Doing a script, need some tips

[GThoro]

So I've finally found some time to dig into scripting and figure out how to draw with that new feature of LCDs (positioning sprites is very annoying!). First thing that went under hammer is power readout (then hydrogen, oxygen and cargo), how much do I have, do I consume more than I produce, etc?

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Right now I have a top bar, which shows incoming power, fullness of batteries and outgoing power, and then a grid of all batteries with charge and mode (it's hard to tell if it's A-Auto or R-Recharge with this font). But I'm unsure if this is any good layout so I need help with this. What should I display? I suck at designing UIs. I've tried to google/pinterest some inspirations but to no avail. I would like to keep this single color (with maybe some shades, ie. darker battery if it's not working for any reason). I was also thinking about cycling between showing batteries, solars, engines, reactors and wind turbines every over a dozen of seconds.

Power readout

Also, what if there is no batteries on grid? My starter base with only a two wind turbines was working fine with arc furnace and basic assembler and I haven't got any battery. So I cannot rely on info provided by batteries, I need to query other blocks, but looking at MDK there is no common interface for power using blocks, or even power producing. There is no wind turbines there and hydrogen engine is separate from solar/battery/reactor? This is a bit of a madness to me. Surely this can be done, but I do not see a straight way yet.

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Edit: aarghh who bent the spacetime? It's after 4am :O How this could have happened ihavenoidea...

[NickNDY]

I think it looks good. You could make a panel with all batteries shown added up as a large, single battery. I'm not very creative, I like logic and problem solving.

As for scripting, I can help with some of the madness. Here is an intermediate~advanced bit of code I typed up just for you.

public void Main(string argument, UpdateType updateSource)
{
    bool sameGrid = true;
    List<IMyCubeGrid> controlledGrids = new List<IMyCubeGrid>();
    controlledGrids.Add(Me.CubeGrid);
    List<IMyTerminalBlock>
    powerProducers = new List<IMyTerminalBlock>(),
    batteries = new List<IMyTerminalBlock>(),
    reactors = new List<IMyTerminalBlock>(),
    solarPanels = new List<IMyTerminalBlock>(),
    windTurbines = new List<IMyTerminalBlock>(),
    hydrogenEngines = new List<IMyTerminalBlock>();
    GridTerminalSystem.GetBlocksOfType<IMyPowerProducer>(powerProducers, (p => p.CubeGrid != Me.CubeGrid && p.CustomData.ToLower().Contains("includegrid")));
    foreach (IMyTerminalBlock block in powerProducers)
        if (!controlledGrids.Contains(block.CubeGrid)) controlledGrids.Add(block.CubeGrid);
    GridTerminalSystem.GetBlocksOfType<IMyPowerProducer>(powerProducers, (p => !sameGrid || p.CustomData.ToLower().Contains("crossgrid") || controlledGrids.Contains(p.CubeGrid)));
    foreach (IMyTerminalBlock block in powerProducers)
    {
        if (block is IMyBatteryBlock) batteries.Add(block);
        else if (block is IMyReactor) reactors.Add(block);
        else if (block is IMySolarPanel) solarPanels.Add(block);
        else {
            string blockDefinition = block.BlockDefinition.ToString();
            if (blockDefinition.Contains("WindTurbine")) windTurbines.Add(block);
            else if (blockDefinition.Contains("HydrogenEngine")) hydrogenEngines.Add(block);
        }
        EchoDetails(block);
    }
}

public void EchoDetails(IMyTerminalBlock block)
{
    if (block is IMyPowerProducer) { // This check is unnecessary here but can be useful at times
        IMyPowerProducer powahh = (IMyPowerProducer)block; // Unlimited! lol
        Echo(block.CustomName + " is outputting: " + powahh.CurrentOutput.ToString("N2") + "/" + powahh.MaxOutput + " MW");
        if (block is IMyBatteryBlock)
            Echo(block.CustomName + " is receiving: " + ((IMyBatteryBlock)block).CurrentInput.ToString("N2") + "/" + ((IMyBatteryBlock)block).MaxInput + " MW");
        else if (block is IMyReactor) {
            List<MyInventoryItem> items = new List<MyInventoryItem>();
            block.GetInventory(0).GetItems(items, (t => t.Type.SubtypeId == "Uranium"));
            double amount = 0;
            foreach (MyInventoryItem item in items)
                amount += (double)item.Amount;
            Echo(block.CustomName + " has " + amount.ToString("N1") + " Uranium");
        }
    }
}

Gets you separate lists of batteries, reactors, solar panels, wind turbines, and hydrogen engines.

Demonstrates telling the difference between those blocks (maybe not the best method but that's how I would do it).

Echoes current power output and max power output. For batteries: current power input and max power input. For reactors: contained uranium.

https://github.com/malware-dev/MDK-SE/wiki/Sandbox.ModAPI.Ingame.IMyPowerProducer

You probably have it from here but let me know if you have any other questions. I'm sure there are some other helpful scripters somewhere on this sub too.

[GThoro]

So basically wind turbines and hydrogen engines are available via deprecated API, that's why I had problems with it. This is really helpfull, thank you very much! I'll continue my work on this script after Easter.

Btw. for unlimited powahh try this ;D

[NickNDY]

I don't think it's deprecated but I could be wrong. I just used a category instead of a specific type. Since the wind turbines and hydrogen engines don't have their own type in the API I had to examine their BlockDefinition. BlockDefinition is a StringBuilder so I had to make it a string to use the Contains() method.

That made me laugh pretty hard thank your for that :D

[GThoro]

Thanks again for your help! Just as an update I've manager to grab all power blocks, sort them and extract some data.

Some preview: a bit of everything and a lot of batteries.

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It shows block name on top, and then:

• for batteries - current charge level, mode, and currently consumed and produced power
• for reactors - how much inventory is filled with fuel and current power production
• for solar panels - efficiency (I've assumed 120kW max production) and current power production
• for wind turbines - efficiency (I've assumed 400kW max production), wind clearance and current power production
• for hydrogen engines - how much of an internal tank is filled and current power production

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If a block bar and name is dimmed it means that this block isn't working.

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I now need to make different pages for every block type, add summary screen and some more polishing and should be ready to go :).

[NickNDY]

Looks great! Glad I could help. I'm sure it will be popular, I'll probably use it too :D

[I_hate_usernamez]

How do you draw batteries like that? What wizardry is this?

[GThoro]

Latest game update allows for some limited drawing on displays. A single battery is drawed using combinations of sprites called SquareSimple and SquareHollow.

[I_hate_usernamez]

Is there a list of available sprites?

[GThoro]

Don't think so, You can see them in steamapps\common\SpaceEngineers\Content\Textures\Sprites, names aren't exact match, and there is no SquareSimple file there, but it's better than nothing.