vJASS help

Moderator

I'm learning how to use vJASS and I could use a few tips n stuff. unfortunately i cant actually test it cuz jngp is a fickle whore.

like is having this. before all my struct member vars necessary?
or just as good is: did i do this completely wrong?

also is using periodic event ok or should i learn how to use something called timerutils?

Code:: public struct Wheel

private unit mycenterunit private real mydegreesbetweenspokes
private integer myspokeunitID private real mydistbetweenspokeunits
private integer mynumspokes private real myangularvelocity
private integer myspokelength private real myzheight
private hashtable myunits private player myowner

public method getMyUnits takes nothing returns hashtable
return this.myunits
endmethod

private method rotatewheel takes nothing returns nothing
//represents the current spoke out of the total number of spokes
local integer i = 1
//represents the current unit in a particular spoke
local integer j = 1
loop
exitwhen i > this.mynumspokes
local real newangle = i*this.mydegreesbetweenspokes + .03*this.myangularvelocity
loop
exitwhen j > this.myspokelength
//used to reduce function calls
local real distfromcenter = j*this.mydistbetweenspokeunits
//determines the x position of the unit to be created based on the position of the center unit
local real x = (call GetUnitX (this.mycenterunit)) + distfromcenter*(call CosBJ(newangle))
//same as x but for y position
local real y = (call GetUnitY (this.mycenterunit)) + distfromcenter*(call SinBJ(newangle))
//the optional z value for wavy wisp wheels
//creates a temporary unit var to represent the current unit in the wheel
local unit tempunit = call LoadUnitHandle(this.myunits, i, j)
//offset the current unit to its next position in the circle
call SetUnitX(tempunit, x)
call SetUnitY(tempunit, y)
call SetUnitFlyHeight(tempunit, (this.myzheight * (call SinBJ(newangle))), 0) //sets the units fly height to be a sin wave with rate 0... idk what rate is
//go to next unit in spoke
set j = j + 1
endloop
//go to next spoke in wheel
set i = i + 1
endloop
//go to next iteration of wheel
//while any real number is valid as a degree, keeping it within ~360 helps keep everything under control
local real timecalc = .03 * this.myangularvelocity
if (this.mydegreesbetweenspokes > 360 + timecalc) then
set this.mydegreesbetweenspokes = this.mydegreesbetweenspokes + timecalc
else
set this.mydegreesbetweenspokes = this.mydegreesbetweenspokes - (360 + timecalc)
endif
endmethod

private method createwheel takes nothing returns hashtable
//represents the current spoke out of the total number of spokes
local integer i = 1
//represents the current unit in a particular spoke
local integer j = 1
//used to store all the units in a individual spoke per index
local hashtable units = InitHashtable()
loop
exitwhen i > this.mynumspokes
loop
exitwhen j > this.myspokelength
//used to reduce function calls
local real degbetween = i*this.mydegreesbetweenspokes
local real distbetween = j*this.mydistbetweenspokeunits
//determines the x position of the unit to be created based on the position of the center unit
local real x = (call GetUnitX (this.mycenterunit)) + distbetween*(call CosBJ(degbetween))
//same as x but for y position
local real y = (call GetUnitY (this.mycenterunit)) + distbetween*(call SinBJ(degbetween))
//creates a unit of designated type for designated player in wheel format around a designated center unit (facing 0 degrees on creation)
unit tempunit = call CreateUnit(this.myowner, this.myspokeunitID, x, y, 0)
//saves a pointer to the unit in the hashtable units giving its spoke as i and position in spoke as j
call SaveUnitHandle(units, i, j, tempunit)
set j = j + 1
endloop
set i = i + 1
endloop

return units
endmethod

public method destroyWheel takes nothing returns nothing
call this.destroy()
endmethod

method onDestroy takes nothing returns nothing //what happens when the struct as the struct is destroyed by .destroy()
local integer i = 1 //current spoke
local integer j = 1 //current unit in spoke
loop
exitwhen i > this.mynumspokes
loop
exitwhen j > this.myspokelength
call RemoveUnit(LoadUnitHandle(this.myunits, i, j)) //loops through all units in wheel besides the center and removes them from the game. The center unit is kept alive.
set j = j + 1
endloop
FlushChildHashtable(this.myunits, i) //not sure about the best way to clear up a hash, I think this clears all the units ids from a spoke, but i'm not sure
endloop
endmethod

static method create takes unit centerunit, integer spokeunitID, integer numspokes, integer spokelength, real degreesbetweenspokes, real distbetweenspokeunits, real radialvelocity, real zheight, player owner returns Wheel
local Wheel new = Wheel.allocate()
new.mycenterunit = centerunit new.mydegreesbetweenspokes = degreesbetweenspokes
new.myspokeunitID = spokeunitID new.mydistbetweenspokeunits = distbetweenspokeunits
new.mynumspokes = numspokes new.myangularvelocity = radialvelocity
new.myspokelength = spokelength new.myzheight = zheight
new.myowner = owner
mywisps = new.createwheel
call TriggerRegisterTimerEventPeriodic(new.rotatewheel, .03)
return new
endmethod
endstruct

displays slightly better here

update: i reinstalled everything and now my ive got ze jngp
i'm guessing syntax checker is what u use to find errors, unfortunately its giving a sytax erroron my struct declaration
ie sytax error line 1: struct Wheel
I'm almost positive thats how its supposed to be declared... maybe i did something wrong with the vjass compiler
or maybe i put this in the wrong spot (atm its in the map header)

i dont have the slightest clue where im supposed to place jass stuff. how smart is the compiler? do i need functions to go in a certain order based on use or can i declare anything anywhere like in java?

Moderator

Ignore the syntax checker, it doesnt take vjass into consideration
When you save the map jasshelper is called and it will give you the right errors, 1 at a time, it's kindve annoying like that, you may have to save it more then once before jasshelper will do anything
And it wont do anything if you use test map

The jasshelper in newgen is old, update it to this: http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=88142

Also change those locals to privates (dont do it to all of them, wait until the compiler tells so you can see when your supposed to use locals)
Separate the variable declarations so that its 1 per line (i know i said whitespace doesnt matter, but varible declarations are always 1 per line unless they are the same type, and thats only for certain languages)
Line 12 on pastebin should be endmethod but its right in the code tag you posted here

And you cant declare and set a variable in a loop

Code:: loop
exitwhen i > this.mynumspokes
local real newangle = i*this.mydegreesbetweenspokes + .03*this.myangularvelocity

Is wrong, you did it more then once, im just using this instance as an example
It should be soemthing like:

Code:: local real newangle
loop
exitwhen i > this.mynumspokes
set newangle = i*this.mydegreesbetweenspokes + .03*this.myangularvelocity

As for what order to declare stuff in, it doesnt matter as long as you dont call it before youve declared it and unless its a method, but you put all the methods in the right places i think
And your going to need a trigger for that periodic event to work, ive actually never tried it like that, so i dont know if it wil work but im pretty sure it wont
But dont worry about that until you get to it while fixing the other errors

Moderator

tyyyy
oh thats good to know (about only declare at start of meth/func/struct)

unfortunately i cant debug this because whenever i try to save anything with vjass it'll bring up the jasshelper bar (only if there are errors) but will freeze halfway through and the only way to unfreeze it is to close jasshelper.
also weird (and maybe related) is that i cant save a map with vjass regularly - i have to enable debug mode to do it or else it'll do that thing where if you try to play the map it lets you join but then kicks you right away.

take 2 on the code though

Code:: public struct Wheel

private unit mycenterunit private real mydegreesbetweenspokes
private integer myspokeunitID private real mydistbetweenspokeunits
private integer mynumspokes private real myangularvelocity
private integer myspokelength private real myzheight
private hashtable myunits private player myowner

public method getMyUnits takes nothing returns hashtable
return this.myunits
endmethod

private method rotatewheel takes nothing returns nothing
//represents the current spoke out of the total number of spokes
local integer i = 1
//represents the current unit in a particular spoke
local integer j = 1
local real distfromcenter, newangle, x, y
local unit tempunit
local real timecalc = .03 * this.myangularvelocity
loop
exitwhen i > this.mynumspokes
set newangle = i*this.mydegreesbetweenspokes + .03*this.myangularvelocity
loop
exitwhen j > this.myspokelength
//used to reduce function calls
set distfromcenter = j*this.mydistbetweenspokeunits
//determines the x position of the unit to be created based on the position of the center unit
set x = (call GetUnitX (this.mycenterunit)) + distfromcenter*(call CosBJ(newangle))
//same as x but for y position
set y = (call GetUnitY (this.mycenterunit)) + distfromcenter*(call SinBJ(newangle))
//the optional z value for wavy wisp wheels
//creates a temporary unit var to represent the current unit in the wheel
set tempunit = call LoadUnitHandle(this.myunits, i, j)
//offset the current unit to its next position in the circle
call SetUnitX(tempunit, x)
call SetUnitY(tempunit, y)
call SetUnitFlyHeight(tempunit, (this.myzheight * (call SinBJ(newangle))), 0) //sets the units fly height to be a sin wave with rate 0... idk what rate is
//go to next unit in spoke
set j = j + 1
endloop
//go to next spoke in wheel
set i = i + 1
endloop
//go to next iteration of wheel
//while any real number is valid as a degree, keeping it within ~360 helps keep everything under control
if (this.mydegreesbetweenspokes > 360 + timecalc) then
set this.mydegreesbetweenspokes = this.mydegreesbetweenspokes + timecalc
else
set this.mydegreesbetweenspokes = this.mydegreesbetweenspokes - 360 //this might need to be 360 + timecalc instead of 360, but I don't think so
endif
endmethod

private method createwheel takes nothing returns hashtable
//represents the current spoke out of the total number of spokes
local integer i = 1
//represents the current unit in a particular spoke
local integer j = 1
//used to store all the units in a individual spoke per index
local hashtable units = InitHashtable()
local real degbetween, distbetween, x, y
loop
exitwhen i > this.mynumspokes
loop
exitwhen j > this.myspokelength
//used to reduce function calls
set degbetween = i*this.mydegreesbetweenspokes
set distbetween = j*this.mydistbetweenspokeunits
//determines the x position of the unit to be created based on the position of the center unit
set x = (call GetUnitX (this.mycenterunit)) + distbetween*(call CosBJ(degbetween))
//same as x but for y position
set y = (call GetUnitY (this.mycenterunit)) + distbetween*(call SinBJ(degbetween))
//creates a unit of designated type for designated player in wheel format around a designated center unit (facing 0 degrees on creation)
unit tempunit = call CreateUnit(this.myowner, this.myspokeunitID, x, y, 0)
//saves a pointer to the unit in the hashtable units giving its spoke as i and position in spoke as j
call SaveUnitHandle(units, i, j, tempunit)
set j = j + 1
endloop
set i = i + 1
endloop
return units
endmethod

public method destroyWheel takes nothing returns nothing
call this.destroy()
endmethod

method onDestroy takes nothing returns nothing //what happens when the struct as the struct is destroyed by .destroy()
local integer i = 1 //current spoke
local integer j = 1 //current unit in spoke
loop
exitwhen i > this.mynumspokes
loop
exitwhen j > this.myspokelength
call RemoveUnit(LoadUnitHandle(this.myunits, i, j)) //loops through all units in wheel besides the center and removes them from the game. The center unit is kept alive.
set j = j + 1
endloop
FlushChildHashtable(this.myunits, i) //not sure about the best way to clear up a hash, I think this clears all the units ids from a spoke, but i'm not sure
endloop
endmethod

static method create takes unit centerunit, integer spokeunitID, integer numspokes, integer spokelength, real degreesbetweenspokes, real distbetweenspokeunits, real radialvelocity, real zheight, player owner returns Wheel
local Wheel new = Wheel.allocate()
new.mycenterunit = centerunit new.mydegreesbetweenspokes = degreesbetweenspokes
new.myspokeunitID = spokeunitID new.mydistbetweenspokeunits = distbetweenspokeunits
new.mynumspokes = numspokes new.myangularvelocity = radialvelocity
new.myspokelength = spokelength new.myzheight = zheight
new.myowner = owner
mywisps = new.createwheel
call TriggerRegisterTimerEventPeriodic(new.rotatewheel, .03)
return new
endmethod
endstruct

http://pastebin.com/1Aj8irqa

Moderator

debug mode and enable should be the only to things checked for jass helper, if its freezing you might have something else checked thats conflicting with it

Also did you update jasshelper?

Moderator

http://pastebin.com/Y7pWEUjE

the problem is in:

function s__Wheel_startWheel takes integer this,integer newwheel returns nothing
call TriggerRegisterTimerEventPeriodic(s__Wheel_rotatewheel(newwheel), .03)
endfunction

originally it looks like:

private method startWheel takes Wheel newwheel returns nothing
call TriggerRegisterTimerEventPeriodic(newwheel.rotatewheel(), .03)
endmethod

called from the constructor with:
call newwheel.startWheel(newwheel)

the error is
cannot convert nothing to trigger

I also tried

private method startWheel takes nothing returns nothing
call TriggerRegisterTimerEventPeriodic(rotatewheel(), .03)
endmethod

but that had the same error at the same place

Moderator

TriggerRegisterTimerEventPeriodic() is for triggers (and one of the worst names for a native function)

Triggers need to have an action and event registered to them
TriggerRegisterTimerEventPeriodic(trigger, real) registers the event, the function for registering the event depends on the event you want
TriggerAddAction(trigger, function) registers the action
VJass may let you do TriggerAddAction(trigger, struct)

You need something like this:

Code:: local trigger TTT = CreateTrigger()
call TriggerRegisterTimerEventPeriodic(TTT,.03)
call TriggerAddAction(TTT, newwheel.rotatewheel())

Actually i dont think vJass will let that work because of add action, try it first
But if it doesnt work try: call TriggerAddAction(TTT, function s__Wheel_rotatewheel(newwheel))
Or whatever it gets translated into

You may have to put local trigger TTT = GetTriggeringTrigger() in the rotatewheel method
But don't until the compiler says something about it, or if it isnt working in game

Moderator

it cant be newwheel.rotatewheel() because rotatewheel returns nothing
i guess if it could return itself as a action that would work but I don't know how to do that, and i feel like there's a better way

like does jass have some sort of lambda expression or a way of passing unevaluated methods?

i tried the other suggestions (except for the triggeringtrigger thing, i didnt understand that bit at all) the thing with function out front sounded promising but it got a syntax error saying unexpected ( or something like that. i tried switching function with method but that didnt work either.

Moderator

Why does rotatewheel have to return anything?
Isnt that rotating the wheel and what you were trying to do

TTT is the current trigger thats running
Triggeringtrigger is referencing it

Moderator

i agree it shouldn't return anything, but when you do
call TriggerAddAction(TTT, newwheel.rotatewheel())
the compiler is doing
newwheel.rotatewheel() which returns nothing
so really its trying to do
call TriggerAddAction(TTT, )

i thought saying function newwheel.rotatewheel() would tell the compiler that its a pointer to the function not to actually do the function, but it still didnt like that.

and oh ok that makes sense

Moderator

I told you what to do if it didnt work like that

Pat1487 wrote:: But if it doesnt work try: call TriggerAddAction(TTT, function s__Wheel_rotatewheel(newwheel))

I think its supposed to be s_Wheel_rotatewheel(newwheel)) and the extra _ is a typo in your post, but im not sure
And TTT is just a name, call it w/e you want

Moderator

I did try that

it didnt work,
i said that too

it says:
Syntax error, unexpected (
also it is supposed to be two _'s
i don't understand either

Moderator

Code:: static method create takes takes unit centerunit, integer spokeunitID, integer numspokes, integer spokelength, real degreesbetween, real distbetween, real angvelocity, real zheight, player powner returns Wheel
local Wheel newwheel = Wheel.allocate()

local integer i = 0
local integer j = 0

local real deg
local real dist
local real x
local real y
local real r

local unit u

set newwheel.center = centerunit
set newwheel.unitID = spokeunitID
set newwheel.nSpoke = numspokes
set newwheel.nSpokeLength = spokelength
set newwheel.degBetween = degreesbetween
set newwheel.distBetween = distbetween
set newwheel.angVelocity = angvelocity
set newwheel.zHeight = zheight
set newwheel.owner = powner

set newwheel.units = InitHashtable()

loop
exitwhen i > nSpoke
set deg = i*degBetween
set r = deg * 180 / bj_PI

loop
exitwhen j > nSpokeLength
set dist = j*distBetween
set x = call GetUnitX(this.center) + Cos(r) * dist
set y = call GetUnitY(this.center) + Sin(r) * dist

set u = call CreateUnit(this.owner, unitID, x, y, 0)
call SaveUnitHandle(units, i, j, u)

set j = j + 1
endloop

set i = i + 1
endloop

set u = null
return newwheel
endmethod

so i'm taking another stab at this because i thought i understood how to do stuff better and i wanted a quick n easy way to make wheels in my map

but im running into an incredibly unhelpful error (ty JASS helper...)
naturally its on the very first line i posted
method create must return Wheel

i tried a few things hoping it was some random syntax problem. it needs to be static, and it cant return nothing (specifically it really does have to return a Wheel)
the name of the struct is Wheel, so that much makes sense

I completely agree that it should return a wheel, but im 99% sure it is returning a wheel

thoughts?

Corporal

War3 is terrible for map making, give up.

Moderator

oh herp derp

Code:: static method create takes takes

might just be the problem

on the other hand, wtf vjass why couldnt you have just said something like syntax error or unexpected type "takes"