I’m sure most of the people that pop in here and browse once in a while have done some programming, scripting or coding. When I was taking computer programming in high school back in the late 1970’s it was called programming and we used FORTRAN, COBOL and Basic with our FORTRAN programs entered into the mainframe using punched cards. I stopped programming because I liked to see and touch physical objects when I was finished with a project and went into Engineering before I left  high school. After 25 years as an Aerospace Manufacturing Engineer I have decided to return to programming and so far am loving it. The problem is I am learning multiple languages at the same time which might not be the smartest thing to do.

Having gone beyond a noob user into the intermediate and some advanced Blender modeling I would like to dabble in the creation of my own addons and that requires knowledge of Python. At the same time I am now learning the Unity3D game engine which uses C#, Unity-script and Boo so, I have jumped into the deep end of the pool with learning Python, C# and Unity-script at the same time (I’ll leave Boo in the dark with the ghosts 🙂 ).

The point here is syntax, in that they all have their similarities and differences and moving from one to the other gets my head spinning when looking for errors in the code. It usually boils down to a semicolon which should have been a colon or nothing, [], {} and () used incorrectly depending on what I am doing at the time. Finding the errors has become very easy but a hassle.

The other day I discovered uScript, an addon for Unity3D allowing visual scripting using nodes similar to the compositor in Blender. This item from Unity’s asset store is my new favorite tool and creating the scripts has become a breeze. As long as you think logically as if you are writing the scripts, create the variables and place the nodes where the will logically fit in a script you are golden. I most definitely will learn the C# language and code by hand in time but this new tool allows me to keep playing with Unity3D, using the books I have purchased and learn Python’s syntax without getting loopy at the same time. Even better, while I am not typing in the scripts as they have them in the books and tutorials I am translating them into the uScript nodes creating the same actions.

Bad and then the good…. The documentation and available tutorials either written or recorded are sorely lacking. When you click the documentation button in the editor you are brought to a website without actual pictures of the nodes and the descriptions are…. (See for yourself below)

Which leads me onto my next task which will help all around. As I play with uScript I will be recording tutorials both written and recorded posting them here and at the same time start creating a draft for a book to sell about uScript and Unity3D.

Here is a node group I set up earlier this morning creating a script from the book and yes it did work. I found multiple ways you can structure the nodes together creating the same affect and I will include all variations in the first tutorial I post next week.

Here is a Snagit of the documentation website you are taken to when you click the documentation for the ‘Time.delta.time” node.

I had started over with this book because of some minor issues I had been having which turned into major issues and have been plugging along quite well. I am now past my previous point in the book (chapter 9) and have moved a good amount into uncharted territory (chapter 10). The errors within this book are starting to stack up and it has become very apparent the author did not do much proofing nor did they have a very astute technical reviewer if any. It appears who ever reviewed this books project did not follow the project past a certain point. There are assets which magically appear in the book without creation or import. Chapter 10 started out referencing a function with in a script it does not exist in (it does exist but in another script) and eventually gets back on track referencing the correct script. If you are paying close attention to what you are doing and where different functions are called these type of errors are noticed and worked through with no problems.

All in all I am having a great time using Unity and this book. The author is close to completing another book to be released within a month or so and with their comments in the Unity forums they understand the problems from this book and I look forward to this new release. I have learned much from this book and will definitely purchase the new book when it is available.