JContainers Lua Playground

An offline sandbox for experimenting with the JContainers Lua runtime without starting Skyrim. The directory layout mirrors the part of a Skyrim Data directory used by JContainers, so modules developed here can later be moved into a mod.

Windows

Install Python 3, then copy JContainers.dll into the playground and run the launcher from the repository root:

copy "C:\path\to\JContainers.dll" "SKSE\Plugins\JContainers.dll"
run.cmd

The launcher first tries the standard Windows py -3 command and then python. It prints installation instructions if neither command provides Python 3.

macOS and Linux with Wine

Install Windows Python 3 into the Wine environment used to load the DLL. Then copy JContainers.dll into the playground and run:

cp /path/to/JContainers.dll SKSE/Plugins/JContainers.dll
./run.sh

The DLL lives in an ignored path under SKSE/Plugins; it is not part of this repository.

Commands

Inside the prompt:

help
tick
tick 5
key 18
key 19
stats
reload
quit

tick [seconds] calls ExampleMod.update(dt). key CODE sends the same event shape that Source/Scripts/ExampleModInput.psc sends from Skyrim's OnKeyDown. Both sources reach ExampleMod.onKeyDown(event) and its handler table.

reload clears the current Lua context's module cache, so source edits are picked up without restarting the process.

Useful Links

• Visual Studio Code with the EmmyLua extension is the recommended editor setup. This playground includes an .emmyrc.json configuration for completion, type information, and signature help.
• JContainers Lua documentation and examples
• Lua 5.1 Reference Manual
• LuaJIT extensions and FFI documentation