step by step help? :)

[thiefbug]

So... I want to do a game with my friend.

but the first problem begins with the start...
the irrlicht tutorial is not really helpfully for me, because i don't understand it.
when i want to do bump mapping for example it tells me, that this is only available for tangent meshes...

well... i should start at the beginning.

should i use the following programs? which could be usefull aswell?

Animation / 3D Programm: Blender
Sound program: Fruity loops

ok, i already told you the problem with the great tangent meshes... but this shouldn't be the biggest problem.

i guess the worst thing is: the meshviewer of the tutorial didn't give me enough information at all to code a program with which i could make it much more easier to build a world.

while we are constructing our concept we are looking at our friends if they want to help... and if I'm able to learn C++ in the right way.


so the question at the beginning is: could someone give me a tutorial or anything which explains, step by step, how to write a world editor...
because to code without an editor... and this just with two persons... we wouldn't bring it to an end =D

thanks

greez thiefbug

edit:
ah by the way: maybe it is helpfully... or a usefull information that i already learned / started with:

learned - Php (written an own browsergame)
started and atm learning at school - Visual Basic (able to write little programs)
started but didn't understand - C lite
stared but didn't understand - C++

edit2:
ah and what i wanted to tell was that i don't want to use irredit.
it might be a good world editor but i am a little graphic freak (just a little... bump mapping is a must) and i don't know how to define the meshes out of *.irr edit files.

[CuteAlien]

so the question at the beginning is: could someone give me a tutorial or anything which explains, step by step, how to write a world editor...
because to code without an editor... and this just with two persons... we wouldn't bring it to an end =D

Warning - writing your first editor might take you a few months (or years - depending on your expertise and amount of free time) more than you expect.

The first step is designing the exact features you want. Which dialogs do you need. What does each dialog. How do the controls work. How should the camera work.

The next step is maybe the hardest one. Design a data format which will support all the features which you want. This really depends on your needs, it might help to study and understand a few other formats first to get a feeling for it.

And then there is the implementation. The meshviewer example actually goes already a long way into implementing a very simple editor. For learning c++ this is probably already to heavy as a task. But once you are familiar with c++ writing an editor is a good task to learn working with a 3D engine. There is no step-by-step tutorial for that (that wouldn't fit in the forum and would probably take weeks to write), but you have to code this yourself. But when you have concrete problems you can always ask for help in the forum and the chat.

[Virion]

Code: Select all

step by step, how to write a world editor... 

so that you can... copy... paste... the code... line by line?

if you understand a little bit about C++, it's easy for you to understand irrlicht. if you understand irrlicht, making an editor is just a matter of time.

good luck with your study.

[thiefbug]

i know that it is hard to start with a editor... but with php i directly started with a browsergame. in my opinion it is the best not to start with hello world.(or just a target which i can work to)

i do not mean copy and paste... i want to write plugins etc. with copy and paste i couldn't continue coding at all.

first, I wanted to ask here if i can buy a program for a bit money... but i couldn't start anyhow without any knowledge of C++.

i want to code it on my own. when i do so, it is much more easier to understand without any big help of it.

and in anyway the regular irrlicht tutorial is... not helpfully in my opinion.
i can't find any declarations

for example how the earth was scaled... there is that it is scaled but not how. it seems just like a code where you need to find things and you have to understand.

i already found the one or other tutorial in this forum here with really a really good description... but i can look where ever i want... everywhere is a part missing.

hmpf...

back to the editor:
i know HOW it should look.
and i know how it should work.

but the irrlicht tutorial didn't explain enough to understand it =(

edit: omg almost every phrase starts with I >_<

edit2 or 10... because i think i edited this post now for more than ten times:

Warning - writing your first editor might take you a few months

that doesn't matter. i want to learn this language and i know how hard it is. but the harder it is, the more fun do i have =D (the only condition to this is, that i can understand it)

edit... just next edit:
do you think i could start with there tutorials?
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=34385
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=24898

i said step by step help because i hoped someone could explain me step by step how to write an editor... but i think the regular questions should help me a lot, too ^^

[CuteAlien]

and in anyway the regular irrlicht tutorial is... not helpfully in my opinion.
i can't find any declarations

for example how the earth was scaled... there is that it is scaled but not how. it seems just like a code where you need to find things and you have to understand.

Are we talking about the examples which come with Irrlicht or do you mean something else? I mean the one starting with the Hello World example?

[Virion]

and in anyway the regular irrlicht tutorial is... not helpfully in my opinion.
i can't find any declarations

maybe you should check out the API document then, but that require a little bit of knowledge in c++

for example how the earth was scaled... there is that it is scaled but not how. it seems just like a code where you need to find things and you have to understand.

i don't understand what you mean, though

[thiefbug]

in the irrlicht tutorial was a mesh with parallax mapping (Example 11... per pixel lightning).
they scaled a earthmesh ... but how? ._.
i see the code. i see the example. but no explaining comments are added (or am i just blind? =/ )

and yes i mean the tutorial which started with the hello world example. (there was a mesh of a model from unreal tournemant, i guess)

[CuteAlien]

Ah right, I found the earth. The problem is that adding even more comments will make the examples harder to read for those people which know some programming, because at some point comments start to distract more than help. Additional documentation can be found in the API doc's for each function.

If you have trouble with the math used there then you better look it up on webpages which concentrate on teaching math (wikipedia also often helps). They will be better at explaining that than we can be in in examples which are just about using a 3D engine. Some knowledge about vectors is needed and at least basic knowledge about using matrices is also very helpful.

[thiefbug]

vectors... thats a part of a matrix (? ... i just know the word in german xP)
and i never learned it... but i know what vectors are for...

but that was just an example...
could you tell me please how to see the API logs? i guess it would help me much more to understand everything

[CuteAlien]

The API documenation can be found here: http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/docu/index.html (update to 1.6 will come soon, but it's 99% identical).

A very simplified (and not 100% correct, but good enough) visual explanation of a vector is that it is an arrow with a certain length (often you just need the direction and length doesn't matter). And it has as much elements as you have dimensions. So in 3D it has 3 elements and is often used for x,y,z positions. I don't really know what's the best way to learn about those - maybe ask your math teacher. Or take a look in the documentation to see what kind of operations are possible with them: http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/docu/cl ... tor3d.html

Maybe someone wants to start a section "minimal math for 3d" in the wiki?

[thiefbug]

ah, thanks =D
a declaration of every type of a class and command should help =D

thank you ^^

[thiefbug]

me again

i've written a code but i don't know whats wrong =/

I'll post ... maybe you can help me

Code: Select all

scene::IAnimatedMesh* floor = smgr->getMesh(
		"C:/owngame/floor.3ds");

if(floor)
	{
		smgr->getMeshManipulator()->makeplanarTexturemapping(floor->getMesh(0), 0.003f);

		video::ITexture* groundtexture = driver->getTexture("C:/owngame/floor1.jpg");
		video::ITexture* groundbump = driver->getTexture("C:/owngame/floor1_h.jpg");
			driver->makeNormalMapTexture(groundbump, 9.0f);
		scene::IMesh* tmesh = smgr->getMeshManipulator()->createMeshwithtangents(floor->getMesh(0));
		floor = smgr->addMeshSceneNode(tmesh);
		floor->setmaterialtexture(0, groundtexture);
		floor->setmaterialtexture(1, groundbump);
		floor->getmaterial(0).specularcolor.set(0,0,0,0);
		floor->setMaterialFlag(video::EMF_FOG_ENABLE, true);
		floor->setmaterialtype(video::EMT_PARALLAX_MAP_SOLID);
		floor->getmaterial(0).materialtypeparam = 0.035f;
		tmesh->drop();
	}

edit: ok, i think all my code was corrupted... when i deleted this, it didn't work aswell.

but thanks in anyway =D

[Virion]

The API documenation can be found here: http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/docu/index.html (update to 1.6 will come soon, but it's 99% identical).

You can always get the latest (SVN) here:
http://irrlicht.convextech.ca/IrrlichtDocument/html/

awesome isn't it