Help with FAQ

Hey guys, I am working on the FAQ for the game programming board. I have never wrote one, so what I am doing is creating a table of contents with all the stuff I can think of. I need you guys to let me know what you think, and to post some more questions to be added, and what section they should go under. Note I am trying to not rewrite what is already written in lightatdawns FAQ (http://www.cprogramming.com/boardfaq.html).

Here is the table of questions, please feel free to critisize in any way, say whatever is neccesary to make this thing right :).

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Game Programming FAQ
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Table of Contents
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1. General Information
What game should I make first?
How do I display images?
What is a graphics library?
How do I use a graphics library?
What is blitting?
What is a sprite?
What is a timer?
What is double buffering?
What is page flipping?
Does anyone want to work on a game?

2. Allegro Specific
Where can I find Allegro?
How do I use allegro with my compiler?
How do I initialize Allegro?
How do I display images?
How do I get input from the keyboard?
How do I display sprites?
How do I use a timer?
How do I sprite animations?
How do I play music?


3. DirectX Specific
-help needed-

4. OpenGL Specific
-help needed-

5. SDL Specific
-help needed-

6. Credits

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One more note, should this FAQ be a post that is sticky, or a HTML page? It would have some advantages as a HTML page, such as using hyperlinks to navigate.

¤ How do I make the pictures move?
¤ How do I test when my objects collide? (explains different collision algorithms)
¤ I've made Tic-tac-toe, now how do I make Quake? (explains that game making isn't that easy :))

Make it HTML, and then a sticky linking to the FAQ?

Hi JoshG

It's good to see you're trying to improve this board, some decent write-ups will help a lot of people, and stop those annoying re-occuring posts. :)

As Kermi3 mentioned in the other thread, us Mods are having a brief discussion about how we can be help you out with this one, and we'll keep you posted on the outcome (oh, what a terrible pun that was :rolleyes: )

Don't forget, Lightatdawn has another site which has some game related stuff on it.

In the meantime, keep collecting those ideas... :)

Josh, I have the next two days off from school, actually 4 if you count the weekend, so I'll be able to write quite a bit of info for you.

I already have two tutorials written about Allegro. Here is my tutorial about basic drawing to the screen, and here is my other tutorial about moving your character across the screen. Well, I guess there more less examples than tutorials but more info can easily be added explaining everything. I, also, have a timer tutorial that I could include but I don't have a link to that right now.

Under each libraries section we can have a links subsection, and add links to your tutorials TechWins.

Magos, I think all those questions should go under the first section, and good questions those are indeed. The 'I've made tic-tac-toe, now how do I make quake' about how making games is hard, that was going to be answered with the 'What game should I make first?' question.

I am thinking an HTML version would be best, I am checking out different templates and FAQ generator programs, let me know if you have any suggestions, I can host the FAQ on my ISP's server. Keep the questions coming :).

Alright, I made a template of how the HTML version will look, check it out http://www.ciusa.net/~jrgrant/faq.html. Let me know what you guys think, tomorrow after work I will add all the current questions, and try to provide the best answers.

And what do you guys think about coming up with some little contest or something?

I think that looks pretty dern (btw, it's DERN not darn...don't ask) good, Josh.

Quote:

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And what do you guys think about coming up with some little contest or something?

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Do you mean like have a game programming contest? Lets say we could have one every month or every two months? Is that what you're saying? I don't that would really work, because ygfperson's contests don't go over very well so I doubt the game programming ones would either.:)

And to address your second to last comment---that all sonds fine to me.:cool:

EDIT: A lot of the questions such as the 'What game should I make first' already have good tutorials for them on gamedev. I think we should link to those tutorials too, but it would never hurt if we included other tutorials as well.

Well, I already got my first tutorial done regarding the game programing FAQ. The tutorial is about what it means to blit the buffer to the screen. Here is the link to the tutorial.

Btw, here is that tutorial I was referring to towards the path to take in developing your first few games. IMO, I don't think you're going to get a much better tutorial than that one regarding the subject. I've read that article many many times.

Quote:

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Originally posted by TechWins
EDIT: A lot of the questions such as the 'What game should I make first' already have good tutorials for them on gamedev.

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The problem is that the people asking these questions are those who are too lazy to search for themselves and/or follow links to other sites.
I believe we have more success in gathering it all in one place, than linking to various sites.

It is true that most people who ask those questions are to lazy to go to other sites and look up the information. So I think the FAQ should have a small version that simply says 'You can't make Quake' and a link to that.

That tutorial looks good, I am getting ready to go to work now, I will read it when I get home. I think it would be a good idea for all (or most) of the questions to have links to other sites for a better, more indepth explanation.

I tried to make the page design for the FAQ readable at different resolutions and different browsers, hell I think even lynx would render it good. I think we should remember that alot of the users make text games, and include some information about those.

Quote:

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The problem is that the people asking these questions are those who are too lazy to search for themselves and/or follow links to other sites.

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I agree that the people are too lazy to go look for the info themselves, and that's pretty much the reason why we're having to include this game FAQ. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't include links to tutorials and that answer the some of the questions very well, such as the tutorial from gamedev that I suggested.:)

That all sounds good, Josh.

I'm going to try to write a tutorial soon regarding how to scroll across the screen and using tile maps. I already have most of the info posted in a thread anyways.

Alright guys, just added all the questions to the FAQ. Let me know how you think the format works on now that it has some bulk. I answered very few of the questions, I have to go to night class, I will work on it some more later tonight. If you want to answer some of the questions, just reply here with the number (i.e. 2.4) and the answer. Later on.

Oh yeah, here is the link again: http://www.ciusa.net/~jrgrant/faq.html.

Josh,
I plan to send the DX FAQ section to you in rough form tomorrow. I'll try to get OpenGL FAQ section to you before the weekends over.

Awsome man, just email it to me, [email protected]. I tried using the boards email feature the other day and it didn't work...

Josh, I sent you an e-mail about me answering a few of the general and Allegro questions. I attached the .doc to the e-mail for you.

I got the email, I will add the answers to the FAQ by tonight. Anyone want to help with the other sections?

-"how do i change my text colour?"
-"how do i change the cursor position?"
-"how do i use the arrow keys?

some stuff i hear a lot and i dont come here often either :D
good luck! :D

Those are good ones that I did not think of at all :). Way to go, I got alot of work to do on the FAQ, and very little time :(. I hope I get alot of time soon.

I can do the SDL section if you want, rather, I can help with the SDL section.

If this still going to happen or not? I tell ya over the past couple of days, having this Game FAQ done would have been a lot of help. I still think, regardless of who does it, we need a Game FAQ here.