Is Scripting Worth Learning

[wholbr]

I noticed in another thread a regular poster on the forums commented that he was learning scripting due to the fact that he did not think it would be any good at content creation. I feel I am in the same situation as I have never been able to draw as much as a round circle and so the learning of scripting comment aroused my interest

I learned basic programming some years ago and then moved on to Visual Basic and feel I became fairly proficient at it. However, could those skills be progressed into scripting and is it worth learning this as I have read somewhere on the forums that scripting was used mainly in scenarios which have been somewhat phased out in 2010.

Auran and Trainz have given me many hours of pleasure over the last couple of years and I would very much like to contribute something back. So, could anyone advise me is it worth the learning and if so how could it be applied to the benefit of the community if I did learn.

Thanks in advance for any replies
Bill

 

[norfolksouthern37]

i think that using scripting on assets greatly improves them and their abilities. if you can dream it up, usually there is a way to script it into the asset. id say give it a try. find something you think would benefit from your ideas and try to put them to use.

 

[wholbr]

Hi Norfolk.
Thanks very much for the reply but is there any chance you could you point me in the direction of any good tutorials which would get me started down the road.

With thanks
Bill

 

[rweber95]

Here are a couple of links to script tutorials:
http://publish.uwo.ca/~gerard/trainz/tutorials/scripting/index.html
http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php5/Getting_Started_in_TrainzScript

Bob

 

[rlclegg]

Possible Project

Hey Bill;

I love scenarios and think that a well designed set of scenarios would bring a video game-like feel to the action. My own interests in math and science education have me planning to put together something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwlBVCd4tmk

Story, action, competition... all mean you have to have some well designed scenarios. Would love to talk further if you think this looks good.

-Robert

 

[Rob]

Hello, Bill,

as far as I understand the world there are people who can art and there are people who can program and very rarely in fact never the twain shall meet.

I couldn't succesfully program my way to the kitchen but I could produce a beautiful map of the way there I'm sure.

I say go for it, my point is that I can make an object and I can make it interactive by borrowing the script from something we already have. On my own though, I can't e.g dream up an industry that works the way I want it to without the help of some dedicated script. That's where James gets a holler quite often and it's good to have him around.

So the most impressive assets these days are not always but usually the result of a team effort where artistic people have dealt with the visual side of it, and code minded people have given it distinctive functionality.
The more scripters to team up with the better.

~R~

 

[H222]

I think, mind you I'm 13, that scripting can be very important in trainz, not just the way they look, but the way they act.
An example is Vulcan's planes, it probably took him an hour to make the product, but it takesa him days to script them
Jamie

 

[wholbr]

Hi Everybody.
Please accept my apologies for not responding for some time on this one after posting the original question. The problem has been that I am supposed to be retired from my position as a health and safety officer for a large road transport company. However my former employer very often asks me to return and carryout "root cause accident investigations" which can be very time-consuming, but which I find very interesting and above all beneficial to the bank balance. So that is what I've been up to while not on the forum.

Between all of the above I have had a chance to look at some of the tutorials with regard to scripting and feel that it would not be difficult to adapt that to my knowledge of the basic programming language. In another thread on the forum it came to light that there are quite a number of people like myself on the forum who learned basic programming in times gone by before dropping it to do other things. Perhaps they to could get involved if they read this thread

I do like the idea of bringing content creators and scripting creators together to perhaps produce far more animation etc into content for 2010 and beyond as it could bring about a whole new level of reality to Trainz. After all the disruption and argument following the withdrawal of support by Auran to some earlier versions of the game, it is now nice to see new ideas coming forward with a view to the future.

Anyway, I have to finish one more report for my former employer and then I shall be back into Trainz and this forum with the renewed vigor of a 10-year-old and the intention to give something back to Auran and the community for all the many hours of pleasure that they have given me.

Bill

 

[NikkiA]

as far as I understand the world there are people who can art and there are people who can program and very rarely in fact never the twain shall meet.

I agree with you with regard to 'true art', which is a 'born with' ability, you either are artistic or you're not. HOWEVER, I do not believe that the kind of creation involved with trainz falls under the true definition of art. Both the 3d and texturing are based on pre-existing items and the 'copying' of their appearance, either by visual estimation, or from technical drawings. This copying is something that you CAN learn to do, and IMO, you can learn to do it well. It does not require the truely 'born creative' trait that 'true art' does.

That's not to belittle the work of people making 3d models, or skinning, it's just that it is a technical skill, rather than a 'born with' ability. And *all* technical skills adhere to the 10,000 hour rule.

(In my case, I'm a programmer by training/(ex-)trade - I've been programming since 1982 - but I'm also learning to 3d model, and I am getting better at it, IMO - certainly, doing a bit of work takes less and less time the more I practice.)

 

[HiBaller]

As a Visual Basic programmer since the original verson came out on floppies, I've found that scripting bears just a passing resemblance to VB. It more closely relates to the C language.

Having said that, converting (or adding) the scripting skills isn't that hard if you can think structurally. VB pretty much forces you in that direction.

I'd say go for it.

Bill

 

[NikkiA]

As a Visual Basic programmer since the original verson came out on floppies, I've found that scripting bears just a passing resemblance to VB. It more closely relates to the C language.

Having said that, converting (or adding) the scripting skills isn't that hard if you can think structurally. VB pretty much forces you in that direction.

I'd say go for it.

Bill

I'd argue that it's closer to Java than C, so much so that I use emacs' java-mode for writing it and it does a good-enough job with syntax highlighting and indentation.

 

[HiBaller]

That may be true, but having much more experience with C than Java I made the call. It all comes down to 1 and 0's.

Bill