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Is it still possible to make your own action blocks in Game Maker?

hermantullekenhermantulleken
edited in Questions and Answers
I am dabbling in GM again after many years. I remember you could make your own action blocks (I think as extensions), but I cannot find any documentation on how to do this...
(I know how to make extension functions, but I specifically want to make a DnD block).

Is this still possible? (And indeed, can someone confirm whether this was indeed possible? I'm pretty sure I made a few, and remember making the icons for the blocks... but maybe it's a false memory).

Comments

  • KarujiKaruji
    @hermantulleken I don't believe I've ever heard the term 'action block' before.

    Could you, perhaps, give a better description of what you are trying to achieve?
  • BensonanceBensonance
    @Karuji He means a drag and drop block :).

    I've never read anything about being able to do that. But I find out stuff about GM really slowly :P. I think your best bet is to ask @Dislekcia - he seems to be our resident Blood Magic GM user :).
  • Gazza_NGazza_N
    edited
    @Karuji: Custom drag 'n' drop blocks, just like the ones used in the initial builds of zX. You guys ever work out if/how those were portable?

    edit: erk. Ninja'd by Ben.
    Thanked by 1Bensonance
  • hermantullekenhermantulleken
    It's the drag-and-drop blocks that you can link to events, such as the "Move", "Create Instance" and so on. After a long search I actually found the mechanism through which you could create your own blocks... but I cannot get it to work. It's possible that it is legacy; I kinda hoping it still works... (At least I know I'm not hallucinating).

    (Anyone interested, it is here: http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/make/extensions - it's the Library Maker that ships with that.)
  • TuismTuism
    image
    Thanked by 3hermantulleken Bensonance Denzil
  • KarujiKaruji
    edited
    What is this "in the initial builds of zX" we still have them sitting around ;)

    I know it's possible to do with extentions, but don't believe that there anything native in studio that would allow for it, but as Ben said. @Dislekcia would probably know the best.

    [Edit] Wow lotsa posts appeared before mine :p

    I'll poke around with the extension maker a bit later on to see if I can get anything going with it (want to package up my screenshake system)
  • BensonanceBensonance
    It's probably legacy now. They've dropped ALOT of things from 8.1 to Studio :). Although, with the addition of the Asset Store, they might be working on a new version?
  • hermantullekenhermantulleken
    edited
    Bensonance said:
    It's probably legacy now. They've dropped ALOT of things from 8.1 to Studio :). Although, with the addition of the Asset Store, they might be working on a new version?
    I hope so. Right now, the extension capabilities are severely limited (extension functions, apparently, can only pass and return doubles and strings!) I do have a feeling though that the library maker may still work. The old extension maker still works, and I managed to import a lib file (generated by the library maker) into GM Studio via the built in extension maker, and it generates a custom icon for it, so it seems to recognise it. So hopefully I am doing something wrong somewhere.

  • KarujiKaruji
    Haven't been able to switch my GM:S (non steam) over to the beta channel so haven't been able to look into what they are doing with the market on that front.

    But as far as only being able to return doubles and strings. All variables in GM are doubles are strings. Variables in GM that point to an object: just have a double of the object's ID.

    While this can often be a pain in the ass (like wanting a vector) it does make certain facets of GML easier given that you only ever deal with two variable types.
  • hermantullekenhermantulleken
    @Karuji Ah ok, so the ints that represent lists etc. should still work? That is useful to know.

    (And yes, I know what you mean with vectors and such... I had a little brain-seize trying to reframe all my problems without the luxuries offered by C#. One surprising thing though is that my code is still shorter somehow... I guess it must be all the abstraction clutter that accumulates in a C# program. Or maybe it's just a temporary illusion; we'll see.)
  • hermantullekenhermantulleken
    For anyone interested, the Library maker does still work. The trick is not to get confused by the internal extension maker (the workflow for using that is still a mystery to me...).

    The basic idea is: 1) Export your functions that you want to access via actions as a GML file; 2) make a new action library, and export it; 3) make an extension (I used the external extension maker) that includes the GML from step 1 and the library from step 2; 4) install the extension in whichever project you want to use it. The new actions should now be available in the DnD editor.

    (Also, you need not define the functions you access in step 3).
  • DenzilDenzil
    Most helpful @Tuism .Good thing we have you around :)
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