A Irrlicht Begginers Manual

dejai · Post by **dejai** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 8:03 am

http://www.irrlicht3d.org/wiki/index.ph ... ichtManual

The wiki versions up

After popular demand.

Virion · Post by **Virion** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:25 am

Hmm I hv a suggestion. Can we replace the "Tutorial" part in wiki with the manual? There are so little things in the tutorial part.

btw dejai, do you plan to write the whole thing in one page? >_<

dejai · Post by **dejai** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 1:16 pm

yes then at the end edit it .. into chapters...

MasterGod · Post by **MasterGod** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 2:30 pm

You should make all the pages now then edit in the right place every time.
It would be very difficult not just to read what's written there but to edit it too.

dejai · Post by **dejai** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 4:38 am

Ok Its now seperated into chapters, please can everyone attach the link to their signature. It would help advertise it.

Virion · Post by **Virion** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 8:01 am

dejai wrote:Ok Its now seperated into chapters, please can everyone attach the link to their signature. It would help advertise it.

done

dejai · Post by **dejai** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 8:47 am

Cool Thanks Heaps!

MasterGod · Post by **MasterGod** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:56 am

Me too.

By the way, maybe there should be a code bank where we can put lots of simple programs that shows how to use irrlicht with other libraries (irrKlang or some other sound engine, AI lib..)

bitplane · Post by **bitplane** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 5:12 pm

This project is a really good idea. The layout is lacking a section for an overview of the main concepts- nodes, animators, meshes and mesh buffers (including vertex and index lists), materials and their types and the material renderers. There should be an introduction to reading the docs, because beginners seem to struggle extracting useful information from the doxygen. It will also need a glossary.

I think if a lot of people are going to contribute towards like a wiki, then there should be some kind of style policy. I reckon we should use technically correct language and explain each term as it is introduced. For example the "What is Irrlicht" part should explain that Irrlicht is a cross platform 3D scene graph API, then explain what an API is, how 3d graphics work, what a scene graph is and why you need one, and how Irrlicht manages to be cross platform.
No offense intended but so far it's kinda reading like an essay, it should be reading more like a manual - every sentence should be jam packed with relevant factual information.
Would you mind if I butchered it a little?

omaremad · Post by **omaremad** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 7:52 pm

Even though the first chapter is very good, I don't think that the rest of the manual will be useful since from the subheadings it seems that it will just reiterate niko's original tutorials (hence why the first chapter is useful; its not a repeat of anything).

Most users have trouble applying knowledge from the supplied tutorials into real gamedev problems, writing how to do that will be allot more useful.

xDan · Post by **xDan** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 8:10 pm

I appreciate the effort you have put in. But

has all of the state-of-the-art features which can be found in commercial 3d engines.

powerful graphics engine with a large list of components and features, rivaling many commercial graphics engines which can cost anyway from $1000 to 1 Million or more dollars to purchase and or develop

REALLY? I could rant about this. But i'll spare you for now

omaremad · Post by **omaremad** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 11:27 pm

Me and bitplane had a lengthy discussion on irc, which led me to believe that niko's tutorials are enough, and if people cant read 1 page tutorials i doubt they can read a manual (can here means are able to put in effort). Niko has made great tutorials and his dyoxygen is extremely good.

I guess a dyoxygen guide will be more beneficial than reiterating what is there with more word (with the number of words being the source of the problem).

bitplane · Post by **bitplane** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:38 am

Oh don't get me wrong, I think the manual is a good idea, but I agree with you that it shouldn't cover the same stuff as the tutorials.
Also I think it shouldn't be too.. linear, like a real book. Web pages have the excellent advantage of being able to branch at any point, so all the stuff about Dev-Cpp (Cpp Dev?) should actually just be a link to the dev-cpp tutorial. There should be a link for each compiler / IDE / operating system.

I also think that there should be a good in-depth tutorial of how to read the API reference, then afterwards just link to things in the docs instead of explaining them in full. Also I think the main chapters should be based around the namespaces, core first, followed by scene, video, io and gui.

Two more gripes - I don't like the "don't delete anything" idea, because it goes against the whole idea of a wiki. I also don't like the idea of a fixed number of chapters. It doesn't have to fill x number of pages and have y number of chapters, it should be as short as possible but as long as it takes.

dejai · Post by **dejai** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 1:53 am

That is exactly my view on the issue, the GOAL of the manual is for a person with no knowledge with API's to be able to quickly and effectivley adapt to Irrlicht. C++ MUST BE KNOWN IT IS NOT A C++ MANUAL!

Ok, now the end of chapter projects are not the same as the tutorials. They are adaptations of all the skills you learn within the chapter. With the final chapter concluding the skills with a Fps project or equivelant.

The Chapter Projects are actually going to be Tutorials from the forums mixed with the tutorials and with extra features. By tutorial 1 I am not referancing Directly to the Tutorials within the site. So thanks for the advice. The Chapters will need to be edited of course but should contain a complete HOW - To to get a newbie irrlicht to an intermediate standard.

So, in each chapter Index I have put a Base. EDIT IT, Go for it change the concepts etc.
I am thinking of linking each page to the index so each chapter is made up of about 15 sub pages but I wont want to do this until the index is finished. So go and have a turn at fixing up the index make it completely comprehenisive within 10 chapters.
An 11th chapter will be on IrrKlang
and a 12th on Newton.
So Go Nuts.

Virion · Post by **Virion** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 2:10 am

and a 12th on Newton.

with wrapper or not?