# Donkey Kong Country 2 NEAT

An AI based on SethBling's MarI/O to play Donkey Kong Country 2 with lsnes.

See [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q69_wmEkp-k) for an example run.

## Requirements

* lsnes with **Lua 5.2** (do not try to build with 5.3, it does not work!)
* inotifywait for Linux, or a fairly recent version of Windows that has PowerShell
* A Donkey Kong Country 2 1.1 US ROM (matching hash b79c2bb86f6fc76e1fc61c62fc16d51c664c381e58bc2933be643bbc4d8b610c)

## Instructions

1. Start lsnes
2. Go to `Configure -> Settings -> Advanced` and change `LUA -> Maximum memory use` to `1024MB`
3. Load the DKC2 ROM: `File -> Load -> ROM...`
4. Load the `neat-donk.lua` script: `Tools -> Run Lua script...`
5. You may also want to turn off sound since it may get annoying. `Configure -> Sounds enabled`
6. Look at config.lua for some settings you can change. Not all have been tested, but you should be able to change the number on the `_M.Filename =` line to get a different state file from the `_M.State` list. Also note the `Threads =` line. Change this to 1 to prevent multiple instances of lsnes from getting launched at once. If you use more than 1 thread, you may also want to launch `lsnes` using xpra to manage the windows, with the `xpra-run.sh` script. Currently Windows does not support multiple threads.

## Keys
1: Stop/start

4: Play the best run

6: Save the pool file

8: Load the pool file

9: Restart

## Other Tools

### Status Overlay

The status overlay is located at [tools/status-overlay.lua](tools/status-overlay.lua). It will help you see the tile and sprite calculations by marking the tiles with their offsets on the screen, giving a crosshair with tile measurements (every 32 pixels), and listing information about the sprites (you can use the 1 and 2 keys above the letter keys to page through them). Sprites labeled in green are considered "good", red is "bad", normal color is neutral. Solid red means that it's the active sprite in the info viewer.

<img src="https://github.com/empathicqubit/neat-donk/blob/master/doc/donkutil.png?raw=true" />

### BSNES Launcher

Located at [tools/bsnes-launcher.lua](tools/bsnes-launcher.lua), this script gives you an easy way to launch bsnes-plus with breakpoints preset. Run it in lsnes and it will display a message to the Lua console and stderr on how to use it.

## Notes
* Only tested on Pirate Panic
* The pool files are gzipped Serpent data

## Credits

* [Donkey Hacks](http://donkeyhacks.zouri.jp/html/En-Us/dkc2/index.html)
* [SethBling's Mar I/O](https://github.com/mam91/neat-genetic-mario)
* [Basic tilemap info from p4plus2/DKC2-disassembly](https://github.com/p4plus2/DKC2-disassembly)
* [Serpent](https://github.com/pkulchenko/serpent)
* [LibDeflate](https://github.com/SafeteeWoW/LibDeflate)
* [watchexec](https://github.com/watchexec/watchexec/blob/main/LICENSE)
* [Billiam's Promise library](https://github.com/Billiam/promise.lua)

## TODO

- [x] Incur penalty for non-hazardous enemy collisions to encourage neutralizing Klobber
- [ ] Award for picking up items
- [ ] Make enemies neutral when held? (Klobber, Click-Clack, etc.)
- [ ] Multiple nets to handle different contexts s/a clicking map items