Author Topic: Weird teleporter problem.  (Read 14855 times)

Offline Testlund

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Weird teleporter problem.
« on: January 26, 2014, 07:33:57 PM »
I've tested this several times over tonight. In 1 out of 3 sims the bots that get teleported out through the outbound teleporter never comes back in through the inbound teleporter.

Can anybody else confirm this. This doesn't make any sense! First I thought it was because I was running two instances in the same DB folder with Safe Mode turned on, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with that.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2014, 07:37:15 PM by Testlund »
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Offline Testlund

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2014, 08:56:41 PM »
So I've been doing this for about two hours now. This is what it looked like in my last try. I've typed the folder paths I'm using for the teleporters. The bots teleports as they should at the left side but not at the right side as the picture shows. Sometimes none of the teleporters work. The program seem to decide whether it should work or not when I start a new sim with new teleporters!
« Last Edit: January 26, 2014, 09:00:43 PM by Testlund »
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Offline Testlund

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2014, 09:17:02 PM »
It gets weirder! I just dragged one of the bots that had come in through the inbound teleporter to the left in the lower instance, over to the outbound teleporter at the right side and THAT ONE got through. But the other bots swarming around it doesn't get teleported!

The teleporter is counting them all, but they just disappear. They don't even show up in the folder!
« Last Edit: January 26, 2014, 09:19:13 PM by Testlund »
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Offline Botsareus

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #3 on: January 27, 2014, 11:09:49 AM »
I never setup teleporters actually, other then IM.
Some questions:

Do I need two instances of DarwinBots?
What values am I supposed to set for the teleporters?
Also, can you give me the settings file (lastran.set) and the robots you are using, (do not include the mrates)?
 :thinkey: Are you sure you have teleport vegys enabled or else trying to teleport vegys (just an idea)?
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 11:27:29 AM by Botsareus »

Offline Testlund

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #4 on: January 27, 2014, 12:43:30 PM »
I don't think this is specific to any settings. It should be enough to just have two instances of Darwinbots and have them connected via teleporters like the picture shows. One folder for teleporting in one direction and another folder for teleporting in the other direction.

So I'm wondering if you could just check this out quickly if teleporting works. If it works for you then maybe there is some tiny thing I'm doing that cause this. But what I've seen so far this seem to be completely random.

I'll experiment with this some more and if it might be depending on some settings after all I should discover it myself. I'll upload some files for you later.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 02:27:43 PM by Testlund »
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Offline Testlund

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #5 on: January 27, 2014, 02:31:42 PM »
Alright, follow these steps:

1. Delete all files that DB creates the first time it is run to make sure you start out clean and to replicate this procedure properly.

2. Put my global.set file, robot files and sim files in the proper directories.

3. Start one instance of Darwinbots, press pause and load the sim named A.sim.

4. Start another instance of Darwinbots, press pause and load the sim named B.sim.

5. Put these two instances next to each other, for example like the picture shows and press play on both instances.

6. You need of course set your own paths for your teleporters. One folder for bots to go from sim A to B and another folder for bots to go from sim B to A like the picture shows.

7. Just run these sims and see what happens. Bots may or may not teleport correctly. The result may differ from each time you start the sims! You may have to close and open the instances again before you load and start the sims to get a different result.

Sometimes I get an error message that says "File already open and that the bot is not a valid bot." This is also a new phenomenon. I had my antimalware software turned off when I tested this so there shouldn't be anything outside of Darwinbots that could access the files. If I just close those dialogs the sims continue to run.

So I've been repeating the process several times but now it has decided to work fine everytime!
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Offline Testlund

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #6 on: January 27, 2014, 03:39:37 PM »
Now I've been trying the above mentioned steps on my laptop with Win XP. After several failures I finally got the teleporting to work. Only difference was that I got the dialog boxes popping up several times that the files were already in use. After clicking away those the teleporting started to work without any more issues. I had antimalware software turned off there too. I think DB sometimes has problems with file access when using teleporters.
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Offline Botsareus

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2014, 04:56:03 PM »
ok, thank you for more info, I'll test this further when I have time, but I am putting this on reasonably lower priority at the moment as you demonstrated a work around.

I am assuming it (works) under any settings and any robots...

Offline Testlund

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #8 on: January 27, 2014, 05:01:12 PM »
Yes, you can can put it on lower priority. This is definitely a bug though. I just tested version Darwin2.46Beta.exe and it works perfect. I'm trying a workaround. Maybe if I load and save the sims in this version first and then load them in version Darwin2.46.02BetaD.exe I might be able to get it to work.  :P
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Offline Botsareus

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #9 on: January 27, 2014, 05:20:46 PM »
Really? It is that resent? Ok I'll play with it tomorrow, what could have changed between Beta and version D that will cause this?  :blink:

Offline Testlund

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #10 on: January 27, 2014, 06:31:55 PM »
Yeah, it's strange cause you haven't mentioned doing anything with the teleporters in the latest drops.

My workaround only worked once when I loaded the sims. Then I tried to switch on the new mutation features and restart the sims and the problem was back. Maybe there is new data that DB can't transfer properly through the teleporters.
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Offline Botsareus

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #11 on: January 28, 2014, 01:58:28 PM »
The teleporters are plain buggy. Try running your sim again but start with 130 robots. That seems to fix it. There will never be a sim that just has a fixed number of robots, so I don't see a big issue here.

The logic to save a simulation is used for teleporting robots as well, the simulations seems to save fine, therefor I know I have not introduced a broken feature here.

There is a secondary problem here with loading an existing sim file though, but it seems to resolve itself in most cases as well. I recommend however, not to load existing simulations while running teleporters.

I must have edited this post atleast 5 times, sorry for the confusion.

Attached is a working version of the experiment described by Testlund above.
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 02:11:47 PM by Botsareus »

Offline Testlund

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #12 on: January 28, 2014, 04:26:10 PM »
Yes, this worked right away! A good template for teleporters I think. Thanks!   :)
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Offline Botsareus

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #13 on: February 02, 2014, 01:14:32 PM »
Quote
There is a secondary problem here with loading an existing sim file though, but it seems to resolve itself in most cases as well. I recommend however, not to load existing simulations while running teleporters.

This is that error 55 stuff again.

 :thinkey: Can the autosave routine interfere with robot teleoporting? I think I may have something here.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2014, 01:18:22 PM by Botsareus »

Offline Botsareus

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Re: Weird teleporter problem.
« Reply #14 on: February 02, 2014, 01:44:59 PM »
I have assigned unique file numbers to save and load organism. I also disabled the autosave timer if simulation saving is in progress.
Play with this tell me if it works.