Site: "get started"

[renanse]

Hey Folks,

I'd like to get some suggestions on what you'd find (or believe others would find) useful/interesting on Ardor3D's "Get Started" page. I'd like to have something better than "coming soon" by the end of the week, so all suggestions welcome.

[d0minicB]

Im not really sure as to what area should be covered. As most of what I would expect to be under there would be in the wiki. But if theres to be one:

I guess sign up to the forum and introduce yourself/project.
Converting from other engines to ardor, as in key differences.
Setting up enivroment tutorial, as well as what the devs would use.
Maybe a brief overview of what is possible.
Maybe some very simple example game.
Maybe a step by step analysis of the ExampleBase.
Maybe some pointers to other possibly useful libarys, such as JBullet or JGN.

[renanse]

re: wiki, yeah.. I expect the page to be largely links to wiki articles. Perhaps we should change the page/link itself to point to a part of the wiki.

[paranoidray]

Hey All,

I thought long about this section
and I greatly appreciate you are involving the community here as well.

So here are my thoughts:
I think the contents strongly depends on the target audience you
want to reach with this website and project.

Do you want to attract the absolute beginner and give them the feeling
they would be welcome here, knowing they will ask a lot of beginners questions
without searching the forums ( it's more work but can pay off in the long run )

Or do you want to attract the more experienced game developer ?

Do you want to attract people who give back to the community ?

Do you want to attract developers who are skilled in missing parts of the engine ?
( Sound, Physics, Network )
Or do you want to attract people who use the engine to make great applications ?
Or do you want people who know engines and could help advance the current code ?
Do you want to attract professionals or amateurs ?
Teams or individuals...

Do you have priorities in this list ?
Would you like to focus on a few targets or want to be a home for all ?

What people are best for the project in the long run ?
( Compare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSFDm3UYkeE )

Many questions

So here is my suggestion:

Rename "Get Involved" to "Get Started"
Rename "Get Started" to "About"

Text:

Ardor3D is a 3rd generation open source scenegraph written completely in Java.
The people behind this project have a combined experience of 20* years of scene graph design and 3D math. The design is based on the highly respected book "3D Game Engine Design" written by David H. Eberly, who's principals still power todays engines that runs games like Oblivion, Warhammer Online, Fallout 3 and the upcoming Fallout: Vegas. Ardor3D is in use in companies like the NASA Ames Research Center, Rolls-Royce Marine and Conoco Phillips.
Despite being wildly successful to this day the developers scraped two prior attempts to get the perfect engine design respecting and playing to Javas key strength and weaknesses.
There is a saying: All good things go by three. Well this is it.
Finally we are absolutely certain: This time, we got it right.

( I am known to be a bit dramatic, but you get the picture

Key features:
high framerate scene graph.
Runs on Windows, Mac OSX, Linux and Solaris platforms.
procedural, endless terrain
Dynamic Lightning
skeletal skinning framework
skeletal animation
very good Collada support
TextureClipMap (Megatexture)
Ardor3D based UI System
3D Math functions (noise, fbm, etc.)
Endless fractal based terrain algorithm
Multiple dynamic texture generator
Skybox
Shadow system
First Person Shooter controls are standard
Chase Camera is easy
Coming Soon: Android support
...

Examples include:
beautiful Water animation
Endless procedural terrain
...

What is NOT part of this engine:
Physics Engine
Sound
Networking
Level, Model, Texture Designer
Documentation (other than well written JavaDocs)

Testimonals:
I have been following the developers of this engine for quite some time now
and I have experience in all 3 generations of their scene graph engines.
I can only attest to have seen astounding leaps in each generation in terms of code quality and experience in Java best practices.
Some know scene graphs in and out, some know Java in and out.
But experiencing this brilliantly crafted combination of both worlds is
absolutely enthralling. Looking at the code you will find it easy to read, understand and use. You may not understand why I am so intrigued. You may feel like there could have been no other way to write it. It will feel like how could this code have been written any way else.
And that is the true accomplishment by Ardor labs. Making code look as easy as this is only possible with experience, commitment and hard work.
Thanks guys !
Raymond H.

"We worked with Ardor Labs in realizing our new GUI platform based on Ardor3D. Their competence and help have been of great importance to fulfill the requirements in our project. We are very grateful for the involvement and reliability of Ardor Labs and we give them our best recommendations."
Andreas Hjellbakk – Group Leader, Rolls-Royce Marine AS

[renanse]

I like the idea of making Get Started as About. As for renaming Get Involved, I'm fine leaving it or changing it to Get Started.

Thanks for the high praise. I'm not sure it's 100% deserved, but we appreciate it nonetheless.

[paranoidray]

Hey renanse,

well I might went a bit overboard,
but this is marketing after all.
( Or did I misunderstood things a bit ? )

( And I might not know scene graphs, but I know my Java and you and MrCoder
know how to write an API ! If you would teach it in universities, the world would
be a better place . Fail-Fast, Runtime exceptions for testable errors, thread safe immutable objects, just to name a few, I can go into details for the Wiki if you want. )

Would you care to write a bit about what people you'd like to attract to the project
in its current state ?
Keep in mind that you can change that every time you reach a new milestone.

It would help to write some text if I knew the target audience.
I could imagine you'd like to attract all of the above,
but in my experience it's always better to select as few as possible
and adjust over time.

( In this regard it was a great idea, to make two websites. )

On the other hand, I might be taking this too serious.
By all means, stop me if I do.

As for renaming Get Involved, I am happy that you like the idea of the About section.
But if you do, you shouldn't loose the power of the phrase "Get Started".
I feel like it carries a strong tone of a low barrier to an easy start.
"Get Involved" carries a bit more of the community, give and take.
But that can be intimidating to some.

But again this ties to the audience.
I could imagine "Get Started" attracting more beginners, and "Get Involved" more
experienced people. I also think "Get Started" will attract more people
over all, as it is really carries a strong sense of a focus on getting people started.

But why are so few responding here ?
Galun, gouessej, jeffpk, runiter, petterm, obi, nokama, oskar and the others.
What's your opinion guys ?

[MrCoder]

First of all, I think you are doing an awesome job with this. We really need that kind of input and help. Me and renanse can have a chat about this tonight and give you better feedback.
I also like the idea with the About section by the way!

[cowwoc]

I'm happy to see new content under "Get Started". Thanks!

Gili

[renanse]

Yeah, I have a college intern (my younger brother ) helping integrate the various site suggestions (as well as put together our new webstart demos page.) It's all under construction, and there are plenty of glitches, but feel free to offer more suggestions.

[cowwoc]

Yeah, I have a college intern (my younger brother ) helping integrate the various site suggestions (as well as put together our new webstart demos page.) It's all under construction, and there are plenty of glitches, but feel free to offer more suggestions.

I just have one curiosity... I have yet to ever a Webstart application with native code run under the 64-bit Windows. I'd like to see Ardor make this work

Perhaps the problem is that by default 64-bit Windows runs 32-bit FireFox. I wonder which version of Java Webstart gets launched.

Thanks,
Gili