xe
--
Q. Why xe?
A. As the caster system grew bigger vJass also appeared, there are also a lot
of things in the caster system that could have been done better but cannot
be fixed without dropping the caster system's function interface.
Q. No, really, WHY IS IT NAMED XE?
A. I have no idea.
Q. What's wrong with the caster system?
A. Instead of answering that I will list what's right with xe:
* It is modular. You can make a whole spell with just xebasic which is just
like a "constant package" that comes with the dummy model and unit. All the
other parts are disposable or replaceable.
Still, I made them and will probably keep making new modules as I advance,
right now xe can only do some basic functions, still cannot 100% replace
the caster system in functionality, certain parts like the parabolic
projectiles most notably, don't have a xe module yet, maybe later...
xebasic is so minimal I personally hope people could use it on their spells
and systems as a way to make it common to use these constants as constants of
that kind are often required to make things work.
* It is quite OOP, this is more related to the modules themselves, I wanted it
to exploit OOP for two reasons: 1) It prevents the 'ultra long function calls'
disease that has plagued the caster system since the beginning of time. 2) I
personally think it is easier this way instead of memorizing function names
and their argument lists.
xebasic
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xebasic is the nucleous of all xe, in order to use a xe module you would most
likely need xebasic. It is also meant to be the only part of xe that most users
would really need to tweak for their map.
This section is supposed to be a rapid guide on copying xebasic. The rest of
the xe modules should be rather easy to implement (just copy the 'trigger' that
contains it to the map).
1) Make a backup of your map.
2) Get vJass support. The most usual way would be using the newgen pack. There
are plenty of other ways. I for example do my vJass coding on Linux using just
jasshelper.exe, WINE and some editor tricks using a tool called Warcity.
Getting vJass to work is a wide area, if just installing and using the
"Jass newgen pack" doesn't work to you, please request/search help somehow. As
of now there really is no vJass support in OS/X, so you would need virtualization
and things of that style.
-- Note: You can have two maps open in the editor, and it is the only way to
make copy and paste work.
3) Copy the model, in this map's import manager you may find dummy.mdx, select
it and export it to some temp folder, then go to your map and import it, use
war3mapimported\dummy.mdx for path.
Please save the map immediatelly after importing the model to prevent it from
getting unimported due to a rare WE bug.
4) Copy the dummy unit: In the object editor under neutral passive, you may
find the dummy unit, select it, go to 'edit' then click copy. Now switch to
your map's object editor and use 'paste'.
5) Write down the rawcode: While you are in the object editor select your map's
recently pasted dummy unit, then go to the 'view' menu and click the option to
show values as raw data. Now take a look to the selected unit type. It will now
come with a code like "ewsp:e001", the last four characters of the code are
what matter, write them down.
6) Copy this map's xebasic trigger to your map.
7) Update your map's xebasic: change the value assigned to XE_DUMMY_UNITID to
'XXXX' where XXXX is the four character code you wrote down in step 5.
8) Save your map and pray, if it compiles correctly then it is done. Make sure
to test (after implementing) whatever needed you to install xebasic. If it
doesn't work correctly then it is likely you made a mistake when copying the
unit or the model or updating the rawcode.
9) Update the other values if you think it is necessary.
Using xebasic
-------------
Well, once you state your trigger/spell/system requires xebasic, just use
its constants, on a map that has implemented xebasic XE_DUMMY_UNITID will be
your key to creating dummy units, just remember to add it 'Aloc' ...
Contact
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I got a forum that's supposed to hold questions related to my systems at:
http://wc3campaigns.net/vexorian
I'd really appreciate that you used that forum for your questions, for starters
it is a lot more likely I would actually find the questions in that case.