Laine: /* Description */

Laine — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 23:09:00 GMT

Description

←Older revision		Revision as of 23:09, 11 June 2007
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	#include <materials.h>		#include <materials.h>
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	void create() {		void create() {
	::create();		::create();

Laine at 23:08, 11 June 2007

Laine — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 23:08:03 GMT

New page

==Files==

/lib/materials.h
/daemon/materials.c
/def/material/*

==Description==

The list of materials that things can be composed of is extensive, and is
not described here because the primary reference for it is the directory of
material definitions, /def/material. This document is to give you a quick
idea of how to work with materials, what they do, and how to get information
on ones you might want to use.

/lib/materials.h contains the list of macros you should use to refer to
materials. A quick example of how you would specify that an item is made
of a material is:

#include <materials.h>
void create() {
::create();
set_names(({ "iron ball", "ball" }));
add_material(Material_Iron);
}

This marks your item as made of iron. This automatically causes it to have
the properties associated with iron, such as Prop_Metal and Prop_Ferrous --
the full description of iron is /def/material/iron.c.

At times you may want, rather than to wade through the entire material list,
to get a list of materials that have a given property, such as Prop_Stone
or Prop_Metal. A quick way to do this is by querying the materials daemon
as follows:

eval -i materials.h Material_Daemon->query_materials_by_property(Prop_Stone)

To easily and reliably retrieve the material definition object for a material
so you can work with it, use the following mechanism:

#include <materials.h>

void find_iron_definition() {
object def;
def = Material(Material_Iron);
}

Any time you store a reference to a material for use outside your current
execution context (e.g. in a global variable, or in arguments to call_out()),
you should use the material macro rather than storing the object definition.
The reason for this is that the definition could be destructed and reloaded
at any time, but if you store the code, you will always be able to retrieve
the current definition. See the example below:

#include <materials.h>

internal int material;

void create() {
::create();
material = Material_Iron;
}

void find_material_definition() {
object def;
def = Material(material);
}

The information in materials regarding "hardness" and "strength" should
not be used, as these are currently ill-defined measures and will probably
be replaced by something better-conceptualized.

A flexible mechanism for randomly selecting materials from a defined pool
is available. See [[man selection|man selection]] for details.

Man materials - Revision history

Laine: /* Description */

Laine at 23:08, 11 June 2007