obfuscated documentation :(

[xteraco]

i just wanted to jump on here, and share my frustration with the community... but first off, i'd like to say, irrlicht is a great engine, i've seen what it can do, and its definately top notch

ok, but it does have its problems... the code to use it isnt exactly straightforward... but thats understandable, and not really my problem... its the documentation! the documentation is horrible! its just as obfuscated as the code itself... i really got nothing from the documentation that i couldnt get from browsing the source code of the engine... perhaps thats the intended effect.... but its dissapointing none the less. Jolt3D is near the same, but i like the style of the engine and how its initialized a little better.. to me its a little more clear, and there are some full sentences in the documentation...

ok, forgive me please for my sarcasm, but in short i just want to say, the engine is great, and would score a perfect 10 with some clear documentation

flame away

[zenaku]

Uh, did you read the tutorials?

http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/tutorials.html



The great thing about open source software is that if there is something you don't like, you can always change it yourself and then share those changes with everyone else.. hint hint


Have you tried reading the Ogre docs? Or even the PS3 SDK? Gross!

[zeno60]

I disagree, the Irrlicht API has been a great resource for me. Anytime I have a problem, its the first place I go, and usually the last as I find the answer 99% of the time. If I don't find it there, the answer is here in the forums.

setPosition();
createDevice();
setTranslation();
...etc.

Thats far from obfuscated, try and imagine handeling a graphics library by yourself without irrlicht, only C++. Thats obfuscated.

[xteraco]

ya i looked around at some other stuff.. and irrlicht beats some others pretty easy... i guess i'm spoiled by allegro

ogre is a bad word ssshhhh! lol

[xteraco]

well, i tried again to brave the documentation, and start a small project.

the project:
Create a scene with 3 static mesh's, and 2 lights. a pretty complex project aparently

the result:
I dabbled around in the documents for a while, and sinse i'm not familiar with IRR, i didnt find anything..... so, i went to the tutorial, and loaded up the simple scene that comes with Irrlicht, yaay

i tinkered around, built my scene, and tried to load it up using the same code that loaded the previouse simple scene (even tho the tutorial said it needed some other thigns for a complex scene to be loaded) ... obviously, failure was in the air...

Thinking that i knew what i was looking for, i headed into the documentation full force, and again was met with frustration. i did find what i was looking for, but it was referenced wrong in the tutorial i think... it said i should be looking for Iscenesomethng::loadscene, but it was really irr::loadscene.... or something like that...

so, i've found it, loadscene... guess what, couldnt figure it out... Irrlicht makes me feel so stupid, i'm gonna hit my Beginning c++ Programming book again, and come back to Irrlicht in a year or so... hopefully things will be more clear to me

[hybrid]

Well, you will indeed not find a C++ tutorial in the Irrlicht documentation. And moreover the class hierarchy is not really useful for someone not used to the object-oriented paradigm. But it's a good idea to start over again and come back with some more confidence. Maybe you will find the whole thing much more simple at that time, or you're at least able to provide some enhancements

[zeno60]

Finially someone who understands programming is not an event, but a process.

I read that in another topic somewhere way back, i'd give credit if I could remember who it was.