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[Iyouboushi]

C# EMULATION CONTROL (For those who want all the frustration and joys of Twitch Plays Pokemon without Twitch.....and possibly Pokemon.)
For those who missed my other topic about the subject, an anonymous programmer created a way for Twitch users to interact using the Twitch chat and they've been trying to collectively play the first Pokemon game (to some funny results). You can click on the link to learn more about that.

 

After seeing that I said "I bet I can do that in C#!" and set out on a frustrating journey to get it to work. However, I'm happy to report that thanks to a guy on the Tech Life Forum for providing a quick IRC GUI client demo and to the Input Manager Library, I've managed to get it to work.

 

I'm providing a few different things here in this topic. First, I'm providing the IRC version of the project. It still isn't perfect but it does work 99% of the time now. Second, I'm providing a console bot version that randomly selects keys and attempts to play games on its own (no AI behind it, it's all random baby). Third, the source codes of both programs are included. I honestly don't mind if someone downloads these and improves them/gets them to work better (I would like at least some credit for starting this project though if you choose to do that). Fourth, I've included a few emulators that both programs are designed to run with. These are just the emulators themselves, no ROMS are included (and won't be included).

 

With all that in mind..

 

Let me tell you how to get it working.

 

SETTING UP THE EMULATORS
It's important to make sure the emulators are set up correctly. No matter whether you're doing NES, SNES, GBA or PSX, the keys are set to default like this:

 

ALL EMULATORS:
UP: up arrow
DOWN: down arrow
LEFT/RIGHT: left and right arrows
A: HOME
B: END
START: PAGE UP
SELECT: PAGE DOWN

 

GBA:
L: INSERT
R: DELETE

 

SNES:
X: P
Y: O
L: INSERT
R: DELETE

 

SEGA:
C: I

 

PSX:
L1: INSERT
R1: DELETE
R2: T
L2: E
TRIANGLE: D
SQUARE: S
CIRCLE: X
X: P

 

GameboyAdvance, BoycottAdvance, fceux, and ZSNES allowed me to include config files that should be set correctly. The NES emulator nester did not, so you will need to do that one yourself.

 

The IRC Emulation Control program now has the ability to change the key bindings to however you would like. You can read more about that later on in this thread. The Console Bot does NOT allow you to customize the key bindings (yet) so make sure they match the above.

 

IRC VERSION (currently version 1.6)

Spoiler

So first things first, load IRCEmulationControl-1.6.exe and you'll see a fairly basic IRC client. Now run the emulator of your choice and load your ROM of choice (you'll have to find those on your own). Now, back in IRC Emulation Control click Emulators-> (your emulator choice here).

 

You can leave the default nickname, channel and server if you want but I would recommend changing those. If you're going to be connecting to Twitch's chat, you'll need your Oauth twitch password and to make sure the username and channel both match and are in lower case. Put the Oauth password into the password field (don't worry, once you hit connect the password will be **** out).

 

When you're satisfied with that, you're ready to connect. Hit CONNECT.

 

After the bot connects to the channel of your choice, connect to the same channel with another client (such as Mibbit or mIRC, or log into twitch with another account if you're connecting to twitch) and you can type the following commands (one at a time):

 

UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, A, B, C, R, L, X, Y, AB, DOWNA, DOWNB, SELECT, START, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, SQUARE R1, R2, L1, L2, DEMOCRACY, ANARCHY

 

Obviously some of these commands only work in certain emulators/systems (X and Y won't have any effect in an NES emulator, for example).

 

If you type "UP" and nothing seems to be happening, give it a few seconds (maybe check the emulator to make sure it's working normally by moving the character around on the keyboard) and try again. Sometimes, for whatever weird reason, it takes a few tries to make it work right. But once you have it working any user can type those commands to control the emulator.

 

*** The program saves your current config settings when you hit "CONNECT" and will attempt to reload them the next time you run the program.

 

CUSTOM EMULATORS NOT ON THE LIST
With version 1.3 is now possible to try to make the program hook into any emulator of your choice, even if it's not on the list.

 

To do this, load the emulator that you want and set up the keys properly (see top of this post). Then type /setemu nameofemulatorhere For example, if you're running ePSXe you can type /setemu ePSXE

 

This is still experimental and may not work properly with every emulator but it does seem to work with a lot of them.

 

KEY BINDING SETTINGS
As mentioned above, it is now possible (as of version 1.4) to change the default key control settings that the emulators use.

 

You can use the following keys:

 

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
LCTRL RCTRL ALT SPACE LSHIFT RSHIFT ENTER
NumPad0 NumPad1 NumPad2 NumPad3 NumPad4 NumPad5 NumPad6 NumPad7 NumPad8 NumPad9
HOME INSERT DELETE END PAGEUP PAGEDOWN
UP DOWN LEFT RIGHT (these are the arrow keys)

 

To change the keys, load the program and click on the menu option Settings -> Control Settings -> Key Bindings
You have to type in the key names (using the ones listed above) for each key you want to change. Make sure they match the spellings of the keys above.

 

Your settings will be saved upon hitting "OK" and loaded back into the program each time you run it.

 

CONSOLE BOT VERSION (version 1.2)

Spoiler

First things first, make sure the emulator is turned on and is at the part of the game where you want the bot to start. Run ControlEmulatorBot-v1.1 and you will see the menu and its options.

 

Pick the # that corresponds to the emulator you have running and the bot will ask you if you want to load a game control profile. You can learn more about gaming profiles later on in this thread, but the gist is that you can disable certain keys for certain games (such as START if all start does is pause). If you don't have one or don't care about it, just hit enter to use the default system config which will give the game access to every control it can have. The exception is for VisualBoyAdvance. If you're playing a regular GB or GBC game rather than GBA, then put defaultGB.cfg as the profile name.

 

The default NES profile will ask you if you want to include the START button or not.

 

And that's it. Once you've selected a profile the bot will now attempt to play the game you have running.

 

To exit this version just rapidly hit the X a bunch (it will try to keep the emulator in focus, so until I figure out a better way of making the bot actually stop this is the only way to really kill it).

 

HOW TO CREATE GAME CONTROL CONFIG FILES

Spoiler

Starting with version 1.0 of the console bot it is now possible to tell the bot that you want only certain keys to be used when playing the game of your choice. To do this, create a new plain text file and name it whatever you want (I suggest naming it something like gamename.cfg or gamename.txt).

 

Inside you list one key per line. For example:

 

UP
DOWN
LEFT
RIGHT
A
B
X
Y
L
R
AB
DOWNA
DOWNB

 

In this example the bot will not have access to START or SELECT while playing the game if this config is loaded when prompted.

 

It is also possible to list the same key multiple times in order to increase the chance that the bot will pick that key more than not. For example:

 

UP
UP
UP
DOWN
LEFT
RIGHT
A
A
A
B
B

 

In this example the bot will try to select UP and A more than any other key. It doesn't stop the bot from picking the other keys, it just weighs heavier towards the ones that are repeated.

 

Once you have the config saved, start the bot, pick your emulator and then when prompted it will tell you to type in the name of the config file including the extension. If you named it tetrisnes.cfg you have to type tetrisnes.cfg It is also important to make sure the config file is in the same folder as the .exe.

 

There are several configs provided for example.

 

FINAL NOTES
I remind everyone that this is really a rough release. I'm not trying to steal the Twitch pokemon guy's thunder or run a stream of my own (as I can't leave my computer on 24/7 anyway). If you can, great, feel free to edit the source code and get it to connect to your Twitch stream and try your luck. I just thought it'd be fun to try and replicate the idea and see if I could do it.

 

I'll also add that there's probably better ways to do certain things in the code. I'll be trying to improve it as I go along, should I continue this project. It's been a long time since I've messed with C# and I'm a little rusty. But it works regardless.

 

GITHUB
In case you want to look at the source code before you download the 7z files, which are next in the list, you can head on over here:

 

C# Emulation Control - Console Bot
C# Emulation Control - IRC Client

 

DOWNLOAD (contains both, Release 009 current)
Emulation Control – release 009 (contains version 1.6 of the IRC client and 1.2 of the Console Bot)

 

OLD RELEASES

Spoiler

Emulation Control – release 003 (contains versions 1.0 of both programs) **
Emulation Control – release 004 (contains version 1.1 of the IRC Client, version 1.0 of the Console Bot) **
Emulation Control – release 005 (contains version 1.2 of the IRC client, version 1.1 of the Console Bot)
Emulation Control – release 006 (contains version 1.3 of the IRC client and 1.2 of the Console Bot)
Emulation Control – release 007 (contains version 1.4 of IRC client, version 1.2 of the Console Bot)
Emulation Control – release 008 (contains version 1.5 of IRC client, version 1.2 of the Console Bot)

 

** These versions have some minor errors that may make it so the IRC verisons do not work properly. Use a newer version instead of these. These are just here for archival purposes.

 

VERSION UPDATES

Spoiler

IRC VERSION:



0.1

- First version

- Works with VisualBoyAdvance and BoycottAdvance



0.2

- Added nester (NES) support

- Added the ability to change nick, server and channel before connecting



1.0

- Added the ability to connect to a server with a password, thus allowing the bot to connect to twitch

Read the top of this page for more info: http://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/articles/1302780-twitch-irc

- Added ZSNES (SNES) support

- Added new key combinations: DOWNB, DOWNA, and AB

- Added the ability for the bot to save/load your last settings. When you connect they will be saved.

When you start the program they will be loaded. Don't mess with settings.cfg once it's generated.



1.1

- Changed the GUI a little, made it smaller. I figure most people who use this won't use this as an actual IRC

client and won't need to see the chat in such a big text box.

- Fixed a small issue where commands that weren't in UPPERCASE weren't being registered. Should work fine now regardless.



1.2

- Added a pause/resume button. When it's paused, commands should be ignored.

- Changed DOWN/RIGHT/LEFT/UP to show arrows rather than the names of the keys.

- Fixed yet another issue where sometimes the a/b/l/r/x/y keys were being ignored.

- Updated the project to use .NET Framework 4.5.1



1.3

- Added support for the "C" button (used in Sega Genesis). Make sure the emulator is set to use key I for that.

- Added support for PSX buttons. See the readme.txt for how to set it up.

- Added fceux (NES) support.

- Added better window handle search functionality.

- Added a /setemu command for the chat function on the GUI. Type /setemu nameofemulator and hit SEND to have

it try to find an emulator that isn't on the list. This is still experimental and may not work properly.

For example: /setemu ePSXe

- Added a /handle command for the chat function on the GUI. Type /handle and hit SEND and it will return the

current window handle. If it returns 0 it means there are no emulators selected and the program won't work.

- Changed the client to check for a "#" in the channel name and to add it if it's missing.

- Fixed a bug that would occur if you tried to send text before you were connected.



1.4

- Added an about menu option.

- Added a few settings via menu options.

- Added the ability to change the delay for the key being sent to the emulator. The default is 100ms. The longer

the delay the longer the key is held down. Some emulators may require adjusting this.

- Added the ability to configure the key bindings that are used for the buttons sent to the emulator.

- Added an idle timer. If no commands are sent in 10 minutes the program will send the "UP" command. It won't

send this command if the program is paused.

- Changed the pause button to not be disabled upon loading the program. It is now possible to pause before

connecting if you want more time to set things up.



1.5

- Added democracy mode. Like Twitch Plays Pokemon, Democracy mode slows it down so that the most popular command

in chat is the one that is executed every 10 seconds. The chat can type ANARCHY or DEMOCRACY to pull the percent

towards the mode they want.

- Added the setting ""Allow Democracy Mode" in the menu. If unchecked anarchy will be set back to 100% and default

and democracy/anarchy via chat won't do anything.



1.6

- Added the ability to use numbers to tell the client to repeat the command a # of times. For example: UP5, UP 5,

5UP or 5 UP. The max number is 5, anything higher will be reduced to 5.

- Changed the color scheme of the program to be much darker. May make it look better while streaming it.





CONSOLE BOT VERSION



0.1

- First version

- Works with BoycottAdvance



0.2

- Added nester (NES) support

- Added VisualBoyAdvance (GBA) support

- Added the ability to choose if you want to enable the START button for nester

- Changed the code to slow down slightly

- Changed the menu to make it a little easier to read.



1.0

- Added game control profiles. Use this if you want to exclude certain buttons. See the readme-consolebot.txt for more info.

- Added ZSNES (SNES) support

- Added new key combinations: DOWNB, DOWNA, and AB

- Changed the code on how the bot builds its commands for the emulators



1.1

- Changed DOWN/RIGHT/LEFT/UP to show arrows rather than the names of the keys.

- Updated the project to use .NET Framework 4.5.1



1.2

- Added support for the "C" button (used in Sega Genesis). Make sure the emulator is set to use key I for that.

- Added support for PSX buttons. See the readme.txt for how to set it up.

- Added better window handle search functionality.

- Added a new menu option for you to try to use whatever emulator you want. You can type it in and the bot will attempt to

locate the emulator and send commands to it. This is still experimental and may not work properly.

- Added a bunch of default config files to the folder. Please don't erase these as they're necessary for the custom emu option.

[Iyouboushi]

I'm in the process of rewriting the console bot to work with more emulators using the Input Management Library (whereas before it was using the SendKeys function which is unreliable and only works with BoycottAdvance).

 

In the mean time, I need some game suggestions for my bot to play. I know games that require multiple buttons to be pressed at the same time or buttons to be held for more than a split second (such as running in A Link to the Past) won't work.

 

I'm thinking maybe a sports game or some kind of action game where you don't need to jump will work best.

 

Know of any good silly sports games for NES or GBA that might work for this? If it does, I'll record it and upload it somewhere for everyone to see.

[Iyouboushi]

Added release 002 to the first post of this topic.

 

I've changed the IRC client so that it is now possible to change the nick, channel and server before connecting (once connected you're unable to change these values).

 

Also added nester (NES) support to both however this emulator has to be set up manually for the controls to work (as I can't include the config on this one). For the console version it is now possible to start nester without the START BUTTON support. The reason being certain games only use START to pause and the bot doesn't know that and will spam it (thus pausing and unpausing the game a ton) which is a bit annoying. For games where START is important you can include it but otherwise you can just leave it off the available buttons.

 

I tried the recent console version out with the NES game "Ice Hockey" and recorded it. It's 12 minutes and 50 seconds long. Spoiler: The bot never scores! It gets super close in period 3 though

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9cHRnfc7EM

 

 

I think my next step in the console version will be to try and create game profiles with the available keys. By this I mean, you could make a config like tetris.config and tell it to only use RIGHT, LEFT, DOWN, A and B and not start, select or up.

 

I just have to figure out how to make it read from the file (that's easy) and convert what's in there to something the bot will understand (slightly harder) and redo the way the bot picks which command it chooses.

 

Otherwise, honestly, this is about as good as it gets. lol.

[Iyouboushi]

I've uploaded release 003 of my project.

 

This 7z contains version 1.0 of both the IRC and console bot versions.

 

First up, the IRC side of things..

 

In this version I've added the ability to connect to a server with a password, thus allowing the bot to connect to twitch. Read the top of this page for more info. You can ignore all the mIRC related stuff, but the information about the Oauth password and that you need to have lowercase user/channel names plus the twitch server address are all very relevant to this).

 

Furthermore, since the Oauth password is a royal pain to remember now, I've gone ahead and added the ability for the bot to save/load your last settings. When you connect they will be saved. When you start the program they will be loaded. Don't mess with settings.cfg once it's generated though or you run the risk of messing it up and the bot won't be able to load them any more.

 

For the console side..

 

I've Changed the code on how the bot builds its commands for the emulators. This is because..

 

I've added game control profiles. These are text files where you can list what buttons individual games have access to and then load those when running the bot. It's helpful if you want to exclude certain buttons or try to have certain buttons have stronger weight/show up more. You can read more about this in the first post..

 

And for both:

 

I've added Added ZSNES (SNES) support.

 

And finally, I've added new key combinations: DOWNB, DOWNA, and AB

 

 

I'll probably still try to get some more video of it working soon.

[Iyouboushi]

Release version 004 is now up. This contains the IRC Client version 1.1 and the Console Bot version 1.0.

 

I've made a few GUI changes in 1.1 of the IRC client. I figure most people who will be running this won't be using the thing as an actual IRC client (as it loses focus too much once the game starts getting played anyway). So I shrunk the window for that, which made the entire client smaller. Also fixed a mistake I had in which lowercase commands weren't being recognized (due to a mistake I made at the last second before releasing 1.0).

 

And here's a video of this in action. The command window is a little laggy/behind the actual commands though (it does the commands before it shows them in the window). But it works!

 

For testing I tried Pokemon Red and Link's Awakening (around a minute of each).

 

Pokemon Red:

 

Link's Awakening:

 

 

I haven't decided if I'm going to try to implement an anarchy vs democracy system similar to the way the Twitch Plays Pokemon is now or not. Part of me wants to just to see if I can get it done. We'll see. >.>

[Iyouboushi]

Argh.

 

It seems there are still some issues with version 1.1 of the IRC emulation control. Sorry everyone. This is what I get for being rusty at C# and making minor stupid human errors.

 

I'll work on version 1.2 in the morning and hopefully have a fix asap with release 005.

 

I've also found an updated copy of the InputManager.dll that makes all of this possible. With this update I'll be able to bring the projects over to .NET framework 4.5.1, which might actually solve a few other problems I've been having as well (as well as work on Windows 8.1 better). Of course that means it'll only work on computers that are running that framework but it should be the standard. I highly recommend upgrading to it if you haven't already.

 

Anyway, until I get the release out.. hang tight...

[Iyouboushi]

For version 1.2 of the IRC client I've hopefully fixed that error for good (a, b, x, y, l, and r shouldn't be ignored sometimes now). I've also added a pause button that will hopefully make it so commands stop working when pressed (and resume when pressed again). I didn't test it in a very active channel but it worked in a smaller channel.

 

For both the IRC client and bot control I've also changed the DOWN/RIGHT/LEFT/UP display to show arrows rather than the names of the keys.

 

Finally, as I mentioned in the post above, I've found an updated copy of the InputManager.dll that makes all of this possible. With this update both projects have been updated to .NET framework 4.5.1, which might actually solve a few other problems I've been having as well (as well as work on Windows 8.1 better). Of course that means it'll only work on computers that are running that framework but it should be the standard by now. I highly recommend upgrading to it if you haven't already.

 

Assuming I didn't make any more minor human errors and it works properly, I will probably be taking a break from the project for a little bit. If another error pops up and you discover it, feel free to tweet me about it or post here and I'll check into it as soon as I can.

[Iyouboushi]

lol I thought I was going to be taking a break from the project but I got inspired to try to and make the emulation bot work with ePSXe so that I could test the bot on Symphony of the Night. I won't be including ePSXe in the release pack though as it requires BIOS files to run (and those are technically illegal to be including). If you find your own copy you can make it work right (I'll update the opening post to say how to set up the keys correctly).

In any case, I won't be uploading this version til Monday at the earliest, but here's a demo of it working (playing the Japanese version of SotN):



SPOILER! Richter eventually vanquishes the evil Dracula... it just took 15 minutes (shortened down to 6 1/2 min in this video). I can't believe it eventually won. Of course this is partially due to the fact that you're invincible if you die the first time..but still. The rest of the footage after where I stopped this video didn't have anything of interest.




With release 006 it will be possible to tell the programs to use any emulator you can think of and it should work (it's still experimental though). However, the more complicated emulators (like PSX, NGC, Wii, PS2, etc) are far harder to control meaning the bot won't do a very good job (and I imagine IRC would have too much of a delay). These programs work best with the more simple consoles (NES, GB, GBA). But I'm trying to make it so it can run anything just for those who would be curious enough to try it..

[Iyouboushi]

Release 006 includes versions 1.3 of the IRC client and 1.2 of the console bot.

 

In this release I’ve added support for the “C” button that SEGA Genesis uses (set it to keyboard key I) and added support for the PSX buttons (you’ll have to look at the readme text for that though as there’s many buttons). I’ve added fceux to the IRC emulation list and cleaned that up a little (it’s by console -> emulator available now instead of just a list of emulators). On the code side of the IRC client, I’ve fixed a bug that would cause the program to crash if you hit “SEND” before you were connected to a channel. Speaking of channels, I’ve changed the client to check for the “#” in the channel name and add it if it’s missing.

 

Perhaps the best change to both versions is better window handle search functionality. This means it’s now possible to use pretty much any emulator with both programs. In the IRC version you can use the command /setemu (emulator name) to manually select an emulator that isn’t in the official menu list (such as /setemu ePSXe). The console version already has a menu option you can choose and follow the prompts. To make this work with the console version I had to include a bunch of default control config files, so please don’t remove these. You can still use custom ones for certain games though but if you don’t have one for a specific game use the default config for the console you’re trying to play.
Just as a quick warning, the better window search functionality seems to be working pretty good but there’s still a chance that it might not be able to find the emulator that you’re trying to use. It’s still experimental, so keep that in mind. Also you still have to set the keys up the way you would normally.

 

My next goal in this program is to make it so you can define the keys used by the programs instead of it being forced to use the built-in ones. This might take a while though.

[bswaldmann]

I've got a problem, your program likes to push buttons twice.

 

I've set it up to play Advance Wars 2 over here: http://www.twitch.tv/bisw1

 

Every time anyone push a direction, the cursor moves two spots over.

 

Just letting you know, as I'm also pursuing solutions on my end...