User:Snert

Resources

Debug monitor

Resource to easily be able to view server and client debug messages. (remotely)

Created as an example to demonstrate the use of on(Client)DebugMessage.

Images:

 Server-side debug message viewer: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4504893/images/debugmonitor_editor_s.png
 Client-side debug message viewer: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4504893/images/debugmonitor_editor_c.png

Download (Note: Only works in 1.1 r2091 and later)

Camo vehicles

When this resource is enabled, boats will get the same color as the water, and planes will get the same color as the sky. What's not to like?

Created as an example to demonstrate the use of getWaterColor, getSkyGradient and RGB vehicle colors.

 Camoplane example: http://www.xfire.com/video/3bcb4b/

Download (Note: Only works in 1.1 r2093 and later)

Runcode++

Guess you should be able to guess it's related to runcode, but it's not a simple command. It's a GUI version of Runcode, with functions like:

• Multi-line input
• Being able to save and load script files
• Being able to edit multiple script files at the same time

Please note that this is an old resource of mine, and I'm just releasing it because it might be useful for development or someone might simply like the idea. I'm planning to continue on this if there's some sort of getFilesAtLocation to store script files client-side, without hassle.

Download (Note: Work-in-progress, old and not extensively tested)

Other potentially useful stuff

SA Weather table

I'm trying to make the timecyc.dat file a lot more readable, mostly for me to be able to make new functions. But I guess it might be useful to scripters as well, if they're for instance intending to use the weather functions to create their own weather system.

Download (Note: Work-in-progress)

Function suggestions

Some functions I should work on sometime soon. (sort of my "TODO")

Server-side

table getAllAccountData ( account theAccount )
bool setAllAccountData ( account theAccount, table theData )

bool setVehicleAdjustableProperty ( element theVehicle, int value )
int getVehicleAdjustableProperty ( vehicle theVehicle )

Client-side

-- None at the moment

Both

setVehicleNitrousActivated ( vehicle theVehicle, bool toggle ) -- Being able to influence NOS would be great (should block GTA from disabling it as well)
isVehicleNitrousActivated ( vehicle theVehicle ) -- Obvious function is obvious
setVehicleNitrousRechargeDelay ( vehicle theVehicle, int delay ) -- Function to set the amount of time the driver has to wait to reactivate NOS
getVehicleNitrousRechargeDelay ( vehicle theVehicle )

setStreetLightsEnabled ( bool toggle ) -- Got to try and find the address for this first though
setBackgroundGunshotsEnabled ( bool toggle ) -- Gotta find this one as well.. again...
setBirdsEnabled ( bool toggle ) -- I hate those pesky poopers at times.. Besides, it doesn't fit in some circumstances.. There seems to be a function for this in the source
areStreetLightsEnabled ( )
areBackgroundGunshotsEnabled ( )
areBirdsEnabled ( )

setPedBreath ( ped thePed, float breath ) -- For breath, as used underwater. Gotta find a way to set it for all peds, not just for the local player
getPedBreath ( ped thePed )

isEventAdded ( string eventName ) -- Should be fairly obvious
isEventHandlerAdded ( string eventName, element attachedTo[, function handlerFunction ] ) -- Should be fairly obvious as well

Event suggestions

Events which might be quite useful. I should work on these sometime soon.

Server-side

onElementCreate ( ) -- Triggered when an element was created
onVehicleNitrousActivated ( ) -- Should be fairly obvious
onVehicleNitrousDeactivated ( ) -- Should be fairly obvious
onVehicleTireStateChanged ( int tire, int state ) -- If you'd want vehicles with bulletproof wheels or something, you'd need to detect the state change first

Client-side

onClientElementCreate ( ) -- See server-side
onClientVehicleNitrousActivated ( ) -- See server-side
onClientVehicleNitrousDeactivated ( ) -- See server-side
onClientVehicleTireStateChanged ( int tire, int state ) -- See server-side
onClientVehicleDamage ( float loss ) -- Server-side version already exists, if only there'd be an easy way for it client-side...

FX functions

Doomed_Space_Marine did research on some particle effects on custom models. It would be very cool if we could make functions to do this instead, like we already can with some particle effects. (for instance: fxAddBlood) This would especially be very cool if we would be able to alter the fx, so for instance we could create colored smoke.

fxAddHeliKillBlood
fxAddCarWashEffect
fxAddCement
fxAddClouds -- Note: It's a rather vague type of effect
fxAddCokeTrail
fxAddShower -- Note: Classed as "some water effect", but unknown what type of water effect. Assuming shower
fxAddSmoke
fxAddPour -- Seems more like it should be fxAddPee or fxAddPiss though
fxAddLeaves
fxAddSpray
fxAddFireExtinghuiserEffect
fxAddFlamethrowerFlame
fxAddInsects

Weather functions

Warning: This section is for serious weathermen only!

I recently noticed how many functions MTA actually has to influence the weather. It would be quite awesome if we would be able to influence litterally every factor.

-- We currently have
setWaveHeight
setSkyGradient
setWindVelocity
setCloudsEnabled
setWaterColor
setRainLevel
setFogDistance
setSunColor
setSunSize
setFarClipDistance
setHeatHaze

-- We'll need
setLightningEnabled
setMoonSize -- Like if you shoot the moon, it resizes. Hopefully it will be possible to hide it altogether, or make some sort of half-moon out of it
setSandStormEnabled

-- Some more stuff that might be good to give scripters control of (all from timecyc.dat)
setAmbienceColor -- Sets the color (filter) of objects (or so I assume)
setDirectLightColor -- Sets the color (filter) of vehicles and peds
setSpriteBrightness
setShadowIntensity
setLightShadingValue
setLightOnGround
setLowerCloudColor -- NOTE: It is assumed that this is the clouds which sort of fly around low, the type of clouds which aren't disabled yet by setCloudsEnabled. Thus, important
setUpperCloudColor
setColorCorrection

-- Prolly the heck of a lot more

MTA proposals

Getting contents of folders

The current system for files is fine, but it could be better. For instance, there's no way to know what files are in a folder, unless you specifically try to keep track of them. In most cases this is fine, but it could of course be very useful in some cases to be able to locate all files / folders inside a specific folder.

Proposed functions

Note: Names pending

getFilesAtLocation
getFoldersAtLocation

Possible uses

• Radio scripts could easily allow players adding their own music, without having to edit a XML file or any manual setup
• Script editors could immediately detect all available scripts without having to inspect the meta.xml
• Scripts will be able to store things like replay files without having to keep track of them in an XML file

Obstacles

• It should be compatible with both Linux and Windows server-side. Client-side windows only isn't an issue, but on the server it is
• Filepaths were always intended to point towards individual files instead of folders. A workaround for this should be found, if there functions were to be added
• Possibly some other stuff

Basic hackpatch

I've attempted to make support for these functions a few days ago. I actually "succeeded" in it, client-side only, getFilesAtLocation only and very hackily implemented. But oh well, it'd give the general idea.

Download

Example usage:

 crun getFilesAtLocation(":runcode")

---

What's wrong with just exporting the POSIX functions into MTA? Could even make them Lua iterators, so you could do for entry in directory(":runcode") do print(entry.name .. ", file? " .. entry.isFile) end --Alberto Alonso 03:15, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

---

Serverlist independence

The server browser has always been an issue in MTA. People often complain about game-monitor being down or just being plain slow. Also, servers only show up on game-monitor after a long amount of uptime, or sometimes they don't show up at all. So, we'll need to change something. That's for sure.

Note: I didn't do a lot of reseach as to how it works currently

My proposal

In short: Support third-party server browsers

In a bit more detail:

• Servers will get new options in which they'll be able to make their own list of server browsers they want to appear on
• Clients will get a new GUI in which they'll be able to make their own list of server browsers to request the server lists from
• The server will update all server browsers in its list periodically (and at startup, of course)
• The client can now check out all server browsers, and merge all results into a list

This should remove dependency on specific server browsers, and therefore it should make the server browser so much more useful. (Because of less downtime and probably fuller serverlists)

Problems to overcome

• The server should not wait for the server browser query to be completed
  • Each server browser should get its own update thread, to ensure they won't block eachother either
• The merging of the server browsers at the client might be tricky. You'd have to know which entry is the most recent one, and use that, while not waiting until all browsers have finally returned their results
  • Not sure how the server browser works currently, but in case the client queries the data directly from the MTA server, ignore this. If not, it would still be a good idea
• There should be multiple official server lists
• All server lists should use the same protocol

Other stuff

Servers should have a setting like this:

<serverlists>
    <serverlist location="www.game-monitor.com"/> <!-- not sure bout the link itself, but it's the general idea -->
    <serverlist location="www.mtasa.com"/>
    <serverlist location="www.mtaserverlist.com"/>
    <...>
</serverlists>

Client-side there should also be a GUI for this, with the possibility to name specific server browsers to make organising the list a lot easier. It should also list stuff like average ping, results and downtime, for convenience. Also, it would be useful to have another GUI which will fetch a list of server browsers from the internet, so people can quickly add new server browsers, or re-add official server browsers they previously removed.

Memory addresses

Here are a couple of memory addresses which might be useful for implementing new functions, so I can't forget them.

Variables

Variables I've discovered through playing around with Cheat Engine

Purpose	Address	Address type	Comments
LS Street lights enabler	0x0960CF4	bool (byte)	Automatically 1 at night (in LS); Setting this to 0 causes a new light corona to be created at all LS street lights

Functions

Functions which are setting the above variables. Got these from Cheat Engine as well.

Related to	Address	Bytes	Assembly	Comments
LS Street lights enabler	0x0408989	c6 87 d0 4c 8e 00 02	mov byte ptr [edi+008e4cd0],02
LS Street lights enabler	0x040cea3	c6 45 10 03	mov byte ptr [ebp+10],03
LS Street lights enabler	0x040cb71	c6 83 d0 4c 8e 00 01	mov byte ptr [ebx+008e4cd0],01

TODOcument

Functions

getRainLevel ( )
setRainLevel ( float rainLevel )
resetRainLevel ( )

getFogDistance ( )
setFogDistance ( float distance )
resetFogDistance ( )

getFarClipDistance ( )
setFarClipDistance ( float distance )
resetFarClipDistance ( )

getSunColor ( )
setSunColor ( [ int coreR, int coreG, int coreB, int coronaR, int coronaG, int coronaB ] )
resetSunColor ( )

getSunSize ( )
setSunSize ( float size )
resetSunSize ( )

areInteriorSoundsEnabled ( )
setInteriorSoundsEnabled ( bool enabled )

isElementFrozen ( element theElement ) -- Also mark the functions it replaced as "deprecated"
setElementFrozen ( element theElement, bool frozen ) -- Same here, of course

Element map properties

Vehicle:

- frozen = bool frozen

Ped:

- frozen = bool frozen

Object:

- frozen     = bool frozen
- collisions = bool collisionsEnabled
- scale      = float objectScale