SpuPilot

The SpuPilot offers a way to communicate with Spumone mathematically. We can use it to provide mathematical rules for the spuCraft to turn on thrusters, activate constraints and operate actuators. Mathematical precision provided by these rules is required to solve most challenges in Spumone.

Once you start up the SpuPilot, you typically select a “world” that you want to write an interface for, and then enter your instructions. The SpuPilot interface has several components that we outline below.

Table of Links

Here is a list of topics covered on this page. Click to go right to the topic of interest. [Links not active yet.]

• Input Scripts (How to send commands to the spuCraft.)
• Switches (How to manually switch between input scripts.)
• Triggers (Define rules to automatically switch between input scripts.)
• Displays (Evaluate and display important quantities on screen.)
• User-Defined Functions (Define and use your own functions.)
• Entering Mathematics (How do you write the equations.)
• Parse Errors (What to do when you encounter a parse error.)

Input Scripts

The three most important components of the SpuPilot interface are the input scripts, switches, and triggers. The input scripts provide a means for one to write mathematical functions that send commands to the spuCraft. You can write several different mathematical functions (scripts) that do different things. The switches and triggers provide a mechanism to switch between different input scripts.  Supporting video will be coming soon. In the meantime, you can see a demonstration of input scripts here.

Switches

Switches provide a mechanism to switch between input scripts “on the fly.” Switches differ from triggers in that they get activated manually. With the SpuPilot, you can associate a switch with a button on the gamepad. When the player presses the button, Spumone switches to the desired input script.

A video to be posted below will demonstrate the use of triggers. In the meantime, you can watch a demonstration here.

Triggers

Triggers also provide a mechanism to switch between input scripts “on the fly.” Triggers differ in that they switch input scripts automatically whenever certain mathematical conditions are satisfied. This is useful when you need to switch scripts at very precise moments.

In the SpuPilot, you (1) define the mathematical switching condition; (2) select which gamepad button is to be used to “arm” the trigger; and (3) select which input script to switch to when the switching condition is satisfied. A video to be posted below will demonstrate the use of triggers. In the meantime, you can watch a demonstration here.

Entering Mathematics

In order to program your input scripts, triggers, displays, and functions, you are going to need to be able to write your equations in a way that the machine can understanding them. In writing these equations, there is a set of rules you must follow so that Spumone can interpret them unambiguously. Writing equations for Spumone is similar to writing equations in programming languages. Click on the link here to get a copy of the manual describing equation rules and a list of built-in functions that you may use in your equations.

Parse Errors

When writing equations, we all make mistakes. When we make mistakes that Spumone doesn’t know how to interpret, it gives you a “Parse Error”. The video below (coming) demonstrates how to recover from parse errors.