LFP alert script

[psykad]

Hey! This is my first script in LUA and I'm looking for a few tips and some help on completing it. It's script I'm testing out now while seeking for PT. It checks the last message in the chat to see if it was a received /tell (most likely a party invite). If it's true, it'll flash the screen red on/off until you reply or turn the script off. This allows me to sit further away from the screen and just glance over to see if someone has messaged me. What I'd like to do (if possible) is instead of having the screen alert show, have it play a wav or mp3. Could anyone lead me into the direction of tutorials on how to implement sound functions into the script or show me an example of it being used please? Also, I'm not too familiar with LUA so the script probably looks very rough to you guys, so take it easy on me.

*UPDATED 1/11/06*

ChatMessage = Graphics.primitive_CreateObject()
Graphics.primitive_SetVisibility(0,ChatMessage)
Graphics.primitive_SetColor(63,255,0,0,ChatMessage)
Graphics.primitive_SetPosition(0,0,ChatMessage)
Graphics.primitive_SetSize(1024,768,ChatMessage)
Graphics.primitive_SetVisibility(0,ChatMessage)

Status2=Graphics.text_CreateObject()
Graphics.text_SetVisibility(1,Status2)
Graphics.text_SetColor(255,0,0,0,Status2)
Graphics.text_SetPosition(901,753,Status2)
Graphics.text_SetFont("Arial Bold",10,Status2)
CurMessage=string.format("LFP ON")
Graphics.text_SetText(CurMessage, Status2)

Status=Graphics.text_CreateObject()
Graphics.text_SetVisibility(1,Status)
Graphics.text_SetColor(255,255,255,255,Status)
Graphics.text_SetPosition(900,752,Status)
Graphics.text_SetFont("Arial Bold",10,Status)

TotalTells = 0
LastMes = ""
NewestMes = ""

while true do

NewestChat=FFXI.chat_GetNewestLineNumber()
NewestMes=FFXI.chat_GetLine(NewestChat)
ChatType=FFXI.chat_GetLineType(NewestChat)


if NewestMes == LastMes then
--No new message
else
  if ChatType == "0c" then
     Graphics.primitive_SetVisibility(1,ChatMessage)
     TotalTells = TotalTells + 1
  elseif ChatType == "04" then
     Graphics.primitive_SetVisibility(0,ChatMessage)
  end
  LastMes = NewestMes
end

CurMessage=string.format("Total Tells: %i", TotalTells)
Graphics.text_SetText(CurMessage, Status2)
Graphics.text_SetText(CurMessage, Status)
Windower.script_Sleep(100)
end


[sdphantom]

At its current state, Lunar is unable to play sounds. Tiny is looking for a way to acomplish this in a later version.

[psykad]

Thanks phantom. I did a quick google for lua and sound and came across luaplayer. I have no clue how to use it or what its for. :\ Another question, if you look in the updated code you can see my if statement checking the old and new lines of chat. I can't find the syntax for the C++ equivalant of != in lua. I've tried <> and ><. Neither work. How do I find if two things are not equal? Again, thanks for the help.

Oh yeah, the updated code also keeps track of the number of tells you've received since the script was activated. Very helpful if you go AFK in jeuno and get /shout spammed and possibly miss any /tells

[X-Drop]

~= will test for inequality. Might be located in the "Lua operators" section of the Lua docs. Check 'em out.

[sdphantom]

I looked into writing a function that would guarentee to get every chat line that would be recieved. In theory, I believe that it may be possible that FFXI.char_GetNewestLineNumber may skip numbers at times if multiple lines are recieved at once by the client or while the script isn't checking. This function would resolve the problem by treating the chat buffer as a stack rather than a constantly updated array.


chatptr=FFXI.chat_GetOldestLineNumber()-1 --chat stack pointer
function chatPopStack() --returns 2 values, NEW chat code and line
if charptr<FFXI.chat_GetNewestLineNumber() --check for NEW lines
chatptr=chatptr+1 --shift stack pointer
return FFXI.chat_GetLineType(chatptr),FFXI.chat_GetLine(chatptr) --return NEW chat line
else --no NEW chat lines
return nil,nil --return nothing
end
end


This would return a single line and its code when called if any new lines have been recieved by the client, else it would return 2 nil values.

Use:chatCode,chatLine = chatPopStack()

This kind of thing with functions returning multiple values and more than one varible being assigned a value in a single statement is a new thing I only found in Lua. It's a weird concept, but the Lua documentation explains it on page 5 of the PDF, section 2.4.3.

[psykad]

Wow. Thanks for the help. I would have never have guessed on using ~= for 'not equal'. I'm so acustomed to != in C/C++. I'll have to play around with that popstack function too.