Beta Documentation Feedback

#61 Hi All!

Docs are looking great and I'm really looking forward to T3D.

There appears to be a missing section (or an extra entry) in the Contents list on page Introduction. I couldn't find a "3 Torque Launcher" section on that page.

Missing file ToolBar.jpg from section Main Editor Sections

In section Inspector, the following sentence:

Quote:Whenever you add an object to a level, you will most likely start modifying then immediately.

should read:

Quote:Whenever you add an object to a level, you will most likely start modifying them immediately.

In section Create Blank Terrain, the following sentence:

Quote:This time, increase the resolution to 1024 and click on the Noisy radio button.

should read:

Quote:This time, increase the resolution to 1024 and click on the Noise radio button.

In section Skybox Material Build, the second code example has the following line embedded within it:

Quote:<b>Sky Material Definition</b>

which I believe should be the title for that particular code snippet?

In section Adding a Sky, the following images are missing: OpenDML.jpg and OpenDMLFile.jpg.

In section Sky Properties, the mouse-over for the Dynamic Fields part appears to show the wrong information: windEffectPrecipitation (not present in the picture) and cloudSpeed0, cloudSpeed1, and cloudSpeed2 is missing from the mouse-over.

In section Sun Properties, the mouse-over description for Advanced Lighting->blur has the type as TypeBoolg. Is this correct? Other bool types appear to be just TypeBool (no 'g').

In section Azimuth and Elevation, image Azimuth.png is missing.

Chris

#62 Although I hesitate to bring it up, my eyesight makes it necessary -- I notice that some of the illustrations that are capable of being enlarged via mouse click do not enlarge as much as the others. Some of the ones illustrating terrains get much larger, which for me is very helpful. Any chance of making them all like that?

#63 So three days later and the content that was supposed to be out the day after still isn't here? :D

Also, since I caught a glimpse of it under precipitation... Is wetness only usable with precipitation? That would be kind of a waste, because it would definitely be useful for more that just showing wetness where it's raining

#64 @Neill - I know there was a smiley face at the end of that sentence, but I'm stating right now (for everyone as well), I am not up for any "is it done yet, is it done yet, is it done yet?" posts. It's stressful enough trying to keep up with the engine changes, and the sheer amount of content that I have to tackle is enough to make me crack. If the "is it there yet" posts come again I will stop posting updates. The point of a beta, and my goal during beta, is to give early access as I finish. Anything can happen at anytime.

As far as your other question, that is legitimate. I have not gotten to the Gerhard shaders yet, but the wetness does not appear to be attached to precipitation yet. I'm not sure if it will be. Right now it is a stand alone shader feature.

#65 ---

#66 @Micheal,

We really do worry about your stress level sometimes, it shows :)

Lost the rest of my post. Editing to add back.

In the Directory overview File Descriptions, would be helpful if these were in alphabetical order.

Also, you do not list .DIF as a format. But in the Adding 3D models section you show how to add DIFs for interiors. I thought DIFs were going away in T3D with better polysoup.

#67 Michael is not under stress, he just have bad temper. It is also the first symptom of Evil Corporation Exploitation (ECE).

And of course lets not forget about the Neill's strong abilities to make people angry.

#68 That's me...evil and bad tempered. I'm like a skinny, young Brian Dennehey.

Funny story...when avatars were added to the website I thought about using what I have as my gamer avatar. A coworker at my last job thought similarly to you Novack. So he took a scanned picture of me and ran it through his custom "Lesko Labs Evil Analyzer" (*cough*Photoshop*cough*)

This was the result:

edit - Image removed. My FTP and domain hosting has come to an end =( This is bad considering how many images and files I have linked here on GarageGames for resources and blogs.

#69 Oh yeah! I remember that one, is pretty cool. Why you opted for the smiley one?

#70 At the end of the Waterblock Conclusion there's two links right after each other. Both go to the same location. You don't really need both.

Quote:
When you are ready proceed to the WaterPlane Guide to learn how to make an endless ocean. Click here to continue.

edit: also maybe a comma to needs to go in at "When you are ready [comma] proceed to the WaterPlane Guide to ..."

re-edited for my own bad grammar suggestion.

#71 An opinion on a paragraph on File Descriptions.

Quote:.dso - This is a TorqueScript file that has been compiled into an encrypted format. DSO files are more secure, and must be compiled before you can test your game on an iPhone or simulator.

I found that definition rather awkward. For start, compiled doesnt translate to encrypted; there is actually any post processing on the file related to encryption? otherwise, sounds like trying to explain the general concept to my mother.

And the second part doesnt do any better "...must be compiled before you can test your game on an iPhone or simulator." Ipnone? Simulator? what the heck that means?

Stop copy-pastin docs, lazy doc-runner!

#72 @Michael, please ignore these jackasses that seem to be running lose around here! Keep up the good work.

#73 @All - OK, I just figured something out. Novack's post made me realize something. A lot of these weird doc mistakes are a result of building from an old repo! GAH!

I can actually generate the docs from two locations: Work computer and remote build system. It turns out the last set I pushed from my work computer did not use the most up to date repo, hence the iPhone stuff which was actually removed last week.

Just to be safe, no more copying and pasting!

@Matt - Thanks =)

#74 I just pre-ordered yesterday, so this is my first glance at the docs... I can't get any of them to load.

I'm using Firefox 3.0.9. I get the contents pane on the left-hand side, but when I click something there, it never loads (I just get "waiting for docs.garagegames.com" in the status bar.

Is something just not working today? Or is there something about the docs pages that Firefox doesn't like?

#75 @Rodney, Im using firefox 3 and it works ok. Could be something related to your connection? Certainly is not due to the browser.

#76 In Firefox, the main page/left hand frame loads in a split second, but whenever I expand a list and click on a topic, nothing ever loads into the right hand pane.

So I tried it in IE 7 and the main page and left hand frame won't even load, so there's nothing to click.

I don't get any errors in either browser, I just don't get anything loaded... it's like it's waiting for something.

Strange...

*edit* Ok, an update. In Firefox, no matter how long I let the page sit there trying to load, when I eventually go to some other page, the page I'm waiting on suddenly loads, just as the browser goes off to the other page (does that make sense?). So I can see the page just for a split second before it navigates away.

IE still hasn't loaded anything.

#77 that happened to me 2 on IE 8 - but was a problem with my connection

Wireless and falty

At Univ i don't get that problem

#78 I'm on cable, so it shouldn't be a problem. Still no luck getting one to load though. I'll try it at home on my other cable provider and see if it's any different.

#79 just went to the docs and it happened as you reported - but clicking again on the link opened it correctly

#80 This is strange...I've never encountered this problem. Are you able to access the other pages:

docs.garagegames.com/tgb/official
docs.garagegames.com/tge/official
docs.garagegames.com/tgea/official

Try those and let me know what happens. The next push will also include a link to download the latest version of the documentation as a .zip file. This can be used to replace your local, offline docs for when you do not have intarweb access.