RC2: Fish Demo tutorial problems (and two bugs?)
by Kim Ball · in Torque Game Builder · 06/08/2006 (11:56 pm) · 5 replies
Fish demo tutorials
Since this is the first tutorial the new user is directed to, I went through the tutorial carefully looking primarily for anything that would be confusing or a possible bug.... ( Overall nice job on this tutorial, by the way.)
Part 1
1. (Very minor) Grammar problem with intro paragraph:
"This tutorial is ideal for those just starting out with TGB (Torque Game Builder) and need to take a step by step approach to learning the engine and scripting."
should be changed to something like:
"This tutorial is ideal for those just starting out with TGB (Torque Game Builder) who need to take a step by step approach to learning the engine and scripting."
Part 2
1. On page 3 of part 2 it says that to add the second rock image the user should "Click on the Create tab again and this time we are getting the fourth image in our Static Sprites library (as shown in Figure 2.3.4)." However, as reported earlier, the fourth figure is not a rock. The third image is the desired image. It seems to me that a lot of confusion could be eliminated by telling the user to position the pointer over the image and go by the name (rocksnearimage) rather than the fourth image in the static sprites library.
Part 4
1. Page 1, the code shown for game.cs is not the same as the code in my actual game.cs file . There are several additional lines. You could either make the pictured code actually match game.cs, or you could change the text from:
"You should see the following data in your game.cs."
to something like "The code in your game.cs should be similar to the following:"
2. Bottom of page 2, before last paragraph should tell reader to save game.cs. Obvious, but hey...
3. Surprise. If you save game.cs and then try to run the fish demo again, the fish doesn't swim like it says it will in the last paragraph at the bottom of page 2. Should change this to say that your fish is almost ready to swim.
4. My fish wouldn't swim until I exited TGB and came back in or reloaded the project (which loaded the modified game.cs file.) This is vaguely implied when it says to load TGB again at the beginning of section 4.2, but it is not specifically stated. (I like to leave TGB open while I edit scripts and then just want to reload the script and run, but I have to load another project and then reload.)
5. (Bug?)Also, if you don't know that you can't reopen a project without opening another project first, you may freak when you don't see your project listed. (I know I did!) Although I don't understand why TGB doesn't let user reopen the currently open project, at least in this tutorial there should be a mention that when you click File|Open the current project is not displayed in the list of projects.
Part 9.
1. (BUG?) At bottom of page 1, a grayscale bar is shown in the image, but does not appear in my screen. The only way I can affect transparency is by typing number in alpha. If this is not something that can be fixed you might just want to say you can either type in a number or move the grayscale bar.
Since this is the first tutorial the new user is directed to, I went through the tutorial carefully looking primarily for anything that would be confusing or a possible bug.... ( Overall nice job on this tutorial, by the way.)
Part 1
1. (Very minor) Grammar problem with intro paragraph:
"This tutorial is ideal for those just starting out with TGB (Torque Game Builder) and need to take a step by step approach to learning the engine and scripting."
should be changed to something like:
"This tutorial is ideal for those just starting out with TGB (Torque Game Builder) who need to take a step by step approach to learning the engine and scripting."
Part 2
1. On page 3 of part 2 it says that to add the second rock image the user should "Click on the Create tab again and this time we are getting the fourth image in our Static Sprites library (as shown in Figure 2.3.4)." However, as reported earlier, the fourth figure is not a rock. The third image is the desired image. It seems to me that a lot of confusion could be eliminated by telling the user to position the pointer over the image and go by the name (rocksnearimage) rather than the fourth image in the static sprites library.
Part 4
1. Page 1, the code shown for game.cs is not the same as the code in my actual game.cs file . There are several additional lines. You could either make the pictured code actually match game.cs, or you could change the text from:
"You should see the following data in your game.cs."
to something like "The code in your game.cs should be similar to the following:"
2. Bottom of page 2, before last paragraph should tell reader to save game.cs. Obvious, but hey...
3. Surprise. If you save game.cs and then try to run the fish demo again, the fish doesn't swim like it says it will in the last paragraph at the bottom of page 2. Should change this to say that your fish is almost ready to swim.
4. My fish wouldn't swim until I exited TGB and came back in or reloaded the project (which loaded the modified game.cs file.) This is vaguely implied when it says to load TGB again at the beginning of section 4.2, but it is not specifically stated. (I like to leave TGB open while I edit scripts and then just want to reload the script and run, but I have to load another project and then reload.)
5. (Bug?)Also, if you don't know that you can't reopen a project without opening another project first, you may freak when you don't see your project listed. (I know I did!) Although I don't understand why TGB doesn't let user reopen the currently open project, at least in this tutorial there should be a mention that when you click File|Open the current project is not displayed in the list of projects.
Part 9.
1. (BUG?) At bottom of page 1, a grayscale bar is shown in the image, but does not appear in my screen. The only way I can affect transparency is by typing number in alpha. If this is not something that can be fixed you might just want to say you can either type in a number or move the grayscale bar.
#2
Thanks for being so on-the-ball, though! I was sitting here thinking, "I know I changed that sentence, because I remember reading it and thinking it limped along, too." lol Now I know I'm not crazy. ;)
06/09/2006 (3:36 pm)
Aha! Figured out what it was, Kim. Ignore editing issues in Part 1: Starting Out of the "Fish Tank/Demo Tutorial". There was a file that I sent to Matt after editing that didn't go through to him for some reason. Apparently, that's the one. I resent it to him, but it must've been too late to get into the RC. It *should* be fine in RC2. :) Thanks for being so on-the-ball, though! I was sitting here thinking, "I know I changed that sentence, because I remember reading it and thinking it limped along, too." lol Now I know I'm not crazy. ;)
#3
But if it's assigned to the animated fish, everything needs reloading.
06/10/2006 (8:01 am)
Part 4, 4. is an interesting issue as if you assign the "FishClass" to any of the other items it works fine without having to reload TGB (i.e. the background).But if it's assigned to the animated fish, everything needs reloading.
#4
* The 'lightbeam' particle effect does not respect the bounding rect
* vertically, it remains the same size, but attempts to put it's vertical center-of-mass center-aligned with the vertical center of the bounding rect.
* horizontally, I think it's trying to do the same thing, but due to the nature of the particle effect, I can't be sure.
* the bottom edge needs a 'blur' effect so there's not a sharp delineation between the top/bottom edges and any background image.
* The 'Image Map Builder' doesn't load the copied graphics files from the Fish Demo into the Fish Game properly (graphics are all black or white in both the preview and when actually imported, even though Preview.App shows the graphics files have the correct images in them.) I already copied the files from the "MyFishDemo" project to the newly created "MyFishGame" project as shown in the instructions for the "Fish Game" in the HTML/PDF documentation. Any known workarounds? Would changing the graphics to a different format help? (I have a licensed GraphiConverter from Lemke Software for that sort of thing.)
12/23/2006 (8:51 am)
Some additional problems: (TGB 1.1.1/t2d 1.1.2 on MacOS X 10.4.8)* The 'lightbeam' particle effect does not respect the bounding rect
* vertically, it remains the same size, but attempts to put it's vertical center-of-mass center-aligned with the vertical center of the bounding rect.
* horizontally, I think it's trying to do the same thing, but due to the nature of the particle effect, I can't be sure.
* the bottom edge needs a 'blur' effect so there's not a sharp delineation between the top/bottom edges and any background image.
* The 'Image Map Builder' doesn't load the copied graphics files from the Fish Demo into the Fish Game properly (graphics are all black or white in both the preview and when actually imported, even though Preview.App shows the graphics files have the correct images in them.) I already copied the files from the "MyFishDemo" project to the newly created "MyFishGame" project as shown in the instructions for the "Fish Game" in the HTML/PDF documentation. Any known workarounds? Would changing the graphics to a different format help? (I have a licensed GraphiConverter from Lemke Software for that sort of thing.)
#5
As to the image issue - that's weird and I don't remember hearing about that before. Converting them is probably a good thing to try.
Hope that made sense ;)
12/23/2006 (10:05 am)
The lightbeam issues aren't really bugs and were "fixed" in 1.1.3 - the problem was that the default camera size was doubled (so that it used even numbers), but that meant that that particle effect doesn't cover the whole scene (so then the edges would be off the screen). The camera size was returned to the original so that the tutorials work correctly. Also, the vertical and horizontal issues are just settings on that effect - it's set to make the particles along the horizontal center line.As to the image issue - that's weird and I don't remember hearing about that before. Converting them is probably a good thing to try.
Hope that made sense ;)
Torque Owner Gina-Marie -Netjera- Hammer