Differences between old and new GameController

[ahasselbring]

Disclaimer: I am not participating in the Humanoid League myself, but I am the original author and maintainer of the SPL GameController 2023 and previously co-maintainer of the Java GameController in the SPL. So I don't know which of these changes (if any) are intended because the Humanoid League rules changed, or if they were overlooked during the port. But I have a certain interest that the GameController delivers the quality that one may expect from such an important piece of software.

• Dropped Ball
  • The old HL GameController had a button for a dropped ball, which is missing in the new one. Incidentally, the SPL introduced a dropped ball this year (can only be invoked indirectly via referee timeout or global game stuck, but that would be trivial to add), so I could backport that feature if needed.
• Goalkeeper
  • The new GameController does not display which player is goalkeeper, and I'm not sure if it can be substituted. In the SPL GameController, the goalkeeper wears a special jersey color and is thus distinguishable. When substituting the goalkeeper with another player, the "flag" is transmitted automatically in the GameController. Does the HL want this, too? (not the jersey color of course, but the substitution principle)
• Selecting kick-off
  • In the old GameController, you could select which team has kick-off in the main UI. In the new GameController this can be done in the launch window only. Is this sufficient?
• Timers
  • The main clock should only pause during the initial ready / set state of a half-time, and there is no distinction between preliminary / play-off games anymore, right?
  • However, the main clock always pauses during free kicks / goal kicks / corner kicks / throw-ins / penalty kicks?
  • All penalty timers only started after a second click (to start the serving period). This is now only the case for pick-up penalty. Is this correct? I don't think so, because automatically unpenalizing a player 10 seconds after it was penalized could actually be dangerous. Also, it isn't possible to reset the penalty timer, but it should ("If any part of the robot touches the field of play [...], the time is reset"). Should the penalty timer run during all states?
• Penalties
  • Previously, the Pickup button was called Pickup / Incapable.
• Extended Time / Extra Time / Overtime
  • iirc somebody told me that the HL doesn't have this anymore (or never had) but the old GameController semi-supported that. The new one doesn't. Should it?
• Global Game Stuck
  • This rule doesn't exist in the Humanoid League, right? (So it should be removed from the UI)
• The teams "Attackers" and "Defenders" were only needed for a Technical Challenge in the SPL once. If the Humanoid League doesn't need them, they should be removed.
• With the new GameController, players cannot autonomously become goalkeeper or announce readiness for free kick execution via RoboCupGameControlReturnData.
• ...

Then there are all the things that could have been removed from the old GameController ages ago, such as the SPLCoachMessage. Is it too late to do this one month before the competition? Otherwise I would be very glad to do this!

[16stelter]

• Dropped Ball
  • Yes, this is required according to the rules. Dropped ball behaviour should be the same as kick-off behaviour, except that neither team is allowed to enter the center circle
• Goalkeeper
  • This is not a crucial feature, but it would be good to see the goal keeper marked in the GC.
  • The goalkeeper can be substituted with a substitute player or a field player during play stoppage and with approval of the referee. Automatically transferring the goalkeeper flag would be nice to have, but not strictly required.
• Selecting kick-off
  • This would be great to have in the main UI, as this is often decided last minute
• Timers
  • I'm not sure about the intended behaviour of the timer during free kicks etc. I'll get back to you on that.
  • Penalty timers should only ever start after a second click, never automatically.
• Penalties
  • Not critically important, but yes, would be good to change the text back to "Pickup / Incapable".
• Extended Time
  • In round-robin games, the game ends after the regular play time of 2x10 minutes, but in play-off/elimination games, the play time can be extended by 2x5 minutes, before there will be a penalty shootout. It's important that this feature is there.
• Global Game Stuck
  • I'm not too sure about SPL rules, but this sounds like what Dropped Ball is for us. In either case, I don't see this option in the UI at the moment.
• Attackers and Defenders is not needed by us
• Players should be able to autonomously announce readiness and become goalkeeper

[16stelter]

And here's a couple more points that I have found:

• Undo should require two clicks for confirmation to avoid accidents. In the old GC there was a key to show/hide the undo buttons so people don't accidentally click on them. Maybe that would be good to add again, too
• Text shown in the undo bar is very nondescriptive, so it is not very intuitive which actions are actually being undone.
• Pushing and Ball Manipulation should be punished by direct free kick (or pick up penalty if it happens away from the ball). There is no need for separate buttons for these two
• According to one team member, the firstHalf variable in struct HlRoboCupGameControlData is set incorrectly. I cannot verify this right now, but should be looked at.
• Not urgent, but if a team called for timeout, clicking the referee timeout button will also end the timeout, but the button does not indicate that it does so. Ideally, it should be possible to go directly from team timeout to referee timeout, otherwise all robots will briefly go into playing state and start moving.

[16stelter]

Just found another small thing that's not urgent, but should be addressed eventually: During the unpenalize countdown it is not possible to penalize the robot again. This is a problem, if a robot handler places the robot on the sideline and then touches or picks it up again after it has been unpenalized. Handlers are not supposed to do that, but it still happens quite often.

[ahasselbring]

I think you just have to click the player again without a penalty activated in the center panel.

[16stelter]

Yes, but that only resets the timer to 10 seconds and does not stop the timer. If they decide to mess around with the robot for a longer time, the GC user would need to click the robot every 10 seconds to keep it penalized.

[Str1k3fr33d0m]

fix in 5de65ab