Homebrew Micro Lua DS 1.0.1 beta

[Risik]

Sorry for my bad english...

What is Micro Lua DS

Micro Lua DS allows you to launch Lua scripts (actually Micro Lua scripts) on the Nintendo DS. Unlike DSLua, (a former Luaplayer for Nintendo DS), Micro Lua DS is ported directly from the sources code of Lua 5.1.3 and uses µLib for DS.

That makes it a programming language with very simple syntax, in which you can create good games very quickly.
No installation required: all you need to get started is a text editor.

Micro Lua doesn't use 2D hardare of the console to display graphics. It use the 3D GPU so the two screens display 30 fps.

The Micro Lua syntaxe looks-like PSP Luaplayer syntaxe. but there are more functions like rotations, zooms...etc

Micro Lua allows you to display animated sprites and maps very easily with special modules.


Source code example

img = Image.load("man.png", VRAM)

x = 10
y = 10

while not Keys.newPress.Start do

Controls.read()

if Stylus.Held then
x = Stylus.X
y = Stylus.Y
end

if Keys.held.Up then y = y + 2 end
if Keys.held.Down then y = y - 2 end
if Keys.held.Right then x = x + 2 end
if Keys.held.Left then x = x - 2 end

screen.startDrawing()
screen.blit(SCREEN_DOWN, x, y, img)
screen.print(SCREEN_UP, 0, 0, "Use the stylus or + to move the man")
screen.print(SCREEN_UP, 0, 8, "Press START to quit")
screen.print(SCREEN_UP, 0, 184, "FPS: "..NB_FPS)
screen.stopDrawing()

end

Advantages of Micro Lua

- Very simple syntaxe
- Object oriented programmation (if you want)
- No sprite limit, no size limit, no display limit
- No rom size limit, all ressources are on you SD card
- Works on all linkers (tester with R4, R6, EZ5, M3 Perfect, Supercard DS One)
- Exceptions management
- Very fast for a scripting language
- Advanced management of sprites and map
- You can program on all systems (PC, Mac, Linux, Pocket PC and all systems which have a text editor, even DS itself)


For the future

- Bugs correction
- Wifi
- Motion
- Rumble
- More sounds format support


kwnown bugs

- Sometime drawLine and drawRect doesn't work
- Some screen blinking when there is a lot of text on the screen (sometime)

These bugs will be corrected in the next version.

Links

Download: HERE
Official website: http://microlua.risike.com
Official forum with french and english sections: http://microlua.xooit.fr

 

[Noitora]

Another version? Cool.