DarkScintilla: Maxscript Editor dark scheme

42 votes
Version: 
1.2d
Date Updated: 
04/13/2021

A dark color scheme for the Maxscript Editor, inspired by dark schemes available for other IDEs

As i was doing more and more max scripting lately, the urge to do something with the eye hurting Maxscript Editor colors escalated. So i sat down today and had a walkthrough on the various options Scintilla (Maxscript Editors core) provides.

 

After that i started to tweak, and integrate the color scheme and font settings which i use in other IDE's like Monodevelop, Flashdevelop or Eclipse ( even VS is set to the dark scheme here). Additionally i transfered nearly all of the color settings previously in the "maxscript.properties" to the "MXS_EditorUser.properties" file, using symbolic color names etc...

So here is the result:
It has not been tested to all it's extends, but this is a pretty complete set.

Updates:

  • V1.2d - fixed too dark-blue color for FPS and struct properties...
                 slightly brightened color for global constants and made it use bold fonts
  • V1.2c - fixed yet another typo in "MXS_EditorUser.properties" which was breaking coloring of verbatim strings..
                  ( corrected line is "colour.string.verbatim=...", the equals-sign was typed as colon   )
                  Huge thanks for reporting this go to Klaas Nienhuis from the beautiful netherlands
                  Made caret color a bit darker ( this is global), now it should be better visible on white backgrounds
  • V1.2b - fixed typo in "MXS_EditorUser.properties" ( "indent.closeing" changed to "indent.closing" )
                  Now autoindenting should work again as expected (thx go to James Haywood for reporting)
  • V1.2a- Fixed some stupid install script error popup happening on older Max versions.
                 Note: you can't assign a string-variable to a maxscript  label-text during roll out creation.Smile
  • V1.2  - provided an installer Script. Just Drag and Drop the complete packacke ( *.mzp) into a 3ds Max viewport
                 The Installationscript will guide you through the complete installation (or uninstallation) process
                 Some minor color tweaks...
  • V1.1a- Updated readme for people having trouble installing. The "MXS_EditorUser.properties" has to go to the Max
                  user- folder. See readme. I will create a install script over the weekend, so stay tuned...
  • V1.1  - integrated ALL tweaks in "MXS_EditorUser.properties", replacing maxscript.properties NO LONGER necessary !!!
                 I recommend to restore the original from your backup, or use the one in [maxscript.properties ORIGINAL] in the zip
                 Thanks go to Johan Boekhoven for the hint...
  • V1.0a - Fixed "MXS_EditorUser.properties" to not modify global color styles( back color most noticable )
  • V1.0    - Initial release

Notes:

  • Internet Explorer tends to rename *.mzp  (Maxscript Package)  downloads to *.zip -  please change extension back to *.mzp
  • !!! BACKUP YOUR ORIGINAL FILES !!!
  • There is no adapted html.properties, so html file display with Maxscript editor is not "recolored" -> see readme in the zip
  • This scheme uses Microsofts Consolas font, which is freely downloadable at MS ( see link inside the zip)
  • Changes can easily be done, just edit self-explaining symbolic color values in MXS_EditorUser.properties
  • If you make some improvements and tweaks, please contact me and share and i will integrate them

Suggestions, improvements etc.. are welcome

Here is how it looks

 

Dark Color Scheme for Maxscript Editor

Version Requirement: 
3ds Max 2008 and up

Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
hannes's picture

_

_

hannes's picture

dark mode listener

This is great but sadly the script listener window is still white. while it's nice to have dark colors in the editor it doesn't do much good when the debugger window is still blinding white.

this plugin does that for you https://github.com/hannesdelbeke/dark-listener-max

MrPingouin's picture

Those values are accessible

Those values are accessible via maxscript.
You could put them in an autoloaded script.

listenerBackgroundColor = (color 40 40 40)
inputTextColor = (color 225 225 225)
outputTextColor = (color 153 204 102)
listenerSelectionBackgroundColor = (color 58 82 184)
listenerSelectionForegroundColor = (color 255 218 18)
messageTextColor = (color 255 0 0)
macroRecorderBackgroundColor = (color 60 60 60)
macroRecorderTextColor = (color 225 225 225)
macroRecorderSelectionBackgroundColor = (color 58 82 184)
macroRecorderSelectionForegroundColor = (color 255 218 18)

To-mos's picture

Any plans for script listener window?

This is great but sadly the script listener window is still white. while it's nice to have dark colors in the editor it doesn't do much good when the debugger window is still blinding white.

Riviera's picture

Python editor version?

Hello.

Super useful!

Could you help or give some guidance how to copy/create the same for the Python editor too?

Thanks a lot!

obaida's picture

Thanks for the update :) ,

Thanks for the update :) , the colour.structFPS was so dark .

jeffreysbrown's picture

Thank you!

Just found this. I'm using Max 2022, and while that is an ~OK~ upgrade from Max 2020, this dark theme is an awesome upgrade to the MXS editor. Thank you thank you thank you.

spacefrog's picture

small update after a very long time

Just wanted to give a headsup that i've just uploaded two fixes for small issues i came across just now ...
But anyways, colorscheme still keeps working on newest 3ds Max versions

lutteral's picture

it happens also with the

it happens also with the vanilla editor, it is because of maxscript formatting. Add "--*/" (without the quotes) at the end of the first line to restore the formatting

spacefrog's picture

This is to be expected: the

This is to be expected:
the /* sequence opens a comment block ( same as -- , just for multiple lines of text ). Comment blocks are colored using a single color. This is one of the quirks of the maxscript language definitions i guess ...
Not sure how to work around this as i never used this kind of syntax ..

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.