Forum Kickoff

#1 Rick and Jeff too. :) Good idea here Ken.

Welcome all. Ken's book rocks.

#2 Good idea Ken! Maybe you can point a way to the corrections or post a listiing here. People are all over asking about the errors of the code in chapter 6.

#3 And thank you Ken, for writing such a useful book. :)

#4 Thanks Guys ! I was really wating for this space.

#5 Rockin, I'm nearing page 100 so expect opinions and questions as I go. Mwuahahhahaa, yay!

#6 First of all, Ken's book DOES rock! I'm devouring small chunks of it daily (and the paper is really making me thirsty!) =P

BUT... I am dealing with that sense of inadequacy that comes from checking all the existing threads about the book and discovering that no one has encountered MY problem -- they are all way beyond me dealing with quantum physics stuff in the later chapters of the book. So I must come to grips with the fact that my problem solving skills seem to be equivalent to that of a coaster (and a cardboard one at that). But I am man enough to accept that and move on ::deep breath::

On page 107 and 108 there is a code snippet for inserting and moving an object. Ken has thoughtfully provided the code for this on the cdrom so as to eliminate mistyping it. When I run this, everything works fine until I follow the chapter instructions on page 110 (step 10.) and do the

MoveShape(%tt,50);

function. At that point, I get two errors:

CH3/moveshape.cs (47): Unable to find object: '', attempting to call function 'getTransform'
CH3/moveshape.cs (52): Unable to find object: '', attempting to call function 'setTransform'

I've been over the code and can't see where any typos were made. Anyone got a bone to toss to a slightly confused newcomer? It's almost like it doesn't see the object that I've previous defined which works for the other operations on it.

-Michael



EDIT: Found the problem! I think I talked myself into the solution in my last paragraph. On page 110, the very last line in step 10 which reads:

MoveShape(%tt,50);

should be changed to:

MoveShape($tt,50);

...so the problem is that the object is assigned to a global variable initially, yet the MoveShape function refers to a local variable. omigosh... I'M LEARNING THINGS!

#7 Ken 'CERDIP',

Just ordered your book and really look forward to it.

#8 OK, I'd like to ask a question related to the Chapter 8 discussion that was going on in the previous thread started by Jeff Osborn:

Jeff, you wrote that the objects shown in Figure 8.23 don't match what you see in-game, and the consensus seemed to be that we needed to manually place the interior objects there. You then wrote that their textures don't match those in the book, so we'd need to manually place the new textures on the objects that we actually used.

I understand what you're saying but I can't figure out WHICH objects we should use (arch and base1, I think), and then I don't know how to place textures on objects. I checked out the codesamplers tutorials but don't see any hint on how this might be done. Could you provide some more details?

#9 WOOHOO! Got a great book, what else is there to say that hasn't been said before !

#10 Definately a GREAT book.

One suggestion (now that the book has it's own thread). How about an errata thread (possibly locked) where book errata can all be gathered in one spot? Would make it a LOT easier then searching all the threads.

As far as the book itself goes, it rocks! Learning a LOT more then I have while browzing various links, examples, and tutorials. Good job Cerdip!! Now get to work on your new TSE book! *grins*

-Pony

#11 Ken ... very good book!!!
Thumbs Up.

I was astonished when I found in Milan (Italy) 3 copies of your book-->1 was for me ;)

When you think to release a new 3DGPa1?
Andrea

#12 Congrats on this forum, but is there any way I can unsubscribe it, GG, because I don't own the book. ;)

#13 Yes... on the right-hand sidebar under "Forums" there is an "Edit Subscriptions" link.

#14 Erm, yep, I know, but there's no specific entry for this "Book" forum (at least I don't see one). Guess I'll have to live with it. Thx anyway.

#15 Ken is there a good consistent place we can go for code updates from the book? I think that would be a good thing to have so any updates that happen could be put in one place as you release/fix them. Just a thought.

#16 Greg,

I'm not seeing the interior, and none of the evil1 interiors really match the one shown in the picture, and believe me, I've tried loading them all and exploring to try to find the perspective shown in the pic.

Ken? Is the interior included, or could you post it?

Thanks,
Jeff

#17 OK, thanks Jeff. So it sounds like it just can't be done right now.

I love this book but have to say it's frustrating when the examples don't work. I moved on to the skinning chapter last night and found that a number of things either worked differently or didn't work: for example the Racing Demo link drops you into a demo that uses the Runabout, not the buggy; the soup can is not available to view when running the Load Models link (it doesn't appear in the list of objects); the method of creating an outline of an object using the Point-to-Point pen option requires a right click -> Node -> Close in order to close it, which isn't mentioned in the text;

And I still haven't been able to get the Chapter 6 game to run correctly; I keep getting the Chapter 5 splash screen and no multiplayer options. If I run it off the CD, it works fine, but the 'first copy Chapter 5 in Chapter 6 folder then run Ch6Emaga6InstallKit method' just doesn't seem to work, no matter what I do.

#18 Greg,

On the chapter 6 game, I had the same problem. I did some exploring and the thing I found was that they left out one edit. I think the file was maybe mainmenu.gui or something similar.

I had to go in and add the command to put the "Connect to server" button code in there. For an example (or even a cut/paste) use the file off the CD and add the dutton definition to the file as needed.

Hope that made sense. I don't have my book here at work to give you exact names, but my info might be close enough for you to figure it out from.

-Pony

#19 OK, I finally got it to work. Maybe some of my problem was that I haven't tried to type in any of these files myself; I've been just copying them from the CD.

If I directly copy the RESOURCES/CH6 directory, uncheck all the read-onlys, then copy the common/defaults.cs from Chapter5, I can get the server to start with only one error message: control/server/kickban.cs not found.

I can then join the game by launching the TGE in the CH6 directory.

But I haven't even touched the EmagaCh6KitInstall file; I think this is what was causing the problem before, for some reason.

Thanks for the suggestions though, Jeff and Pony.

#20 Just a note: the book code and the install kits are mentioned in the book copy, therefore they are canon. If there are errors in them, the errors will be corrected, the corrections posted in this forum, and the revisions applied to future printings as dictated by the publisher.

(Errors in the CD copyable code may or may not be fixed - if the error exists *only* with the CD copyable code, the fixes will probably only happen if the effort coincides with a correction to the book or install kits.)

I am trying to get together complete functional errata for a post in this forum (there are about half a dozen), but the activity moves slowly in fits and starts due to my work schedule, family time, other commitments, and the need to chase down the new problem reports (in order to make sure there isn't a show stopper amongst them).

So, if you have problems, please employ the following procedure:

a) Check the console log for errors specific to the problem you are having.
b) Triple-check your typing, comparing to the book code.
c) Check your work against the CD copyable code. DO NOT TREAT THE CD COPYABLE CODE AS "THE ANSWER". This step may reveal clues to where you went awry, if you did.
d) Ensure that you have started with a clean slate, and have followed the book instructions to the letter.
e) Finally if you have done all of the above, and still have no good result, post in this forum. Others here may know how to resolve the problem, and between all of us, we can figure out if a correction needs to be made to the book. If there are errors, I need to know where and what so that they can be corrected.

(I'm going to post this in its own thread, for visibility's sake)