Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!greg_labrec@interactive.sony.com From: jamin1@psu.edu (Jamin Frederick) Newsgroups: scea.yaroze.programming.2d_graphics,scee.yaroze.programming.2d_graphics Subject: Re: General Complaining Date: Wed, 06 Aug 1997 08:36:38 GMT Organization: SCEA Net Yaroze News Lines: 51 Message-ID: <33e8341d.21570202@news.scea.sony.com> References: <33E66E4D.47E@erols.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: rotary416-pri.voicenet.com X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235 Xref: chuka.playstation.co.uk scea.yaroze.programming.2d_graphics:212 scee.yaroze.programming.2d_graphics:162 On Mon, 04 Aug 1997 20:05:33 -0400, Clint Kelly wrote: >I've found many of the example programs to be poorly documented. Maybe >I'm not quite as beastly when it comes to programming as the average Net >Yaroze user, but I'm fairly experienced, and I had a lot of trouble >getting started. If a "tutorial" program only displays a few sprites on >a screen, or something equally "trivial," then I assume it was created >for beginners. And, speaking as a beginner, I'd appreciate comments on >just about every line. For instance, I downloaded some SCEE 2D demos >called tuto1 and tuto2, etc., and they were pretty big (many over 20 >pages long with KeyView) and, to be honest (and a little rude... sorry), >the didn't really help me out at all. > I'm not sure what Sony's intention with the Yaroze was, but if the objective was to create a bigger developer base, it would have been a lot smarter to properly document the yaroze and offer more tutorials. I would have gotten much much farther if I was shown more clearly how the functions work in the beginning. Why can't developer support make simple introductory tutorials? The one I made took only a few hours, and it was easy just because I know already how the functions are to work. They don't have to be elaborate or any kind of game or anything, I don't care. I think most of us just want really really simple programs that are well documented, such as displaying a sprite or rendering one 3D object and explaining what the different function calls do. The more involved game techniques can come later, when we understand first of all what the blasted function calls do. It is SO frustrating wading through like 20 demos that all do the same initializations and stuff but never knowing what they mean. I know that this is supposed to be a "hobbyist" development kit and we're to seek out all the information for ourselves, but it seems like I'm always tearing my hair out finding answers to questions that could be answered in 10 minutes if I had good documentation (especially with the 3D stuff!). I'm sure many others feel this way as well. Jamin Frederick >I don't mean to sound like a jerk here, cos I do really appreciate all >the assistance I've gotten from the staff around here (although having >paid in total almost $1000, I'd be pretty pissed if I wasn't getting any >help). Maybe I'm in the bottom 5% of Net Yaroze owners in terms of >programming skills, and in that case I apologize profusely, but I found >Ira's Rainey's 2D tutorials and documentation to be infinitely more >useful than anything I've downloaded from the official site. > >Clint