2048bot, Copyright 2014 Rafał Cieślak
This software is released and distributed under the terms of GNU GPL v3.
See LICENSE file for details. 
This software is provided with hope that it will be useful, but without any
form of warrancies or guarantees for fitnes to any particular purpose.

0) About the software

  This application is a simple and easy-to-expand automatic bot that plays the
  famous 2048 game. It probes the screen to determine game state, and emulates
  keypresses to perform moves.
  As opposed to popular javascript-based bots, this one runs separatelly from
  the browser, and therefore it is easier to trust it that it does not cheat by
  affecting game's actual algorithm. You are also welcome to test it on
  alternative versions of 2048, as long as the grid is 4x4, and no custom tile
  theme is used.

  The bot is written in Python and C++. It has been tested to work on Linux,
  but since all libraries it uses are cross-platform, I am convinced it should
  run on Windows as well.

  You can play 2048 at http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/2048/

1) Preparing to run the bot

  The bot itself is a python script, but it relies on an algoritm which is
  provided as an external module prepared in C++. You need to build the module
  on your computer before the bot will work.

  To build the core_bot module,  enter the bot_core directory, and run:
      python2 setup.py build
  and copy the bot_core.so (or bot_core.dll) file from
      bot_core/build/lib.YOUR_ARCH/
  directory into the root directory (the one with 2048bot.py) (a symlink is
  also fine).
  
  On Linux systems, you can simply run 
     ./build_core-linux.sh
  which will do the above

2) Running the bot

  a) Open the standard game version in a web browser.

  Make sure the window is resized and page is scrolled so that full game area
  is visible. [The bot will probe screen pixels to learn what the current game
  state is.]

  b) Use python2 to run 2048bot.py.
  c) Click game area's upper left corner, and then the lower right corner, so
  that the bot will learn where to look for the game field.
  
  The bot will start playing the game by emulating keypresses. If you move the
  focus from the browser and the game page, the keypresses will be send
  wherever you have moved the focus, and  therefore the bot will stop
  functioning. It keeps probing the same screen area that you have marked, so
  scrolling the game page, moving browser window, covering it with some other
  window etc. will obstruct the bot, it will stop or crash.

  To exit the bot, click anywhere else, or send it a Ctrl+C.


3) Troubleshooting

- If the bot is complaining about missing modules (pygtk, pyuserinput), you
  need to make sure these are installed in your system.

- If the bot is not complaining about anything, but it looks like it is stuck,
  or it is taking a long to make a move, you may want to decrease the `depth`
  variable at the top of 2048bot.py file. This will decrease bot's chance to
  win, but will get it to work faster.

- What should I do if the bot says:

  Unable to recognize game board state!
  Refer to README file for details and information on how to deal with this
  problem.

  This may happen in following cases:
   1) A fancy 'You won!' message is being displayed. But in such case, you
      will probably ignore this issue anyway.
   2) You have incorrectly marked the game area.
   3) You are playing a custom game version with non-standard tiles. Such
      versions are not supported.
   4) Another window is overlaying the game area. Keep in mind that the whole
      game field has to be visible in order for this bot to work, as it is
      determining game state by probing pixels on the screen!
   5) An animation was being played when board detection was run. If your
      computer is slow at animating tile movement, you may want to adjust
      `sleeptime` variable in 2048bot.py. This may also happen if you disturb
      the bot by playing the game WHILE it runs - don't do that.
   6) Also, avoid moving the mouse pointer over the game field while the bot
      works - it may disturb it as
      well.