"How do I ZScript?"

[Matt]

Why frandom? They're ints.
(I'm not noticing any performance difference between random and frandom either, whether applied to ints or to doubles)

[ZZYZX]

It's not a question of performance, it's a question of remembering for the rest of your life that if you need a double random from 0 to 1 (or -1 to 1) you should use frandom

[Graf Zahl]

Why frandom? They're ints.
(I'm not noticing any performance difference between random and frandom either, whether applied to ints or to doubles)

They are doing very different things so it's not a matter or performance at all but a matter of the result you want.

[Graf Zahl]

To bring some info to that weird discussion about function calls - yes, they cost a lot more than reading a local variable.
A local variable can be read with a single VM instruction that translates to approximately 10 native assembly instructions.

To call a native function with two parameters, both of these parameters need to get pushed to the stack (at least 30 native instructions, then the function needs to be looked up and prepared (at least 50(!) native instructions, and then the actual function needs to do its thing. To summarize, a native function call costs at least as much as accessing 10-20 local variables, a scripted function call even more. The precise amount depends on the types of parameters, their amount and of course the return values.

And that's where caching of function results becomes important. Calling GetPlayerInput 8 times in a function that gets called once per tic is harmless. Doing the same in a function which gets called repeatedly by multiple actors in the game each time can quickly become a drag. Tests on my own system show that the VM can approximately do 20000 function calls per millisecond.

[Major Cooke]

Apparently it is a lot faster!

And there you have it folks. Rather than repeating a function over and over, store it in a variable and pull it from there. Especially in ZScript.

[Matt]

Why can't I get the length of this array?

Code: Select all

	//seeing if you're standing on a liquid texture
	static const String lq[]={
		"MFLR8_4","MFLR8_2",
		"SFLR6_1","SFLR6_4",
		"SFLR7_1","SFLR7_4",
		"FWATER1","FWATER2","FWATER3","FWATER4",
		"BLOOD1","BLOOD2","BLOOD3",
		"SLIME1","SLIME2","SLIME3","SLIME4",
		"SLIME5","SLIME6","SLIME7","SLIME8"
	};
	bool standingonliquid;
	bool CheckLiquidTexture(){
		int lqlength=21; //lq.length();
		for (int i=0; i<lqlength; i++){
			TextureID tx = TexMan.CheckForTexture(lq[i], TexMan.Type_Flat);
			if (tx && floorpic == tx){
				return true;
			}
		}
		return false;
	}

[Graf Zahl]

Because apparently something is missing in the compiler.

[Matt]

Is there a way to set the attack origin on LineAttack to be the actor's exact position?

[ZZYZX]

Because IIRC for arrays it's Size(), not Length().

[Ed the Bat]

Yes, Length() is for how many characters in a string. Size() is for how many items in an array.

[multiguy18]

I'm trying to figure out since two days why the following code (and many other variants i tried) does not work correctly.

Code: Select all

class HordeEventHandler : EventHandler
{
	override void WorldThingSpawned(WorldEvent e)
	{
		if (e.Thing.bIsMonster && !e.Thing.CountInv("X10Clone") && !e.Thing.CountInv("X10Master"))
		{
			e.Thing.GiveInventory("X10Master", 1);
		}
	}
}

class X10Master : CustomInventory
{
	Default
	{
		Inventory.MaxAmount 1;
		+INVENTORY.UNDROPPABLE
		+INVENTORY.UNTOSSABLE
		+INVENTORY.AUTOACTIVATE
	}

	States
	{
	Use:
		TNT1 A 0;
		Fail;
	Pickup:
		TNT1 A 1;
		TNT1 A 1
		{
			A_LogInt(CountInv("X10Clone"));
			if (!CountInv("X10Clone")) //Double Check
			{
				Actor spawner = Spawn("Monsterspawner", pos, NO_REPLACE);
				if (spawner != null) 
				{
					Monsterspawner(spawner).classref = self;
				}
			}
			return true;
		}
		Stop;
	}
}

class X10Clone : CustomInventory
{
	Default
	{
		Inventory.Amount 0;
		Inventory.MaxAmount 1;
		+INVENTORY.UNDROPPABLE
		+INVENTORY.UNTOSSABLE
	}
}

class Monsterspawner : Actor
{
	Default
	{
		+NOINTERACTION
	}
	
	Actor classref;
	
	States
	{
	Spawn:
		TNT1 A 9;
		TNT1 A 1
		{
			Actor clone = Spawn(classref.GetClassName(), pos + (0, 0, 60), NO_REPLACE);
			if (clone != null)
			{
				clone.GiveInventory("X10Clone", 1);
			}
			return true;
		}
		Goto Death;
	Death:
		TNT1 A -1;
		Stop;
	}
}

For some reason, CountInventory always returns 0, which leads to a endless spawning of new monsters. Did i miss something?

[Blue Shadow]

My only guess is that those CustomInventory items just execute their pickup state when gotten and not stay in the inventory.

[multiguy18]

Thanks Blue Shadow. Replacing CustomInventory with Inventory did the trick.

[Major Cooke]

How many ways can a Color variable be accessed besides strings and hexadecimals? Can I get examples of them too, please? I'd like to know if something like:

Code: Select all

Color randomrgb = Color(random(0,255), random(0,255), random(0,255));

is possible. And are there any other parameters?

[AFADoomer]

Unless I'm mis-remembering, straight decimal of the hex value works, too (e.g., 0x004400 is the same as 17408)... A random decimal number between 0 and 16777215 (0xFFFFFF) should give you a random color...