Why WAS Torque3D documentation so poor?

#201 Nice and thanks Michael.

#202 Thank you!

#203 Very nice. Thanks guys.

#204 INcredible so far. Thank you guys so much! The Namespace List has $Pref::Net twice with the same content in both. Not sure if it's a duplicate or a typo, but that's just about the only issue I could find.

Rock on Michael et al!

#205 wow very nice work, i did notice one error

Quote:

The following code will produce an error that may cause your entire script to fail:

To the human eye, you are able to discern two separate lines of code with different actions. Here is how the script compiler will read it:
%testVariable = 3%anotherVariable = 4;

i think under the first line the code is missing, it should have

%testVariable=3
%anothervariable=4;

to make the intent there more clear, Great work so far guys this is really shaping up well, Finally Torque will be well documented!

#206 @Ken - Thanks for the correction

@All - Glad everyone is happy with the progression. We already have twice the content since the first draft, so things are moving along nicely. Thanks for all the feedback and patience =)

#207 Cool, looking forward to each function page being properly implemented and on their correct pages. Keep up the good work guys.

#208 Just found this thread and got the chm: excellent job so far :)

#209 Well, this all made for a pleasing read. Finally convinced myself yesterday that I couldn't afford to miss the $500 discount.

Having just read this entire thread I'd have to say the last couple of pages exceed any expectations I had while reading through the same old complaints. No disrespect to Mich's previous work at all, but it was never going to work as a one man effort.

It's been a long time coming, but this is all kinds of good.

#210 Good work. My only request/suggestion would be to add a quick start tutorial that would cover the creation of a simple game from start to finish. Because currently the docs remind me of the Maya and Max Bibles without the quick start tuts which if not for there quick start tutorials I would have never gotten far. As I read thought them I understand information on topics such as the world editor, GUI editor, and syntax but were I tend to always get stuck is understanding how everything comes together.

An example of what I'm talking about:
-Simple start menu with a start game button and a quit button
-simple level made in the WE that could be a hollow cub or flat plane with 3 objects a player(that could be a simple one solid color model with only 3 or 4 short animations), goal object(like a door,platform, or coin), and an enemy(that could be a simple ball that move from left to right)
-2 ending screens a you win press any key to go back to main menu or you lose press any key to go back to main menu.
-simple game play movement with only two events if player collides with ball negative health if health = 0 you lose screen if player collects coin coin var = 1 you win screen.
- then making it stand alone

And with this I example explaining how the code and editors interact is the goal along with giving a novice to Torque 3D the basic foundations of the engine as a hole because now if say the reader of the above tutorial can now after reading other tutorials on specific torque features then apply them.

This is just my suggestion/request because its how I learn when dealing with computer software. Other than that I'm liking the new drafts.

#211
Any updates to the first draft released on 3/29/2010?

#212

Quote:My only request/suggestion would be to add a quick start tutorial that would cover the creation of a simple game from start to finish.

Indeed. In general, having mini-game tutorials for Torque that show how to create simple games of varying genres would help a lot.

Quote:Any updates to the first draft released on 3/29/2010?

Sorry, not yet. Docs are still being written but most importantly, we have another big "offensive" planned before the next beta where the entire team will sit down again for a couple of days and focus entirely on docs.

#213

Quote:
mini-game tutorials for Torque

Cue the old TGE pick-up Torque Logos via onCollision function minigame!

#214 A variety of mini games are nice put what I was suggesting was that covers all the basics of how to develop a simple game from start to finish to give a basic understanding the the engine as a hole. So then when the reader is done they can use rest of the documentation like so:

-Well I finished this game but I don't like the player model so I'll scroll down in the documentation to the artist section and learn how to import my own(if that wasn't already covered) and how to make it look pretty.

Or

-I finished this game but the game play is too basic so I'll check the tab that go in more depth with scripting.

and so on
As I currently like how the Docs are set up its just as a new user I found it discouraging going though learning all the interfaces separately yet not knowing how everything connects.

As for mini tutorials of other genres that's ok if yous do that but I would hope its just something extra and not top priority over the main docs themselves.

Thanks for listening

#215 Bump: What's the progress? This seemed to be progressing rapidly, but now there haven't been any GG updates on this in a month. Can we get another update guys? I feel that there were lots of things we could have included into our strategy game that we weren't able to implement because of this.

#216 @tom, they posted that the roadmap for torque.

http://www.torquepowered.com/community/blogs/view/19647

I'd say the best thing would be patience at this point, they probably are rather busy with it all.

#217 Hey guys, with the push to release TorqueX, iTorque 1.4, and Torque 3D Beta 2 ( all going to QA this month ) we did pull off a lot of the devs off of the giant doc task and back on dev. We weren't able to find a suitable hire to drive the work but we spun out a few contracts to pick up the slack.

So in full disclosure, a but of speed bump on the progress we were making. I'll check in with Michael on Monday and ask him to give this thread a quick update.

#218 Documentation update would be nice, just curious, documentation going to QA too?

#219 Unfortunately, there always seems to be a reason to push this back.

#220 Hey Eric,

I'm not sure you'll find any hire: for a task like this you need people having a deep product knowledge. BTW... I'm kinda worried about the QA line as well for the very same reason.