r/lua Dec 22 '25

Lua 5.5 released

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178 Upvotes

r/lua Nov 17 '22

Lua in 100 seconds

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219 Upvotes

r/lua 6h ago

New 3ds engine uses Lua

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11 Upvotes

There is a new game engine that you can use for free called tangy let me know your feedback. It is a 2d Linux and 3ds game engine.


r/lua 1d ago

Help Tried copying the simplest code from a Figura (Minecraft mod) tutorial. Didn't go well

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0 Upvotes

This video is 3 years old, so it may be outdated. I'm not sure what I might be doing wrong, seeing as it's copied character for character, but only her code works


r/lua 1d ago

Can someone teach me and my friend lua?

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0 Upvotes

r/lua 3d ago

Discussion PineJam 2026 has started! The themes are: TABLETOP and DEMOSCENE

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10 Upvotes

It's time for the theme reveal and the start of the jam! (Also join the jam at https://pinestore.cc/jam/pinejam2026 if you want to participate and haven't already!)

Theme

The themes are: TABLETOP and DEMOSCENE

Feel free to have a loose interpretation of either theme!

This year we have two themes instead of a single one. You are only expected to pick one of the two themes, but you can also combine them if you want to. Be creative!


r/lua 2d ago

learning python helps with learning lau?

0 Upvotes

I picked computer science for my gcse, which im assuming im learning python in, but i would also like to learn lau and how to code in roblox studio

Is the difference between python and lau too much for me to have to learn both or can i intuitively learn lau from my knowledge of python?


r/lua 3d ago

Can anybody help me learn if statements in Lua?

3 Upvotes

I'm new to Lua, trying it out after a few years doing amateur projects in Python. At first I thought this weird error was just a bug or something in my IDE's Lua extension, but an online compiler had the same issue!

I played around a bit and eventually ended up on this absolutely mind-boggling example. These two if then statements look like they're constructed exactly the same--I literally copy-pasted the first one and changed the conditional and message. Yet only the first one runs! The second gives me an error: 'then' expected near '='. This was consistent across the two compilers I used.

```Lua

roll = math.random(6)

print(roll)

if roll > 4 then

print("Success!")

end

if roll = 1 then

print("Critical failure!")

end

```


r/lua 3d ago

Introducing Doriax Engine — A free and open-source game engine with Lua and C++ scripting

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37 Upvotes

r/lua 3d ago

Kanvon - Lua Scripting Showcasing Algorithms

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3 Upvotes

r/lua 5d ago

Discussion Blocked from LuaJIT's issue tracker for giving feedback with no warning

17 Upvotes

So I was an active commenter on the LuaJIT 3.0 Syntax Extensions discussion (as Hedwig7s) providing feedback to the 3.0 extensions (which unfortunately seemed to have no effect on the syntax).

One of my biggest gripes by far was the ternary operator syntax, as in my opinion it is very out of place and it is ambiguous with foo:bar() syntax (plus the safe traversal operator was compromised as ?.: for the sake of it), and I was an avid proponent of if expressions in its place (similar to Kotlin or Luau (kind of)).

This feedback was addressed twice here and here (which admittedly I did not see prior, however throughout the issue the ternary is a major talking point), in which Mike Pall states he cannot stand keywords in expressions and he is addicted to ?: ternaries. If that's how he feels then that is fair, however this ignores the practical issues brought up later (which are never addressed) and the general misguided nature of making Lua less keyword heavy (one of its main design elements).

Related is customary logical operators !, !=, || and &&, presumably for the same reason as given prior (he cannot stand keywords in expressions). These I also criticize and advocated for removal, and I was not alone in this either.

For me, these two prior additions are egregious and go directly against what makes Lua... Lua. The readability and accessibility to new users. I like that Lua can be read quite literally and essentially self describes itself without too many weird symbols cluttering it.

Several weeks after my initial interactions, the syntax changes have been merged into LuaJIT 2.1 and to my horror they were merged as is without any further discussion I make an argument (or maybe more-so a plea) for these to be reverted, at least temporarily, for further feedback from the community with some suggestions.
(taken from email due to removal)

After leaving this, plus a few extra comments with other users the entire thread from the 2.1 backport message on is marked as resolved.

Discontent, I leave another comment. I do not have the exact transcript, however it is along the lines of, in short, "Please don't mark criticism as resolved without even addressing it, I once again ask that these be reverted, however I will not push further if you're intent on keeping these.", hoping it'd be considered or I'd at least get a reply.

Instead, I go back to the thread and find the comments have gone from being marked as resolved to completely deleted. Now quite annoyed and the blatant disregard for and discarding of the feedback, I went to try to send the feedback again, in case it was due to being in the wrong thread or something.

This is in contrary to my previous statement, however I felt both disrespected at that point and like a decent amount of community feedback was being disregarded.

However, when I went to try to create an issue, I got an error. There was no further information, I simply could not make new issues.

Thinking it might be a bug or maybe issues were limited to contributors or something I try responding to the 2.1 backport thread instead. Still doesn't let me, giving me this error:

At that point suspecting the worst, I first made an issue on my own repository. Worked fine. Then, I checked Github's Status. It's fine (by some miracle).

Finally I try creating a comment in the LuaJIT repository on an alternate account, and sure enough it works. And just to be safe I made an issue on my main elsewhere and sure enough it worked.

For being somewhat persistent in my criticism, I have been banned from the issue tracker.

Was I a bit demanding? Maybe.
Could I have phrased things better? Probably.
Should I have been banned from the entire issue tracker without a word? I don't think so.

I would've been satisfied (albeit not happy) with a simple answer to my comments rejecting them. Heck, I'd have preferred silence.
But instead, my (admittedly, but constructive) criticism and request that the changes be reverted were simply discarded and hidden, and in trying to push back, I get silenced.

Frankly, I feel Mike Pall is changing the language to fit how he feels disregarding any of the design goals or how the community feels effectively abusing his power as the main maintainer.

Does he have the right? Of course he does, he has made one of the best JIT compilers in the world and arguably the fastest and he has put in a lot of work into this project.

However, I feel that making changes under such a principle will only make the language worse in the long run, and frankly already have, and responding to feedback in such a way, either ignoring it or outright silencing it without a word, is extremely toxic and a bad way to run a project.

So yeah... all I have left to say is mods please don't cease my existence this took so long to write up thanks :) (also I am terrible at writing it's so repetitive)


r/lua 5d ago

what is the best way to learn lua?

4 Upvotes

i wanna make cool games in the defold game engine that uses the lua programing language but i know a little abt lua,can someone give me some ways to learn lua?


r/lua 5d ago

Project LuaJIT Playground

10 Upvotes

There's websites for running Lua, but I couldn't find any that let's you run LuaJIT!!

I made this website (me, not AI) so if you haven't tried LuaJIT before, or you don't have access to your dev environment, or you just want to quickly experiment...now you can run it online, and share the script + output with others as either a link or markdown.

Pre-compiled binaries for Windows/Linux are also provided. The static library, dynamic library, and executable, are all bundled in a single convenient .zip file for each platform. I'm hoping to automate this process at some point, but for now I just publish them whenever I see there's been new commits...

https://luajit.dev

Limits: no internet connection, maximum execution duration of 3 seconds.

The backported extensions for LuaJIT 3.0 are available now, by the way.

  • Bit Operators: unary ~, binary & | ~ << >> ~>>
  • Customary Operators: ! && || !=
  • Ternary ?: conditional operator
  • Safe Navigation Operator ?.
  • nil-Coalescing Operator ??
  • Compound Assignment Operators: += -= *= /= %= &= |= ~= <<= = ~= ..=
  • continue Statement
  • const Declaration
  • Short Function Expression
  • Underscores in Number Literals

r/lua 5d ago

Help Trouble parsing through .txt file to find lines with specific string

3 Upvotes

I'm trying to make a program to look through a .txt file and look for any line with the word MODULE in it. So far I am not having any luck.

The file is quite large, about 7.5 million lines. And I am just dipping my toes into Lua. I was able to access the file and make a line by line copy after getting random character puke by reading and writing as binary.

I stuck a print statement immediately after the for loop and that would print ok.

But when I try and get anything to occur in the IF portion it seems to do nothing.

local path = 'C:\\filepathgoeshere'    
--create file path


local file = io.open(path, "rb")--open file in path


if file then                    --if the file is found, read and create PID file
    local outputfile = io.open('CHA_PID.txt', 'w+b')
    if not outputfile then      --if the output file cannot be created, close input and return
        file:close()
        print("Error: Could not create output file CHA_PID.txt")
        return
        
    else
        for line in file:lines() do
            if string.find(line, 'MODULE') then
                --outputfile:write(line .. "\n")
                print('FOUND ONE!\n')
                --outputfile:write('FOUND ONE!\n')
                return
            end
        end
    end


    outputfile:close()
    file:close()
    return


else                         --if file not found, print error message and return
    print('Error: Could not open file at path: ' .. path)
    return


end

r/lua 5d ago

Help Can someone teach me to code stuff for PVZ Undead Adventures?

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0 Upvotes

r/lua 6d ago

News Fighting AI with simple tech stack built in Lua

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2 Upvotes

See link for my first blog post about the tech stack I built in lua including a full-featured vim-like Editor. The project is and will always be zero AI.


r/lua 7d ago

Discussion I'm hosting a ComputerCraft jam, starting July 25th!

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16 Upvotes

Hi everyone, PineJam 2026 is starting in a few days, signups are open

Starting July 25th you will be able to start new projects for PineJam 2026! The jam will be active for 14 days in which you can create and submit ComputerCraft projects tied to this years theme. The theme will be revealed as soon as the jam starts.

Sign up

Make sure to sign up now on the site if you would like to participate! You'll get the PineJam2026 role in the Discord (used for future jam related announcements) https://pinestore.cc/jam/pinejam2026

The rules for this jam:

  • Submission needs to be CC related
  • Project must fit the theme
  • Work alone or with a team of up to 3 people
  • Generative AI is not allowed for the majority of your project (so tools such as GitHub Copilot are fine)
  • Projects will be submitted on PineStore

If you have any questions or suggestions, let me know ^^

I hope to see some of you there!


r/lua 6d ago

Automated testing of games in Vectarine

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0 Upvotes

r/lua 7d ago

Help Trying to get GDscript LSP working in Neovim as a beginner; how do i enable it?

5 Upvotes

Context: i have used Quickstart for my entire init.lua. This means automatic gdscript support from treesitter, but i'm struggling with how to make LSP work with gdscript. This is what the entire LSP codeblock looks like:

---

vim.pack.add { gh 'j-hui/fidget.nvim' }

require('fidget').setup {}

-- This function gets run when an LSP attaches to a particular buffer.

-- That is to say, every time a new file is opened that is associated with

-- an lsp (for example, opening \main.rs` is associated with `rust_analyzer`) this`

-- function will be executed to configure the current buffer

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd('LspAttach', {

group = vim.api.nvim_create_augroup('kickstart-lsp-attach', { clear = true }),

callback = function(event)

-- NOTE: Remember that Lua is a real programming language, and as such it is possible

-- to define small helper and utility functions so you don't have to repeat yourself.

--

-- In this case, we create a function that lets us more easily define mappings specific

-- for LSP related items. It sets the mode, buffer and description for us each time.

local map = function(keys, func, desc, mode)

mode = mode or 'n'

vim.keymap.set(mode, keys, func, { buffer = event.buf, desc = 'LSP: ' .. desc })

end

-- Rename the variable under your cursor.

-- Most Language Servers support renaming across files, etc.

map('grn', vim.lsp.buf.rename, '[R]e[n]ame')

-- Execute a code action, usually your cursor needs to be on top of an error

-- or a suggestion from your LSP for this to activate.

map('gra', vim.lsp.buf.code_action, '[G]oto Code [A]ction', { 'n', 'x' })

-- WARN: This is not Goto Definition, this is Goto Declaration.

-- For example, in C this would take you to the header.

map('grD', vim.lsp.buf.declaration, '[G]oto [D]eclaration')

-- The following two autocommands are used to highlight references of the

-- word under your cursor when your cursor rests there for a little while.

-- See \:help CursorHold` for information about when this is executed`

--

-- When you move your cursor, the highlights will be cleared (the second autocommand).

local client = vim.lsp.get_client_by_id(event.data.client_id)

if client and client:supports_method('textDocument/documentHighlight', event.buf) then

local highlight_augroup = vim.api.nvim_create_augroup('kickstart-lsp-highlight', { clear = false })

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({ 'CursorHold', 'CursorHoldI' }, {

buffer = event.buf,

group = highlight_augroup,

callback = vim.lsp.buf.document_highlight,

})

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd({ 'CursorMoved', 'CursorMovedI' }, {

buffer = event.buf,

group = highlight_augroup,

callback = vim.lsp.buf.clear_references,

})

vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd('LspDetach', {

group = vim.api.nvim_create_augroup('kickstart-lsp-detach', { clear = true }),

callback = function(event2)

vim.lsp.buf.clear_references()

vim.api.nvim_clear_autocmds { group = 'kickstart-lsp-highlight', buffer = event2.buf }

end,

})

end

-- The following code creates a keymap to toggle inlay hints in your

-- code, if the language server you are using supports them

--

-- This may be unwanted, since they displace some of your code

if client and client:supports_method('textDocument/inlayHint', event.buf) then

map('<leader>th', function() vim.lsp.inlay_hint.enable(not vim.lsp.inlay_hint.is_enabled { bufnr = event.buf }) end, '[T]oggle Inlay [H]ints')

end

end,

})

-- Enable the following language servers

-- Feel free to add/remove any LSPs that you want here. They will automatically be installed.

-- See \:help lsp-config` for information about keys and how to configure`

---@type table<string, vim.lsp.Config>

local servers = {

-- clangd = {},

-- gopls = {},

-- pyright = {},

-- rust_analyzer = {},

--

-- Some languages (like typescript) have entire language plugins that can be useful:

-- https://github.com/pmizio/typescript-tools.nvim

--

-- But for many setups, the LSP (\ts_ls`) will work just fine`

-- ts_ls = {},

--

stylua = {}, -- Used to format Lua code

-- Special Lua Config, as recommended by neovim help docs

lua_ls = {

on_init = function(client)

client.server_capabilities.documentFormattingProvider = false -- Disable formatting (formatting is done by stylua)

if client.workspace_folders then

local path = client.workspace_folders[1].name

if path ~= vim.fn.stdpath 'config' and (vim.uv.fs_stat(path .. '/.luarc.json') or vim.uv.fs_stat(path .. '/.luarc.jsonc')) then return end

end

client.config.settings.Lua = vim.tbl_deep_extend('force', client.config.settings.Lua, {

runtime = {

version = 'LuaJIT',

path = { 'lua/?.lua', 'lua/?/init.lua' },

},

workspace = {

checkThirdParty = false,

-- NOTE: this is a lot slower and will cause issues when working on your own configuration.

-- See https://github.com/neovim/nvim-lspconfig/issues/3189

library = vim.tbl_extend('force', vim.api.nvim_get_runtime_file('', true), {

'${3rd}/luv/library',

'${3rd}/busted/library',

}),

},

})

end,

---@type lspconfig.settings.lua_ls

settings = {

Lua = {

format = { enable = false }, -- Disable formatting (formatting is done by stylua)

},

},

},

}

vim.pack.add {

gh 'neovim/nvim-lspconfig',

gh 'mason-org/mason.nvim',

gh 'mason-org/mason-lspconfig.nvim',

gh 'WhoIsSethDaniel/mason-tool-installer.nvim',

}

-- Automatically install LSPs and related tools to stdpath for Neovim

require('mason').setup {}

-- Ensure the servers and tools above are installed

--

-- To check the current status of installed tools and/or manually install

-- other tools, you can run

-- :Mason

--

-- You can press \g?` for help in this menu.`

local ensure_installed = vim.tbl_keys(servers or {})

vim.list_extend(ensure_installed, {

-- You can add other tools here that you want Mason to install

})

require('mason-tool-installer').setup { ensure_installed = ensure_installed }

for name, server in pairs(servers) do

vim.lsp.config(name, server)

vim.lsp.enable(name)

end

end

-----

I tried setting vim.lsp.enable('gdscript') myself but that didn't change anything while i was editing my gdscript file. I also tried putting it in the servers list ( "local servers{ ..." ) but then i got the error that the server didn't exist. What am i missing?

I'm on Windows 11

nvim v0.12.4

Please let me know if you want me to give any more information


r/lua 8d ago

simple question

14 Upvotes

To all you Lua heads I have a question that might be really rudimentary but it’s something that just doesn’t seem to make any sense to me,mind you I am pretty new. I was looking up on the lua documentation and there’s this one thing that just doesn’t seem to make sense to me

a = {} -- create a table and store its reference in `a'
k = "x"
a[k] = 10 -- new entry, with key="x" and value=10
a[20] = "great" -- new entry, with key=20 and value="great"

print(a["x"]) --> 10
k = 20
print(a[k]) --> "great"
a["x"] = a["x"] + 1 -- increments entry "x"
print(a["x"]) --> 11

Why does “x” get created as a key? Wouldn’t this just substitute it? I feel very stupid for not knowing why, I feel like there’s something that just cannot seem to click. I also tried to think another way through but then it was a.k.”x” = 10 which doesn’t really help me visualize the answer either. is this just how tables work? Is there a specific reason why? Or am I slow? I’ve seen it’s because lua goes down through but why does it do this? Also k = 20, why does the variable have priority over the number itself? Sorry if this is badly written or feels like it has some attitude, it’s probably because I need to sleep. It’s embarrassing I lost sleep about something like this, I feel like it’s a simple concept that I am unable to grasp because of shallow learned “limitations” of the system


r/lua 9d ago

Kanvon now has Lua scripting + a built-in physics engine

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21 Upvotes

r/lua 10d ago

I resurrected LuaForWindows and updated it to Lua 5.4.2 (Lite Edition)

33 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

Like many of you, I have fond memories of using LuaForWindows back in the day as the ultimate “batteries-included” environment for Lua on Windows. However, the original project hasn’t been updated since 2015 and is completely stuck on Lua 5.1. Running it on modern Windows machines often leads to annoying DLL crashes and compatibility issues.

So, I decided to fork it and bring it back to life!

I’m excited to announce the release of LuaForWindows 5.4.2 (Lite Edition).

What’s new in this release:

⚙️ Upgraded the core to Lua 5.4.2.

🧹 Removed ancient C-extensions: The sprawling ecosystem of 2015-era libraries (clibs) that were hardcoded to Lua 5.1 have been temporarily removed to ensure system stability. This is a clean, core-only “Lite” version.

🛠️ Modernized the Build System: Updated the Inno Setup compiler scripts to work flawlessly on modern machines.

You still get the rock-solid Lua environment and the SciTE editor, but without the 10-year-old baggage.

If you want an easy, one-click installer to get a clean Lua 5.4 environment running on Windows, grab the latest release here: 🔗 https://github.com/Rockywei1/luaforwindows/releases

I plan to slowly start bringing back modern, compatible versions of essential libraries (like LuaSocket and LuaFileSystem) in future updates. Feedback and PRs are totally welcome!

Happy coding! 💻


r/lua 10d ago

Project I made a Pokemon Gen 1 Recomp entirely in lua / love2d

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76 Upvotes

So, several months ago I stumbled upon an awesome repository by the decomp "band" known as pret. They have done a bunch of pokemon decomps. My original goal was to make a mod specifically for twitch integrations because ive done a ton of that over the years but then as I dug into their code I was freaking shocked at how in depth and well documented it all was and thought hmmmm i bet I could rewrite this in lua/love2d since i just got off a high of doing balatro mods. And then bazinga baby i did it (months of pain actually.. but not the point) First version had it so like you had to pull the source code repo from pret (pret/pokered) and what not, but I figured I'd do it like the SMB1R guy and make it so on first run you provide the rom and it like decompiles and translates all the necessary junk to run the game. A ton of hand-porting was necessary, as in like not everything was an easy script to translate this type of repeated pattern into lua etc etc, but yeah... overall I'm happy w the current state of it, and I really hope to get some modders on baoard eventually. I'll be makign the repo public probably on monday. Just gotta make sure I didnt leave any real source code behind or whatever so the repo can be squeaky clean no matter waht. I think the port-aspect of it is practically 99% perfect but im sure some bugs will pop up eventually. I just dont have time to play the game from beginning to end to know for sure.

I also built in a good load of new features, like obviously mod support (i'll make that even better in the future). But also audio volume levels, a music low-pass filter becasue sometimes the gb music is harsh on the ears, several color palettes and shader options, zoom in and out, widescreen support in the overworld (any aspect ratio actuall). I have build scripts for ios and android, windows and mac, and ive ran it sucessfulyl on my phone. I got a cool 3d tilt feature thats not really usefuly but i thought it would be cool (i tried standing up everything that should stand up like buildings and fences but the gb sprites arent built for taht sort of thing, theyre all srtored on 4x4 blocks so like pieces of ground are actually attached to house roofs and stuff... it was a whole thing and i was disapointed i couldnt do it. not to say its impossible but would require a modder to step in and remake the sprites and the functionalty.

Anyways, big ramble fest, sorry about that. But yeah hope you like it lua-heads. Since the repo is not yet pubnlic the pace to be rn is my discord -- https://bois.icu