Category:Gamevar manipulation

Definition

gamevar <varname> <value> <flags>

var <varname> <value> <flags>

A gamevar is a variable that can be used to store numerical data which can then be referenced between actors, states and events. var is hereby semantically equivalent to gamevar.

The gamevar's flags define a bitmap that determines how the variable is treated by the game. For instance, a gamevar with flags of 0 is known as a global variable. A global variable exists once in the code, and any time a global variable is set, the new value is seen by all actors and events. A gamevar with flag bit 1 set is a per-player variable, which exists once for each player in the game. A gamevar with flag bit 2 set is a per-actor variable, which exists as many times in the code as there are sprites in the map. This means that each sprite has its own copy of a per-actor variable stored in memory. Note that a gamevar can only be defined as either global, per-player, or per-actor, but not as a combination thereof.

Gamevars are stored as signed 32-bit integers and therefore have a value range of -2,147,483,648 (-2³¹) to 2,147,483,647 (2³¹-1). Going above and below this range causes the value to overflow and underflow respectively.

Note that it is possible to omit the <value> and <flags> parameters entirely to define a global variable with an initial value of 0, with no other flags set. Example:

var TEMP1

It is also possible to chain flags separately at the end of the gamevar definition, instead of compiling them into a single value, as follows:

var TEMP2 10 1 4096    // This defines a per-player (1), read-only (4096) variable with initial value 10.

Keep in mind that global variables are still global, even when defined within a state block. The variable definition is effectively "hoisted," so the variable will not be reset to the initial value each time its definition is encountered.

The following pages contain information on basic gamevar operations as well as conditional statements:

• gamevar operators
• ifvar conditions

Flags

The following table shows all currently defined gamevar flags. The first 2 are the only ones needed under normal circumstances, but one can also assign higher flags to user-defined gamevars (given that you know what you are doing).