Video Tutorial Series for vJASS

Nestharus · Aug 9, 2012

Generally Good Resources To Have

Getting NewGen

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...gen-pack-2-0-alpha-recruiting-testing-233145/

Common Errors

File Exist Error:

Not Windows 8: start, run, %temp%, delete everything
Windows 8: Right click dashboard area in bottom left corner, click on run, type %temp%, delete everything

Setting Up NewGen

Exploring WE

[youtube][/youtube]

Create a map with deep water and then go to the Terrain Editor and click on Apply Height. From there, click on the Raise tool and apply it to the map until the ground goes above the water level. This is used to get more natural water. Alternatively, cliffs can be used, but those look horrible.

More water techniques: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...ls-278/terrain-advanced-water-effects-210516/

Exploring the Object Editor

Creating a Trigger

[youtube][/youtube]

Trigger Actions

[youtube][/youtube]

The Variable Editor

[youtube][/youtube]

Trigger Conditions

[youtube][/youtube]

Trigger Events

[youtube][/youtube]

Converting a Trigger

[youtube][/youtube]

What is JASS? (with comments)

[youtube][/youtube]

Practice

Getting Used to the Teaching Pack

Teaching Pack 1
[youtube][/youtube]

JASS Variables

Teaching Pack 2
[youtube][/youtube]

Integers

Teaching Pack 3
[youtube][/youtube]

Actions

Teaching Pack 4
[youtube][/youtube]

Number Systems
http://numbermonk.com/decimal/14239
http://elenzil.com/esoterica/baseConversion.html
http://wims.unice.fr/wims/en_tool~number~baseconv.en.html

Quick Rules

Integer Memory

Teaching Pack 5
[youtube][/youtube]

Reals

Teaching Pack 6
[youtube][/youtube]

Math

Teaching Pack 7
[youtube][/youtube]

Outdated

If I didn't hit octal, octal integers start with 0 instead of 0x -> 0123
Octal: 01234567
Hexadecimal: 0123456789ABCDEF
For more information on number systems, please see http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/jass-ai-scripts-tutorials-280/saving-loading-192851/

I say nested functions at one point for initializers, but I meant to say nested scopes.

I made a slight mistake in the video for deallocating.

Notice the == -1. When a struct is allocated, it's set to -1, so this would always end up throwing an error.
debug if (recycler[this] == -1 or this == 0) then

It should be != -1
debug if (recycler[this] != -1 or this == 0) then

When it is deallocated or wasn't allocated before, it's going to have a value that isn't -1. The only instances with a value of -1 are allocated instances.

The fixed code is found below (using DisplayTimedText instead of Print so that it is ready for use).

JASS:

    module Alloc
        private static integer array recycler
        private static integer instanceCount = 0
        debug private static boolean enabled = true
        
        static method allocate takes nothing returns thistype
            local thistype this = recycler[0]
            
            debug if (not enabled) then
                debug return 1/0
            debug endif
            
            if (this == 0) then
                debug if (instanceCount == 8191) then
                    debug call DisplayTimedTextToPlayer(GetLocalPlayer(),0,0,60,"OVERFLOW") 
                    debug set enabled = false
                    debug set this = 1/0
                debug endif
            
                set this = instanceCount + 1
                set instanceCount = this
            else
                set recycler[0] = recycler[this]
            endif
            
            debug set recycler[this] = -1
            
            return this
        endmethod
        
        method deallocate takes nothing returns nothing
            debug if (not enabled) then
                debug set this = 1/0
            debug endif
            
            debug if (recycler[this] != -1 or this == 0) then
                debug call DisplayTimedTextToPlayer(GetLocalPlayer(),0,0,60,"ATTEMPT TO DEALLOCATE NULL STRUCT INSTANCE")
                debug set this = 1/0
                debug set enabled = false
            debug endif
            
            set recycler[this] = recycler[0]
            set recycler[0] = this
        endmethod
    endmodule

triggers, boolexpr, force group enum for evaluation

There are some things I didn't make clear in this video due to the state I was in while making it. Watch the video before reading these points.
#1: TriggerEvaluate runs all conditions on a trigger. Conditions are boolean expressions (Condition native) that wrap up functions. They are stored in a trigger as triggercondition.
#2: TriggerExecute runs all actions on a trigger. Actions are just functions. They are stored in a trigger as triggeraction.
#3: The op limit is the thing that determines how much code you can run before a thread crashes. If you run too much code, your thread will crash.
#4: Triggers start their own threads, meaning that they get their own internal op limits. They are useful for avoiding op limit.
#5: Trigger actions are synchronous, meaning that they stay sync'd for all players in the game. This means that they can use TriggerSleepAction. They are also slower due to this.
#6: Trigger evaluations are also useful for dynamic code. You can't run a function dynamically unless you use ExecuteFunc, TriggerExecute, TriggerEvaluate, or ForceGroupEnum.
#7: In terms of speed, TriggerEvaluate > ForceGroupEnum (only slightly slower) > TriggerExecute > ExecuteFunc.
#8: Use ForceGroupEnum for evaluating single functions. Use TriggerEvaluate for evaluating multiple.

texttag limit is 100, not 255

This last video takes everything you learned and delves deep into how memory is actually managed in JASS, Galaxy, and languages like c++. You will learn how identifiers work, how structs/classes really work, and you will even learn how to move from vjass to c++ and code a Linked List without relying on arrays. I really recommend this video.

Missing Things
interfaces - useless
function interfaces - useless
delegates - useful, but limited

Pharaoh_ · Aug 9, 2012

I see this as an improvement to our tutorials section. Well done, keep up!

Chaosy · Aug 9, 2012

I will watch this now, wanna know about vjass

edo494 · Aug 9, 2012

0:56:27 "Im tired right now its 2:30 in the morning" but you still type twice fast as I do

also the sound gets a little off the video I think(your typing noises are around 3-4 seconds before its "typed" on the video at that point).
You could name the video somehow normally you know

, 20120809 0123 54 doesnt really looks like its going to do something with jass except the tag vjass

Magtheridon96 · Aug 9, 2012

I was going to make a vJASS tutorial

It's good that you made one ^_^

Nestharus · Aug 9, 2012

edo494 said:
0:56:27 "Im tired right now its 2:30 in the morning" but you still type twice fast as I do
also the sound gets a little off the video I think(your typing noises are around 3-4 seconds before its "typed" on the video at that point).
You could name the video somehow normally you know , 20120809 0123 54 doesnt really looks like its going to do something with jass except the tag vjass

Actually, the sound is 3-4 seconds off through the whole video. The video is also 700 megs, and I'm not uploading it again just to fix the filename ;p. Also, I don't know how to fix the sound, I used a program to record my screen or w/e.

edit
wow, it really does get more and more off =o

PurgeandFire · Aug 10, 2012

I didn't know anyone pronounced GUI as "gooey". xD

On a more serious note, I'll check out the rest and review it later. I just felt like posting that since it made me laugh.

Nestharus · Aug 10, 2012

PurgeandFire111 said:
I didn't know anyone pronounced GUI as "gooey". xD

On a more serious note, I'll check out the rest and review it later. I just felt like posting that since it made me laugh.

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=208003

edit
I'm working on a c++ tutorial too ^_^

Here is the intro code using definitions

Code:

Function(hello)
End

OnInit
	display("Hello World");
End

;D

mckill2009 · Aug 10, 2012

it would be more awesome if you zoom in when you write something...

Nestharus · Aug 10, 2012

Ok, redid. Let me know what you think all.

The videos now have zooming, are much smaller, and have good quality ; ).

Parts 1-6 cover: variables, functions, scopes, libraries, initializers, lib requirements

Done Parts 7-8: structs
Done Part 9: timers
Part 10: triggers, boolexpr, and force group enum for evaluations
Part 11: unit groups and group enum
Part 12: execute func, threading, trigger sleep action
Part 13: local code, data synchronization
Done Part 14: stacks (arrays, linked)
Done Part 15: allocation and deallocation
Done Part 16: queues, dequeues, and linked lists

static ifs

Other data structures like binary search trees, avl trees, red-black trees, and so on can just be googled as you will have enough coding experience to understand them without a special tutorial ^_^.

If you look, there are no special tutorials on making things MUI or on memory leaks as they aren't needed.

My goal is to move GUIers to vjass and then move them to c++ and into regular game dev with game engines =).

Don't believe it's possible to get them into c++? Think again.

Code:

#include "Core.h"

prototype(nothing, firstFunction, nothing)

onInit
	call display("Hello World");

	local integer i = 5;

	call display(i);

	call firstFunction();
end

function(nothing, firstFunction, nothing)
	local integer i = 5;

	display("This is my first function ^^");

	if (i == 5) then
		display(i);
	endif

	loop
		exitwhen(true)
	endloop
endfunction

The above is c++ using definitions to transition people from vjass to c++.

mckill2009 · Aug 10, 2012

your effort in doing this deserves more than +rep!

EDIT:
and your voice sounds sexy haha!

Nestharus · Aug 11, 2012

Added many new sections to this tutorial

Check in every day, I'm trying to add between 1 and 6 sections a day until the tutorial is done =).

Luorax · Aug 11, 2012

Part 16 looks interesting, I've always been lazy to read more about queues, stacks and linked lists are usually enough for my needs, and either way, school is starting in a few weeks, I'll lore about them soon or later

Good job anyways, would've definitely helped a lot if these had been available when I started learning vJASS, learning only from other resources is quite slow (but at least efficient).

Nestharus · Aug 11, 2012

I'm likely going over part 16 next so as to better cover the back structure of triggers and unit groups ;D.

I also do cover stacks in the part 10 video. I added a little description to each video =P.

For each tutorial, I really do spend a lot of time to explain and demonstrate the content extremely well ;o. The first tutorial is all about declaring variables, and it's 9.5 minutes long, lol. In part 10, I really dive into stacks as well as how struct allocation and deallocation works (as it is a great stack example). I also show vjass generated code and compare it to the code I write in the tutorial.

The latest outline is (for remaining stuff)

Part 11. queues, dequeues, linked lists
Part 12. unit groups
Part 13. triggers, boolexpr, force group enum for evaluation
Part 14. execute func, threading, trigger sleep action
Part 15. local code, data synchronization

edo494 · Aug 11, 2012

Its betrer then the one hella-long video and covers almost evertthing, but would you like to do one about static ifs as well?

I have no clue what they are except that they can be outside of functions :/

Luorax · Aug 11, 2012

Nestharus said:
I also do cover stacks in the part 10 video. I added a little description to each video =P.

Yea, I've already watched the 10th one

I skipped most of them as they contain nothing new for me, and though I'm familiar with stacks, I watched it as early in the morning, when my buddies are still in bed, it's relaxing to just sit down and watch a video about programming.

AFAIK queues are kinda similar to linked list, but since I don't really know much about them, I'm looking forward to that episode.

Oh, and as a little off-topic: I envy your typing speed :O

Nestharus · Aug 11, 2012

Its betrer then the one hella-long video and covers almost evertthing, but would you like to do one about static ifs as well?
I have no clue what they are except that they can be outside of functions :/

Ah yea, I forgot about static ifs ;p. I was planning on covering them =).

polo2005 · Aug 11, 2012

i'm at video 3 atm, however i got to ask about vjass sub1:
Your editor clearly shows the jasstypes in the variable editor, but mine doesn't.
do i need to enable it if i want it the show the jasstype?

edit: scratch that, had forgoten to activate UME, however, i'm getting lots of errors at startup for example:

Nestharus · Aug 11, 2012

Ignore those errors, everyone gets them ;D.

FRENGERS · Aug 12, 2012

Thank'z you are the maste

Oh, 142 WPM?? Are you kidding me?? That fasten than robot ( CPU )@.@

polo2005 · Aug 12, 2012

Nestharus said:
Ignore those errors, everyone gets them ;D.

okay thanks =)

Out of curiosity, it is ume that causes it, right?

Nestharus · Aug 12, 2012

polo2005 said:
okay thanks =)

Out of curiosity, it is ume that causes it, right?

no, I fixed mine when I deleted something that wasn't umswe. Try deleting ur japi folder.

edo494 · Aug 13, 2012

the part 14 is quite short but good
You should mention that passing arguments to ExecuteFunc will crash the game and that we can only ExecuteFunc those functions which takes nothing
Also Not everyone uses conditions nowadays. I still use actions!!

gorillabull · Aug 15, 2012

omg +MEGA REP!!!!!!!!!!!!

phuc1570 · Aug 17, 2012

Epic works. That's huge, big & so great! Thank you very much. + a ton of thanks/reps.

Nestharus · Aug 21, 2012

Added the last tuts. Not sure how effective the trigger one is since it's been awhile since I've done them and I didn't quite remember what was covered and what wasn't ; D. Also, I didn't want to rewrite all the code that I did on my first attempt at the tut when my WE suddenly stopped working.

I'm going to be adding a 19th part for working with standard pointers, but I gotta get Malloc working perfectly first.

edo494 · Aug 21, 2012

Nice tutorials but in vid 15 you didnt say what TriggerEvaluate is so Im asking, what it does, why its there, what is its use?

Edit: in vJass18 at 5:10 you said we can only have 255 texttags which is false as you know

Nestharus · Aug 21, 2012

Edit: in vJass18 at 5:10 you said we can only have 255 texttags which is false as you know

yea, it's 100 or something, I did the last vids when I was feeling really bad (super allergies), so I rushed them ;\.

edit
also, I know I said that a trigger evaluate evaluates the conditions on a trigger

edo494 · Aug 21, 2012

oh well maybe I didnt hear it

also I should have translate it before asking

lol

Nestharus · Aug 22, 2012

edo494 said:
oh well maybe I didnt hear it
also I should have translate it before asking lol

What I'm probably going to do is rewatch the trigger actions etc video and then redo the later videos. My allergies aren't going bonkers atm since I vacuumed my air cleaner ; ).

PurgeandFire · Aug 23, 2012

Overall, really good job. It is a nice approach to learning and I can tell a good amount of work was put into the videos and the structure itself.

Approved!

Nestharus · Aug 23, 2012

Overall, really good job. It is a nice approach to learning and I can tell a good amount of work was put into the videos and the structure itself.

Nah, I actually winged all of it, no kidding, seriously. However long the videos are = how long I spent on them (unless I had to redo them due to WE bugs or outside interference, which I did have to do a couple of times).

15+ (excluding special), don't know how good they are ; \, especially 15. I did them while I had crazy allergies, so I rushed through them as fast as I could and could barely think. Furthermore, in 15, it was a week after the previous, so I didn't quite remember what was covered and what wasn't covered. As I said, I winged them all. I didn't even bother to watch the previous videos when bringing the tut series back up, a testament to my laziness, heh.

Anyways... does this deserve a sticky so that it doesn't fall down? It does contain a ton of useful information ; ).

edo494 · Aug 23, 2012

would you do one about how hook works? or will you explain it here? Im very curious how Vexorian/Cohadar did the hooking to natives.

The Malloc tut was good but Ill have to watch it several more times to fully understand it

Nestharus · Aug 23, 2012

Hooks shouldn't be used, so I won't do one on hooks. Hooks do a trigger evaluation that runs your code whenever a hooked native is called, which is why they shouldn't be done.

hook native func A

call native() changes to call dummyFunc()

dummyFunc() -> trigger eval -> func a

Luorax · Aug 25, 2012

You should reall put the videos into hidden tags or something, my browser cries every time I open this thread.

CoLd Bon3 · Aug 31, 2012

DUDE! Nice job, Nestharus! I will definitely start learning Jass with this tutorials. I can say i know GUI pretty well, so it's Jass time. Well, not actually because i have to finish my map before i start. I am so impatient to start Jass!! Also, your voice is not disturbing. Most of the other video tutorials have a retarded person who cannot make a whole sentence.

Good job there! :ogre_haosis:

edo494 · Sep 1, 2012

when a video about c++ comes out?

Im really excited

Anachron · Nov 4, 2012

Why don't you just open my CustomInventory?
I am pretty sure except for inject and hooks I used pretty much everything

Edit:
Nes, I checked parts your tutorial, just because I was curious.
In part 6, where you were supposed to talk about differences
between libraries and scopes, you forgot to mention the most important part:
Libraries are meant for systems, scopes for spells.
Due to that fact scopes do not have any uses or requires keywords and are always placed at the bottom.
I was kind of surprised because you seem to be a good coder but this is really one of the basics.

I may check your other videos and give some quality feedback later.

Starquizer · Nov 5, 2012

This is the best instructive tutorial I have seen, also the first 5 videos I know much about but there are really some hidden stuffs and great tips.

Well done, Netharus. Really good work.

Nestharus · Nov 6, 2012

@Anachron

Spells are only one thing that scopes are typically used for. It wasn't my goal to list 1001 examples.

Standalone systems may be put into scopes. Simple spells may be put into structs. It starts to become up to the user.

Nestharus · Nov 16, 2012

Ok, I think that I'm going to redo all of these tutorials so that each one only covers one topic, each one is extremely short, and so that each one is thoroughly planned before hand ; ).

I'd also like to specifically upload a map with the project, step by step, so that people can easily work alongside the tutorial. I also want to do exercises within these attached map + possible projects.

Starquizer · Nov 16, 2012

@ Nestharus
You are really a nice person :grin:

but do you have the time to do that ?

Nestharus · Nov 16, 2012

Starquizer said:
@ Nestharus
You are really a nice person but do you have the time to do that ?

I'm only going to release 1 a week : ).

edit
here is an example of the awesomeness I am planning.

This is the interactive tutorial section of the variables lesson (partially complete). Just run the map.

Variables in code show nothing except for 0 syntax errors, so I think that an interactive tutorial is great with them as it shows you creating units and storing them in variables ^)^. The interactive tutorial really shows what variables are for.

edit
as of now, here are the planned lessons. I am still formatting it so that each lesson is as small as possible. Structs are a behemoth, so I'm definitely going to split that one up ; ).

lesson 1
- scalar variables
- array variables

lesson 2
- variable operators and initialization
- setting variables

lesson 3
- number systems (octal, hexadecimal, ascii)

lesson 4
- calling functions
- passing variables into functions
- setting variables to functions

lesson 5
- globals block

lesson 6
- boolean expressions

lesson 7
- if statements

lesson 8
- loops

lesson 9
-functions
-returning values

lesson 10
-scope
-local variables

lesson 11
-scopes
-function initializer

lesson 12
-libraries
-uses, requires
-order of initialization

lesson 13
-preprocessor directive
-textmacro

lesson 14
-indexed array

lesson 15
-stack

lesson 16
-queue

lesson 17
-instantiation

lesson 18
-structs
-methods
-static methods
-fields
-structs as types
-typecasting
-this
-thistype
-onInit
-method operator

lesson 19
-module
-onInit
-interesting module uses
-module implementation
-optional modules

lesson 20
-static if
-keyword
-key

lesson 21
-timer
-timerdialog

lesson 22
-unit groups

lesson 23
-working on triggers similar to GUI
-events
-conditions
-actions

lesson 24
-building triggers
-working with conditions
-working with actions
-working with events

lesson 25
-local code

lesson 26
-texttags

lesson 27
-threading
-TriggerSleepAction, TriggerSyncStart(), TriggerSyncReady()
-syncronous, asynchronous
-ExecuteFunc, TriggerExecute, TriggerEvaluate, ForceGroupEnum

lesson 28
-heap

lesson 29
-general memory allocation

lesson 30
-general structs

lesson 31
-general inheritance

lesson 32
-polymorphism

edo494 · Nov 16, 2012

in 4 you could also do passing functions into functions

just so people know

Whats difference in lessions 18 structs and lession 30 structs?

Nestharus · Nov 16, 2012

edo494 said:
in 4 you could also do passing functions into functions just so people know

Whats difference in lessions 18 structs and lession 30 structs?

the first is vjass structs and the second is what structs actually are in languages like c++ : )

Starquizer · Nov 16, 2012

Nestharus said:
the first is vjass structs and the second is what structs actually are in languages like c++ : )

I really can't wait till the next release :grin:

You are doing a great job in those tutorials.

divinejakiro · Nov 22, 2012

good job bro ^^

Nestharus · Apr 28, 2013

Redid part 0 =)

Hopefully it'll be much easier for people to figure out how to download JASS NewGen and set it up now : o.

Split into multiple smaller videos now too. Hoping for a max of 4-5 minute video lessons now =).

edit
Slowly working on Part .5. Each video is a lot of work. Have to first plan what I'm going to cover, then need to record it, then need to watch through it while editing it for all of the cool zooms and so on, then need to render it, check for quality, up to youtube, check for quality, add to playlist.

Tryer22 · May 22, 2013

When I was trying the 4th tutorial video I get this error up to this video I didn't get any error everything was going well. Why did I get this error ? I could not understand where did I make mistake. I guess I did exactly as you did. Can you please help me!

mckill2009 · May 22, 2013

where's your textmacto and endtextmacro? coz the function suppose to go iniside that block, then you may run it outside...
and if Im not mistaken, run cannot be run inside another...

Video Tutorial Series for vJASS

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