Post by TinyTerror on Oct 12, 2005 14:20:33 GMT -5
Lunar is a scripting plugin for the FFXI Windower. It is designed to allow users to easily put together custom graphical user interfaces and to display them in FFXI. Lunar also has the ability to pull information from the game for use in scripts. Making things like spell toolbars and map displays will be extremely easy using Lunar. Additional features such as keystroke simulation allow traversal of menus and dialogs as well.
Lunar is based on the LUA scripting language, a popular platform for scripting that is found in many games such as World of Warcraft. LUA scripts are fast and lightweight, meaning that they have minimal impact on system performance while running. This is extremely important as to not degrade the quality of the game.
Because lunar takes the form of a windower plugin, it has access to a great number of features that haven't been available to scripters before, such as the ability to draw text and graphics to the screen. Before Lunar, running scripts for FFXI involved starting seperate scripting programs with limited access to game data and control. Since lunar actually runs within FFXI, no external scripting utilities are needed. Everything is launched and controled from within the game.
As mentioned before, Lunar scripts are 100% standard LUA, meaning that there is a great deal of existing documentation on the language available from many sources. Interaction with game specific elements of lunar is achieved through a growing library of custom functions.
Another major advantage of Lunar is that it requires no compilation of code or understanding of complex programming concepts. The entire functionality of the windower API is exposed through Lunar's libraries. Also, since lunar scripts can be loaded and unloaded at any time from within FFXI, development and testing of scripts is extremely fast.
At the current time, Lunar is in the pre alpha stage, with testing and bug fixes underway. It is written in C++ by tinyterror, with assistance from Starhawk (maker of FFACT). An alpha release should be out on or around Sunday, october the 16th.
If you have any questions about lunar or any of its feature, please post them in the lunar questions board.
Lunar is based on the LUA scripting language, a popular platform for scripting that is found in many games such as World of Warcraft. LUA scripts are fast and lightweight, meaning that they have minimal impact on system performance while running. This is extremely important as to not degrade the quality of the game.
Because lunar takes the form of a windower plugin, it has access to a great number of features that haven't been available to scripters before, such as the ability to draw text and graphics to the screen. Before Lunar, running scripts for FFXI involved starting seperate scripting programs with limited access to game data and control. Since lunar actually runs within FFXI, no external scripting utilities are needed. Everything is launched and controled from within the game.
As mentioned before, Lunar scripts are 100% standard LUA, meaning that there is a great deal of existing documentation on the language available from many sources. Interaction with game specific elements of lunar is achieved through a growing library of custom functions.
Another major advantage of Lunar is that it requires no compilation of code or understanding of complex programming concepts. The entire functionality of the windower API is exposed through Lunar's libraries. Also, since lunar scripts can be loaded and unloaded at any time from within FFXI, development and testing of scripts is extremely fast.
At the current time, Lunar is in the pre alpha stage, with testing and bug fixes underway. It is written in C++ by tinyterror, with assistance from Starhawk (maker of FFACT). An alpha release should be out on or around Sunday, october the 16th.
If you have any questions about lunar or any of its feature, please post them in the lunar questions board.
It puts many other plugins I've seen to shame.