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Jasper Geurtz edited this page Mar 17, 2019 · 28 revisions

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To setup the environment to write our bot we will need

0) Windows

Developing on Linux/MacOS/Other just isn't as easy at the moment. If you do not have a Windows machine you could use a Virtual Machine or install Windows along side Linux/MacOS/Other

1) StarCraft:Broodwar 1.16.1

At the moment Remastered is not yet supported, the only working version is 1.16.1. You can however run v1.16.1 alongside Remastered without needing to uninstall Remastered

For this tutorial from now on, when refered to StarCraft it will mean StarCraft:Broodwar v1.16.1

If you do not own StarCraft you can download it by following the simple instructions (clicking on Full version of Starcraft BroodWar v1.16.1) on iccup or download it for free from BattleNet and and manually downgrade it to v1.16.1

In this tutorial we have StarCraft installed in C:\starcraft\

2) BWAPI & Chaoslauncher

To start writing our bot we will need to download BWAPI which will let us interface with the game. This will also install the Chaoslauncher for us, which lets us inject BWAPI and run StarCraft automatically once everything is correctly setup.

2.0) 2017 Redistributable

First if not installed, install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable as this is a required dependency to make BWAPI work.

2.1) BWAPI v4.2.0

For this tutorial we will be using BWAPI v4.2.0 as this is the latest version that JBWAPI currently supports. Download the installer and install it using the default configuration

We might need to point it to where we installed StarCraft, select C:\starcraft

Now we just continue using the default configuration, if everything went correctly we should get asked if we want to launch the Chaoslauncher, which we want to.

2.2) Chaoslauncer

In the Chaoslauncher, tick the boxes BWAPI 4.2.0. Injector [RELEASE] to inject BWAPI v4.2.0 and W-MODE 1.02 to launch StarCraft windowed. Optionally you can also check APMAlert (1.16.1) to view your APM

Next go to the Settings tab in the Chaoslauncher and untick the Warn about missing adminprivilegues box and hit OK

Now just hit Start and if everything went correctly we should now see StarCraft!

You can safely close StarCraft now

3) Java JDK & IDE

For this tutorial we will be using Java8 & IntelliJ, but any later Java version and other IDE (Eclipse etc.) should also work

3.1) Java

If not installed download the latest Java 8 JDK and install it using the default configuration

(did you know that 3 Billion Devices Run Java :D)

3.2) IntelliJ IDE

If not installed download and install an IDE like IntelliJ Community

4) Launching our bot using JBWAPI

In IntelliJ (or your preferred IDE) create a New Project (or clone an existing one)

4.1) Initialise new project

For this tutorial we will be using Maven project management tool (but you can also use other tools like Gradle etc.). Select Maven and 1.8 as project SDK. Next give your project a name (ArtifactId) and groupname (GroupId)

4.2) Adding JBWAPI

We should now see a very minimal pom.xml (the pom lets us configure our project, add libraries etc.)

Next follow the usage instructions in the JBWAPI Readme to add JBWAPI as a library

Be sure to either Import Changes or Enable Auto-Import for Maven when IntelliJ asks for this!

4.3) Creating our bot

In src/main/java create a new Class named ExampleBot or whichever name we want (just edit the code accordingly) and add the following code to the new Class.

import bwapi.BWClient;
import bwapi.DefaultBWListener;
import bwapi.Game;

public class ExampleBot extends DefaultBWListener {
    BWClient bwClient;
    Game game;

    @Override
    public void onStart() {
        game = bwClient.getGame();
    }

    @Override
    public void onFrame() {
        game.drawTextScreen(100, 100, "Hello World!");
    }

    void run() {
        bwClient = new BWClient(this);
        bwClient.startGame();
    }
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new ExampleBot().run();
    }
}

If we now run the program by hitting the small green arrow button next to our Main method we should get Game table mapping not found in a loop

Now you can stop the bot (by hitting the red button in the topright corner) because we still need to do some tiny steps before everything works

4.4) Setting up bwapi.ini

To automate running our bot too run against the builtin AI on a specific map we have to edit the bwapi.ini file. Otherwise you will always need to select everything (map, players etc.) manually every time.

You can find bwapi.ini in C:\starcraft\bwapi-data\.

Open the file with for example Notepad and paste the following setup

[auto_menu]
auto_menu = SINGLE_PLAYER
pause_dbg = OFF
lan_mode = Local Area Network (UDP)
auto_restart = ON
map = 'maps/BroodWar/ICCup Destination 1.1.scx'
game =
mapiteration = RANDOM
race = Terran
enemy_count = 1
enemy_race = Terran
game_type = MELEE
wait_for_min_players = 2
[starcraft]
sound = OFF
screenshots = gif
drop_players = ON

Change the map, race and enemy_race to your liking.

Now Run your bot again

Close and restart the Chaoslauncher (also make sure StarCraft is closed), if you can't find the Chaoslauncher it should be installed under C:/Users/USERNAME/BWAPI/Chaoslauncher/

Simply hit Start and voila!

You can untick the Show tips at startup if you get this message.

If everything went correctly you should now see Hello World! between the minerals (if you selected Destination as a map)

5) End

If you followed this very convoluted hello world tutorial very precisely but still got errors on the way please create an issue precisely describing the error and on which step you got it.

Our adventure continues in the next tutorial where we will start to Gather some minerals and explore the JBWAPI API, see you there!

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