Windows

Running the game server and controller programs on the same computer

First, try running the game server and your controller program on the same computer. This is not the same as the competition setup, but it is useful for debugging locally.

Toggle remote mode

Open the world and press “TOGGLE REMOTE” in the control window. The button turns orange to show that remote mode is on.

If the control window is not displayed, right-click “DEF MAINSUPERVISOR Robot” in the Scene Tree and choose “Show Robot Window”.

Execute your program

Open PowerShell. You can usually find it in the list of applications.

Run the following command in PowerShell, replacing <Your controller path> with the path to your controller program.

webots-controller.exe <Your controller path>

If the command is not found, use its full path, which by default is C:\Program Files\Webots\msys64\mingw64\bin\webots-controller.exe.

If you do not know the path to your controller program, drag and drop the file into the PowerShell window, and its path is filled in automatically.

Then press Enter to run the command. The controller connects to Webots and waits until the game starts.

Start the game

Press the start button in the control window to start the simulation.

Terminate the game

To stop the game, press Ctrl+C in PowerShell to stop your program.

When the simulation ends, the Erebus game manager stops too. To run the game again, reload the world.

Running the game server on a different computer

This is the setup used at official competitions. The computer that runs your controller (the client) and the one that runs the game (the server) must be connected to the same network.

1. (Server) Start Webots on the server, open the world and turn on remote mode in the control window.
2. (Server) Find the IP address of the server. See Find your IP address in Windows.
3. (Client) Run the following command in PowerShell, replacing <Your controller path> with the path to your controller program and <Server IP address> with the IP address you found in the previous step.
   webots-controller.exe --protocol=tcp --ip-address=<Server IP address> <Your controller path>
4. (Server) Start the game by pressing the start button.

Troubleshooting

If the controller cannot connect, check that the two computers can reach each other, that the firewall of the server allows TCP port 1234, and that the list of allowed IPs in the Network tab of the Webots preferences is empty or includes the client.

Official documentation

For more details about this setup, see the Webots guide.