How to use variables as attributes

Help & Support
1

Basically I have different types of bullets, and I want specific guns to use different bullets. The bullets are global variables. How do I turn an attribute into a specific variable.

2

Not sure how you’ve done this but to answer your question directly, you can’t do this.

Add an attribute on a script type means that it will create a property of the same name on the script type instance

For this type of thing, I would use enums to say what type of bullets it uses and then use a switch or if statement wherever you need specific logic on the type of bullet

https://developer.playcanvas.com/user-manual/scripting/script-attributes/#enumeration-attribute

1 Like
3

nonono I mean like
Fivefivesix is a global variable, I want the gun to use the variable, But I cant add “if(Fivefivesix >= 0)” because that will just prevent using Ninemillimeter. So I need some sort of inbetween that can take on the responsibilities of a global variable without having to be physically inserted into the code

Its either that, or a massive:

if(this.caliber === 1)
{
this.gunvar= Fortyfive
}
else if(this.caliber === 2)
{
this.gunvar = Sevenpointsixtwo
}
else if(this.caliber === 3)
{
this.gunvar = Ninemillimeter
}
else if(this.caliber === 4)
{
this.gunvar = Sevenpointsixtwo
}

Technically that would work, but it would be a massive pile of laggy trash.

Either that or make multiple nearly identical scripts with the only difference being the variable.

The bullets are literally just amounts.

4

It won’t really affect performance in any measurable way tbh.

Edit: if you wanted to improve this, you can put this logic in an array/dictionary so that you can directly index the value you need

5

That can be optimized 1 of 2 ways, a switch case or an array.
This is an example of using a global array to get the bullet values.
You could have a global array with the bullet types in their enum values

BulletArray = [Fortyfive,Sevenpointsixtwo,Ninemillimeter,Sevenpointsixtwo];

and in the gun script you could have

Gunscript.attributes.add("bulletType", {
    type:"number",
    enum: [
         { "fortyFive": 0},
         {"sevenpointsixtwo":1},
         {"nineMillimeter":2},
         {"sevenpointsixtwo":3}
    ]
});

Gunscript.prototype.initialize = function() {
     this.gunvar = BulletArray[this.bulletType];
};
1 Like
6

@lifeofpain Bear in mind that because Fortyfive etc are POD, it will do a value copy and not a reference copy. It will need a little more changing for that to work

I would avoid the use this.gunvar for simplicity and make the BulletArray global instead of using Fortyfive, Sevenpointsixtwo separately.

7

I would have to have that running every single frame, and if i do that people will laugh at me and call me yanderedev :frowning:

8

Seriously, it’s fine. It won’t hurt performance that is anyway measurable way

9

I thought of trying to shove the name of the variable into an attribute and parsefloating it but that just gave me a nan

10

I personally don’t like to use globals but this is how I would do it if I had to:

// In globals

BulletInventory = {
    fortyFive: 0,
    sevenpointsixtwo: 0,
    nineMillimeter: 0,
    sevenpointsixtwo, 0
};


// In script

Gunscript.attributes.add("bulletType", {
    type:"string",
    enum: [
         { "fortyFive": "fortyFive"},
         {"sevenpointsixtwo": "sevenpointsixtwo"},
         {"nineMillimeter": "nineMillimeter"},
         {"sevenpointsixtwo": "sevenpointsixtwo"}
    ]
});

Gunscript.prototype.fire = function() {
    BulletInventory[this.bulletType] -= 1
};
11

Technically, you can do this but I like this less

// In globals

var fortyFive = 0;
var sevenpointsixtwo = 0;
var nineMillimeter = 0;
var sevenpointsixtwo = 0;


// In script

Gunscript.attributes.add("bulletType", {
    type:"string",
    enum: [
         { "fortyFive": "fortyFive"},
         {"sevenpointsixtwo": "sevenpointsixtwo"},
         {"nineMillimeter": "nineMillimeter"},
         {"sevenpointsixtwo": "sevenpointsixtwo"}
    ]
});

Gunscript.prototype.fire = function() {
    window[this.bulletType] -= 1
};
12

I was wondering why you were using 7.62 twice, then I realized that its because I did first

13

I now have to somehow combine all my reload scripts and turn them into booleans.