{"id":1554,"date":"2019-06-18T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.sidekick.be\/itenium\/robocode-tutorial\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T13:31:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T12:31:44","slug":"robocode-tutorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.sidekick.be\/itenium\/blog\/design\/robocode-tutorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Robocode Tutorial"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 id=\"game-physics\">Game Physics<\/h1>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/itenium-be.github.io\/blog-posts-new\/assets\/blog-images\/robocode-battleground.gif\" alt=\"BattleFieldWidth and BattleFieldHeight\" title=\"BattleFieldWidth and BattleFieldHeight\" class=\"img-responsive\" style=\"max-width: 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Default grid for 1v1: 800&#215;600<\/li>\n<li>Time is measured in ticks = turns.<\/li>\n<li>1 distance unit = 1 pixel unless the game scaled down the battlefield to fit on the screen.<\/li>\n<li>Acceleration (a): Robots accelerate at 1px\/turn and decelerate at 2px\/turn.<\/li>\n<li>Velocity (v): Max: 8px\/turn. The robot movies in the direction of the <code>GunHeading<\/code>.<\/li>\n<li>Distance (d): distance = velocity * time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/robowiki.net\/wiki\/Robocode\/Game_Physics\">Wiki<\/a><\/p>\n<h1 id=\"the-robot\">The Robot<\/h1>\n<p>A Robot consists of:<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"body\">Body<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><code>Energy<\/code>:\n<ul>\n<li>Start with 100.<\/li>\n<li>Drops when firing, getting hit, running into robots or walls and being inactive<\/li>\n<li>At 0, it is game over!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><code>Ahead(double distance)<\/code> &amp; <code>Back<\/code>: Distance in pixels.\n<ul>\n<li>Collision with another robot: 0.6 energy damage<\/li>\n<li>Collision with a wall <code>abs(velocity) * 0.5 - 1 (never &lt; 0)<\/code> (AdvancedRobot only)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><code>Velocity<\/code>: Measured in pixels\/turn. Max: 8px\/turn. Accelerate: 1px\/turn. Decelerate: 2px\/turn.<\/li>\n<li><code>TurnLeft(double degrees)<\/code> &amp; <code>TurnRight<\/code>\n<ul>\n<li>Maximum rate of rotation is <code>(10 - 0.75 * abs(velocity)) deg\/turn<\/code>.<\/li>\n<li>The faster you\u2019re moving, the slower you turn.<\/li>\n<li><code>Heading<\/code>: Direction the tank is facing. Returns 0 to 360 (exclusive). 0 is North. 90 is East etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><code>Width<\/code> &amp; <code>Height<\/code>: Dimensions of the Robot. (36&#215;36)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"gun\">Gun<\/h2>\n<p>Pew! Pew! Pew!!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mounted on the Body.<\/li>\n<li><code>GunHeat<\/code>:\n<ul>\n<li>Can only <code>Fire<\/code> when this is zero.<\/li>\n<li>Each turn the Gun cools with <code>GunCoolingRate<\/code>. Default: 0.1 \/ turn.<\/li>\n<li>At game start <code>GunHeat<\/code> is 3.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><code>Fire<\/code> &amp; <code>FireBullet(double power): Bullet<\/code>:\n<ul>\n<li>With <code>power<\/code> between 0.1 and 3.<\/li>\n<li>Costs <code>power<\/code> amount of <code>energy<\/code>. If power &gt; energy, you become disabled.<\/li>\n<li>Damage: <code>(4 * power)<\/code>. If power &gt; 1, an additional <code>2 * (power - 1)<\/code> damage.<\/li>\n<li>If hit, you regain <code>(3 * power)<\/code> worth of <code>energy<\/code>.<\/li>\n<li><code>GunHeat<\/code> increases with <code>1 + (power \/ 5)<\/code>.<\/li>\n<li>Generates <code>onBullHit<\/code>, <code>onBulletHitBullet<\/code> and <code>onBulletMissed<\/code> events.<\/li>\n<li>Bullets move with a velocity of <code>20 - (3 * power)<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><code>turnGunLeft<\/code> and <code>turnGunRight<\/code>.\n<ul>\n<li>The maximum rate of rotation is: 20 deg\/turn.<\/li>\n<li><code>GunHeading<\/code>: Direction the gun is facing. Returns 0 to 360 (exclusive). 0 is North. 90 is East etc.<\/li>\n<li><code>IsAdjustGunForRobotTurn<\/code>: True = Guns turns separately of Body.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"radar\">Radar<\/h2>\n<p>Scans for other robots.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mounted on the Gun.<\/li>\n<li><code>turnRadarLeft(double degrees)<\/code> and <code>turnRadarRight<\/code>.\n<ul>\n<li>The maximum rate of rotation is: 45 deg\/turn<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Generates <code>onScannedRobot<\/code> events when another robot is detected.<\/li>\n<li><code>RadarHeading<\/code>: Direction the radar is facing.<\/li>\n<li><code>IsAdjustRadarForGunTurn<\/code>: True = Radar turns separately of Gun.<\/li>\n<li><code>IsAdjustRadarForRobotTurn<\/code>: True = Radar turns separately of Body.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1 id=\"battling-other-robots\">Battling other robots<\/h1>\n<p>The best way to debug your robot is, of course battling others!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/robowiki.net\/wiki\/Sample_Bots\">Sample Bots<\/a>: Packaged with Robocode. Practice against these first \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/robowiki.net\/wiki\/Category:Super_Sample_Bots\">Super Sample Bots<\/a>: The next step.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/robowiki.net\/wiki\/Robocode\/Learning_from_Robots\">How to download other Robots<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/robowiki.net\/wiki\/Robocode\/Downloading_Robots#Robots_to_download\">Some Super Robots<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/robowiki.net\/wiki\/Category:Open_Source_Bots\">Open Source Robots<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1 id=\"learning-resources\">Learning Resources<\/h1>\n<h4 id=\"learning-to\">Learning to<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/robowiki.net\/wiki\/Movement\">Move<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/robowiki.net\/wiki\/Radar\">Use the radar<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/robowiki.net\/wiki\/Targeting\">Targeting<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/robowiki.net\/wiki\/Tutorials\">More tutorials<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4 id=\"other-resources\">Other resources<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/robowiki.net\/wiki\/Robocode\/Articles\">Robocode articles<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/robowiki.net\/wiki\/Robocode\/Graphical_Debugging\">Graphical Debugging<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4 id=\"youtube\">Youtube<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oTjjkXebCAY\">Programming Games: Robocode \/\/ Patrick Cupka<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wJzJ57ZC1sc\">Introduction to Robocode \/\/ Philip Johnson<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dHrupYhq7sI\">Walk-through of testing code for robocode \/\/ Philip Johnson<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Also in this series<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>Part 1: <a href=\"\/design\/robocode-installation\/\">Robocode Installation &#038; Debugging<\/a><\/li>\n<li>This Part: Robocode Tutorial<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Extras<\/h1>\n<p><b>Stuff that came into being during the making of this post<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/itenium-be\/itenium-be.github.io\">Example Eclipse and Visual Studio Robocode projects<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Other interesting reads<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/robocode.sourceforge.io\/\">Official Robocode site<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/robowiki.net\/wiki\/Robocode\">Robocode Wiki<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1> Package Versions <i class=\"fa fa-info-circle\" style=\"float: right; color: cornflowerblue; font-size: 28px\" title=\"Package versions used for this post and in the accompanying code on Github\"><\/i><\/h1>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/robo-code\/robocode\" class=\"github\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.shields.io\/github\/stars\/robo-code\/robocode.svg?style=social&#038;label=Star\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/robo-code\/robocode\">robo-code\/robocode<\/a>: v1.9.3.3 <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/robo-code\/robocode\" class=\"github\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.shields.io\/github\/stars\/robo-code\/robocode.svg?style=social&amp;label=Star\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/robo-code\/robocode\">robo-code\/robocode<\/a>: Build the best &#8211; destroy the rest!<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Robocode is a <strong>programming game<\/strong>, where the goal is to develop a robot battle tank to battle against other tanks in Java or .NET. The robot battles are running in real-time and on-screen.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-1554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design","tag-fun"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Robocode Tutorial - Itenium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Robocode Tutorial - Itenium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"robo-code\/robocode: Build the best - destroy the rest!Robocode is a programming game, where the goal is to develop a robot battle tank to battle against other tanks in Java or .NET. 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