Requests and Questions about Jass and the upcoming version

[Guest The)TideHunter(]

Hey, i'm not too well known around here, but im sure you'll get to know me pretty soon.

I'm making the new version with Karawasa, and my part in it is to code and make it as optimized as possible.

The basics of whats coming in the new version is:

If you have any questions about Jass, the new map, adding a idea or anything of the sort, post here!

[Ghan_04]

Are you going to convert all of the map's triggers into Jass code? If so, is anyone else going to make them in GUI first, or will you be doing all of the triggering yourself?

[Guest The)TideHunter(]

I will probably be doing all the triggering myself, unless Karawasa wants to add something.

Then i can make sure it's as good as possible.

[Guest Akatsuki]

May I ask how are you going to reduce the loading time? Are you going to use Widgetizer map optimizer to reduce it and lower map intinization triggers, and preplaced units?

I like to play around the WE and I like to know these things.

Also those changes sound really cool.

[Cisz]

Most of the filesize of 3.0 is the loading screen. Nice as it is, simply using a less space consumig gfx will reduce the map size by 50% or more.

[Guest mrchak]

Loading time is more important I think; filesize will affect a download once only, loading time is a repeating problem.

Loading screen is nice eye candy, but keep in mind that the faster we make loading time, the less time we will be able to look at the loading screen; If the loading screen is awesome enough, people should WANT a long loading time!!! (not really, I'm joking)... no matter how great the loading screen is, nobody wants to look at it for very long.

[Guest The)TideHunter(]

Once the map is ready for Beta, i'll use Vexorian's Optimizer and Pitzermike's Widgetizer, aswell as make many optimizations myself to files that are imported.

No triggers will be run at initialization too, these will all be done at 0.035 seconds time in, the closest instant to when the map is finished loading.

I don't think there is preplaced units, and if there is, i'll make vJass place them, which replaces all instances of them in triggers and creates them at 0.035.

[Guest Akatsuki]

Wow. Sweet. I never thought about moving things away from initializtion to a few . seconds after the game begone. I would thought that it would be laggy but some people have found ways to overcome that. I think GUI is too limiting because you can't optimize anything. And even if I could then it's something that should have been done already. Which is why I'm waiting for WC3campaigns to come back up to start learning JASS.

I really can't wait for it to come out.

[Guest Sancdar]

Well, it's just as laggy as it would be at the start of the game, but without the added bonus of the lag that comes at the start. By splitting it up, both drop below the threshold of actual lag, or at least lower.

[Guest The)TideHunter(]

Its not the lag im concerned about, its the loading time.

Initialization triggers and .wts file takes the last quater of the load bar.

If i remove initialization triggers to the start, that means everybody loads just as fast and the triggers run just as fast. The waiting time is decreased.

[Guest Sancdar]

Sorry, I tend to refer to that part of loading as lag, because it's when the bar just kind of pauses and hangs there. I should use better terminology instead of lumping everything together.

[Twilice]

I'm doing a map of my self.

And i wonder what is Jazz, it is a computer language and etc etc.

But how does it work?

And what do you mean with the triggers, are you gonna set them to start after 2 secs of the game, or what do you mean.

I'm youst curios, and i might do the same thing with my map, maybe.

[Guest Sancdar]

JASS is the WC3 scripting language that does everything in the map. If you create a map in the World Editor, you can convert the triggers to JASS with the "Convert to Custom Text" option, I believe. It's only necessary to code in JASS yourself for advanced tasks (or sometimes optimization), and if you don't have a background in basic programming already it might take a while to pick up the language. Luckily, there are loads of tutorials and sample scripts available online to help you out.

[Guest The)TideHunter(]

Jass is a terrible language if you compare to other languages.

Its probably the slowest, uneasy and basic language there is, but whats so good is Blizzard took the time to make an intire language and parser for there games.

There are many problems with Jass, such as the execution limit, integer limit (not serious, though) and bugs.

For example, the execution limit. You can only execute x actions in a thread, if your using loops with high velocity, this can cause the thread to crash and bail.

For example, if you ran a loop 1000000 times and it had 10 actions in it, the loop probably wouldnt get to the end as it reaches the limit and kills the thread.

There is also a bug, which is a good thing, called the Return Bug.

Typecasting is a well known method in programming, but typecasting a handle to a atomic state (string, integer, real, boolean) is great.

You can typecast a handle into a integer for example, and you will get the handles memory reference, where abouts the handle is stored in memory.

This is a unique key to the handle, so your dynamic cababilities have just increased.

I'm not going to explain this much in this thread, i might make a tutorial and infomation about typecasting and return bugs, this is how spells are made (Multi-Instancable Spells) (Meaning you can cast 500 of them at the same time and nothing bugs).

Jass has really made my life better though.

I got into programming and how computers tick when i learnt Jass, which has now followed to other programming languages, and now i know Java, JSP, PHP, Javascript if that even counts, Beans, and a small amount of C++.

Im currently in progress of designing a site that should hopefully qualify as a bussiness with employees and a very decent wage.

[Guest Sancdar]

Yeah, typecasting in Jass is crazy.

Also...if you know Java, you basically know C++ too. They're ridiculously similar.

[Guest Akatsuki]

Well I'm also a mapper. But I only know GUI. But plan to learn JASS. And I might because WC3campaigns is back and I can read some JASS tutorials there. But what I'm really want to go into is skinning. Mainly because the WE takes to long to load when I start it up. And I skin with GIMP with doesn't take so long to load. Also I like making icons and stuff. I'm not very good. But practice is a pain. But the rewards of it is sweet. See how loading makes a difference?

[Guest Sancdar]

Well, the reward for loading the WE is work, while the reward for loading a map is fun. Also, the WE GUI is kind of awkward to work in. If only you could collect bounty from monsters while building towers based on elemental combinations while in the WE...

[Guest Akatsuki]

Well that's not the only reason. I late motivation. I can trigger. But later I start to lose my motivation.

[Twilice]

I have always used the originall triggering style, and i might youst try it once to see how it works.