Fake Scripted Entity Creation (PART2) (GMOD)

Somewhere else, after creating an entity of this class, I may change the default material for this entity:

MyEntity.DefaultMaterial = "materialname"

Here are some examples of hooks that you may use. Remember: hooks that are not in this example are not implemented, it is your job.

function ENT:Initialize ()

end

In this example the implementation of the hook ENTITY:Initialize in the footer makes that it is not called when you use Entity:Spawn. Instead it is called immediatly when using ents.Create.

Avoid using Entity:Spawn on the fake SENT itself in this hook as this should be done by the script that created the entity. The risk is that Entity:Spawn may be called twice.

Fourth step: the footer

The footer is the most important part of the fake SENT: it modifies the Lua functions to create the expected entity.

local old_FindByClass = ents.FindByClass

function ents.FindByClass ( class, ... )

                if class == ClassName then -- Look for ClassName excluding anything else.

                                local entities = {}

                                for _, ent in pairs( old_FindByClass( BaseClassName ) ) do

                                                if ent:GetClass() == ClassName then

                                                                entities[#entities+1] = ent

                                                end

                                end

                                return entities

                elseif class == BaseClassName then -- Look for BaseClassName excluding ClassName.

                                local entities = {}

                                for _, ent in pairs( old_FindByClass( BaseClassName ) ) do

                                                if ent:GetClass() != ClassName then

                                                                entities[#entities+1] = ent

                                                end

                                end

                                return entities

                else

                                return old_FindByClass( class, ... )

                end

end

When calling ents.FindByClass("prop_vehicle_mr") we want to get a table containing all entities of the class prop_vehicle_mr. Without the code, the table would be always empty.

When calling ents.FindByClass("prop_dynamic") we want to get a table containing all entities of the class prop_dynamic, except that of the class prop_vehicle_mr. Without the code, the table would also contain entities of the class prop_vehicle_mr.

In other cases, ents.FindByClass will work like before.

local old_GetClass = BaseClass.GetClass

function BaseClass:GetClass ( ... )

                -- if self[ClassName] then -- Non-networked classname

                if self:GetNWBool( ClassName, false ) then -- Networked classname

                                return ClassName

                else

                                return old_GetClass( self, ... )

                end

end

We change the Entity:GetClass method in the Entity datatable so the proper value is returned for fake SENTs.

For some reason, the fake SENT class may need not to be shared with the client. In this case, use comment and uncomment the proper lines here and in the ents.Create block below.

local SENT_values = {}

for FuncName, Func in pairs( ENT ) do

                if isfunction( Func ) then -- This is a function value.

                                local old_Func = BaseClass[FuncName]

                                if isfunction( old_Func ) then -- The method is re-defined in the base class.

                                                BaseClass[FuncName] = function ( self, ... )

                                                                if self:GetClass() == ClassName then

                                                                                return Func( self, ... )

                                                                else

                                                                                return old_Func( self, ... )

                                                                end

                                                end

                                else -- The method is not defined in the base class.

                                                SENT_values[FuncName] = Func

                                end

                else -- This is a value that is not a function.

                                SENT_values[FuncName] = Func

                end

end

We modify all methods that exist in the Entity datatable that are defined in the content.

We add all methods that do not exist in the Entity datatable in a table to be added by ents.Create.

We add all properties in a table to be added by ents.Create.

local old_Create = ents.Create

function ents.Create ( class, ... )

                if class == ClassName then

                                local ent = old_Create( BaseClassName, ... )

                                if IsValid( ent ) then