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Original post by IAmEvilHomer
Wow. I sent the article in about ... oh, I dunno, 3 months ago. I thought it had fallen off the face of the planet.

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int l_addNPC( lua_State* luaVM)
{
   theNPCManager->AddNPC( lua_tostring(luaVM, -1) );
   lua_pushnumber( luaVM, 0 );
   return 1;
}
 

void		l_getServerState(lua_State *vm){
	lua_pushnumber( vm, server->getServerState() );
}
 

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Original post by Max_Payne
Not to bash Lua or anything but, some arguments you put in the intro are just not very valid. You really put it like it was impossible to work without it.

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You're saying that:

1) Re-coding this feature the game designer doesn't like will most likely take a full day, because apparently its a big change.

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2) Re-compiling an engine with gameplay code might take up to 24 hours

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I have compiled the whole Quake 2 source before, along with the gameplay code, and the rendering libraries, it takes less than 2 minutes on my not-so-new computer both in release and in debug. Recompiling the gameplay code only is much faster, no more than 30 seconds.

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And now, with Lua:



So now you say that:

1) Changes can be recompiled immediatly.....
[\quote]

Nope. What I'm saying is that there *is* no re-compilation. There is just re-execution.

[quote]
2) The changes can be displayed immediatly...

You said earlier that it would take up to a day to recode.... So either Brandon doesn't mind waiting a long time, or Lua has some sort of magic that can instantly code anything in a single line.
[\quote]

No, what I'm saying is that I don't have to force myself (as the engine coder, or even the game coder) to have to recompile anything. I start my app (or even leave the application running) and change behaviours on the fly.

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What I'm saying here, is that if it takes a day to code it in C, it wont take 5 minutes to code it with a scripting language, it will most likely take a long time too..
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Sorry if you got that impression. Wasn't the intent. Again, meant to be an exaggerated example.

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3) Lua allows to make interesting map scripts. Triggers, doors opening, etc.

In half-life you could do all those things as well, using an interesting entity system, which was not actually scripting, you didnt have any commands... This system was very easy to use for the non programmer because it was intuitive and interactive.

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I dont believe you covered the disadvantages as well... Such as the fact that your gamecode is automatically open source. And learning Lua is also a new learning process, even though it might not be so complicated, you need to take the time to learn it.

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To conclude... Lua seems like a cool scripting language to mess with, something cool to know for the gaming industry... But it doesnt seem like a requirement for every indie game developper. Now please dont take my comments wrong, I believe the point of this thread is to actually discuss the article.

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Original post by alnite
Finally an article worth reading. Thanks a bunch. I await for your next article regarding Lua.

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How do you load the lub file (in your example), is it the same as loading the lua file? Considering that the lub file is a binary file, so I am not really sure if you can use the same function (lua_dofile).

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It is? No, no it's not. You'd better double check the agreement there. Because that's not the case. Otherwise you'd see people like Lucasarts, Bioware, and Relic (just to name a few) putting all their gamecode on-line. Lua has no restrictions on use.

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Original post by HellRaider
I believe he meant that all Lua scripts you distribute with your game are automatically open source.

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Original post by Max_Payne
Not to bash Lua or anything but, some arguments you put in the intro are just not very valid. You really put it like it was impossible to work without it.

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Original post by Max_Payne
1) Re-coding this feature the game designer doesn't like will most likely take a full day, because apparently its a big change.

2) Re-compiling an engine with gameplay code might take up to 24 hours

I dont know where you got that from... But unless you're recompiling 2 000 000 lines of code on a 386 with 4 megs of ram running win2k using a 2GB swap drive using compression to save space....

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while ( SDL_WaitEvent(&event) >= 0 ) {
        switch (event.type) {
            case SDL_ACTIVEEVENT: {
                if ( event.active.state & SDL_APPACTIVE ) {
                    if ( event.active.gain ) {
                        printf("App activated\n");
                    } else {
                        printf("App iconified\n");
                    }
                }
            }
            break;
                    
            case SDL_MOUSEBUTTONDOWN: {
                handle_mousebutton();
            }
         }
}
 

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There are languages out there that allow new code to be compiled into the game image while the game is still running.

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Original post by Kylotan
The link to http://kakariko.ne.client2.attbi.com/lua/Lua_Workshop_files/frame.html seems to be down.

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Overall, nice article, although I had been hoping it was a different one to the one I'd already read

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