We need tutorials written by experts! I'll pay for it!
by Adam deGrandis · in Artist Corner · 05/10/2004 (4:08 pm) · 44 replies
Hello Torquers. I have a statement.
We need tutorials by people who are accomplished with using this engine.
And of course, by "we" I mean, "myself, and probably, like, a few others". :)
Joking aside, the thought came to me when I was messing around with Bravetrees car content pack. It's awesome. Its obvious that the guys who made it have mental ownership of how to do it. The fact that they've released the rest of the content packs and figured out treads is a testiment to that.
Don't get me wrong, im thrilled that those resources. But want to know what I really would like? Tutorials written by these guys (or anyone else who has such an expert knowledge of the engine) that follows STEP BY STEP instructions on how to actually produce these things from scratch. From what nodes they need to how to set up the suspension to how to attatch headlights or whatever other bells and whistles you could think of.
I dont know about anyone else, but i would GLADLY PAY MORE than what they charge for the content packs to be taught how to do this rather than have a final product that I then have to deconstruct.
Just a thought. Some damn good tutorials that you can buy. Or hell, I would even pay someone to write the tutorial for the benefit of the community. The same questions show up every other week in the forums. "how do you set up cars in torque". clearly, a solid resource could be a huge help.
How about it? Anyone with me on this?
We need tutorials by people who are accomplished with using this engine.
And of course, by "we" I mean, "myself, and probably, like, a few others". :)
Joking aside, the thought came to me when I was messing around with Bravetrees car content pack. It's awesome. Its obvious that the guys who made it have mental ownership of how to do it. The fact that they've released the rest of the content packs and figured out treads is a testiment to that.
Don't get me wrong, im thrilled that those resources. But want to know what I really would like? Tutorials written by these guys (or anyone else who has such an expert knowledge of the engine) that follows STEP BY STEP instructions on how to actually produce these things from scratch. From what nodes they need to how to set up the suspension to how to attatch headlights or whatever other bells and whistles you could think of.
I dont know about anyone else, but i would GLADLY PAY MORE than what they charge for the content packs to be taught how to do this rather than have a final product that I then have to deconstruct.
Just a thought. Some damn good tutorials that you can buy. Or hell, I would even pay someone to write the tutorial for the benefit of the community. The same questions show up every other week in the forums. "how do you set up cars in torque". clearly, a solid resource could be a huge help.
How about it? Anyone with me on this?
About the author
I'm an veteran game artist, teacher, and all around nice guy. Check out my portfolio at adamdegrandis.com.
#42
03/05/2007 (8:25 pm)
By the way, the Ken Finney books (they are my college course books for my torque class, Westwood Online), are very broken in some spots. He came out with a second edition to 3D Game Programming All In One, but it had some broken logic as well and the editor never worked quite right. Thank goodness we have an instructor who is well versed in the torque engine. It is a decent book overall, I just wished he would fix it. Also, he goes over a tool (a whole chapter dedicated to it) that is still in beta. I forget the name of it now, but if you are publishing a production ready tutorial type of book you should NEVER NEVER NEVER have a whole chapter dependent on the student having access to a beta tool. I have no idea what Ken was thinking when he did this. 
#43
03/05/2007 (9:54 pm)
He was most likely thinking that his publishing deadline to print date was in the same arena as the release of Constructor. 
#44
03/22/2007 (2:27 pm)
Why not instead of making tutorials why not teach online classes on the materials you can get together. You could do the classes in a weekend or over the coarse of a couple of weeks depending on what the material is. Wouldn't that be a better use of your expertise than trying to figure out what everyone wants then try to make a bunch of written tutorials? They take a long time, as everyone has said, and they are more than just hard work, they are real hard work. The only problem is when anyone from the community makes a tutorials you always see the posts, asking for clarity and in some cases a complete re-write in a post about an area you already explained in your tutorial. I think you should just teach it online, just my opinion, your information is worth paying for, but i think you get a better return this way:)
Torque Owner Clark Fagot