The 3DGS Nerd

Programming Advices

I think I can contribute some advise regarding on how to program comfortable, and thus increase workflow.

First of all, if you have a big widescreen monitor, use the space, don’t maximize windows’ but rather arrange them the way that you use 3/4 of the monitor for your most important program (e.g. WED) and the other 1/4 for tools or some other secondary program you access often (e.g. SED). If you have two or more screens, it’s advisable to use the monitors one program for each one. For example like me:

I use my 17” Screen for SED, and additionally also move the sidebar from WED to the second screen, so I have the entire 21” Screen for WED, and WED only. Also I use a minimalistic Windows theme. If you don’t want to install new Windows themes, you can also just set the theme setting for “Active Window Bar” to a smaller value, so the title bars of your windows are smaller and occupy less space.

WED

I have adjusted the key mapping in WED, so I have to move the mouse less and have more time doing the actual work rather than running the mouse across screen all the time to select the appropriate tools.

Keeping in mind that I have a German keyboard (if you have an American/English keyboard, just imagine the Y and Z key swapped) this is how I mapped them:

• > – Select mode
• Y – Move mode
• X – Rotate mode
• C – Scale mode
• A – Vertex mode
• S – Edge mode
• D – Face mode
• [Tilde] – Show properties window
• F8 / F9 – Build / Run (A4 Nostalgia!)

Now you have a incredibly increased workflow in WED, once you get used to use these shortcuts, you can modify and move objects in a matter of split seconds instead of wasting precious time moving the mouse to your toolbar every time you need to change the mode.

SED

I use a different syntax highlighting as you can see from the screenshot above. I consider it more tranquilizing to the eyes than the bright default scheme, this way you don’t get the infamous “tired eyes” from programming hours and hours through the night. If you like the theme, you can download it at the end of this post.

If you are still using A6 and are bound to C-Script, or use C-Script for other reasons, then it is a good idea to give your variables useful names to remember what type of information they store as C-Script only has one variable definition.

For example:

var bIsUsed = false; // b for Boolean

var iEnemyCount = 10; // i for Integer

var dDistanceFromPlayer = 2.3; // d for Double/Decimal

var hMusicFile; // h for Handle

var sTempString = str_create("Hello World!"); // s for String

string sTestString = "Just a test"; // Same here

Also remember, that you can use variables and even skills to save strings in them! That makes it easier to create string arrays (which are a bit tricky when using the “text” object, for example:

// Single String

var sOneString;

sOneString = str_create("This is the content");

// String array

var sStringArray[5];

sStringArray[0] = str_create("The");

sStringArray[1] = str_create("cake");

sStringArray[2] = str_create("is");

sStringArray[3] = str_create("a");

sStringArray[4] = str_create("lie");

// And in skills

my.skill1 = str_create("Wohoo!");

// You can access them just as easy, no workarounds.

draw_text(sOneString, 200, 200, vector(255,255,255));

draw_text(sStringArray[2], 200, 300, vector(255,255,255));

draw_text(my.skill1, 200, 400, vector(255,255,255));

That’s enough for now! Practice with what you learned today, and then I’ll publish some new advise!

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