Short description

A template-project for creating VS-Solutions for development of in-game-scripts in Space Engineer with VSCode.

Creating a new project for a Space Engineers in-game-script

Open PowerShell in the folder, where setup.ps1 resides and call setup.ps1.

.\setup.ps1
    [[-SpaceEngineersBinPath] <string>]
    [[-OutputPath] <string>]
    [[-ProjectName] <string>]

This will create a new folder at OutputPath with VS-Solutions, -Project files and everything you need to implement your Space Engineers in-game-script with VSCode.

Parameter SpaceEngineersBinPath

This is an optional argument. Default: ${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\Steam\steamapps\common\SpaceEngineers\Bin64

It will define the directory, where your Space Engineers binaries are found.

If not given thru settings.ps1, a path selection dialog will open up on execution.

Parameter OutputPath

This is an optional argument. Default: ${env:APPDATA}\SpaceEngineers\IngameScripts\local

It will define the directory, where your Space Engineers scripts will be placed in subfolders.

If not given thru settings.ps1, a path selection dialog will open up on execution.

Parameter ProjectName

This is an optional argument.

It will define the name of the project. This will also be the name of the subdirectory in OutputPath.

If not given as an argument, the script setup.ps1 will ask you for it.

settings.ps1

Once the script setup.ps1 got values for SpaceEngineersBinPath and OutputPath, it will write a settings.ps1 aside it.

The next times the script executes, it will read it to set SpaceEngineersBinPath and OutputPath automatically.

Structure of files of a created project

${OutputPath}\${ProjectName}
    +- src\
        +- ${ProjectName}.sln
        +- Program.cs
        +- SpaceEngineers.csproj
        +- thumb.png
        +- check_size.ps1
        +- extract_script.ps1
        ...
    +- Script.cs (created by extract_script.ps1)

Tools used in the build tasks in the created project

This project contains tools that will be used in the build process.

extract_script.ps1

.\extract_script.ps1
    [[-Debugging] <bool>]

This script will extract the relevant source-code (between the regions Header and Footer) from the Program.cs and place it in ../Script.cs.

Parameter Debugging

This is an optional argument. Default: $true

It will define to create debug-code (if set to $true) or release-code (otherwise) in the resulting Script.cs.

debug-code vs. release-code

debug-code

• will keep the line-numbers and character-positions
• will contain everything (code, comments, etc.) between the regions in Program.cs
• is bigger in byte-size

Example of running for debug-code:

WARNING: Debugging has been enabled, which will have a bigger script size, as without it.
    If you want to share the final script, deactivate debugging with providing -Debugging $false.

release-code

• will not contain empty lines
• will not contain single-line comments (multi-line comments will in the result)
• is smaller in byte-size
• is still readable by others (can be reformatted with VSCode)

Example of running for release-code:

Release-mode is activated. This will reduce the script-size by removing non-vital data from it.
    Original: 5913 bytes, Minimized: 4747 bytes, Saved: 1166 bytes, Ratio: 80.28 %

check_size.ps1

.\check_size.ps1

This script will read the size of the file ..\Script.cs and print the remaining size in bytes and percentage.

Example of success:

Current script size is: 5939 bytes (5.94 % of 100000 bytes)

It will throw an error if the size of ..\Script.cs is greater than allowed.

Example of failure:

The script has more than 100000 bytes in size (currently: 102746) and might not be loaded by Space Engineers.
        Try reducing the number of bytes by using 'extract_script.ps1 -Debugging $false'
        or/and optimizing the code or/and removing unnecessary code or/and shorten variable names.
In ...\src\check_size.ps1:5 Zeichen:5
+     throw "The script has more than ${maximumFilesize} bytes in size  ...
+     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : OperationStopped: (The script has ...variable names.:String) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : The script has more than 100000 bytes in size (currently: 102746) and might not be loaded by Space Engineers.
        Try reducing the number of bytes by using 'extract_script.ps1 -Debugging $false'
        or/and optimizing the code or/and removing unnecessary code or/and shorten variable names.

Build tasks in the created project

There are two build tasks defined for usage in VSCode: build: debug and build: release.

Ctrl+ Shift + b will call build: debug only.

To execute the tasks with one click, I recommend to install the VSCode-extension Task Runner. The version of sanaajani.taskrunnercode is working for me.

Both will create the target folder (if not existing; defined with project.output.script.dir in .vscode\settings.json; default: ${env:APPDATA}/SpaceEngineers/IngameScripts/local/${ProjectName}/), execute .\extract_script.ps1 (which will create ..\Script.cs), execute .\check_size.ps1 (which will check ..\Script.cs) and copy the files ..\Script.cs and .\thumb.png to the target folder.

build: debug will call .\extract_script.ps1 with -Debugging $true, while build: release will call it with -Debugging $false.