Get the valie from LUA option

[AggrorJorn]

I've made this extra menu for the switch moddel. You can select true or false.

--hand icon menu
       group=grid:AddGroup( "Hand icon" )        group:AddProperty( "Show hand icon", PROPERTY_BOOL )

My question is: How can I retrieve the selected value in the menu, outside the script where I created the menu?

[Rick]

You don't access the menu value directly. What you do is in the SetKey() function (you can look at other entities to see how the SetKey() works) for the model you added this property to, you would use http://www.leadwerks.com/wiki/index.php?title=Entities#SetEntityKey to assign this model instance a key/value. In your case you would do something like:

 

model:SetKey("hand_icon", "true")

 

 

Then in your fps lua file where you pick, you are picking the model and when you get the model you can do:

 

if(model:GetKey("hand_icon")) then

-- change icon to the hand icon

end

 

 

 

 

So the ideas is you create menu options. When the menu options are set the SetKey() function is called which allows you to assign the value to your entities OR models that you can later get at other places.

[AggrorJorn]

I''l give it a try when I'm back at home (which will be tomorrow). Thx for the reply

[AggrorJorn]

hmm Although I'm more clear about what the SetKey does, it's not entirely clear where to put them exactly. This is the menu option.

group:AddProperty( "showicon",PROPERTY_BOOL,"","Show hand icon")

I've added this to the spawn function :

function Spawn(model)
model:SetKey("showicon","1")

This way when a new switch is being dragged on, it has a default value of 1 (true).

 

Next there is the function SetKey(model,key,value). I've place a new model.setkey command but here I get an error.

function SetKey(model,key,value)
entitymodel:SetKey("showicon","true")

The error message "attempt to index global 'entitymodel' (a nill value)". What does this error mean exactly?

[Rick]

hmm Although I'm more clear about what the SetKey does, it's not entirely clear where to put them exactly. This is the menu option.

group:AddProperty( "showicon",PROPERTY_BOOL,"","Show hand icon")

I've added this to the spawn function :

function Spawn(model)
model:SetKey("showicon","1")

This way when a new switch is being dragged on, it has a default value of 1 (true).

 

Next there is the function SetKey(model,key,value). I've place a new model.setkey command but here I get an error.

function SetKey(model,key,value)
entitymodel:SetKey("showicon","true")

The error message "attempt to index global 'entitymodel' (a nill value)". What does this error mean exactly?

 

 

function SetKey(model,key,value)
entitymodel:SetKey("showicon","true")

 

What is entitymodel? The code you posted doesn't show what entitymodel is? If you look at other script examples there is a way to get the lua entity from the model that is being passed into SetKey(). There is something like get_Base() or something that you pass your model into and it returns a lua entity in which you can call SetKey() from. The other route to go is to just use the C++/BMax functions for SetEntityKey() passing in the model that is passed to SetKey(). I'm pretty sure the same result will happen.

[AggrorJorn]

What is entitymodel?

That was just a typo in the topic. It is "entity.model'. If I look at the base script and the camera nodes scripts, it seems that this tactic should be working. I'll have another look.

[Rick]

I would just try:

 

SetEntityKey(model, "key", "value")

[AggrorJorn]

I have to be close then:

switch.lua

	group=grid:AddGroup( 'Icon' )
group:AddProperty( 'showicon', PROPERTY_BOOL,'', 'Show hand icon' )
group:Expand(1)
end

function SetKey(model,key,value)
if key=='showicon' then
	SetEntityKey(model,"switchIcon","true")
end
end

the fpscontroller:

-- show hand icon
if (GetEntityKey(model,"switchIcon","true")) then
handIcon = true
end

The engine crashes entirely when I approach the switch.

[Rick]

I would expect that to work. Are you calling this GetEntityKey in fpscontroller inside the main loop or before it? If it's before it might be an issue as things might not be loaded.

 

Also your true is a string so in your if statement you will need to check for == "true"

[AggrorJorn]

no it's in the main loop. It's deffinetly the code in the fps that crashes the engine. I''l have another look tomorrow

[Rick]

-- show hand icon

if (GetEntityKey(model,"switchIcon","true")) then

handIcon = true

end

 

What surrounding this code? What is model?

[AggrorJorn]

I though that 'model' was some kind of global class.

 

--check hand icon

	pick=CameraPick(camera,Vec3(GraphicsWidth()/2,GraphicsHeight()/2,2.0),0,0)
	if pick~=nil then
		repeat
			if pick.entity:GetClass()==ENTITY_MODEL then
				break
			end
			pick.entity=pick.entity.parent
		until pick.entity==nil

		-- show hand icon
		if (GetEntityKey(model,"switchIcon","true"))== true then
			handIcon = true
		end

	else
	handIcon = false	

	end

 

 

In a previous topic I wondered if I could change "GetClass()==ENTITY_MODEL " could change into my own kind of class. But this ways seemed the better solution to this.

[Rick]

I don't think it is. Try putting pick.entity inside GetEntityKey() instead of model. If that doesn't work try pick.entity.model.

[AggrorJorn]

using

if (GetEntityKey(pick.entity,"switchIcon","true")) then

results in no errors, but the icon appears on every single model.

 

If I try

if (GetEntityKey(pick.entity,"switchIcon","true"))== true then

then the hand icon doesn't appear. So it looks like the command is right now, but it doesn't refer to the right key. Also this code seems quite fragile as the editor crashes with the smallest of change.

[Rick]

Try

 

if (GetEntityKey(pick.entity,"switchIcon","true")== "true") then

 

 

true and "true" are not the same thing. "true" is a string and true is a boolean. You are setting the entity key to the string "true" and that if statement you have is trying to compare the key value of either "true" or "false" to true, which isn't the same. It might be better to pick some other value to avoid the confusion for you. Like "yes" or "no" maybe.

 

The good thing is we know that pick.entity is the right value because of your first if statement setting the icon with all models. The reason is because that first if statement is always returning true for some reason.

[AggrorJorn]

I don't think I'm going to solve this any time soon. The logic seems to slip away at some points. I guess I have to wait for some tutorials/

 

Is there another way to check via pick.entity what kind of model it is? Like say: the pick.entity returns a model name or something?

[Rick]

I'll try playing around with this to see what I can do.

[AggrorJorn]

I'll try playing around with this to see what I can do.

 

Thanks for your help. It's really appreciated.

[Rick]

I'll need to do this at some point also so it'll be good to know.