A Irrlicht Begginers Manual

[MasterGod]

5. Creating your First Project (tutorial 1)

Lets decide which subject will the project be about - maybe a simple space shooter ? (It seems like a space game is a really good beginning cause its not very hard to design and code and it can be easily customized so everyone will be able to make their own version of the manual (first) project and maybe post it to show many versions of the same thing )

What say you?

P.S:
I really like the new layout !

[dejai]

Cool, thanks for the input. A shooter game sounds like a good idea for the final chapter. Of course we will place a poll up when we eventually get to that chapter to decide what will be put in. Thanks Mastergod.

Now onto Bitplane. I have read your comments on previous ideas about the manual and I can see how frustrating it is with the way or path the manual may be seeming to go. With your idea of the documentation etc I believe that you may include the ideas you wished within chapter 2. as an extension feel free to add it in whenever you want

Onto other interested participants how may have chauvinist ideals into how a book may be written I hope for the manual to be formal as well as containing read gravity and interesting on beat writing that keeps the reader wanting more. The documentation covers the engine, the manual covers it being used productivley. We don't get questions spamming whats the source code for this or that, we generally get questions as to how to use the manual in one way or another so by showing how it is used in a practical sense we can encourage and let people learn.

As I have said its a beginners manual. Having a Advanced Manual like a sequel is absolutely fine and I promote that to.

[zack_fix]

Or how about pong... That's what Im doing for my book. If i get my book finished, I will probally put most of it into the manual. But it could be a while before my book is finished, so I ll most likely be adding a lot of stuff to the manual as write my book.

[MasterGod]

Yeah maybe for the first project we make Pong and the second one "10. Creating your Second Program (Tutorial 2)" some kind of space shooter?

[zack_fix]

That is exaclty what I am doing! This way the reader can gradually move from 2D to 3D without jumping all over the place. I was thinking about having an 'Extending Pong' section of the book where it talks about finding different ways to do different tasks in the Pong game. Then move on to the space shooter where I start to introduce sound with irrKlang and the irrlicht particle system. When I get done with the Pong section I will gladly contribute it to the wiki.

[MasterGod]

That is exaclty what I am doing! This way the reader can gradually move from 2D to 3D without jumping all over the place. I was thinking about having an 'Extending Pong' section of the book where it talks about finding different ways to do different tasks in the Pong game. Then move on to the space shooter where I start to introduce sound with irrKlang and the irrlicht particle system. When I get done with the Pong section I will gladly contribute it to the wiki.

So how is it going?

[humbrol]

Just posted information for chapter 2 about skydomes, challenging everyone else to find an area they have knowledge on and post a small bit to the manual to help get it going =)

[suliman]

this is great stuff!

what i really would think was useful is

1. a runthrough of the basic functions and explain how they work and some small examples. If you're new its nearly impossible to understand the "language".

2. A overview of the functions in well-definedn chapters. Like chapter five lights: these are the lights availble, this is how they differ. This is the light-related functions and how they work. This is some basic setups for using lights etc.

Keep it up!
E

[dejai]

Thanks Humbrol and everyone for your contribution, I have no problem with suggestions for the manual being directly implemented as long as the ideas are within reason and are widely accepted as useful information after all it is wiki. Also I was wondering if someone has backed up the manual.

I have added Skyboxes to the Skybox / Skydome Section and Added an animated Skydome picture and a Skybox Diagram Thanks for your Skydome Input Humbrol ! Keep up the great work

[dejai]

Was Reading the Manual I thoght API Stood For Application Programming Interface not Protocol . AIP Stands for Application Interface Protocol.

Below is a Wikipedia Reference upon a simple Google search for API.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applicatio ... _interface


Can Someone Explain, How is a substance a protocol? I thought a protocol was Quote from Wikipedia,

"In computing, a protocol is a convention or standard that controls or enables the connection, communication, and data transfer between two computing endpoints. In its simplest form, a protocol can be defined as the rules governing the syntax, semantics, and synchronization of communication. Protocols may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of the two. At the lowest level, a protocol defines the behavior of a hardware connection."

For Comparison API Quotation From Wikipedia,
"An application programming interface (API) is a source code interface that an operating system or library provides to support requests for services to be made of it by computer programs.[1] Advanced Programming Interface (API) is a near synonym with wider application that predates the current common usage. In the original term the concept is meant to represent any well defined interface between two separate programs. The main difference is that this older term does not inculcate a parent-child relationship and can therefore be applied to peer-to-peer situations more logically, e.g. internal kernel services which can present themselves as separate programs."


Thank you A Explanation would be helpful

[bitplane]

How about something like this-

What is an API?

objective: explain about interfaces

(Illustration of a phone socket)

An API, or application programming interface, is a collection of rules for communicating with a service. A good real-world analogy of one of these rules would be the description of a phone socket (pictured above). This set of rules tells developers what the socket looks like, and which signals need to be sent along each pin. Developers are free to create a telephone, answering machine or a modem without worrying about the telephone exchange it will be connected to, and the exchange can connect calls for any device that has the right cable and speaks the right language.

A C++ API obviously isn't a collection of documents that describe a load of physical sockets, it's a collection of C++ header files that define how you talk to the service. Irrlicht is a graphics engine, so it provides a rich set of interfaces that deal with loading, drawing, organising and saving graphics.

(picture showing how layout of the engine, listing major interfaces to introduce them early)

explain: interfaces begin with the letter 'I', quick note about inheritance

I didn't actually add it because I thought my analogy did sound a bit too much like a protocol, however, I think it paints a vivid picture that can be used later on to show how you inherit interfaces to interact with the engine.

[dejai]

Thanks for the reply bitplane, go ahead add it as an extension
The more info the better. Maybe make a box around it. As extra information.

[fireside]

Just took a look. It's coming along good. Keep it up. I'd help but I'm too much of a noob with Irrlicht yet.

[MasterGod]

I've added the search thing there - how to properly use the search.
It has its place among the other things cause learning how to search the forum is part of learning how to use irrlicht ('s community).

[dejai]

Ah, great idea Mastergod that is one of the biggest skill the new irrlicht users need. Thanks for the input