JGF Articles

General Discussions
#1

Well, we’ve finally got an articles page @ JGF (http://grexengine.com/sections/externalgames/) with some content on ;). More tutorials would be very welcome indeed!

All articles WILL be peer-reviewed for accuracy, consistency, clarity, etc. I’m now going to start nagging various people on this forum to produce articles on their areas of expertise (you know you want to! :P).

To help me prioritize my nagging, please vote on what tutorial topics you most want right now; due to the vagaries (and general lack of features) of the YABB voting, it’s one-vote-each - as articles are completed, I’ll modify the list and you’ll have to each manually cancel your vote and choose the new recipient (sorry!). Sadly, it won’t let me reset individual votes for you (boo!) :(.

Also, feel free to through out ideas or ask questions about writing tutorials. The last time we had a thread about this, it started with the following, which I’m using as a starting-point for the tutorials we want (and shout if something major is missing!).

(I CANNOT QUOTE FOR YABB DELETES THE NESTED QUOTES)
A while back, Cas started a thread with the words:

[quote]Just to nudge the ball a more to try and get it rolling…

Were anyone to contribute some articles on JGO, what would you like them to be about?

Let’s get a list of dissertation titles together, and then we can vote on them to figure out which ones to get done first.
[/quote]
…which had a pretty positive response. An article (or two) was even written.

GergisKhan eventually even setup a wiki…but then JavaONE was coming, and SG begged us to wait…

For starters I’m summarising the topics people suggested in Cas’s thread:

(Cas’s thread is here: http://www.JavaGaming.org/cgi-bin/JGNetForums/YaBB.cgi?board=suggestions;action=display;num=1049717385 )

(also a thread on NIO networking that started heading in the same direction (need to write articles): http://www.JavaGaming.org/cgi-bin/JGNetForums/YaBB.cgi?board=Networking;action=display;num=1052749856;start=0 )

[] The power of Multitexturing (in depth)
[]A detailed explaination of GL extensions and their uses
[]‘Java3D - best practise’
[]pros/cons of using the various Collection classes in game
[]When to use custom classes for complex data types versus using multiple primitive arrays
[]BufferStrategies, different Image types, how to use ImageIO, fullscreen tutorial, debugging Java3D problems, isometric rendering, tile-based engines etc
[]the design of games, as in good tips on connecting all the pieces together (menues, gamestates etc)
[]all different aspects to write turn-based strategy games in Java
[]tools (IDEs, build stuff like Ant, integrating with CVS, profiling, debugging)
[]how to make a demo mode ( recording inputs and playback 'em doesnt do the trick. how should the main loop look alike if u wanna implement this feature in the future? )
[]regularly updated article on JVM-performance improvements
[]comprehensive round-up of game-programming resources
[]Theory and Design
* OOP Theory, Polymorphism, Terminology (such as Refactoring) (perhaps just links to other good sites/tutorials)
* Game (general) design (again, links to gamedev or something)
* Game code design (states, gameloops, entity/world structure, creating/organising world events)
[]Application
* Game stucture in Java (what kind of code to use for what)
* Networking, File saving, Security
* Java language syntax/formating guidelines
[*]Specfics/Tech
* Using LWJGL, Using Java2D, APIs (OpenGL, OpenAL)
* IDE Tutorials, IDE Comparisons
* Using Collections, Using Regular expressions
* Code examples, How to… (…make JARs, distribute with WebStart, serialize Objects for QuickSaving games)

…and finally, Breakfast’s: http://www.newview.co.uk/javatutorial
(/I CANNOT QUOTE FOR YABB DELETES THE NESTED QUOTES)

#2

[quote]Theory and Design
[/quote]
This should be a choice in the pole on its own!

Questions I have nowadays:

  1. I don’t like the java3d/xith scenegraphs. They seem way to versatile/complex for anything I want to do in a game. Why should I use them?

  2. When to use custom classes for complex data types versus using multiple primitive arrays

  3. Use nio buffers or not? Wait until nio matures a bit?

#3

and networking ?

#4

Start with the basics, methinks.

Cas :slight_smile:

#5

[quote]and networking ?
[/quote]
Oops. Forgot that one. Was thinking graphics/sound/networking and jsut forgot the third

#6

I’d quite like a/some articles that compared different technology solutions/versions in a objective way for a particular type of app, not just this is best.

For example Scenegraphs Xith3D/Java3D/jMe/Openmind
Ode odejava/Fuze3D. etc.

I don’t know if any one is really qualified to do this for all of them though, plus personal opinion will get in the way :wink:

Also somthing on game design and architechure would be good, how to combine different technologys while still being able to keep your options open, kinda like having a “Patterns for games” article or somthing. Maybe this should be a thread hmmm…

Just thoughts.

Dan.

#7

Good idea that- we get so many questions along the lines of “what is better for my program, Java3D or GL4Java?” A quick article explaining what the different APIs do, what they might be good for and that GL4Java has been replaced by JOGL would be a really good idea.

If it could be furnished with a few screenshots and examples of projects that used the various systems, that would be cool too- people do love to have pictures.

#8

Is that a volunteer? ;D

Kev

#9

[quote]kinda like having a “Patterns for games” article or somthing.
[/quote]
This would be awesome; it would tie in perfectly with a game/game engine design article.

But what patterns?

#10

[quote]Good idea that- we get so many questions along the lines of “what is better for my program, Java3D or GL4Java?” A quick article explaining what the different APIs do, what they might be good for and that GL4Java has been replaced by JOGL would be a really good idea.

If it could be furnished with a few screenshots and examples of projects that used the various systems, that would be cool too- people do love to have pictures.
[/quote]
This would be welcome. BUT: it would have to come with a source demo (+JNLP) for each technology, so that users could run them side-by-side; and so that they could see what you could achieve with what kind of code (e.g. a lot of people don’t realise the importance of a scene-graph until they’ve seen the source for a typical small scene compared to the same in pure OpenGL)

#11

Look up Chris Hecker’s work on this for Gamasutra / GameDeveloper magazine (from about 5 years ago!).

It fizzled out; AFAICS the problem is that it’s just too much hard work coming up with any non-trivial genuine game patterns, and nobody quite has the time.

There are long-time continuing efforts to do it which focus on pure gameplay-design (e.g. Noah Falstein’s series), but these tend to trivialise things too much for my liking.

There’s a couple of hardcore efforts going on as well, but these are hush-hush work with little if any released info…

#12

Based on the above votes, I’m currently trying to get some articles to cover the following:

[] Comparison of JOGL and LWJGL as a graphics layer, with semi-detailed look at both (Cas will be doing the LWJGL parts, and I need a JOGL expert to volunteer for those parts: if I don’t get a good offer soon I’ll start contacting people invidually; I’ll be editing the overall set to ensure balance).
[] “Getting started with…” each lib (simply because it complements the above item, and spares the JOGL/LWJGL article having to go into the getting-started details - it can just cross-reference the two getting-started tuts).
[*] “First steps: OpenGL in Java”: basically an intro to the red book, and NeHe, that eases people in. A lot of people find the rb a bit thick to wade into, and there are a great many NeHe tutorials these days, making it quite daunting to get started; it would be great to have an overview and suggested “path” to follow to OGL proficiency, using these and other resources.

Any volunteers, please contact me : ceo at grexengine.com

#13

Our first developer diary has just gone up in the articles section on JGF: Ground FX Racing.

A couple of other people have promised to write some dev-diaries, so over the coming weeks expect to see several more appear.

I’ve blanked the “dev-diaries” vote option - please could everyone who voted for them remove your votes and then re-vote on something else. Thanks!

#14

Article’s nearly ready. Just another 500 words or so to go.

Cas :slight_smile: