Finished my tutorial - please check it

[Breakfast]

Afternoon all,

I've finally finished my Java3D tutorial, aimed at getting a beginner up to speed on the basics of j3d with a bit of a gaming slant. The only problem being that I have been fumbling around in the dark somewhat with the whole thing so that although all the programs I have certainly work for me, they may well be quirky or just downright lame. If anyone who knows what they are talking about would like to take a minute to look through it and let me know if there is anything I'm doing really badly I would gratefully appreciate it, as will anyone who wants to use it in the future.

There are quite a few places where I have consciously avoided optimisations in order to make it easier to explain changes in the code, and I have made the point where I have noticed it, but I'm sure there are a lot of other places that are a little, or a lot, incompetent.

The tutorial is here. I think the attatched code works, but I'm not utterly certain as I haven't looked at all of it for a while...

Once I have had a bit of feedback from people I will make any necessary changes,  get it looking better and announce it more widely, this is kind of the beta version, hence the slightly annoying "pasted-from-wordprocessor" look in places.

[Adam]

I just came here looking for a tutorial and here it is. Thanks, im trying it out now  

-Adam

[misterX]

seem to be a very nice tutorial!
i'll definitively try it when i've time...

Oh, one small thing that could already be changed is the java code: the space between lines is too big and a light gray background to separate it from the text won't be bad.
Besides of this, well done!

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

[Breakfast]

Cheers - I'll sort out the formatting when I fix any other changes it nees as well. I need to sort out the file paths so they work across operating systems as well...

[misterX]

I found it written too personnally. Too many Iand personal comments, which are mostly not very informative. The whole first paragraph is a good example, read it again.
Please stay to the facts. I would appreciate if it were more targeted on direct and precice facts and detailed explanations. The aim is to explain the code/techniques used, it shouldn't sound like a story of your adventure.
Don't take it bad, it's only to improve it!
cheers

[Breakfast]

I can see your point of view but I find if a tutorial is too dry and informative it loses my attention very quickly. Admittedly, I probably do wander off topic quite regularly, but once we get going I think the information takes over from the whimsy somewhat.

The other element to that is that I am acutely aware that there are many people better at using Java3D than I am and writing the tutorial I wanted to make the point that what I am doing is not necessarily being done the best way possible and that my voice is more guiding than authoritative.

I've noticed I vastly overuse the term "next up" as well, which is fine in moderation but is happening every second paragraph - I will go through and correct stuff like that this weekend, now I am a little more distant from the text. I won't change the overall style because it is my style of writing and I simply wouldn't have written the tutorial at all if I had been trying to emulate some dry and dull technical document.

[misterX]

I can see your point of view but I find if a tutorial is too dry and informative it loses my attention very quickly. Admittedly, I probably do wander off topic quite regularly...

Well, you're right, "dry and dull technical document" are *boring*. But it's also nice to have a nice small accurate document. It's all a question of balance between content and personnal touch.
And personnally, your style don't derange me at all, i would write articles on a similar way. It's the "out of the way" comments that are a little too much for my taste, especially in the beginning. That's all.
And don't be so modest, you're using java3d very well. As far as i know, i've seen no errors nor ressource-killing techniques. Sure, you're not a java3d master-guru, nor am i, but what you do is right. it's what matters, isn't it?

[leknor]

I haven't read the tutorial but here's a suggestion based on the feedback.

How about putting the personal experiences in a sidebar as optionial reading. This way you have the information in a condensed form and an example/description/whatever that the reader can read if they want to get more involved with the tutorial.

[DarkwingGT]

Pretty good, has some formatting issues though (as you know).  I kind of agree with MisterX, the introduction paragraph had way too many I's.

The only other piece of advice is this:  The period is your friend.

[Breakfast]

I laugh in the face of the full stop! Mwuhahahahahahaa!

I've switched stuff around a bit and it has fallen in with the company web style now, I've even tried to make the introductory paragraph make a bit more sense although it is probably still a bit "I I I". I'm not suggesting anyone goes back and reads it again- it's not that interesting - but anyone coming fresh to this thread might want to look here and save yourselves a redirect.

Oh! a full stop! Mwuhahahahahaahahaa. And another...

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

[DAT64X]

This is a pretty cool tutorial!!!  However, your code is buggy.  Sometimes when I press "w" to walk, I get null pointer exceptions.  Also, when I try to close the window by clicking on the window frame's close button, your thing crashes.  There seems to be other bugs too...are these known issues?

--DAT

[DarkwingGT]

I can respect your bold decision to ignore the most noble of all punctuation, the period.  Many do not know the fascinating and intrepid history of the Period, and I am one of those people.  So, yeah, nice work.

But I warn you, one day your going to get pulled over for blowing through all those stop signs.

[Vrml_Java_Animator]

VRML has more functionality and a larger
group of animators, artists, and programmers
and VRML can be animated with

- Java3d using the Sun VRML Loaders or the newer ones
- 'pure' Java engines including Shout3d.com & Blaxxun3d
- your own engine ( I've written a simle one )

The artwork includes Human models with
animations for running, talking ( with sound )
animations to teach deaf children and their
friends and family Finger Spellling & ASL.

VRML & Java has been used for: JavaGaming

Games with Java & VRML: Darts, Tank Battle &  more
----------------------------------------
http://www.frontiernet.net/~imaging/java_games.html
 |
http://www.frontiernet.net/~imaging/games_with_java3d.html
 |
http://www.frontiernet.net/~imaging/avatar_builder.html

I tried your tutorial & ran the programs
and wrote to you previously in reply to
your post in the Java3d-interest list:

It's a perfectly fine tutorial for getting started
but for larger projects it' probably better to
start with pre-existing larger, more functional
code bases such as Sun's VRML Loaders and
the large colloection of VRML artwork readily
available.

Avoid re-inventing the wheel,
learn from others, stand on the shoulders
of giants: you can see further, avoid
the mistakes of others, and have more fun.

-- Paul

[misterX]

Is this some sort of advertisement?
Or what's the point?

As you said, this tutorial is aimed for people learning java3d, of course it's not for big project bosses. But for every fellow student and programmers...

And (personnally) I don't find vrml has that more utility and audiance. Anyway, that's not the point, anyone should take what he wants. And the site you're refering to looks pretty disorganized! There are applets of any kind, made from anybody, just put on the page like garbage... Not a very clean site, if you see what i mean. And the rest is also completely unstructured... It's like a big patchwork!

Lastly, it's not reinventing the wheel, in fact, it's the first tutorial of this sort i ever saw.

PS: Breakfast: I don't wanna sound annoying... but in fact, i prefered the first document style you had. It was more... hmm... "friendlier". (and with more pics!)

[Breakfast]

I think the pictures were the same but the very plain document style was quite easy to read. As it is hosted on my company server and my code technically belongs to them anyways it needed to be brought in line with the rest of the site. So it goes.

[sugarshark]

- Java3d using the Sun VRML Loaders or the newer ones ...

Oh no! Paul has discovered java-gaming.org!

[Breakfast]

I'm shocked that you could say that. Are you not aware that your use of the phrase "Oh no!" is NOT part of the real VRML standard and suggests that you are using the Yumetech loaders rather than the authentic sun loaders written 300 years ago on a log by peasants! This is intolerable!!!

[abarczak]

I checked out the tut...pretty good, and it introduces a lot of useful info.

One comment - you may want to put a link to the milkshape loaders on the page introducing the purple guy. I had to look around the code before I realized that I needed the loader...we newbies need all the t's dotted and i's crossed.....  

[mystd]

Is the tutorial still available somwhere?