Datablocks and Objects quesitons... plz help

#1 @Daniel, datablocks are like 'defaults' -- when you create a datablock, you can then assign that datablock to an object and that object would take on the properties of the datablock -- datablocks are 'objects', but are, in them selves, 'useless' objects unless they are used by another object ...

For example, creating a 'playerSprite' datablock with some default fields defined, then dropping a t2dStaticSprite on the level and assigning it the 'playerSprite' datablock will then assign all that dataBlocks fields to the sprite -- in TGB, datablocks are used slightly different then they are in TGE ... from my understanding ... in TGB, they have no side-effect on the current networking, as TGB does not send objects across the network like TGE does ...

In TGB, datablocks are used to simply define defaults ...

Say you have 100 enemies in your scroller game ... each of these enemies has a common set of fields you want to define ... rather then copy/pasting one enemy ... you can just create an 'enemy' datablock, then assign it to ANY object in the level (given that the datablock has a 'global' object scope -- if it's an imageMapDatablock ... then you can only apply it to imagemap objects, etc) ... this 'enemy' datablock may define some 'behind the scenes' AI fields ... this ensures the fields exist when the object is created, and you don't have to type the 10 or so fields into the level builder every time you make a new enemy ... but you can change the values on any individual object ...

Datablocks have other uses, but in TGB, thats about the most useful thing they do ...

#2 David Higgins, thank you for the explanation... but now I think I've realized there are three types of objects. There are datablocks which are a special type of object, an object which is on the screen like a character or background art piece, and a object in the object-oriented programming sense. My question was was refering to objects of the "object-oriented programming sense", like from classes. objects Do you see what I mean?

Are all on screen things made with instantiated objects from classes?

#3 @Daniel -- everything you see on the screen is an object, yes -- including the 'screen' itself (it's a "Scene Window" object, which contains a "Scene Graph" object, which contains your "Onscreen Objects")

The only things in TGB that are not objects are strings and numbers, although, some strings can represent objects ... such as "1212" could represent a reference to the t2dStaticSprite that contains the "id" of "1212" ... but thats nothing to really worry about until you get a complete grasp on things ...

Anything created with "new" is an object, such as:

%obj = new t2dStaticSprite() { };
new t2dSceneObjectDataBlock() {};

And if you dig deep enough into your projects files, you'll see "new" all over the place ... your "t2d" level files are actually Torque Script, and you can look at them and see how your "objects" are created in the level -- or how they were saved out to the file, rather ... as well as alter the file (if you didn't know about that already -- nice for making bulk updates to things, like changing the default size of everything with 2 key strokes)

And, just to clarify, in case this is where your question was going ... all objects in TorqueScript are also objects in C++ ... and all objects in TorqueScript are derived from the SimObject class, and all "scene" objects derive from SceneObject ... etc, etc, etc ... nice little object-tree ...

#4 Ok so does that mean that you can call objectes like methods

example

%obj = new t2dStaticSprite() { };
new t2dSceneObjectDataBlock() {};


%obj.SceneObjectDataBlack(); //calling oject

i am asking this because i was thinking of calling diffrent meshes using datablocks to change how a character appears, mainly the clothing and stuff.

#5 @Saix, you might want to read up on what OOP is ...

Objects and Methods are two different things

Methods are functions available through Objects

function someClass::doSomething() { }
%obj = new t2dStaticSprite() { class = "someClass"; };
%obj.doSomething();

If you want to change the textures applied to meshes, then you have to either a) change the datablock, or b) assign different values to the datablock, or c) call the 'setSkin' method for the shape object ... though I'm not 100% sure how it's all done, since I've only really coded in TGB so far ...

Also, the term "meshes" is used to describe the stuff a 3d model is made of, not the model itself ... and afaik, TGE doesn't provide any access at the mesh level -- I believe you meant to say "texture" ... ?

#6 Oops sorry for the confusion....you exaclty right objects are completely differnet between methods

what i really meant is....is a datablock an object...and how can you use a datablock for textures (calling datablocks)

i found something called hiding meshes and nodes...could you elaborate to me on what it does and how it works since that resource was made during verision 1.1

also thanks for clearifying whats the difference between a mesh and a texture....i appreciate you answering back, normally expert programmer i know don't have patience with me :P.

#7 I can't recall off-hand if datablocks can contain methods, but they are in fact objects:

function mydataBlock::doSomething() { }

new objectDataBlock(mydataBlock)
{
};

%obj = new Object() { defaultDatablock = "mydataBlock"; }
%obj.doSomething();

Write a functional version of the above pseudo-code, and try it ... heh ...

As for swapping out textures on a Shape, all shapes derive from the ShapeBase, and that class has a 'setSkin' method exposed to TorqueScript --

%shape.setSkin("blue");

You'll have to read up on the setSkin method itself, and how it works, as I'm not all too familiar with it, but it more or less requires you to have a datablock setup that identifies the 'base' texture, and then a skin would be "base_skinName.jpg" or something like that -- so your base texture would be "player.png", and "player_blue.png" could be used by calling "setSkin("blue");" ...

This is roughly how it works, but there are more details to it ... experiment, and see what happens -- I'm pretty sure if you pass something like "blue" into setSkin, it will report back not being able to find the file "something_blue.png" or "blue_something.png" or whatever ... check your console ;)

#8 Before i try what you suggested would this syntax work?

datablock ShapeBase(texturedatablock)
{
	Filename = "player.png" //player.png is the file name for the 'base' texture
};

	%shape = new Texture(){
		
		datablock = "texturedatablock"

};


function Texture(){

	%shape.setSkin("blue");

	return;

}

i was planning on using the funtion Texture as a gui button to see what will happen

#9 Texture() is a function in the context of your code, so "new" is incorrect

And, as I stated already, I'm not really a TGE developer -- so I'm not sure about the use of the Filename field, etc, etc ... but the TorqueScript is definately incorrect.

Texture() is a function, so it must return something ... the use of "%shape = new Texture();" is incorrect, since "new" is for instantiating new instances of objects ... and as Texture is not an object (objects must be defined in the C++ engine) it would fail to compile.

Also, I might add ... it's quite easy to 'test' the code, rather then ask if the syntax is 'correct'

#10 @David: Sry for bothering you again...i know you not really a TGE developer (more of a server developer) but you said that "%shape = new Texture();" is incorrect becuase i did not declare it within a class (in this case ShapeBase)

I say this because in C++ you can't declare objects outside of a class, it must be in the same file for instance

Player Orc would be define in the file where the class Player is located..i hope i am making sense...

#11 You misread what I said ... I said %shape = new Texture(); was incorrect because "Texture" is not a class, it's a function in your code --

For example, it's like trying to do the following in C++

TextureClass Texture()
{
  return new TextureClass();
}

TextureClass *texture = new Texture();

See how "Texture" is a function, and TextureClass is the actual class ... calling "new Texture()" would cause a compilation error -- in TorqueScript, theres no compile error, because it doesn't know that Texture isn't an available class-object ... HOWEVER, it does generate a run-time error, and would state the following "failed to instantiate instance of a non-conobject" (or something like that)

#12 @David: I get it now...i am using the same name for the function and the object....well now all i need to find out is how to mount textures onto models via script