isugamedev-devel

[isugamedev-devel] scripting

[Kevin M. <ke...@vr...>]

I think chad knows this one, but if anyone else has ideas, i'd be
interested.

want to do a scripting interface to the tank game engine (in cvs)...

how easy is it to do a perl or python binding?  I'd like cross platform
(linux win32 irix mac).  I envision that most objects would be prefab in
the game engine code (like particle systems that i can just setup in high
level fashion, or objects that i can drop in and they just collide.)...
so not much low level logic in the scripting, hopefully just game logic
(like click button triggers open of door, where the button and door are
both defined in c++ code and have a simple trigger mechanism that can be
hooked up in python...)

anyway, pretty random thoughts.  mainly wondering how fast I could have
this implemented (assuming i had the game engine written... :)

and, what are the steps I should take?  (pointers to documentation on how
to do this are fine too)

kevin

@--@---@---@----@-----@------@------@-----@----@---@---@--@
Kevin Meinert                                  __  _   __  
http://www.vrac.iastate.edu/~kevn         \  ||  \| \ /  ` 
Virtual Reality Applications Center        \ ||.-'|--\    
Howe Hall, Iowa State University, Ames Iowa \||  \|   \`__,
-----------------------------------------------------------

Re: [isugamedev-devel] scripting

[Chad A. <ae...@ae...>]

Interfacing Python with C:     http://python.org/doc/current/ext/ext.html
Interfacing JavaScript with C: http://mozilla.org/js/spidermonkey/

It's really easy to use SpiderMonkey's API.  Python's a little weirder, but not entirely bad.

(Look in my audio library at http://sf.net/projects/audiere.  I have bindings for XPCOM, Python, and
Java.  I'd also suggest looking at the way Sphere interfaces with SpiderMonkey, but it's ASS NASTY
and you'd never want to do it like that.  EVER.)

It's really not hard to set up bindings for a specific language.  However, I strongly recommend
going with XPCOM.  Via IDL and type libraries, it automates the cross-language communication
process.

XPCOM links:
http://mozilla.org/projects/xpcom/
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/components/library/co-xpcom.html
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/components/library/co-xpcom2.html
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/components/library/co-xpcom3.html
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/components/library/co-xpcom4/index.html
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/components/library/co-xpcom5.html

> I think chad knows this one, but if anyone else has ideas, i'd be
> interested.
> 
> want to do a scripting interface to the tank game engine (in cvs)...
> 
> how easy is it to do a perl or python binding?  I'd like cross platform
> (linux win32 irix mac).  I envision that most objects would be prefab in
> the game engine code (like particle systems that i can just setup in high
> level fashion, or objects that i can drop in and they just collide.)...
> so not much low level logic in the scripting, hopefully just game logic
> (like click button triggers open of door, where the button and door are
> both defined in c++ code and have a simple trigger mechanism that can be
> hooked up in python...)
> 
> anyway, pretty random thoughts.  mainly wondering how fast I could have
> this implemented (assuming i had the game engine written... :)
> 
> and, what are the steps I should take?  (pointers to documentation on how
> to do this are fine too)

-- 
Chad Austin
http://aegisknight.org/

Re: [isugamedev-devel] scripting

[Kevin M. <ke...@vr...>]

any time estimates for how long it would take me to get productive with
these?


thanks,

@--@---@---@----@-----@------@------@-----@----@---@---@--@
Kevin Meinert                                  __  _   __  
http://www.vrac.iastate.edu/~kevn         \  ||  \| \ /  ` 
Virtual Reality Applications Center        \ ||.-'|--\    
Howe Hall, Iowa State University, Ames Iowa \||  \|   \`__,
-----------------------------------------------------------

On Thu, 11 Oct 2001, Chad Austin wrote:

> Interfacing Python with C:     http://python.org/doc/current/ext/ext.html
> Interfacing JavaScript with C: http://mozilla.org/js/spidermonkey/
> 
> It's really easy to use SpiderMonkey's API.  Python's a little weirder, but not entirely bad.
> 
> (Look in my audio library at http://sf.net/projects/audiere.  I have bindings for XPCOM, Python, and
> Java.  I'd also suggest looking at the way Sphere interfaces with SpiderMonkey, but it's ASS NASTY
> and you'd never want to do it like that.  EVER.)
> 
> It's really not hard to set up bindings for a specific language.  However, I strongly recommend
> going with XPCOM.  Via IDL and type libraries, it automates the cross-language communication
> process.
> 
> XPCOM links:
> http://mozilla.org/projects/xpcom/
> http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/components/library/co-xpcom.html
> http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/components/library/co-xpcom2.html
> http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/components/library/co-xpcom3.html
> http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/components/library/co-xpcom4/index.html
> http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/components/library/co-xpcom5.html
> 
> > I think chad knows this one, but if anyone else has ideas, i'd be
> > interested.
> > 
> > want to do a scripting interface to the tank game engine (in cvs)...
> > 
> > how easy is it to do a perl or python binding?  I'd like cross platform
> > (linux win32 irix mac).  I envision that most objects would be prefab in
> > the game engine code (like particle systems that i can just setup in high
> > level fashion, or objects that i can drop in and they just collide.)...
> > so not much low level logic in the scripting, hopefully just game logic
> > (like click button triggers open of door, where the button and door are
> > both defined in c++ code and have a simple trigger mechanism that can be
> > hooked up in python...)
> > 
> > anyway, pretty random thoughts.  mainly wondering how fast I could have
> > this implemented (assuming i had the game engine written... :)
> > 
> > and, what are the steps I should take?  (pointers to documentation on how
> > to do this are fine too)
> 
> -- 
> Chad Austin
> http://aegisknight.org/
> 
> _______________________________________________
> ISUGameDev-devel mailing list
> ISU...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/isugamedev-devel
> 

Re: [isugamedev-devel] scripting

[Chad A. <ae...@ae...>]

It took me a day to learn about and write Python bindings for Audiere, but I already had some
experience with scripting languages...  SpiderMonkey took a while longer, but that's because I
didn't really know what I was doing.  Fortunately, there is a a helpful newsgroup at
news://news.mozilla.org/netscape.public.mozilla.jseng.  ^_^

If you've ever done any sort of COM work, learning XPCOM is cake.  Reading those IBM articles walks
you through the process of making your first component, writing IDL, and whatnot.  The Mozilla
sample component is at:  http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/xpcom/sample/

> any time estimates for how long it would take me to get productive with
> these?

-- 
Chad Austin
http://aegisknight.org/