Lua States : Better code and programming

[YouGroove]

In fact when LE3 started, seeing all Player.lua script, oh god, how awfull to have so much code doing so much stuff in one file

It's lot more hard to understand and use , or make evolve indeed.

 

So i give to community some litlle example i'm working on.

States.lua that has two main functions :

-UpdateStates()

-UpdateAnimations()

 

I could had made two lua files , but it's really clear in one file as anims and states uses two functions for each purpose.

 

 

-- states
pState={}
pState.idle=2
pState.walk=1
pState.run=4
pState.attack=5
pState.hurt=4
pState.dead=0

--Animations
pSequence={}
pSequence.walk=1
pSequence.run=4
pSequence.idle=2
pSequence.attack0=5
pSequence.attack1=6
pSequence.hit = 5
pSequence.death = 0


--------------------------------------------------
--Normalized vector direction player movin in X,Z
--------------------------------------------------
pState.movement=nil

pState.playerMoving=false

pState.attackInProgress=false


---------- Player States
pState.currentState=2
pState.prevState=2



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- States function
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function UpdateStates(keyAttack,keyRun,Rkey,Lkey,Ukey,Dkey)

------------ Normalized vector movement for walk and run -----------
pState.movement=Vec3()

pState.move=0

pState.prevState = pState.currentState

-------------idle state
if pState.currentState~=pState.attack then
         pState.currentState=pState.idle
end
------------attack state
if pState.currentState~=pState.attack and keyAttack then
          pState.currentState=pState.attack
          pState.attackInProgress = true
end
----------- move states
pState.playerMoving = false

if Rkey == true then
           pState.movement.x=pState.movement.x+1
           pState.playerMoving = true
end
if Lkey == true then
           pState.movement.x=pState.movement.x-1
           pState.playerMoving = true
end
if Ukey == true then
             pState.movement.z=pState.movement.z+1
             pState.playerMoving = true
end
if Dkey == true then
               pState.movement.z=pState.movement.z-1
              pState.playerMoving = true
end
------------walk or run states
if pState.playerMoving ==true and pState.currentState~=pState.attack then
     if keyRun == true then
            pState.currentState=pState.run
        else
             pState.currentState=pState.walk
      end
end

end


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Animations function
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
function UpdateAnimations(animationmanager)

if pState.prevState ~= pState.currentState then
     if animationmanager then
           if pState.currentState==pState.idle then
                   animationmanager:SetAnimationSequence(pSequence.idle,0.005,200)
         elseif pState.currentState==pState.walk then
                 animationmanager:SetAnimationSequence(pSequence.walk,0.05,200)
           elseif pState.currentState==pState.run then
                  animationmanager:SetAnimationSequence(pSequence.run,0.08,200)
            elseif pState.currentState==pState.attack then
                    animationmanager:SetAnimationSequence(pSequence.attack0,0.03,200,1,self,pEndAttack)
                    --LaunchFireBall(self.entity)
            end
          end
end

end


function pEndAttack()
pState.currentState=pState.idle
end

 

It's lot more clear as states function, only deals with states (and some vector movement only) , it don't deals with gameplay ro animations., you just care about states management.

That's same thing for animation function as it just calls the right animation based on actual states nothing else.

 

And here is the simple code for UpdatePhysics() in the player code that uses States.lua :

 

---------------------------------------------
-- PLAYER UPDATE PHYSICS
---------------------------------------------
...
...

local window=Window:GetCurrent()

local move=0

-------------- Player inputs read ---------------------
local keyAttack= window:KeyDown(Key.Space)
local keyRun = window:KeyDown(Key.Shift)
local Rkey = window:KeyDown(Key.Right)
local Lkey = window:KeyDown(Key.Left)
local Ukey = window:KeyDown(Key.Up)
local Dkey = window:KeyDown(Key.Down)

------------------ States.lua function ---------------------------
UpdateStates(keyAttack,keyRun,Rkey,Lkey,Ukey,Dkey)




------------------ Move Player --------------------
if pState.currentState == pState.walk then
         move=self.MoveSpeed
end
if pState.currentState == pState.run then
       move=self.RunSpeed
end
if pState.playerMoving==true then
      local targetRotation = Math:ATan2(pState.movement.x,pState.movement.z)-180
      self.currentyrotation = Math:IncAngle(targetRotation,self.currentyrotation,self.turnSpeed)
end
self.entity:SetInput(self.currentyrotation,move,0,0,false,self.maxAcceleration)

----------------- States.lua function -------------------
UpdateAnimations(self.animationmanager)

 

As you can see, once again this reamins super clear, and you can concentrate on gameplay code in player.lua instead of loosing yourself in states and animations problems and erros.

 

I just can't no more use or read Darkness code

 

You can adapt this code to other characters indeed, you just need to define the good sequences and states in a copy of that example, than just call them in the character main Lua file like goblin.lua for example.

[YouGroove]

I'll make that as a contribution

it will be splitted in two Lua files :

-states.lua

-animations.lua

And i'll give some basic use example with some short and quick player script.