Attention GG! We need at least one more tutorial
by John "Johnhpus" Parker · in Torque Game Engine · 09/13/2004 (8:16 pm) · 11 replies
I'm not trying to be insisten or pushy, but this library really needs a tutorial that bridges the gap between hello world and TNLTest. At the very least the TNLTest should be rewritten and accopanied by a thorough step-by-step explenation and follow along instructions. You could safely assume that the various GL stuff in the example will be understood by the reader.
I'm not a total jackass, I do know the language and am successfully using lua and Ogre on my project. The learning curve is much too steep without a more thorough introduction.
Thanks,
John Parker
If anyone feels like treating this post as a petition, please 'sign' below.
I'm not a total jackass, I do know the language and am successfully using lua and Ogre on my project. The learning curve is much too steep without a more thorough introduction.
Thanks,
John Parker
If anyone feels like treating this post as a petition, please 'sign' below.
#2
anyone interested sign here
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09/14/2004 (1:34 am)
Another possibility would be that non employees write the tutorial, say 2-3 people sit together on their favorite instant messanger trying to figure out stuff, writing down the problems they had plus solutions to them (oh well...)anyone interested sign here
XXXX
#3
09/14/2004 (9:13 am)
Thanks for the reply. Zechner Mario, that's a fine suggestion given the facts laid out by Pat Wilson. If any other beginning level folks would like to collaborate on either writing a new tutorial or writing one surrounding the TNLTest example please contact me at johnhpus__AT___y*hoo.com. Or at johnhpus on AIM.
#4
I was thinking about this thread after my last post and it occurred to me that your might be offering to lead the effort to write a new tutorial. If so, I'd love for you to take point and I'd be willilng to help out in any way I can.
That is, if your offering :)
09/14/2004 (9:34 am)
@Zechner Mario:I was thinking about this thread after my last post and it occurred to me that your might be offering to lead the effort to write a new tutorial. If so, I'd love for you to take point and I'd be willilng to help out in any way I can.
That is, if your offering :)
#5
09/14/2004 (9:38 am)
It'd be great to see some community-driven tutorials for TNL. Excellent idea.
#6
all i need is some answers to some questions, and i guess that's for sure no big deal for the people developing that library.
on the other hand my english is poor (as you may have noticed) so somebody has to check the text(s).
plus, it would be a great thing to splitt that tutorial up into some sort of a series, where other members can write stuff on interpolation/extrapolation etc. basically whatever comes to mind.
and we'll need some sort of organisationschema so we don't do it the mario way (that is the chaotic way).
we'll have to set some sort of standard or skilllevel for the audience, i guess knowing basic stuff on networking will do. the explinations in the tnl docu are a good start, and reading beej's guide on networking in addition to that migth prepare people out there to a sufficient point. (knowing what TCP/UDP is, all this funny port stuff etc.)
starting from this the first article should be something similar to the simple tnl tutorial, maybe something like a little textmode chat client/server app that explains the basic structure of a network application.
next thing would be to put all the network code into a seperate thread, i guess having a good tutorial on this topic migth really help a lot of people out there, i was thinking of using SDL for that since it offers a nice plattform independent way to do this
at this point it starts getting tricky. but i guess explaing tnltest or making an example like tnltest would be a good choice for the third part (if parts before don't get splitt up). no concrete ideas yet.
and at the very end extra and interpolation should be covered. there's some good tut's on gamedev on that topic but they are not tnl related, so showing of how to do this kind of things with tnl (and i hope it's as easy as i expect it to be) would be of great thing for everybody
two more things. first of all i don't know wheter i'm a good tutorial writer so we may work together on this having each other reviewing the texts. i once wrote a 60 pages tut on 2d graphics programming basics implemented with qbasic and asm, but it was a german tut what made it far more easier for me to write. finding the balance between text and source dump is a hard thing to do
the other thing is that i'm an autoditact (spell?) with 12 years of experience though in several languages, but my coding style might offend or really piss of people, so a code reviewer would be nice too ;
well that's it for tonight, hope i'll hear some suggestions
09/14/2004 (11:39 am)
Yeah well since i have to write the network part for a game with tnl (dunno wheter i'm allowed to tell which one that is here) i have to get by with tnl. so i guess it wouldn't be that much more work to do.all i need is some answers to some questions, and i guess that's for sure no big deal for the people developing that library.
on the other hand my english is poor (as you may have noticed) so somebody has to check the text(s).
plus, it would be a great thing to splitt that tutorial up into some sort of a series, where other members can write stuff on interpolation/extrapolation etc. basically whatever comes to mind.
and we'll need some sort of organisationschema so we don't do it the mario way (that is the chaotic way).
we'll have to set some sort of standard or skilllevel for the audience, i guess knowing basic stuff on networking will do. the explinations in the tnl docu are a good start, and reading beej's guide on networking in addition to that migth prepare people out there to a sufficient point. (knowing what TCP/UDP is, all this funny port stuff etc.)
starting from this the first article should be something similar to the simple tnl tutorial, maybe something like a little textmode chat client/server app that explains the basic structure of a network application.
next thing would be to put all the network code into a seperate thread, i guess having a good tutorial on this topic migth really help a lot of people out there, i was thinking of using SDL for that since it offers a nice plattform independent way to do this
at this point it starts getting tricky. but i guess explaing tnltest or making an example like tnltest would be a good choice for the third part (if parts before don't get splitt up). no concrete ideas yet.
and at the very end extra and interpolation should be covered. there's some good tut's on gamedev on that topic but they are not tnl related, so showing of how to do this kind of things with tnl (and i hope it's as easy as i expect it to be) would be of great thing for everybody
two more things. first of all i don't know wheter i'm a good tutorial writer so we may work together on this having each other reviewing the texts. i once wrote a 60 pages tut on 2d graphics programming basics implemented with qbasic and asm, but it was a german tut what made it far more easier for me to write. finding the balance between text and source dump is a hard thing to do
the other thing is that i'm an autoditact (spell?) with 12 years of experience though in several languages, but my coding style might offend or really piss of people, so a code reviewer would be nice too ;
well that's it for tonight, hope i'll hear some suggestions
#7
09/14/2004 (3:41 pm)
I'd be glad to clean up the English for a tutorial as well as help format code. I pride myself on writing clean code.
#8
09/15/2004 (12:58 am)
What do you think of the above mentioned plan? any additions? input would be appreciated. (i pride myself on writing the worst code ever hehe... you'll see and curse)
#9
I will try to dig through the code and the helpfiles and figure out how to do it.
@torque guys: I totally understadn your situation like most developers will. I'm also the only one doing lots of tasks here so I think the customer made tutorial is a great idea. Alas I cant participate much since I'm a newbie myself lol
10/04/2004 (11:13 am)
As a new user I can only agree. All I want to do for example is replace my Directplay layer with TNL but I'm overwhelmed with the lavish C++ system when all I need is a simple client/server contact and then send/receive commands for my datastructures.I will try to dig through the code and the helpfiles and figure out how to do it.
@torque guys: I totally understadn your situation like most developers will. I'm also the only one doing lots of tasks here so I think the customer made tutorial is a great idea. Alas I cant participate much since I'm a newbie myself lol
#10
10/07/2004 (3:26 pm)
Zechner, why would you want to put the network code in a seperate thread? There are very few games I'm aware of where having the network code in a seperate thread is a win.
#11
the thing is i quit that job, so i'll not continue coding with tnl, therefor i won't write that tutorial... i know i suck and i apologize for that, but things just didn't turn out as they should have been so i'm sorry...
but i guess this thread could be a kickoff for the community or something
btw, i found it a little frustrating working with tnl, it's powerfull but the lack of documentation and things like being able to connect on a lan but not over the net (even with non routed/firewalled configurations) for no reason made the whole process more complex and may keep potential users from using tnl (what a smart sentence... doh)
but maybe i'm just dumb ;)
greetings
10/19/2004 (4:27 pm)
What i had in mind was putting the server code into seperate threads, like having a server and a client on the same system. another application would be in a pure server environment where a single machine hosts a number of games simultaniously. the thing is i quit that job, so i'll not continue coding with tnl, therefor i won't write that tutorial... i know i suck and i apologize for that, but things just didn't turn out as they should have been so i'm sorry...
but i guess this thread could be a kickoff for the community or something
btw, i found it a little frustrating working with tnl, it's powerfull but the lack of documentation and things like being able to connect on a lan but not over the net (even with non routed/firewalled configurations) for no reason made the whole process more complex and may keep potential users from using tnl (what a smart sentence... doh)
but maybe i'm just dumb ;)
greetings
Torque 3D Owner Pat Wilson