Making your bot

To enter this competition, you will need to create a bot for Unreal Tournament 2004 that uses the GameBots2004 interface. You can develop your program using any language and using any IDE you choose, so long as the program uses the GameBots2004 interface, and runs under Windows XP and Vista. One simple-to-use IDE is Pogamut.

The 2012 competition will use the GameBots 2004 version that is distributed with Pogamut 3.3.0.

These are the steps to follow if you decide to use Pogamut to develop your bot.
  • Obtain and install UT2004 and apply patch 3369.
  • If installing Pogamut, you will first need to install a recent Java SDK and NetBeans. Details are available on the Pogamut 3 download page.
  • The Pogamut 3 installation can be downloaded from here, and includes instructions on how to create bots and also how to access some bots that can be used as starter projects.
  • After installing GameBots 2004 (either with Pogamut or separately), you should then install the competition mod available here.

Unreal Tournament 2004

Unreal Tournament 2004 (UT2004) is a first-person shooter that comes with its own scripting language, UnrealScript, which makes it very suitable for modding. We suggest that you will need to obtain a retail copy of UT2004. You can order one online (we suggest the Editor's Choice package) or it is available via Steam.

You can find more information on UT2004 at

  • The PlanetUnreal site
  • Wikipedia

GameBots 2004

GameBots2004 is a mod for UT2004 that allows bots in UT to be controlled by a separate program by sending commands and receiving information via sockets. There are a number of versions of GameBots in existence. Some work with earlier versions of Unreal Tournament. There are at least two versions that work with UT2004. The version to be used for this competition is part of the Pogamut 3 project. You can download it from the Pogamut 3 website.

Some of the history of GameBots can be found on Jessica Bayliss' Gamebots site at Rochester IT. Some of her improvements to the original Gamebots have been included in the Pogamut version that we are using for the competition. We would like to thank Jessica for very useful discussions and suggestions about the competition.

Pogamut

Pogamut 3 will be used for BotPrize 2012. Pogamut 3 includes GameBots2004, as well as an IDE integrated with NetBeans supporting development in Java, Python or POSH. From the Pogamut 3 home page:

Pogamut is a Java middleware that enables controlling virtual agents in multiple environments provided by game engines. Currently Unreal Tournament 2004 (UT2004), UnrealEngine2RuntimeDemo (UE2), Unreal Development Kit (UDK) and DEFCON game are supported. Pogamut provides a Java API for spawning and controlling virtual agents and GUI (NetBeans plugin) that simplifies debugging of the agents.

The main objective was to simplify the "physical" part of agent creation. Most actions in the environment (even the complicated ones, like pathfinding and gathering information in agent's memory) can be performed by one or two commands. This enables user to concentrate his efforts on the interesting parts.

The Pogamut web site contains lots of information and documentation on UT2004, GameBots2004, the IDE, installation instructions, tutorials, sample bots, and so on.