1.7.2.0 Beta from here
Download Robocode .NET plugin 1.7.2.0 Beta from here

Robocode .NET - introduction

2010-02-15T23:29:00.016+01:00

Visible Robot differences

between Java and brand new .NET API for Robocode robots.

Namespaces start with uppercase Robocode.AdvancedRobot instead of robocode.AdvancedRobot from Java.

Methods start with uppercase AdvancedRobot.Execute() instead of AdvancedRobot.execute() from Java.

Getter and setter methods are represented by properties BulletHitEvent.VictimEnergy instead of BulletHitEvent.getVictimEnergy() from Java.

Droids are marked with Robocode.IDroid interface instead of robocode.Droid from java.

Painting robot uses Robocode.IGraphics interface, which is similar to System.Drawing.Graphics.

Robocode.Condition could be implemented by delegate, see SampleCs.Target.

Interactive robot should use Robocode.Keys constants, see SampleCs.Interactive.

team Robot messages should be binary serializable and marked with [Serializable] attribute.

.NET robot pays more work to submit each turn into battle (to overcome the interop layer). We will probably adjust CPU time given to robot to keep fair competition. The ratio Java/.NET is for discussion yet.

Access to files is done thru AdvancedRobot.GetDataFile() which returns System.IO.Stream

there is difference in implementation of floating point between CLR & JVM. The JVM uses strictfp - rounding after each operation, which is more portable. Whereas CLR uses FPU wide registers to achieve better speed and precision. If you recursively recompute same numbers, it will produce a little bit different result. Nothing to worry about.

System.Threading.Thread is banned, use Robocode.Thread instead.

About the implementation

Two years ago, when we came with the idea of introducing .NET for Robocode we had no idea what so ever how much work it would require from us. :-O
We had raw idea that the main problem is speed. Robocode version 1.6 and below used shared state in RobotPeer between Battle thread and Robot thread.
Each call on the Robot API was synchronized to one big mutex. Now imagine that each call from a .NET robot will come through interop layer and then through synchronization in Java. Our estimate was that we would need 10.000 calls per second across CLR/transport/JVM boundaries to satisfy all calls which robot does on RobotAPI. That's not very realistic!

After several trials and failures we came to idea that we will make communication between robot and battle chunky rather than chatty. We cache all commands from robot till end of turn (Execute) and then we send it to battle as a message.
The other way around it's the same. At end of turn, the battle produces a message for each robot. The message contains all the information a robot could ever ask for, i.e., all the events, positions - everything. The message is used by robot as cache for all queries on the Robot API.
And that's big success. The Java version of Robocode speedup about 10x in version 1.6.2. This design as well allows for .NET robot to cross the CLR/JVM boundary just once per turn! The messages are serializable to binary form, so the interface between robot and battle could be reused for C++/Delphi/Python/Ruby/Basic/Foxpro :-D robots in the future.

So now, how to connect two virtual machines? Webservice or tcp - slooow, named pipe - slow, COM - yeah maybe, but COM registration, JNI & PIvoke & C++ & in same process - that would be almost it.
In the end as by-product of need for Robocode, I started off new opensource project - jni4net. It's is fast intraprocess bridge, without any native code and it's object oriented. It's generally useful for .NET+Java solutions.

There were challenges about sandboxing the robot in .NET. We use AppDomain, CAS security and static code analysis to prevent you from cheating.

There is plenty of work ahead. I would not name it now, because we would like to hear from you, what you think we should improve?

Enjoy!

Robocode 1.7.2.0 Beta - The ".NET robots are now supported" release

2010-02-15T22:24:00.003+01:00

We are proud to announce the 1.7.2.0 Beta release of Robocode, which is the first version to support .NET robots via using a plugin for Robocode. A lot of hard work has been put into the .NET support by Pavel Savara.

With the .NET plugin for Robocode, Java and .NET robots can participate in the same battles in the same time.

You can read our first article on the RoboWiki about
how to create a .NET robot with Visual Studio and run it in Robocode.

If you want to know the differences between the Robot API for Java and the new one for .NET, you should read this article.

We have also added lots of pending features and of course made some changes to Robocode as well.

We encourage everybody to test this Beta version as much as possible and report any bugs found at our Bugs Tracker at SourceForge. Then we will do everything we can to fix issues before the final release of version 1.7.2.0.

Bugfixes

Bug [2930266] - Robot static data isn't being GCed after battle.

Bug [2931445] - Removing directories from "development options" doesn't work.

Bug in RobotClassLoader causing ClassNotFoundException for some robots during robot class load.

Fixed a NullPointerException occuring when Robocode is (re)loading the robot repository after a developer path has been removed.

Bug [2935451] - Version ordering is somewhat strange with letters.

Bug [2930256] - Robot console text sometimes disappears.

Bug [2928688] - morbid.MorbidPriest_1.0 fails to load.

New features

.NET Robocode plugin. It is now possible to code robots in .NET and let them engage in Robocode battles.

Req [2816882] - onRoundEnded(). It is now possible for robots to get notified when a round has ended. The onRoundEnded() event handler received a new RoundEndedEvent that contains information about the number of turns in the round and total turns in the whole battle when the event occurred.

The robocode.control.RoundEndedEvent in the Control API has been extended with a new method named getTotalTurns() similar to the new robocode.RoundEndedEvent for the Robot API.

Req [2931696] - RateControlRobot vs. TeamRobot. The RateControlRobot is now a TeamRobot meaning that it can participate in team battles.

Req [2931684] - Skipped turn events. Added getSkippedTurn() method on the SkippedTurnEvent class, which returns the turn that was skipped. The getTime() returns the time when the SkippedTurnEvent was processed by the robot, which is always later when the robot is skipping turns. The message "SYSTEM: you skipped turn" has been improved, so it will tell which turn that was skipped like "SYSTEM: john.Doh skipped turn 43".

Req [2342293] - Screenshot of battleview. Press Ctrl+T on Windows and Linux, and Command+T for Mac OS in order to take a screenshot of the battleview. The screenshot will be saved in the Robocode folder named "screenshots", and the filename will be a timestamp for when the screenshot was taken.

Req [2496661] - Launch Robocode from .battle (battle specification) and .br (battle record) files.

Req [2659612] - Add option to prevent speedup when minimized. This new View Option can now be set in the Preferences by putting a check mark into "Prevent speedup when minimized".

Req [2643438] - Renamed /robots/.robotcache to /robots/.data

Changes

Browser support has been improved for Mac OS, Unix and Linux, which in most cases did not work properly.
- In previous versions of Robocode, the browser.sh was used to start up the user's prefered browser. The browser.sh file is not being used anymore. Hence, this file can safely be removed from your robocode installation dir.
- Now, Robocode will start up a browser under Mac OS, Unix and Linux with no use of scripts.
The Development Options dialog in the Preferences has been improved:
- Changed from using single interval selection to multi selection interval.
- Adding an existing path is ignored.
- The list of path is automatically sorted.

Download Robocode 1.7.2.0 Beta from here
Download Robocode .NET plugin 1.7.2.0 Beta from here

Robocode 1.7.1.6

2010-01-06T01:01:00.001+01:00

Happy New Year to everybody!

This is the final release of 1.7.1.6 which contains one new feature, some bug fixes, and a few changes compared to the beta.

Bugfixes

Bug [2912942] - Mac OS X 10.6: Cannot run Robocode from robocode.sh. It must be run from the new robocode.command file instead.

Bug [2912944] - Mac OS X 10.6: The editor cannot see the JDK. It must be run from the new robocode.command file instead.

The onDeathEvent(DeathEvent) method was called too late, when a new round was about to start. Not when the robot has died.

Bug [2867326] - Lockup on start if too many bots in robots dir (cont'd). Additional fix was made to locate multiple robots under the same package.

Changed the robot painting so that everything that goes into the painting buffer is always painted, and remaining painting operations exceeding the buffer capacity are always dropped. Previously, only the last painting operations exceeding the painting buffer were executed.

New Features

The amount of used memory and total memory is now shown in the title bar of Robocode. This is useful to see how much memory your robots are consuming.

Changes

If the robot paints too much between actions, an improved error message is written out in the robot console. But from this version of Robocode this message is only written out a single time.

A SecurityException is now thrown if a robot exceeds its max. data file quota, meaning that it uses more than 200.000 bytes its data files in total.

Download Robocode 1.7.1.6 from here

Robocode 1.7.1.6 Beta

2009-12-10T22:48:00.000+01:00

This is a maintenance release of Robocode with the bug fixes and changes described below.

Bugfixes

Bug [2897215] - Robot Editor doesn't accept packagename with dot (.) in it.

Bug [2876395] - Source is not included.

Bug [2867326] - Lockup on start if too many bots in robots dir (cont'd).

Requests

Req [2641759] - Scrollable properties. All console windows including the Robot Console and Properties are now scrollable, and all have the same look.

Changes

It is now possible to add paths to robot project inside an Eclipse workspace under the Development Options in the Preferences. Robocode will read the .classpath file in the project in order to locate both class files, properties files, and java files. This means that the Robot Packager is now able to include your source files when you use Eclipse, and it supports multiple source paths. Notice that Robocode does not support linked sources or include and exclude filters.

Changed the messages given when creating a new robot with the Robot Editor regarding robot name and package name.

Download Robocode 1.7.1.6 Beta from here

Robocode 1.7.1.5

2009-11-11T23:23:00.000+01:00

This is the final release of 1.7.1.5 that fixes two bugs compared to the beta version.

Bugfixes

RobocodeFileOutputStream.getName() always returned null instead of the filename.

Robots listed in e.g. the New Battle window was sorted like: 1.1.1, 1.1.10y, 1.1.2, 1.1.10 (alpha-numerical). But version numbers with an ending letter like in "1.1.10y" like in the versions just listed, were not placed in the correct order. Notice that 1.1.10y is between 1.1.1 and 1.1.2. This bug has been fixed so the versions in the example now will be sorted correctly like: 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.10, 1.1.10y

Download Robocode 1.7.1.5 from here

Robocode 1.7.1.5 Beta

2009-10-14T23:19:00.000+02:00

This is a maintenance release of Robocode, which fixes the bugs below.

Bugfixes

Bug [2871138] - Graphics2D.getTransform() throws NPE

Bug [2872781] - "Teleport" - occurs when robot's distance remaining is very large

Bug [2876395] - Source is not included, robot.java.source.included was not set

Download Robocode 1.7.1.5 Beta from here

How do you test your robot ?

2009-10-08T18:09:00.000+02:00

Philip Johnson from University of Hawaii uses Robocode in his computer science course.

He came with idea of unit testing Robocode robots and prepared excellent video guide to show you how to do that.

He reused our implementation of RobotTestBed, which we use to test Robocode engine. We will be working with him to include his idea. Probably as downloadable Robocode extension package.

Code and more could be found in pmj-dacruzer project

Enjoy this great stuff!

Robocode 1.7.1.4

2009-09-25T23:46:00.000+02:00

This final version 1.7.1.4 is dedicated for the RoboRumble@Home community where many issues seen with the RoboRumble client have been solved.

In the following the bug fixes and changes compared to the 1.7.1.4 Beta are listed.

Bugfixes

Bug [2845608] - java.io.FileNotFoundException in RobotFileSystemManager.init

Bug [2845612] - Can't load Katana 1.0 or DrussGT 1.3.1wilo

Bug [2854692] - Lockup on start if too many bots in robots dir

Bug [2852860] - IllegalArgumentException on painting in some robots

Fixed NullPointerException that could occur with the -battle command-line option

Changes

Banning

The previous 1.7.x.x versions have been very strict so that robots that could not be loaded, started, skipped too many turns etc. would be disallowed to participate in battles. With the bugfix for bug [2845612] above this policy has been changed so robots are only "banned" if the cause a security violation or they could not be loaded or started (meaning that they are not able to run). In addition, ALL security violations are always written out in both the main console and robot's console. A message will be written out in the main console like "xxx has caused a security violation. This robot has been banned and will not be allowed to participate in battles".

Painting

With the bugfix for bug [2852860] a change was made so a robot will now receive this message in its console window, if it is painting too much between actions:
"SYSTEM: This robot is painting too much between actions. Max. capacity has been reached."

Notice that a robot is not allowed to perform an unlimited amount of paint operations for two reasons:

It takes up a lot of memory as the painting operations are recorded in a buffer before being processed, and potentially this buffer must be recorded to a file (for replays). A robot is allowed to use up to a maximum of 64 KB per action. An average painting operation like e.g. fillRect(x, y, width, height) takes up 15 bytes, meaning that more 4000 painting operations should be possible, which is a lot.

It takes a lot of CPU cycles to process the painting buffer to the display making the painting slow if the buffer is too large.

It is possible to remove the limit of the robots painting buffer by using the command-line option: -Ddebug=true

Download Robocode 1.7.1.4 from here

Robocode 1.7.1.4 Beta

2009-08-26T23:27:00.000+02:00

This version is dedicated for the RoboRumble@Home community where many issues seen with the RoboRumble client have been solved.
Thank you all for reporting as many known issues as possible, and also help out solving these - especially with the issue seen with the robot movement that had a big impact on the scores and rankings! :-)

A big thanks goes to Patrick Cupka ("Voidious"), Julian Kent ("Skilgannon"), "Positive" and Nat Pavasant ("Nat") for their combined work with developing and testing the new and improved robot movement regarding acceleration and deceleration rules (Bug [2828072]). :-)

Bugfixes

Bug [2828072] - Accel/decel rules introduced in 1.7.1.3 causes trouble.

Bug [2828479] - Missed onRobotDeath events.

Bug [2819387] - Team jar files reported as corrupted.

Bug [2809518] - Does not extract .properties files into bot data dir. This fix did not work properly as the file sizes were truncated to 0 bytes.

Bug [2828614] - Sometimes too few results for robots are displayed.

Bug [2820434] - NullPointerException when setting classpath directory.

Bug [2811621] - Invalid entry point in codesize-1.1.jar.

Bug [2833271] - IllegalThreadStateException occurring in RoboRumble.

Bug [2831201] - Robocode enters infinite loop with the Restart button.

The RateControlRobot (Beta) returned rates in radians instead of degrees with the methods: getTurnRate(), getGunRotationRate(), and getRadarRotationRate().

Changes for RoboRumble

Updated the PARTICIPANTSURL in the roborumble.txt, meleerumble.txt, and teamrumble.txt

Download Robocode 1.7.1.4 Beta from here