xith.org updates

[Jens]

This thread should be used to announce updates on http://www.xith.org/ (FAQ, tutorials and maybe more).

There are new chapters in the Getting Started Guide:

• Mouse Events
  
• Geometry Loaders
  

Grab the source and try them out.  

[William Denniss]

we definitally do need a mod in here to sticky up some of these topics

Add your +1's here: http://www.java-gaming.org/cgi-bin/JGNetForums/YaBB.cgi?board=announcements;action=display;num=1063639628;start=0#1

The getting started guide is coming along nicely I think.  Good work on the "static" url's for the chapters I wounder if the same can be done for the sections (ie. instead of #SECTION00042000000000000000)?

Will.

[William Denniss]

I have added a few new sections to xith.org today.

These are a dedicated Docs section: http://xith.org/docs.php  This is for non-javadoc, documents of a less teaching nature (like the tutes).

In that section I have also added a list of all current Xith3D demos from the com.xith3d.test.* package - so that people can get a visual guide of some of the stuff that is currently implemented.

New community build will be created when the new RenderOptions code is "stable".

Will.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Jens]

Good work on the "static" url's for the chapters I wounder if the same can be done for the sections (ie. instead of #SECTION00042000000000000000)?

I don't think it's easy to do this. I looked around a while, but didn't find a simple way to achieve it, because these anchors are internal stuff. I think the authors wanted to avoid problems with duplicate subsection names. It's not that critical, because the subsections are usually not very large.

[William Denniss]

fair enough, pity they didn't just make it #s001 to look better.  Regardless everyone should be downloading the PDF and printing it as it is really well formatted.  IMHO paper is always nicer to work off anyway for documentation and stuff good if you have access to a printer at work too .  HTML links are just nice to point people however.

Will.timer

[Jens]

I'm still looking if I can find a way to make the inner-section links safe for updates, but I don't expect any success.

In the meantime I made a lot of layout changes, which mostly affect the html version.

[Jens]

I just finished a section about simple geometry.

[William Denniss]

good work on that one  When I started using geometry arrays with Xith3D I used the CubeTest.java and compared it to my Java3D book (the API jump start one).  The good news is that Xith3D is very similar to Java3D in this department which I guess is expected since it is quite an integral part of most J3D apps, and one where differences are not needed.

Perhaps you could mention at the end of the article that Java3D tutorials are relevent in this area.  Comparing a J3D tute to that one, it becomes pretty clear just how similar they are which makes our job easier Xith3D still has some IndexedGeometry issues however.

Also I think that this line:

1   2

QuadArray g = new QuadArray(coords.length, GeometryArray.COORDINATES                                                  | GeometryArray.COLOR_3);

should be explained as at first the whole OR-ing thing could be a puzzle to some.  Also to note - if one forgets to specify COLOR_3 and then tries to add a colour to it - you get a unhelpfull exception (issue #18 )

J3D does however have a different way of generating normals to Xith3D, they had "Helper" geometry which was probably better O-O design but Xith3D is much easier to use (one method call).  It could be worth a mention but I guess it is only applicable to lights (and you have to be carefull to specify GeometryArray.NORMALS).

supurb work on the updated HTML version by the way, it looks very sleek!

Cheers,

Will.

[Jens]

Comparing a J3D tute to that one, it becomes pretty clear just how similar they are which makes our job easier Xith3D still has some IndexedGeometry issues however.

GeometryStripArray and IndexedGeometryArray still need to be covered once they are working.

Also I think that this line:

1   2

QuadArray g = new QuadArray(coords.length, GeometryArray.COORDINATES                                                  | GeometryArray.COLOR_3);

should be explained as at first the whole OR-ing thing could be a puzzle to some.  Also to note - if one forgets to specify COLOR_3 and then tries to add a colour to it - you get a unhelpfull exception (issue #18 )

I added a line to the tutorial about the bitwise OR. Can issue #18 be resolved?

supurb work on the updated HTML version by the way, it looks very sleek!

Thanks.  

[William Denniss]

NEWS

* the third-party archive moved from xith.org/download/third-party/third-party.tar.gz to xith.org/download/third-party.tar.gz
* xith_utilities.jar updated in third-party libs
* download.php text altered (about the archive)
* install instructions altered (removed Java3D stuff - YEY)

Will.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[William Denniss]

* the javadocs are back - nobody seemed to miss it, but I had some problems with my ftp client (it crashed while uploading...) so it was missing for a few days.
* some other minor rearrangements including the Docs section.

Will.

[Jens]

Good work on cleaning up the site a bit.

[Jens]

The picking tutorial is now finished. It shows the use of the Switch node, too.

[kevglass]

Excellent! The tutorial is great.

Xith3D is really looking like something I'd like to use.

Kev

[William Denniss]

added a handy hotlink to the list of all currently open issues to xith.org on Jens' suggestion (it's on the link bar, to the right the "list" hyperlink.

Use it to keep track of current Xith3D issues

Cheers,

Will.

EDIT: typo

[Jens]

added a handy hotlink to the list of all currently open tutorials to xith.org on Jens' suggestion

I think you are talking about "open issues" not "open tutorials".   Just nitpicking.  

[William Denniss]

edited - thanks it was a bit confusing I must agree.

very useful that link, I found an issue of mine which needed resolving and another one which needed fixing quite obviously  good idea Jens.

back in a few hours

Cheers,

Will.

[Jens]

There is now a section about contributing to the Getting Started Guide for those of you who want to add another section to the guide.

[kevglass]

Mentioned this in another thread, but maybe its worth asking here too. Have you considered some bespoke forums on the Xith3D site.

There are quite alot of new users coming through here each day and having it all in one forum is going to get tricky. It would also give you control to organise and moderate as you see fit (i.e. Have a moderator with stick topic permissions). Since Xith seems to be going places it might be a good corner stone to put in place before the user base gets really big.

I suppose you could use the forums at java.net but their pretty hideous.

Just an idea,

Kev

[Jens]

5 or 6 weeks ago I said it would be good to have a dedicated forum for Xith3D (we only had a single thread in the Jogl forum at this point of time). This forum has become really active (is it actually the most active here?). Nevertheless I think one forum is currently sufficient. If the traffic continues to increase we should think about opening a forum on xith.org (which is finally Will's decision) and splitting it into "Xith3D users", "Xith3D developement", "Xith3D applications" and "Xith3D documentation" for instance.

I don't really like the way LWJGL handles it. Looking at their forums I think they could fit in one forum. I would prefer to have one place for discussions over having to look at two places. If we make the move to xith.org we should give up the java-gaming.org forum in my opinion.

Finally, I hope this forum gets a moderator in the very near future. It can't be that difficult.

[kevglass]

5 or 6 weeks ago I said it would be good to have a dedicated forum for Xith3D (we only had a single thread in the Jogl forum at this point of time). This forum has become really active (is it actually the most active here?). Nevertheless I think one forum is currently sufficient. If the traffic continues to increase we should think about opening a forum on xith.org (which is finally Will's decision) and splitting it into "Xith3D users", "Xith3D developement", "Xith3D applications" and "Xith3D documentation" for instance.  

I don't really like the way LWJGL handles it. Looking at their forums I think they could fit in one forum. I would prefer to have one place for discussions over having to look at two places. If we make the move to xith.org we should give up the java-gaming.org forum in my opinion.

I agree its currently sufficient, I was more thinking from the point of view of future expansion. If you get all your users here, and then want to switch over at a later time you've got alot more people to move.

Finally, I hope this forum gets a moderator in the very near future. It can't be that difficult.

I'm sure its not that difficult, but I guess its a matter of priorities. Appointing a moderator for a forum that effects 10's of people probably doesn't match up well against promoting Java Gaming to the rest of the world (only guessing of course).

Also, I think theres going to be rejig of the moderators across the board so I guess he's waiting to do it all in one fair swoop.

Kev

[William Denniss]

It is very true that we might outgrow these forums, and also possible they might outgrow us (if it is seen that dedicated API's do not belong, ref: http://www.java-gaming.org/cgi-bin/JGNetForums/YaBB.cgi?board=suggestions;action=display;num=1065066684)

If people want a forum, I can have one on xith.org in a matter of minutes, it is a trivial matter.

I was originally going to suggest we have our own forum back in the days of the single JOGL thread but at the time I thought too that one here would be better as general java-gaming.org people would find it more easily and I think that we certainly reaped the benefits of having it hosted here.

pros
* we can make as many mods as we want
* we can have several different areas
* not tied to java-gaming.org and whatever fates may be in store for it
* we can have good features such as file uploading

cons
* it's yet another board to check - if you are a member of both the dedicated Xith3D one and the java-gaming.org
* currently it is easy to attract new Xith3D users who are using the other java-gaming.org forums
* Xith3D threads are split into two places (like LWJGL).

The longer we wait however - the more annoying the move becomes.

Essentially the decision lies with Xith3D users.  If the majority of people call for our own dedicated place (and also only if the major players want in as well) then it can be so.

I will give it my +1 if enough people want it for the simple reason that I think Xith3D is gaining a lot of momentum and will continue to do so.

Will.

EDIT: just fixing up a url that got mangled

[Jens]

Finally, we've got a moderator.  

[Daath]

yeah that is great and it was not even problem if one asks nicely   - but at the same time did you see all those stars around Dave's icon? ...that means we have knock before entering , bow down and then behave like angels  

[William Denniss]

looks like we got our wish, he is a moderator now

Will.

[Jens]

There is new stuff in the Getting Started Guide. I just finished converting the tutorial More Fun with textures written by hawkwind. It extends the already existing texture tutorials. (@hawkwind: Drop me a line if something isn't OK.) Will contributed a tutorial about Using RenderOptions. Besides this I made some minor content and layout changes.

[William Denniss]

Alpha8 uploaded: http://xith.org/download/builds/12-Oct-2003_Alpha8/

Will.

[Jens]

Will wrote a tutorial on Deploying Xith3D games with Java Web Start. He made all the apps in the Getting Started Guide webstartable. I added webstart links everywhere in the GSG (all in all it is very comfortable for the reader now).

The whole structure of the GSG has changed. All apps now belong to org.xith3d.gsg. The directory structure has been cleaned up and an ant script is used to generate the zip, jar, html and pdf files. The guide is ready to be committed to CVS, if the xith-tk project is created.

[whome]

http://xith.org/download/builds/
I think foldernames should follow YYYY-MM-DD_xyz naming convension to be sorted properly. Currently, builds folder is very hard to see whether there are new downloads avail.
Especially non-native english people have sometimes difficulties to put three-char month names listed.

[swpalmer]

I agree.  Use ISO 8601 convention for dates.. it is the only numeric date format that makes any sense.  International standards are good.