Scripting

General

Visionaire 3.0 comes with a Scripting language which is a combination of Lua (http://www.lua.org) and a Visionaire Object Model. The object model is used to access the Visionaire data structure in a convinient way. Almost every instance in Visionaire is represented as an object (e.g. scene, character, interface, ...) which can be manipulated through the scripting language.

Online documentation about scripting Language:

• Programming in Lua: http://www.lua.org/pil/index.html
• Reference Manual: http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/

Visionaire Object Model

All objects can be accessed and manipulated through the scripting language. All objects of the same type (e.g. scene or button) are stored in one table. The properties of an object can be accessed by defined fields for the specific table. All objects and its fields are documented in Visionaire Data Structure.

The field types of the data structure are mapped to Lua types in the following way:

Field Type	Lua Type
t_link	userdata (VisionaireObject) or string which describes the object path. See object access for description of the object path.
t_links	table (array) with Visionaire Objects (userdata or string, see t_link above) elements, each entry referencing one Visionaire Object.
t_int	number (integer)
t_float	number
t_bool	number (boolean)
t_point	table (with elements "x" and "y")
t_rect	table (with elements "x", "y", "width" and "height")
t_string	string
t_path	string
t_sprite	table (with element "path" and optional elements "x", "y", "cutting" (t_rect) and "transparent" (t_point))
t_vint	table with number (integer) elements
t_vfloat	table with number (float) elements
t_vpoint	table with t_point elements
t_vrect	table with t_rect elements
t_vstring	table with string elements
t_vpath	table with t_path elements
t_vsprite	table with t_sprite elements

VisionaireObject

Every instance of an object of the visionaire data structure is a VisionaireObject. With this object it is possible to read and manipulate the objects of the game.

The following methods are supported on a VisionaireObject:

isEmpty

Lua Syntax:

isEmpty()

• Return Values

boolean

true if the object is empty, i.e. the VisionaireObject does not reference an object of the visionaire data structure.

isAnyObject

Lua Syntax:

isAnyObject()

• Return Values

boolean

true if the object represents any object (isEmpty would return true because the object does not represent an object of the data structure). This is needed for actions where the user can set "[Any item]" for actions which should be executed in case an item was used.

getId

Lua Syntax:

getId()

• Return Values

table

A table with the fields tableId and id returning the table id and object id of the VisionaireObject.

getParent

Lua Syntax:

getParent()

• Return Values

VisionaireObject

The parent object for this object. An object has always a parent which contains it - only the game object has no parent.

getObject

Lua Syntax:

getObject(path)

• Arguments

path

Path to a Visionaire Object. The path has to start with a dot '.' and then a field name (field type must either be t_link or t_links). For t_links fields you must specify an object name in brackets ('[',']'). For t_link fields there are no brackets. The path is relative to this object. See object access for description of the object path.

• Return Values

VisionaireObject

The found visionaire object or an empty object if no object was found.

• Example:

local scene = getObject("Scenes[Bedroom]")
local deskCond = scene:getObject(".SceneObjects[Desk].ObjectCondition")

getName

Lua Syntax:

getName()

• Return Values

string

The internal name of the visionaire object. This is the name which is used to access the object and also shown in the editor. This name is not shown to the user in the game - therefor always a language dependent text is used.

setName

Sets the internal name of the visionaire object.

Lua Syntax:

setName(string)

• Arguments

string

The new internal name.

setValue

Sets a field of the visionaire object. Note that only fields which are marked as 'Scriptable' in the Visionaire data structure documentation should be modified. If the field is not marked as scriptable then changes to this field are often not recognized (or sometimes not immediately). Further changes to these fields will usually not be stored in savegames for performance reasons.

Lua Syntax:

setValue(int, VARIANT, {flags=1, index = int})

• Arguments

int

Data field which will be set.

VARIANT

Value to set. The type of the value must match the type of the field. E.g. if the field type is t_int then the value type must be a number (int). If the field type is t_rect then the value type must be a table with the entries "x", "y", "width" and "height".

• Flags

index

If specified then an existing list element at the given index will be modified. In this case the field type must be of a list-type (t_vint, t_links, ...).

• Examples

local tom = getObject("Characters[Tom]")
-- set character "tom" to position 100,300
tom:setValue(VCharacterPosition, {x=100,y=300})

local cond = getObject("Conditions[TV is on]")
cond:setValue(VConditionValue, true)

-- let the "dog" follow the current character
local dog = getObject("Characters[dog]")
local currentCharacter = getObject("Game.CurrentCharacter")
dog:setValue(VCharacterFollowCharacter, currentCharacter)

Exported objects

The following objects are exported to the Lua scripting environment:

• currentAction: a visionaire object which represents the action where the current script was called from.
• emptyObj: an empty visionaire object.

Accessing an object

Use the getObject command to access a visionaire object. Pass an object path to the command to get the visionaire object.

Examples:

local mother = getObject("Characters[Mother]")

local cond = getObject("Scenes[Forest].SceneObjects[Tree].ObjectCondition")

Whenever an object path is needed you can specify it the following way:
1. start with a Table (as is shown in the table column of the Visionaire Data Structure).
2. if this table is not "Game" (this table has only one object) then you have to write the name of the object inside bracktes ('[' and ']').
3. either goto 7. or continue with 4.
4. write a dot '.' and then a fieldname of this object (the field type must either be t_link or t_links).
5. if the field type is t_links then goto 2., else goto 6.
6. either goto 7. or goto 4. (access another link)
7. done. A valid object is specified.

Examples:

Game.CharacterLinks[Tom]

Scenes[Room].SceneObjects[start].SceneConditions[game started?]

Characters[Tom].CharacterInterfaces[Tom-MI3]

Alternatively, you can also access an object by its table-id and object-id. It can be specified by a tuple:
(table-id,object-id)

Example:

(0,6)

Selects the object with id 6 from table 0 (characters).

Commands

• Object access

Commands for Visionaire Player only

• Player commands