Intro to Torque Scripting Video Tutorial

#1 Wow, that's really cool. I have a question or two [not "it doesnt work", this time :-)]

You're running torque on windows in the first few pieces. Once you enter torsion [~2 minutes in], suddenly you're loooking at [under windows, obviously], a linux type tree; lib{soemthing}.so, and {stuff}.sh, while all the .dlls and .exes in the previous window are missing. What's going on with that?

The first keyboard shortcuts you mention in the torsion stuff are F9 and F5; are these reassignable? My mac [powerbook] does funky things with the F keys, and it'd be nice if those shortcuts are available in other ways, too.

Wishlist: Instead of saying "", it would be nice if something representative happened when a watched variable leaves scope. So after you leave loadMods, [5:30], it would be cool if it said "left scope" instead of being nil, as if it were undefined or uninitialised. Otherwise, much later in a debugging session, it may not be clear what's being watched, or why.

I don't mean to sound negative, by the way; this tutorial is great, and makes torsion look... "awesome", to use the vernacular.

Congratulations, a tutorial very well done!
Gary (-;

#2 Thanks for the feedback. To answer the questions;

1. The missing files: The first shot was from the windows explorer which showed all the files from the TGE install. The next shot is from the torsion software. It is not a drive folder view, but instead a project folder view. It has inside it just the script files, log files, etc. It does not show any .dll files etc.

2. Keyboard shortcuts: Torsion is alpha, and I've no idea about future reassignable keys, but I'm sure Tom will make everyone as happy as possible in the future.

3. Saying, "": This was just the intro video which just focused in on step line debugging, and how a new user could use it to step through code to begin to discover what is going on. It would bog the video down at this point to start going into variable scope details in the "intro" video, but these topics and more will be covered in the following videos. if you'll notice the Table of Contents on the side of the page as well as the forum topics shows the next video planned is "Variable scope" :)

Glad you enjoyed the video, and I hope that answered your questions.


B--

#3 Torsion is fantastic!!!! It's a great way to step through and trace the entire code. Eventually we all have to do this. My question is-- is the first alpha release is what is being used now?

http://forums.sickheadgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=85&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

thanks

#4 Great tutorials Brandon. I think they'll be very useful for the community !!

#5 Is there any way to download the video so I don't have to watch it while connected?

#6 @Tatiana: Yes, it's the open alpha that is being used from sickheadgames.com.

@Tom: Not yet, and the reason was discussed over two vBlogs on the site.. 'Off-line Content' on June 29,2005, and more recently 'Java downloader' on July 1. The link the the vBlog page is torque.smdlabs.com/media/vblog/betaVBlog.htm.

The cliff notes version: Each video is multiple clips 'stitched' together when you load the video. Having a video broken into these 'smaller' clips makes it easy to add, change, and update the video content without having to re-compile and upload huge video files. The downside is trying to get all these small files into a download package. If anyone out there has any bright ideas, I'm open to suggestions. That's the main reason I made the 'Offline content' vBlog; to give people a rundown of 'how' it is done so that you would be informed, and could possibly come up with an efficient solution to the offline content problem.

Thanks everyone for your support, and encouragement!

B--

#7 @Brandon:
1) Cool. Although a .so file is a linux .dll file :-)
3) It was actually a comment about torsion more than your video; I was hoping that torsion would show something useful, not necessarily that you would point it out [yet]

Thank-you very much,
Gary (-;

#8 Thanks for the video! I'll be watching for the next ones.

#9 Excellent, i look forward to this video tonight. Brandon, of the few tut sites ive ever used, yours is the best

#10 @Brandon - Cool to see you're using Torsion for this. An it really is a good tutorial... this should be required viewing for new Torque users!

Everyone else. Note we're starting to fix some of the initial bugs in the first alpha release. I'll be sure to post a new plan and post to the forums once the next alpha is out. My guess is that it will be two to four weeks before the next alpha is out... depending.

#11 Great work, Brandon. I've been to the site and viewed them fine thru Mozilla, and I think what you're doing is great! I have quite a few of the many different Buzz.Tuts, and enjoy viewing them, many fold. Each time I learn more and it's in the most user friendly format for me. There is nothing like watching an interface being worked on an unfamilar program, I've found that's more than half the 'hard' part; getting to know all the buttons and related functions...

Keep up the superb quality!

#12 @Gary - I just saw your "left scope" wishlist item. In the next update i plan on fixing up how the TelnetDebugger reports variables back to Torsion. As it is now there isn't any specific message on non-existance... and you right it should be something other than ""... maybe like . I also need to get expansion information for objects and array vars, so they show a little + sign next to them.

Lot's of good stuff is coming!

#13 Brandon, this video, like all your tutorials so far, is just great. Really nice job man, can't wait to see the rest!

#14 Hi Brandon,
Your video tuts are great.
Nice way to represent your videos and forum threads on the topic.

The Quick Clips are excellent.

#15 Wll Torsion work with T2D?

#16 @Jesse Hall, Yep Tom said it works great with T2D.

@Brandon. Nicely done! Looking forward to seeing more:)

#17 @Jesse - On of my goals when i started was to make sure Torsion was a perfect fit for T2D users.

#18 I've used it with T2D, its quite nice :)

#19 Awesome! I'll be making the switch from Jedit over this evening im sure :)

#20 Update:

Page2 or 'Basics and Variable Scope" has been uploaded. I also modified the vBlog mini video player and used it as an additional clip resource player below the main video window. I thought the small clip player at the bottom could be used as an additional resource that could elaborate on certain topics, that would be 'optional' to watch, and might not pertain to some viewers.

The link is here torque.smdlabs.com/media/freeTutorials/introTScript/page2.htm

B--