Official Torque 3D Documentation Feedback

#161 Shape editor image links are broken.

#162 works for me @.@

maybe they fixed it before I saw it

#163 Still doesn't work for me. Neither with FF on Windows XP nor with IE 8 on Windows 7.

#164 Go here: http://docs.torquepowered.com/torque-3d/official/

then go to World Editor -> Editors -> Shape Editor
(don't open it in a new tab, open it on the same page)

It only shows up for me if I go there correctly and not using a direct link. I found that using the link you posted above shows with no images but when I followed the steps above it worked fine.

#165 Ah, it workes the way you described because you took a different road :)

It doesn't work when you go to Artist Guide -> Torque 3D Editors -> Shape Editor. That's how I tried to get there.

#166 Yes, the shape editor descriptions are working in the World Editor--shape editor section, but not in the Artist--shape editor section. If you read the locations of the images...they are being stored in two separate http locations....and might explain why only one set is appearing...shouldn't the images be in only ONE location? What's the need to have the same images stored in two separate locations?? Seems redundant and waste of storage space?

#167 Sorry I posted this in another form but then remembered this one.

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.

#168 There are a couple of things I don't understand...

I've been waiting for months on the finished 1.1 docs for the Artist License, since you've chosen not to share the beta with those of us who purchased this license sans support docs. Why are you selling finished releases without documentation?

Why don't you post a version number in the title of your online/offline docs? That way I can go straight there and see if the new version is up. I honestly have no idea how to find out otherwise, your website is such a mess. Second, people who complain about the online/offline versions not matching can tell at a glance that they're not the same. How long does someone have to work in software (of any kind) to know that versions should be tracked and that this should be transparent to the user?

Will you post a notice about the support docs on the front page when it's released? Will you send an email notice to license holders?

#169 Is there separate documentation for version 1.0.1? It's a little difficult to navigate version 1.0.1 with 1.1 documentation.

#170 Not sure if this thread is still monitored but a couple of really useful items could do with being included in the next release of docs:

- Collision meshes - Everyone seems to misunderstand these in T3D and presume that they still need to be convex but Manoel has shed some great info on this in this thread that would be useful to include in docs even as a rough placeholder.

- Basic vs Advanced Lighting - desperately need some info on what features each lighting manager supports... i.e. dynamic spotlights, casting shadows on various objects i.e. terrain, DIF, DTS and things like SSAO where you have to hunt around (see script extract below) or trial and error:

/// Enables the SSAO post effect.  This uses alot of
/// fillrate and isn't recommended for lower end GPUs.
///
/// This only works in AL.
///
$pref::PostEffect::SSAO = false;

/// Turns on the edge antialiasing filter for a fake FSAA
/// effect which performs well with Advanced Lighting.
///
/// This only works in AL.
///
$pref::PostEffect::EdgeAA = false;

/// Turns on the sun light ray effect.  It uses alot of
/// fillrate, so do not use it on low end GPUs.
///
/// This only works in AL.
///
$pref::PostEffect::LightRay = false;

#171 Hey everyone. I'm about to push a new set of web docs online. The file structure of the new documentation is very different, so you may notice some irregularities and bugs for the next couple days. Bare with us while this process is worked out.

#172 images missing on sections 3-5, 7-8 on "Install Visual Studio C++ 2008 Express", and next page link -> "Setup the Development environment" / "Getting up and running" images missing on 1, 5-11.

#173 also finding that the chm file is looking for a web page it cannot load, then anything you select on the left list doesn't show up on the right

#174 @Steve - Thanks. I'll get those working shortly.

@Hans - You have to unlock the CHM. For security reasons, whenever you download the CHM it will be locked:

1. Find the CHM
2. Right click
3. Properties
4. At the bottom of the properties, you should see an Unlock or Unblock section.

That should resolve the CHM issue

#175 @Michael - sweet that work - thanks alot for getting us all more docs :)

#176 lol @ M$ security not telling anyone that it's stopping them from viewing something!

#177 I see some new awesome features coming, uv editor, collision tab in the shape editor ect.

It's looking good so far.

Bugs:
GUI Editor->Introduction, missing image swarmer.png
Scripting->Simple->Vectors, is this wrong? it seems to be more about variables, i might be wrong on this one tho. tbh. i have no idea what vectors are, that's why i tried to check it

#178 In the CHM file, under Syntax Guide > Operations

It has:

// Modulo
%mod = 5/2; // results in 1

But it probably should be:

// Modulo
%mod = 5%2; // results in 1

Also there are a number of spelling errors and typos throughout the document (a rough estimate would be about one per page). Most of it isn't major, but you still might want to run the plain (non code) text though a spell checking program. I actually made a list of all the typos I found, but I'm not posting it due to its length. I can email the list to you if you'd like, but really you should be able to find most of them by just using a spell checker.

#179 @Twisted - Go ahead an e-mail me the list. Most of the CHM is written in C++, so it's hard to run it through a normal spell check. I'll try to keep a closer eye on the spelling, though. Thanks.

#180 Just a quick quirk or two with the offical documentation (docs.torquepowered.com/torque-3d/official/) as I was browsing through the updates I noticed random fields were expanding (I was browsing under the artist pages). This didn't affect the current page displayed but it is an unexpected behavior in the sidebar.

Also several of the artist pages just bring up 404 errors leaving me wondering if it's a bad upload of the doc. If those pages don't exist yet a blank/logo page or de-activating the links might be more user friendly for the moment.

All in all what I glanced over looks good and I look forward to even more in the future.


edit: is the chm manual down as none of the pages in it seem to be coming up?