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

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maxwell3d's picture

thanks!

i like very much the color scheme!
I installed but my previous autocomplete script from Jan is not working anymore, how can i add the autocomlete tools to this beutiful scheme?
thanks in advance

idiotic's picture

Good Job Man. I Like It.

Good Job Man. I Like It.

spacefrog's picture

Thanks all for the nice

Thanks all for the nice comments ;-)

@argonavt3D:
the answer is already a few posts below your post, basically the answer is no, because this color scheme depends a lot on the "maxscript" language lexer

but of course you could simply grab the color values and edit the standard SciTE's properties file manually. You just can't take this one and simply copy it over, it will not work in standard SciTE...

argonavt3D's picture

Great color scheme! It's

Great color scheme!
It's possible to make it work in standalone SciTe ?

lalamax3d's picture

thanks for sharing

its amazing..

viro's picture
rotem's picture

Thanks!

As said, this is very pleasant to look at and easy on the eyes. Thanks for the many future headaches you've saved me! :)

spacefrog's picture

ahh - well - i guess that

ahh - well - i guess that will not be possible without heavily modifying the user properties file i created as it depends on the other changes and properties Autodesk implemented for the Maxscript editor ...

i guess your best luck would be searching for customized SciTE color themes via google ...

easyfrog's picture

.Sorry for my English. I

.Sorry for my English. I want to use it for standalone Scite. :)

spacefrog's picture

Thanks guys for your nice

Thanks guys for your nice comments - highly appreciated ;-)

@Klaas :
special thanks go to you for detecting the verbatim bug, it's actually a typo in the symbolic color name, the '=' was mistakenly replaced by ':' . I have fixed that and made the verbatim string coloring a bit stronger compared to standard strings. Never would ever have found that by myself, because i even was'nt aware of any maxscript verbatim string usage ;-)

@easyfrog:
Dont exactly understand .. you want to use it for standalone Scite or d oyou have problems installing the mzp package ?

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