Journal

Console for Flax Engine with command handling

• How to use
• Adding commands
• Shortcuts
• Installation

How to use console?

1. In Flax Editor go to Journal/Source/Journal/ and place ConsoleManager.cs script in the scene where u want (for example in Scene actor)
2. Go to Journal/Content/ drag ConsolePrefab into "ConsolePrefab" field in script
3. If you want to customize console UI:
   1. Go to Journal/Content/ in editor and drag ConsolePrefab on to the scene
   2. In ConsoleManager script set CreateConsoleFromPrefab unchecked
   3. Drag console actor to ConsoleActor field
4. After starting game press open key (by default "~") and use the console

How to add commands to console?

Like this:

using FlaxEngine;
using Journal;

namespace Game
{
	public class Test : Script 
	{
 		public override void OnStart() 
		{
			ConsoleManager.RegisterCommand("hello", Hello); // <---
		}
  
		public void Hello()
		{
			Debug.Log("Hello, world!");
			// Do something here
		}
	}
}

Shortcuts for default consoles

• Tab: Selecting hints when editing
• Arrow Up: Get previous commands
• Arrow Down: Get recent commands

Installation

After Flax 1.7

• Go to Tools->Plugins in Editor. In a window press "Clone Project".

Before Flax 1.7

• A) Download this project .zip or .tar.gz and unpack it in folder near your project (for example <your-flax-project-path>/Plugins/Journal/)
• B) Clone the repo. Command: git clone https://github.com/Crawcik/Journal.git
• Add in your .flaxproj file path to plugin, like in this example:

{
	"GameTarget": "GameTarget",
	"EditorTarget": "GameEditorTarget",
	"References": [
		{
			"Name": "$(EnginePath)/Flax.flaxproj"
		},
		{
			"Name": "$(ProjectPath)/Plugins/Journal/Journal.flaxproj"
		}
	],
}

With Flax Plugin Manager:

• Download, unpack & run Flax Plugin Manager [Click here]
• Select your project & add Journal

Setup (referencing)

Simple

Go to <your-flax-project-path>/Source/Game/Game.Build.cs and add "Journal" module, here is example: if you don't want to use commands this is optional

public override void Setup(BuildOptions options)
{
	base.Setup(options);

	options.PrivateDependencies.Add("Journal"); // Adds reference to Journal types
}

If something doesn't work: check logs, try deleting Cache folder or generate project files manually

Also here is official tutorial for installing plugins: https://docs.flaxengine.com/manual/scripting/plugins/plugin-project.html

Adaptive (prefered for other plugins)

This method is better if you want to integrate "Journal" in your plugin, but you want to have it optional (no need to have Journal installed).

Copy <journal-project-path>/Content/JournalExtension.cs to desired module source code folder. You can now use functions in the Journal class without referencing Journal in .flaxproj

public override void OnStart()
{
    Journal.RegisterCommand<int>("is_odd", IsOdd);
}

public static void IsOdd(int number)
{
    Debug.Log("This number is" + number%2==0 ? "odd" : "not odd");
}

The commands will appear, if Journal is referenced if any other project, like top project! If not, dont worry. Your code will still compile without it being present!