MsPacMan-vs-Ghosts
API
This page lists the classes, fields and methods
you
may use to write a Ms.
Pac-Man agent.
All fields and methods below are public
unless otherwise specified.
== package: controllers ==
class EntityAction
-
void
set(int
directionIndex)-
Set a direction in which to move.
== package: controllers.pacman ==
class PacManAction extends
EntityAction
An action that Ms. Pac-Man can take, i.e. a
direction in which to move.
class PacManControllerBase
All Ms. Pac-Man agent classes extend this base
class, including the MyAgent class in the default package.
-
- protected
PacManAction pacman;
-
The action Ms.
Pac-Man has chosen to
take.
-
void tick(Game
game, long
timeDue)
-
The game calls this method on each tick to find out which action Ms.
Pac-Man should take. timeDue is the time in milliseconds (as
returned by System.currentTimeMillis()) by which the method must
return. Your class should override this method. In your
implementation, call pacman.set() to specify
a direction in which to go.
== package: game.core ==
interface Game
The Game interface includes these fields and
methods:
-
- static
final int
UP = 0,
RIGHT = 1,
DOWN = 2,
LEFT = 3;
-
The four compass directions.
-
enum DM { PATH,
EUCLID, MANHATTAN };
-
A distance metric.
-
void
advanceGame(int
pac_dir);
-
Advance the game by one tick.
pac_dir
is the direction that Ms. Pac-Man should move, either UP,
RIGHT, DOWN,
or LEFT. You should only call this
method on a copy of the game state that was returned from the copy()
method. -
boolean
checkPill(int
pillIndex)
-
Return true if the
given pill still exists, i.e. has not been eaten.
-
boolean
checkPowerPill(int
pillIndex)
-
Return true if the
given power pill still exists, i.e. has not been eaten.
-
Game copy()
-
Return an exact copy of the game that may be used as a forward
model.
-
boolean
gameOver()
-
Return true if Ms Pac-Man has lost all her lives or has completed
all the levels in the game.
-
int
getCurGhostDir(int
whichGhost)
-
Return a ghost's
current direction.
-
int
getCurGhostLoc(int
whichGhost)
-
Return a
ghost's current position (a graph node number).
-
int getCurLevel()
-
Return the level that Ms. Pac-Man is currently on. The first level
is level 1.
-
int getCurPacManDir()
-
Return the last direction taken by Ms. Pac-Man.
-
int
getCurPacManLoc()
-
Return Ms. Pac-Man's
current position (a graph node number).
-
int
getDistanceToNearestPill()
-
Return the distance from Ms. Pac-Man to the nearest pill or power
pill, computed using a breadth-first search.
-
int
getEdibleTime(int
whichGhost)
-
Return the number of remaining ticks during which the given ghost
will be edible.
-
double
getEuclideanDistance(int
from, int
to)
-
Return the Euclidean distance between two maze nodes.
-
int getFruitLoc()
-
Return the location (i.e. graph node number) at which a fruit
currently exists, or -1 if none.
-
int
getFruitType()
-
Return the type of fruit that currently exists, or -1 if none. Fruit
types are numbered 0 = cherries, 1 = strawberry, ..., 6 = banana.
-
int
getFruitValue()
-
Return the point value of the fruit that currently exists, or 0 if
none.
-
int
getGhostPathDistance(int
whichGhost, int
to)
-
Return the shortest distance that the given ghost may travel through
the maze to reach the given position, taking into consideration that
ghosts may not reverse direction.
-
Warning: this method is about 50-150x slower than
getPathDistance()! (In my experiments it typically runs in tens of
microseconds, whereas `getPathDistance` takes under 1 microsecond.)
That's because it (unfortunately) does not use a precomputed table,
so it must trace a path through the maze.
-
int getLivesRemaining()
-
Return the number of lives remaining for Ms Pac-Man.
-
int
getManhattanDistance(int
from, int
to)
-
Return the Manhattan distance between two maze nodes.
-
int
getNeighbour(int
nodeIndex, int
direction)
-
Return the given
node's neighbor in the given direction, or -1 if none.
-
int
getNextEdibleGhostScore()
-
Returns the score
that will be awarded for the next ghost to be eaten.
-
int
getNextPacManDir(int
to, boolean
closer, DM measure);
-
Return the direction in which Ms. Pac-Man should go
in order to approach (if closer == true) or retreat from (if
closer == false) a
given position, according to the given distance metric.
-
int
getNumActivePills()
-
Return the number of pills still in the maze.
-
int
getNumActivePowerPills()
-
Return the number of power pills still in the maze.
-
int
getNumberOfNodes()
-
Return the total number of nodes in the maze graph.
-
int[] getPath(int
from, int
to)
-
Return
the path from one node to another. For example, the path from 1 to 9
might be [1,2,5,7,9].
-
int
getPathDistance(int
from, int
to)
-
Return the shortest-path distance walking through the maze without
going through walls. This method uses a precomputed table so it is
very fast (it doesn't need to perform a depth-first search of its
own!)
-
Note that if g is the position of a ghost in its lair, and p is any
position in the maze, then getPathDistance(g, p) will return -1,
meaning that there is no path from the ghost's position to the maze
position since the lair is surrounded by walls.
-
int
getPillIndex(int
nodeIndex)
-
Return the index of
the pill that is/was at the given position, or -1 if this is not a
position that ever holds a pill in this maze. Note that this method
returns the same value whether or not the pill has already been
eaten. You must call checkPill() to find out whether the pill still
exists. (Do not pass -1 to checkPill(); that will result in an out
of bounds error.)
-
int[]
getPillIndicesActive()
-
Return the node
indices, i.e. positions,
of all active pills in the maze. (To be clear, this function does
not return pill indices as returned by getPillIndex().)
-
int[]
getPossiblePacManDirs(boolean
includeReverse)
-
Return the set of
possible directions in which Ms. Pac-Man can move from her current
position, with or without the direction opposite to her current
direction.
-
int
getPowerPillIndex(int
nodeIndex);
-
Return the index of the power pill that is/was at the given
position, or -1 if this is not a position that ever holds a power
pill in this maze. Note that this method returns the same value
whether or not the power pill has already been eaten. You must call
checkPowerPill() to find out whether the pill still exists. (Do not
pass -1 to checkPowerPill(); that will result in an out of bounds
error.)
-
int[]
getPowerPillIndicesActive()
-
Return the node
indices, i.e. positions,
of all active power pills in the maze. (To be clear, this function
does not return power pill indices as returned by
getPowerPillIndex().)
-
int getScore()
-
Return the current score of the game.
-
int getTarget(int
from, int[]
targets, boolean
nearest, DM measure)
-
Given an array of target positions, return the one that is nearest
or farthest from a given position according to the given distance
metric.
-
int getX(int
nodeIndex)
int
getY(int
nodeIndex) -
Return the X/Y pixel
positions of the given graph node.
-
boolean
isEdible(int
whichGhost)
-
True if the given
ghost is currently edible.
class GameView
The GameView class has various static methods that
draw text or graphics overlaid on the game view. These are handy for
debugging. (See the sample agent NearestPillPacManVS.java for an
example of using these drawing methods.)
-
- static
void
addPoints(Game game, Color color, int...
nodeIndices)
-
Draw a set of points at the given maze nodes, in the given color.
This is a nice way to draw a path through the maze. (You must call
this method anew on every tick if you want the path you draw to
remain visible.)