Skip to content
pmgl edited this page Nov 15, 2022 · 1 revision

Lua

Setting up

You can choose to use the Lua programming language for any of your projects. Open your project settings tab, click "Show advanced options" and select Lua as Programming Language.

Your Lua microStudio project can be exported to any target (HTML5, Windows, Mac, Linux, Android...). You can also use any of the rendering APIs for 2D or 3D, as well as any of the proposed optional libs.

Tips

Calling object methods

Be careful when calling object functions (methods) in Lua, you have to use : instead of . as in:

screen:clear()
screen:drawSprite("icon",x,y,50)

Checking user inputs

User inputs can be scanned in microStudio by checking fields in keyboard, touch, mouse or gamepad interfaces. For example, to check if the key A is pressed, you can check keyboard.A. This field can actually have 3 different statuses:

  • if you haven't pressed A yet in the current session, keyboard.A is undefined
  • keyboard.A is equal to 1 (true in microScript) if you are currently pressing it
  • keyboard.A is equal to 0 (false in microScript) if have pressed it before and are not currently pressing it

To check for such fields in Lua, it is recommended to check equality with 1:

  if keyboard.A == 1 then
    -- do something when A is pressed
  end

Instanciating classes

Especially when using alternative graphics libs or optional libs, you may have to instantiate JavaScript objects as if you were using the new operator in JavaScript. To do this, simply call new(class, arguments) on the class you want to instantiate:

  light = new( BABYLON.HemisphericLight, "light", BABYLON.Vector3.new(0, 1, 0), scene)

Simple Example

init = function()
  x = 0
  y = 0
end

update = function()
  if keyboard.LEFT == 1 then x = x-1 end
  if keyboard.RIGHT == 1 then x = x+1 end
  if keyboard.UP == 1 then y = y+1 end
  if keyboard.DOWN == 1 then y = y-1 end
end

draw = function()
  screen:clear()
  screen:drawSprite("icon",x,y,50)
end
Clone this wiki locally