C# - need someone to poke around

[LukasPJ]

Hey guys,

So, I've implemented T3D into C# in order to provide a C# scripting interface for the engine. It's still very much a work in progress, so it's not nice or anything. It's more or less a proof of concept.

So I'm looking for someone interested in downloading the attached binaries, opening it up and taking a stab at it just doing different things you are curious about and reporting any marshalling errors for me.

I will provide more information about this whole Torque3D and C# thing in a blog, when the project is more mature.

Be advised, that this is not polished in any way and you should know your way around TorqueScript, C# and Torque itself in order to figure out how to use it.

The attached code file delivers the following:

• The Empty project with a compiled DLL
  
• A folder "c#" with the following:
  
  • A C# project "Game" with a file program.cs which initializes the engine and TestScript.cs which is a translation of the main.cs file
    
  • A C# project "Torque3D" with all the interop-code and proxy classes in order to interact with Torque3D.

 

You can download it at: http://lukasj.org/TorqueSharp-0.3.0.zip

Feel free to ask any specific questions about how it works and report all bugs you find. Thanks a ton!

Edit:

In case anyone is curious, here is a comparison between main.cs in C# and TorqueScript and there's also a bit more information to be found in the now-inactive Torque6-C# wiki: https://github.com/lukaspj/Torque6-Embedded-CSharp/wiki

[RasterRon]

This looks interesting Lukas, so basically you can still use both TorqueScript and C#? nice. :)

[deathbravo]

when i first run it in cmd console, it gives :

Unhandled Exception: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to

an instance of an object.

at Torque3D.GuiCanvas.showWindow() in D:\GameDev\Torque3D-Hobby\Torque#-Alpha

\c#\Torque3D\Torque3D\Engine\GuiCanvas.cs:line 940

at Game.TestScript.entry() in D:\GameDev\Torque3D-Hobby\Torque#-Alpha\c#\Torq

ue3D\Game\TestScript.cs:line 142

at Torque3D.Torque3D.Initialize(String[] args, Libraries libraryNames) in D:\

GameDev\Torque3D-Hobby\Torque#-Alpha\c#\Torque3D\Torque3D\Torque3D.cs:line 121

at Game.Program.Main(String[] args) in D:\GameDev\Torque3D-Hobby\Torque#-Alph

a\c#\Torque3D\Game\Program.cs:line 17

then I tried it in visual studio, it works. Then it can work in cmd console without the exception thrown.

[LukasPJ]

This looks interesting Lukas, so basically you can still use both TorqueScript and C#? nice. :)

Yeah, TorqueScript works just like it has always done. C# is just an optional layer on top of that.. It doesn't even have to be merged into the official repo!

@deathbravo Huh, that's really odd. Thanks for reporting the issue! :) I'll have a look at it, seems like it might just be some outdated binaries or something though.

[RasterRon]

Yeah, TorqueScript works just like it has always done. C# is just an optional layer on top of that.. It doesn't even have to be merged into the official repo!

 

Got it and that's awesome! I'm also getting the same error as [mention]deathbravo[/mention].

[LukasPJ]

Yeah, TorqueScript works just like it has always done. C# is just an optional layer on top of that.. It doesn't even have to be merged into the official repo!

 

Got it and that's awesome! I'm also getting the same error as [mention]deathbravo[/mention].

 

Just had a chance to look at it, and apparently the precompiled .exe file is outdated. So recompiling it through VS should fix it. I'm updating an updated .zip file soon :)

[Monkeychops]

Seems to run for me, although not sure how to do much except start the blank scene.

This is really cool - I have to say I've kinda given up on Torque because TS is too quirky and not a lot of open source libraries and such out there for it.. but C# would be a whole new story.

[RasterRon]

Just had a chance to look at it, and apparently the precompiled .exe file is outdated. So recompiling it through VS should fix it. I'm updating an updated .zip file soon :)

 

Ah ok thanks. Apparently I still have to do a VS2015 reinstall and my latest working here is 2010 but anyway, looking forward to it. :)

[LukasPJ]

Monkeychops said:

Seems to run for me, although not sure how to do much except start the blank scene.

This is really cool - I have to say I've kinda given up on Torque because TS is too quirky and not a lot of open source libraries and such out there for it.. but C# would be a whole new story.

Honestly, I don't mind TorqueScript, but yeah the reason I'm doing this C# thing, is because of a Hackathon I want to hold at my University, and I don't feel like asking people to learn TS in a day

 

On another note..

New release!

 

This release features:

Properties

All SimObjects static fields can now be accessed like regular C# properties:

StaticShape coin = Sim.FindObject(obj);
 
ParticleEmitterNode emitterNode = new ParticleEmitterNode
{
   DataBlock = Sim.FindObjectByName("CoinNode"),
   Emitter = Sim.FindObjectByName("CoinEmitter"),
   Position = coin.Position
};
emitterNode.registerObject();
emitterNode.schedule(200, "delete");

 

They are all going through the console, so they are converted to and from string which of course is sub-optimal. But it's something!

 

Furthermore, I added some more sample C#. scripts.. Namely first and second part of this tutorial:

http://wiki.torque3d.org/scripter:coincollection

I still haven't fixed creation of datablocks, so they are eval'ed atm but small steps all the time!

[JeffR]

You sexy beast! ;)

Very awesome. I need to give this a proper run-down.

So outside of obvious, improvements like cutting back on how much string interpretation we use and whatnot, what do you think is still missing at least an initial implementation?

It's sounding like it's pretty close to at least the 'everything runs' level.

[LukasPJ]

You sexy beast! ;)

Very awesome. I need to give this a proper run-down.

So outside of obvious, improvements like cutting back on how much string interpretation we use and whatnot, what do you think is still missing at least an initial implementation?

It's sounding like it's pretty close to at least the 'everything runs' level.

 

I really want to implement typed callbacks, right now they are stringly typed, and you don't override them from the parent class.

Datablocks don't really work properly in C# yet, and there are a bunch of the structs (like Point3F) that don't work (Point3F does though), so they will have to be brought up to date.

Furthermore, some things might not be marshalled properly (bools for instance) and I don't know if enums work.

Also have to decide what I want to do with packages, but in the big picture this is all minor things. The one major issue, that I know of, is cleanup. C# allocates SimObjectPtr's in order to access C++ objects safely and being able to cast errors, but they are not delete properly on C# destructors, this makes the engine crash if you enter a mission twice, as some things are not cleaned up properly.

[RasterRon]

Finally got 2015 reinstalled and it works great. Keep it up Lukas! :)

[chriscalef]

Sounds great, @LukasPJ! Fill me in though, how does this relate to / contrast against the work you guys have been doing for years re: T3D and C#? I guess I kinda thought you had done this some time ago. But it's awesome! I too would love to be able to share T3D without forcing people to learn TS. For my purposes, I wouldn't even mind if the existing Torque Script for the editors, etc. stayed in place, as long as new scripts could be written in C#. It's been a low priority for me so far, but consider me on the list of interested parties!

[LukasPJ]

Sounds great, @LukasPJ! Fill me in though, how does this relate to / contrast against the work you guys have been doing for years re: T3D and C#? I guess I kinda thought you had done this some time ago. But it's awesome! I too would love to be able to share T3D without forcing people to learn TS. For my purposes, I wouldn't even mind if the existing Torque Script for the editors, etc. stayed in place, as long as new scripts could be written in C#. It's been a low priority for me so far, but consider me on the list of interested parties!

 

Well first of all Vince's (from Winterleaf) version of C# for Torque3D is a whole other project. I'm not really affiliated with WLE anymore, in fact I don't think it even exists (?). They moved to UE4 some time ago.

Second, I believe I'm going for a cleaner solution. At least, I'm trying to make it as light-weight as possible. Furthermore, the OMNI stuff was still stringly-typed. I'm going for a completely typed interaction with the engine, with no conversion to and from strings (where possible at least).

OMNI also modified the engine quite a lot (example: https://github.com/Winterleaf/OmniEngine.Net/blob/3363364e8c4514d5ef18574ce2200368e5946df4/Engine/source/T3D/aiClient.cpp#L692 ) I don't want to step on anyones toes, so I'm keeping engine-modifications to a bare-minimum. The only modifications I've made is various bug-fixes and improvements, and a few changes to the macros for consistency reasons.

In case you are curious, the OMNI repo is still up:

https://github.com/Winterleaf/OmniEngine.Net

[chriscalef]

Ah, I get it. Well, right on man, more power to you! Good luck!!

[LukasPJ]

New release!

 

This release primarily focuses on various bug-fixes.

The biggest new feature in this release is more script examples!

This release does not have any TorqueScript code, only C# and C++, so there's more test-cases and a more complete insight into Torque3D with C#. It's based on the awesome T3Dbones repository, and you can see the C# code online if you don't want to download it here: https://github.com/lukaspj/t3d-bones-sharp

Currently known issues:

• A lot of the vararg methods are not working
  
• Some enums seem to be marshalled incorrectly
  
• C#-destructors doesn't seem to clean-up the SimObjectPtr properly

[Timmy]

Awesome stuff lukas.