Animation-LuaScripting

Getting started

Setup

Lua unit animation is implemented partially in the engine, and partially in a Lua gadget which is shipped with Spring in springcontent.sdz. By default, this gadget is not loaded, so a bit of setup is required to enable Lua unit scripts.

To enable Lua unit scripts, create a file LuaRules/Gadgets/unit_script.lua, and paste the following into it:

-- Enables Lua unit scripts by including the gadget from springcontent.sdz -- Uncomment to override the directory which is scanned for *.lua unit scripts. --UNITSCRIPT_DIR = "scripts/" return VFS.Include("LuaGadgets/Gadgets/unit_script.lua", nil, VFS.ZIP_ONLY)

Now this is done, you can start putting *.lua files in your scripts/ folder.

Workflow

Lua has the major advantage over BOS/COB that you do not need to compile it, which can reduce the time to develop scripts quite a bit.

To save further time, do not restart Spring for each small change. Simply run Spring in an window so you can easily switch between your editor and Spring, and use /luarules reload to reload all Lua unit scripts.

Further reading

• Animation-LuaCallins
• Animation-LuaCallouts

TODO

• Conversion tool
• Performance measurements
• Advantages
• Link to article in piro's magazine
• Coordinate system (axis, direction of rotation, picture)
• Library functions (plus the gadget)