Lua Guides, tips & tricks

Lua is the most used language in FiveM/RedM. It's extremely beginner friendly which makes it really popular over languages such as C#. Here you'll find some guides on learning lua, writing it and some general tips & tricks to help you write better code!

Guides & useful links

Lua Beginners Guide by Pohka (opens in a new tab)

Project Error's style guide (opens in a new tab)

Lua Start Guide by PacktPublishing (More indepth) (opens in a new tab)

Simple lua logic (opens in a new tab)

Mock FiveM Server (opens in a new tab)

Simple benchmark for LuaGLM 5.4 (FiveM) (opens in a new tab)

Do's and Don'ts

Don't do GetHashKey('WEAPON_PISTOL'), do WEAPON_PISTOL instead. GetHashKey('WEAPON_PISTOL') converts a string into a hash each time the function is called. Using backticks will instead convert the string into hash during compilation, so any checks will have it hashed in the first place.

Don't do GetPlayerPed(-1), do PlayerPedId() instead. PlayerPedId() directly returns your ped, while GetPlayerPed(-1) is checking the ped for the local player id.

Don't do GetDistanceBetweenCoords(coords, coords) or Vdist2(coords, coords), do #(coords - coords) instead. Using language operations is always faster than calling natives. #(coords - othercoords) compares two vector3s and spits out quick maths.

Don't do insert loop to disable idle camera here, do DisableIdleCamera(bool) instead. Running a native is much faster then running a loop.

Don't do IsControlJustPressed() or IsControlJustReleased(), do RegisterKeyMapping() instead. This requires less lines and is faster then making loops.

Utilize it with RegisterCommand() like so:

RegisterCommand('MyCommand', function()
    -- do whatever you want the command to do
    print("This is my command. Hello World")
end, false)
 
RegisterKeyMapping('MyCommand', 'Command Label (settings)', 'keyboard', 'F')
-- ref for inputs: https://docs.fivem.net/docs/game-references/input-mapper-parameter-ids/
 
-- RegisterCommand() automatically creates a chat suggestion, remove it by doing this:
TriggerEvent('chat:removeSuggestion', '/MyCommand')
 
-- You can also tell when a key is released like this:
RegisterCommand('+command', function()
    print("Key Pressed!")
end, false)
 
RegisterCommand('-command', function()
    print("Key Released!")
end, false)
 
RegisterKeyMapping('+command', 'Command Label (Settings)', 'keyboard', 'F')

Always remember to remove an animation after you're done using it.

RequestAnimDict('missminuteman_1ig_2')
while not HasAnimDictLoaded('missminuteman_1ig_2') do
    Wait(50)
end
 
TaskPlayAnim(playerPed, 'missminuteman_1ig_2', 'handsup_enter', 8.0, 8.0, -1, 50, 0, false, false, false)
RemoveAnimDict('missminuteman_1ig_2')

Snippets

Here are some useful(?) code snippets you can use.

Disabling NPCs

Disable NPC peds: +set_infinityPopulation 0 Disable NPC vehicles (server side):

CreateThread(function()
    SetRoutingBucketPopulationEnabled(0, false)
end)

Format an integer

Ex: 10000 would be 10,000

function formatInt(i)
    return tostring(i):reverse():gsub("%d%d%d", "%1,"):reverse():gsub("^,", "")
end

Cleaning a string

function cleanString(x, y)
    -- x = string
    -- y = true to save whitespace, default false
    if y or false then
        x = string.gsub(tostring(x), '[^%w%s_]', '') -- Save WS
        return x
    else
        x = string.gsub(tostring(x), '[^%w_]', '') -- Kill WS
        return x
    end
end

Get a users playtime

local serverCode = "7b6bor" -- Variable just for the example but you should set the server code directly in the URL
RegisterNetEvent("PrintMyPlayTimeInConsole", function()
    local _source = source
    local fivemId = GetFivemId(GetPlayerIdentifiers(_source))
    if fivemId then
        PerformHttpRequest("https://lambda.fivem.net/api/ticket/playtimes/%22..serverCode..%22?identifiers[]=%22..fivemId, function(responseCode, resultData)
            if responseCode == 200 then
                resultData = json.decode(resultData)
                print(_source.." has a playtime of "..resultData[1].seconds.." seconds!")
            end
        end)
    else
        print("Can't find fivem id of ".._source)
    end
end)
 
function GetFivemId(userIds) -- Probably not the best way
    for i = 1, #userIds, 1 do
        if string.sub(userIds[i], 1, string.len("fivem:")) == "fivem:" then
            return userIds[i]
        end
    end
    return nil
end

Walk injured when damaged

local hurt = false
CreateThread(function()
    while true do
        Wait(0)
        if GetEntityHealth(PlayerPedId()) <= 159 then
            setHurt()
        elseif hurt and GetEntityHealth(PlayerPedId()) > 160 then
            setNotHurt()
        end
    end
end)
 
function setHurt()
    hurt = true
    RequestAnimSet("move_m@injured")
    SetPedMovementClipset(PlayerPedId(), "move_m@injured", true)
end
 
function setNotHurt()
    hurt = false
    ResetPedMovementClipset(PlayerPedId())
    ResetPedWeaponMovementClipset(PlayerPedId())
    ResetPedStrafeClipset(PlayerPedId())
end

Snippets are from the Overextended (opens in a new tab) Discord, credits to respective people.

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