Call For Good Documentation

#1 Ok sounds cool, I would like to be the first to add one.
here is one from Melv I've been waiting to grow.
and it has some good starter info
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=forums&page=result.thread&qt=4519

#2 (@BadGuy: You beat me here :P)

@Everyone:

Howdy,

Pat and I will be watching these forums closely and working with y'all to get as much knowledge into the Torque docs as possible. We're also usually on #garagegames (on maxgaming.net) as [GGi]Sado and [GGi]KillerBunny respectively.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, questions, or resources to send our way, feel free to contact us either through these forums, over IRC, or via e-mail.

Ben

#3 www.hallofworlds.com/pages/Torque/TorqueNotes/
www.liquid.nq.net/tutorial/
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=2212

#4 Awesome! Keep 'em coming!

*starts reading over them*

#5 Are you asking for resources that people have published for example?

#6 We're interested in any sort of documentation that we could integrate into the official Torque docs. So if someone has done a resource/resources containing documentation that relates to Torque, it would be most welcome.

#7 Damnit, somebody posted about the Desmond Fletcher's Holodeck before me! My spirit ascended a little when I knew that wisdom. As a disciple of Saint Desmond, I'll do the ritual suicide after posting.

God, and how about this Gamasutra High pass filter article? I'll never be the same after this.

This Hall of Words is a source for a lot of sources too.

Hope this hit a thousand posts!

#8 I wrote a vehicle tutorial if that's the kind of thing you're looking for:

www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=3925

#9 Here is one for vehicles:


http://tork.zenkel.com/tutorials/vehicles/wheeled.htm

#10 The high pass filter and vehicle tutorials are both pretty neat, but we're looking more for things that are directly applicable to Torque as it stands.

We'll probably leave tea-leaves about high quality resources in the docs - after all, there are a lot of really high quality code snippits and resources out there - but for inclusion into the doc proper, the item must be educational and applicable to vanilla HEAD.

On the other hand, it would be darned useful to have a section discussing different mods to Torque's vehicle code, or listing different cookbook tweaks - how to write a GUI control, for instance.

At this stage, who knows? :) But the more directly it relates to Torque, the better. Imagine how useful the item in question would be if it was in a book you bought specifically as a reference and guide to Torque. That's the sort of thing we're looking for.

#11 try this one guys,
about how to add environmental effects.

http://holodeck.st.usm.edu/vrcomputing/vrc_t/tutorials/effects/

#12 Excellent idea. Here are some more links:
holodeck.st.usm.edu/vrcomputing/vrc_t/
tork.zenkel.com click on "Tutorial" button

Tribes 2:
scripts.tribes-universe.com/halide/tutorial.html - IMHO one of the best tutorial on the net


Just general ideas:
I am pretty experienced C++ programmer but I have difficulties in understarding of Torque. And the main difficulty it is unique philosophy of the engine. I think first of all there should be cleared the following questions:
1) Aims of the engine;
2) General overview (without many details, just upper level of abstraction)
3) Client - Server architecture;
4) World architecture (lot of stuff can be here);
5) Simple multiplayer game example with explanations;
6) GUI
etc.

I think we should cover intermediate stuff (there lot of tutorials for beginners (what is datablock, operators, etc.)) but how does it work together?

That is the main question IMHO...


And one more suggestion: documentation may be divided into 2 parts: 1 part is engine documentation and 2 part is programming tricks.

#13 As a new guy to TGE these links have helped me a lot:

Disabling the auto-client update feature:
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=forums&page=result.thread&qt=11200

getting the fps counter:
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=forums&page=result.thread&qt=8890

bottom post in this thread showed me how to use self-illumination on dts shapes (something I've yet to find in the docs):
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=forums&page=result.thread&qt=9056

This helped with ifl and specular (which I still can't get working) on dts shapes and introduced me to unmess, which apparently fixes bunk dts meshes while messing up specular mapping :) :
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=forums&page=result.thread&qt=6966

Glowing items, very cool:
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=forums&page=result.thread&qt=10187


My two cents...

Although I think new docs would be great, it's no substitute for being able to search the forums, resources, and docs. Can you please add a real search (including the body of the threads)?

I'm a hands-on person, I feel stupid posting questions that have been asked a thousand times before or are easy to fix if I knew where to look, I'd rather search the posts or docs for an answer. Its not that my questions are stupid (I hope), its just not fair to the community to have to answer the same question every time someone new buys TGE (I hate feeling like I'm high maintenance).

Also, I think it's important to point out that some of the coolest features that TGE offers are the things that aren't documented well or at all. I do realize that is what this thread is trying to fix, but... When I first downloaded the sdk I felt that I bought a solid and complete, no frills engine (functional not fancy). Over the past few months I realized what the engine CAN do; now I think purchasing the engine was an excellent decision (certainly one I would not hesitate to make again). Searches would help, but also just one solid demo mission that included everything the engine can do, with great lighting and detailed interiors. You know the "wow" factor. Hell, just make the thing a community project.

Btw: I have read posts from GG employees regarding the search function and I sympathize with anyone who is investing their own money into their company (probably the majority of the members on this site). If there was a way to download the posts, so the people at home could use their own processing to search the posts; that would help a lot too. Something like a mysql dump file (with schema) would be great (with updates every month?). I guess it would be two files: one for TGE owners and one for everyone else. I don't know, just throwing things out...

Please don't think I'm being critical, just trying to the most out of my GG experience... :)

John.


Edit: grrr, can never remember to add the url tags...

#14 IMHO Docs need to be divided up something like this:

1. Engine overview (executing scripts, datablocks, the Player class, client/server arch and what gets transmitted to client). Also what each C class handles.

2. UI and World/Mission Editing

3. Exporting (static items, items w/ animations, Vehicles, Players)

4. Scripting (yes, broad I know). General reference and examples for commonly needed things.

5. Tips and tricks (Tribal, metrics, etc)

I am making progress on my game Bastards and will prob make a doc that takes a new Torquer through the steps to basically recreate my game. I have not yet seen a single doc that at least touches most parts of Torque!

#15 Ron Yacketta's TGE Script reference is still my most used item. Dunno if it needs any updating - it's been around for quite a while now.

#16 @Bob: Thanks for the links and feedback. I agree that search is a very important feature - hopefully, things will stabilize enough that Rick can get the server power to run them. I'm sure if you sent him a check for a couple thousand bucks, to buy a new server with, it would happen faster. ;)

@Stephen: 1 and 4 from your list are covered pretty thoroughly in the docs I'm working on. 2, 3, and 5 are already covered to some extent in the available tutorials, so they're not as big of a priority. Yet.

@Davis: We have some technology in place that will make updating the script reference docs much, much easier... News at 11 :P

#17 A grand? Well I'm saving my money for TGE2, but I'm willing to kick up $100. I'm sure there are at least 10 other people that feel the search features worth it...

Anyone (Jarrod I've seen your complaints on this)?

What about making the posts available for download by sdk owners? That way we can do the searches on our hardware. This is a very important feature.

John.

#18 Probably a couple thousand, whenever I've talked to Rick about the load it would put on the server, he kind of gets this wilted look, so. But I'm not speaking officially here. It might work, might not, ask Rick before you cut a check ;)

#19 Ben - here's a quick question for ya...

Are things bein' set up so that the community can continue to contribute to the new documentation easily? IE - for errors in the scripting reference, do we have to email ya and wait for it to get added, or is it going to be more of a collaborative effort where (for instance) if I spotted an error or deficency, I can just edit it and update that section?

#20 All the engine reference documentation is embedded in the engine source, so all that you'd need to do would be to send us a patch, and off we go.

Hopefully, we'll eventually have a more PHP.net style documentation site, with user comments areas and such, but that time is not now. :(