botZilla : A Programming Challenge.

by Steve Baker

Installing botZilla.

First grab the tarball from the DOWNLOADS page, then unpack it into a directory on your hard drive. Under Windows, use the WinZIP tool, under Linux use:

    tar xzf zilla-1.0.0.tar.gz

Change directory to that location, then...

INSTALLATION FROM BINARIES:

If you intend to use the binary executables that come with Zilla, you only need to compile the robot files:

Under Linux or under Windows using CygWin:

   cd sample_robots
   make

Under Windows with MSVC:

To build under Windows you should have Microsoft Visual C++ installed. If you do not have Microsoft Visual C++, a free version is available called Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003. The download can be found at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/

    1. Unzip the distribution 
    2. Open a "compiler aware" Command Prompt 
    
    For Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, use: 
      Start->All Programs->Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 
      ->Visual Studio .NET Tools->Visual Studio .NET Command Prompt
      
    For Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003, use: 
      Start->All Programs->Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 
      ->Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 Command Prompt 
      
    3. Change the directory to zilla\sample_robots 
    4. Run 'build_release' to build the sample robots

INSTALLATION FROM SOURCES:

Under Linux or under Windows using Cygwin:

First, download and install the latest version of PLIB according to the instructions at the PLIB home page.

Second: Untar the Zilla distribution with 'tar', change into the zilla directory, then:

   ./configure
   make
   cd sample_robots
   make

Under Windows:

To build zilla.exe use the FULL version of MSVC++ (Toolkit won't open project files) to open 'zilla.sln'.

There is also a 'sample_robots.sln' to build the sample robots in MSVC++'s IDE.

RUNNING THE PACKAGE:

First, edit the file 'data/robots.dat' to list the directories containing the robots you wish to run.

Then, under Linux, run the 'zilla' script:

   ./zilla

Under Windows, run 'zilla.exe' from the 'Release' directory.

DIRECTORY STRUCTURE:

sample_robots -- Source code and build environments for sample robots.
src           -- Where the source code lives.
data          -- Several miscellaneous data files, all ASCII text.
audio         -- Music files in '.mod' format and sound effects in '.wav'.
models        -- 3D Models in AC3D format, 3D animations in .ssg format.
images        -- Texture maps in '.rgb' format.
fonts         -- Screen fonts in '.txf' format.
doc           -- Documentation in '.html' format + images in '.jpg'.
Release       -- The Windows version's release executable lives here.