Gamasutra - Features - "MaxScript 3.0 for Game Development" [10.08.99]


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By Wyeth Ridgway
Gamasutra
October 8, 1999

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Features

Contents

Introduction

MaxScript 101

Writing MaxScripts

Writing a File Exporter

Scripting a Game Editor

MaxScript 101

There are a variety of tools available for one to learn MaxScript. Before getting started, familiarize yourself with the fundamentals of modeling within the application. Next, move on to navigating the MaxScript help file. Finally, Discreet provides an extensive collection of example scripts, as well as utilities that are written in script, to demonstrate the concepts in practice.

The most challenging part of working with MaxScript is learning Max itself. In fact, if you are not willing (or do not have the time) to learn basic modeling in Max, I would hesitate to recommend spending the time to learn MaxScript. It is difficult to understand how the language works without understanding how the application works. However, for the willing student, I believe the online tutorials inside of Max can impart the requisite understanding of basic modeling necessary in approximately 8-16 hours, depending on the individual’s familiarity with other modeling programs. This will translate to about 3-4 days for most people, as it is difficult to plow through more than 4 hours of tutorials in a single day.

The documentation for the core functionality of Max is easy to use and largely complete. On the other hand, the MaxScript documentation had several bad links, missing explanations and examples, and comments from the internal testers pointing out where things were broken. Add to that the lack of effective tutorials, and one might assume that learning the language would be an arduous task. Truth be told, however, I found the language to be very straightforward and easy to learn. Assuming Discreet cleans up these pre-release issues, things should only get better for the final product.

After spending some time learning basic modeling, I read the help files on MaxScript. In my experience, it helps to familiarize oneself with help files so that the user can quickly answer questions as they present themselves. The Max help files are quite lengthy, and I only skimmed some of the more involved sections. The goal is to know where to look when encountering problems down the road. In all, this took about 8 hours of reading.

Next, I looked at the example scripts included with Max. Discreet did a great job of providing a wide variety of them. I recommend going through the script called Demo.ms, which is a walkthrough of the language, and then reading the help files. The flow of the demo script is more suited to learning the language than just mucking through help files. I spent about four hours with the demo script, and at that point felt comfortable enough to start writing my own scripts.

Writing MaxScripts