Cubescript is the scripting language utilised within the sauerbraten/cube2 engine. it is used to set aliases, variables, create binds and generate the menu.

List of commands

These are just a list of commands, what they actually do will be covered a bit later in this topic.

General

The following commands are quite often used in a lot of scripts.

alias
at
do
getalias
getname
getteam
if
listlen
loop
result
rnd
sleep
while

Map Configuration

The following commands are useful in level only aliases

triggerstate
level_trigger
- level trigger is invoked as level_trigger_1 = [] as an example, the end number is the 4th number in the mapmodel's strings
level_base
- Used to give bases names in capture mode. This is unfortunately unused in PAS

Binds

The following commands are useful in binds.

onrelease

Gui Creation

These commands are used to create various menus.

cleargui
guibar
guibutton
guicheckbox
guifield
guikeyfield
guiimage
guilist
guirolloveraction
guirollovername
guislider
guilistslider
guinameslider
guistayopen
guitab
guitext
guititle
guistrut
newgui

Comparisons

The functions here can change the values, or return a logical comparison for all intents and purposes, the C version of booleans apply here; values not equal to 0 are true - and functions that return true return 1

Integer Arithmetic

+ A B
- returns the value of the numbers added together
* A B
- returns the result of multiplying A and B
- A B
- returns the value of A - B
= A B
- returns true of the two are equal
!= A B
- returns true if the two aren't equal
< A B
- returns true if A is less-than B
> A B
- returns true if A is greater-than B
<= A B
- returns true if A is less-than-or-equal-to B
>= A B
- returns true if A is greater-than-or-equal-to B
! A
- if the argument is false, it returns true
&&
- returns true if all arguments are true
||
- returns true it at least one argument is true
div A B
- returns the value of A divided by B
mod A B
- returns the modulus of the two arguments
min
- returns the lowest valued argument of all provided arguments
max
- returns the highest valued argument of all provided arguments

Bitwise Integer Operations

^ A B
- returns the value of A xor B ie (^ 8 4) is 12 - (^ 12 4) is 8
& A B
- returns the value of the bits both A and B have
| A B
- returns the value of the bits either A or B have
~ A
- returns the inverted bitwise version of A ie (& (~ 128) 255) is 127
^~ A B
- xor;s the arguments after applying an inversion on B
&~ A B
- and's the arguments after applying an inversion on B
|~ A B
- or's the arguments after applying an inversion on B
<< A N
- shifts A N bits
>> A N
- shifts A -N bits

Floating Point Arithmetic

Generally these just have an -f suffix

+f A B
- returns the value of the numbers added together
*f A B
- returns the result of multiplying A and B
-f A B
- returns the value of A - B
=f A B
- returns true of the two are equal
!=f A B
- returns true if the two aren't equal
<f A B
- returns true if A is less-than B
>f A B
- returns true if A is greater-than B
<=f A B
- returns true if A is less-than-or-equal-to B
>=f A B
- returns true if A is greater-than-or-equal-to B
divf A B
- returns the value of A divided by B
modf A B
- returns the modulus of the two arguments
minf
- returns the lowest valued argument of all provided arguments
maxf
- returns the highest valued argument of all provided arguments

Strings

=s A B
- returns 1 if the string matches, 0 otherwise
!=s A B
- returns 0 if the string matches, 1 otherwise
<s A B
- returns true if the C strcmp returns less-than 0
>s A B
- returns true if the C strcmp returns greater-than 0
<=s A B
- returns true if the C strcmp returns less-than-or-equal-to 0
>=s A B
- returns true if the C strcmp returns greater-than-or-equal-to 0
strcmp A B
- returns 1 if the string matches, 0 otherwise (unlike the C version with returns the disparity)
strstr H N
- returns the position of N in H - otherwise -1 is returned
strlen S
- returns the length of the string
strreplace S O N
- replaces all instances of O inside string S with N

String/text formatting

These commands are used to format aliases which are normally huge bits of text

concat
concatword
format

Shaders

All of the nice graphical effects were programmed in ASL (assembly shading language), and formatted in cubescript themselves.

altshader
fastshader
macro
setpixelparam
setuniformparam
setvertexparam
shader

Writing in Cubescript

Syntax

Cubescript has many similarities with C, mostly in the way the script is formatted. But there are some HUGE differences. Newlines for one mean it's both the end of a function and the end of a string (should you have forgotten to close one off). The scripts below do the exact same thing.

one liner example

alias hi [say "hi"; sleep 5000 [say "Hi again"]]

multi liner example

alias hi [
    say "hi"
    sleep 5000 [
        say "Hi again"
    ]
]

it's obvious what the above code does, it'll make your character say hi, and wait 5 seconds before saying hi again.

indenting is done in levels, the Tabulator (TAB) key is usually used to indent the text. while not necessary, it tends to make it bigger, and more legible as seen in the above example (when you get to big stuff, you'll thank yourself for indenting it.

As a rule of thumb, pretty much only [ increases the indentation level. Also note, ", ] and ) can close each other, so make sure you close them off properly

containers

Containers in cubescript are of 3 specific types, "", () and [] - both of these have huge differences in operation and use

"" container

"" containers are used to store things EXACTLY as they are written, with a few small exceptions - in-text commands which are denoted by a preceding ^. They are as follows

^f#
- ^f# is used to colour text. # must be replaced by either a number or a capital letter (A-Z). r and s are special control characters which will restore and save the text's current colour respectively.
^n
- insert a '\n' character (newline/linefeed)
^t
- inserts a '\t' character (tabulator)
^"
- inserts a quote (")

() container

() containers are used mainly for logic/arithmetic operations. They are usually nested inside [] blocks, and unless they are nested inside []'s they're permanently substituted with their results.

For example - the following will turn into an infinite loop. The condition is initially evaluated and substituted with one and since 1 can never = 0, it's true forever more


 i = 0
 while (= $i 0) [i = $i + 1]

the following code on the otherhand is devoid of such issues. Being nested inside the [] means it's not substituted and evaluated each cycle


 i = 0
 while [(= $i 0)] [i = $i + 1]

[] container

This container is used for nesting, deferring execution of it's contents, deferring calculations and substitutions of () containers, and substitutions of aliases/variables written with a @ prefix (note several levels are needed to achieve this). [] containers are also the ONLY container capable of spanning multiple lines.

This is the most used container and due to it's properties, is ideal for creating commands.

generally statements in cubescript can't span multiple lines. If you should use this container and occupy several, the execution of the prior command continues exactly where this container finished off. This can be demonstrated with an if statement.


 if 1 [
   do
   stuff
 ] [
   do
   other
   stuff
 ]

Inserting values and aliases

/echo $fog would place something like 4000 at the top of your screen. without the $ in front, it would've been 'fog'

The other way to do it is via @. you normally add an additional one for each level in you are. like in this example from the menus. it's not necessary as just a single @ will work equally fine, and for most, $ is all they'll ever need

guilistsplit = [
guilist [
    i = 0
    n = (listlen $arg3)
    z = (div (+ $n (- $arg2 1)) $arg2)
    loop a $arg2 [
      guilist [
        t = (min (+ $i $z) $n)
        while [< $i $t] [
          push $arg1 (at $arg3 $i)
          @@@arg4
          pop $arg1
          i = (+ $i 1)
        ]
      ]
    ]
]
]

@ is needed most frequently in menu generation. like in this simple example below

pi = [guitext "3.1415"]

newgui pi [@pi]

Examples

For the sake of being lazy, I may not bother to format them correctly. also I'll be type blah = blahblah instead of alias blah blahblah, it's still the same as aliases can be created both ways.

Loops

loops are used to quickly execute code, and are usually invoked with /loop. the loop is invoked as such /loop alias value-to-stop-at [commands to execute] eg /loop i 10 will loop it 10 times, each time it'll increase i by one. The example will also demonstrate a use of format. which can take up to 10 arguments. the first is the string of text, and the subsequent stuff are what'll replace %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 and %9 respectively. You would've also noticed that the executed function like - + div etc is at the beginning of the (). and not inbetween the two values like we're normally used to. if you want to see the original when there's 100 bottles, use /conskip 99 to go to the top of the history. you can also increase the size of the text displayed with /consize.

loop i 100 [say (format "%1 bottles of juice on the wall, %1 bottles of juice" (- 100 $i))]

you should see similar at the top of your screen by executing that

Sandboxer: 5 bottles of juice on the wall, 5 bottles of juice
Sandboxer: 4 bottles of juice on the wall, 4 bottles of juice
Sandboxer: 3 bottles of juice on the wall, 3 bottles of juice
Sandboxer: 2 bottles of juice on the wall, 2 bottles of juice
Sandboxer: 1 bottles of juice on the wall, 1 bottles of juice

Unfortunately with the above, this'll be executed as fast as possible, so we can revamp the script a bit to this

juicecount = 0
juicecounter = "juicecount = (+ $juicecount 1)"

juice = [
   if (= $juicecount 10) [
       juicecount = 0
   ] [
       say (format "%1 bottles of juice on the wall, %1 bottles of juice. You take one down, pass it around, %2 bottles of juice on the wall" (- 10 $juicecount) (- 9 $juicecount))
       juicecounter
       sleep 1000 [
           juice
       ]
   ]
]

very simple it is. this script will wait a few seconds before execution of each loop. a loop limit is imposed as well, so it'll only go to 10. This is alsop without using the /loop command, so there's more than one way to do things

Getting Input

cubescript is limited to an array of 25 arguments most per alias. To actually do anything with the input, you need to use $ and @, usually appended with an arg to say which of the arguments it accepts

text = [say "$arg1 $arg3"]

then typing /text 1 2 3 in the game should return 1 3

lets try a slightly more complex example

mod10 = [say (mod $arg1 10)]

mod stands for modulus, This'll work an any number, as cubescript it limited to integers (no decimal accuracy). 99 mod 10 is 9, and 90 mod 10 is 0. As you probably just realised, it finds the remainder of a division sum.

so typing /mod10 100 should make you say 0

you also have +, -, *, /, !, =, > and < available to use, so go nuts

Cubescript

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