Wire Wirer and other factory tools

[mvanbem]

I've been a Wire user for some time, and I always wanted to make more complex Wire factories. I'm a decent C/C++ programmer and I'd touched Lua once before, so yesterday I decided to attempt making some of my ideas. Most of these things would be doable with something like the STOOL Turret if it worked with Wire ... and if it didn't crash my machine every time I make wheels.

Wire Wirer
This tool lets you spawn and pair Source Wirers and Destination Wirers. When paired, an input on the Source Wirer will wire the pointed-at ents together if the src and dst port names exist.

Wire Axis Maker
This tool creates aligned Axis constraints between two props. It casts a primary beam which, if it hits a prop, casts a secondary beam in a configurable direction from the first prop's center. If the secondary beam hits a prop and the Axis Maker's wire input is triggered it will make a perfectly aligned Axis constraint.

Additions to the Prop Spawner
I added a checkbox to the Wire Prop Spawner tool that can make props spawn frozen. I guess this could have been another wire input to the Prop Spawner itself, but I didn't see much of a reason to turn it on and off. With this addition you can mount a Prop Spawner on a hydraulic, move it into place, spawn it, and move the spawner out of the way. The prop is left in the air to be constrained and wired before launch.

Wire Freezer
This tool can freeze and unfreeze whatever it's pointing at. I made this to complement the freeze option in the Prop Spawner. If you spawn it frozen you need some way to unfreeze it when you're done.

Wire Expression Maker
This tool spawns Expression gates (minimal code duplication; it mostly calls functions defined in stools/wire_gate_expression.lua). I didn't copy the Expression editor, but it borrows the same convars so you can just use the normal one.


Except for the modification to the Prop Spawner, I have all of this stuff sitting in its own "mvanbem wire pack" addon folder to keep it from polluting my SVN Wire installation. If anyone is interested I can try to get the code cleaned up for release.

I plan to add a Wire Thruster Maker and a Wire Wheel Maker, and maybe more if I have time. I would like to note that there would be less code duplication if I could make the Wire Thruster Maker (for example) part of the normal Wire Thruster tool; do you guys accept patches into the official SVN?

Finally, here's some screenshot spam. The first three show the Wire Wirer wiring a button to a display pixel. The next six show a car factory I made using the Axis Maker, freeze-enabled Prop Spawner, and Freezer. It pumps out a car every three seconds continuously. The last shot shows a wheel with the Axis Maker firing a locally-aligned beam.

[Tape]

You sir, are epic. I'd love to try these tools out if its not much trouble

[Tolyzor]

Wow, Iv really been wanting someone to make something like this for ages, please do make the wire thruster and wheel maker tools! This needs to be included into the official svn.

[willthemage]

great tools they will be really useful. Now if we could download the tools that would it would be alot more usefull.

[Jeeva]

Ha, I came on here to try and figure how to code something that would wire all same-named inputs and outputs together and... you've got it (I think.).

Nice one =)

[willthemage]

for lua tutorials go to this link: Lua Tutorial Series - GMod Wiki - GarrysMod.com

[ufoslava]

O_O Woot!

This MUST reach Wire SVN some day!
Irreplaceable tools for awesome factory! Ask for dev's help, ask other ppl or whatever, but you are soooo have to complete these tool's set!

Thumbs up for mvanbem!!

[mjmr89]

This is pretty sweet - but I have a suggestion for an addition! Some kind of wired roper. Maybe not necessarily for a factory - I was thinking it would attach a rope from the point the beam is hitting to the actual roper thing.

[AzraelUK]

What about the STool turret? Can't you just rig up that to have wire inputs for left click, right click, reload etc.?

[Squeakyneb]

haha, this is mvanbems only post. I think he put it here and left it I want that release, but i think he's bailed