Entities and other objects within TypeDeclaration?

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/Entities and other objects within TypeDeclaration?

(tu) ENAY

(Posted 2005) [#1]

Pardon me for my ignorance on types, but I have a question which may turn out to be stupid.

I've got a quad entity created but I want to be able to create it inside a Type. Rather than creating it seperately in another variable.
I'm not sure of the syntax or even if what I'm doing is possible.

Basically I want to create a type with custom fields in it

; For example:-

Type alien

Field x,y
Field quad
Field texture

End Type

and then be able to access stuff like

PositionEntity newalien\quad,x,y
EntityTexture newalien\quad,newalien\texture

but I can't seem to figure out how to define texture and quad in the alien type declaration.

Something C++ object style like this:-

Type alien

Field Int x,Int y
Field Quad quad
Field Image texture

End Type

I've created a quad already and normally I access that by going:-

new_sprite_object = CopyEntity(quad)

But I want to automate this and stick it inside the type somewhere. Maybe like:-

function newalien(x,y,image$)
newalien = New alien

newalien\quad = CopyEntity(quad)
newalien\image = Loadimage(image$)
return newalien
end function

If I could just figure out how to create an entity when I create a new type then I'd be sorted. I hope I'm making sense.

HELP! :)

Matty

(Posted 2005) [#2]

function CreateANewAlien(quad,texture,x,y,z)
myalien.alien=new alien
myalien\quad=copyentity(quad)
myalien\image=texture
myalien\x=x
myalien\y=y
myalien\z=z
positionentity myalien\quad,x,y,z
end function

or if you want the function to return the type record that has just been created:

function NewAlien.alien(quad,texture,x,y,z)
myalien.alien=new alien
myalien\quad=copyentity(quad)
myalien\image=texture
myalien\x=x
myalien\y=y
myalien\z=z
return myalien.alien
end function

(tu) ENAY

(Posted 2005) [#3]

Cheers Matty :)
I'll give them a try.

I think:-

function NewAlien.alien(quad,texture,x,y,z)

was what I was looking.

Is that kind of like a function that can only be accessed by the type?
Like in C++ objects:-

alien.create(quad,texture,x,y,z);

If you see what I mean.

Matty

(Posted 2005) [#4]

You cannot use "alien.create" as blitz doesn't work that way. The function name determines what type of value the function returns. So you could use , for example, the name of the function determines the type of data it can return.

So - if you wanted to return a string you would include "$" as part of the function name eg you could call a function :

function ThisFuntionReturnsText$(parameter1,parameter2)

{some code goes here}

return SomeString$
end function

or if you wanted to return a float then replace the $ with #. By default they return integers. If you wanted to return a record for a particular type then you would name the function as I did above:

function Newalien.alien(parameters...)

return MyAlienRecord.Alien
end function

If you are asking does Blitz support "methods" for "objects" then I would probably have to say no.

(tu) ENAY

(Posted 2005) [#5]

It's not that I Want to create methods for objects (although that could be nice) I just want to store entities and images inside types when I create them, which according to what you're saying seems possible.

I've been busy these last few days so I'll be sure to tell you if I've succeeded. Thanks again :)