An invitation to contribute to Nifty's documentation

Void was kind enough to add me to the contributors list for Nifty’s documentation today, so I’ve started editing and adding some information to Nifty’s “doc” on SourceForge. Just a couple of things for now, but I plan to add more.



Now, if you have information on the missing topics ie: contributing indirectly I guess, or if you would like to see a particular topic explained I’d be glad to try to get you that information and post it there so everyone can enjoy it.



I remember many people whining about Nifty’s docs (never arguing about how powerful it was, but rather how empty the docs were), well, you can change that now, so please make yourself heard. I can’t guarantee you that I’ll write everything requested in a weekend (or even in a week), but knowing what to prioritize will help me get what’s more important out.



The plan for now is to fill those missing pieces in Effects and other places, then move on to styles and their creation. Then I might check the EventBus and its multiple listener annotations… After that I might consider creating a new control from scratch. Unsure as it depends on what people wants.



So, monkeys, what do you need most? :smiley:

3 Likes

Hi madjack,



great to hear that you are so motivated to do that. What I really like would like to see is


  1. As you already mentioned a explanation of all the effects


  2. Maybe more and better use cases when creating controllers and such because I always ran into problems. But could have also something to do with some bugs that were in the current snapshot version back then.



    Anyways, thx for your effort!

To be quite honest, my motivation isn’t entirely altruist. I think people underestimate how powerful Nifty really is. But often times, powerful also means complex. I know it can be daunting to learn how to properly use Nifty. Even frustrating at times too. I know, I’ve been there. My real goal is to really know how to use Nifty so I can achieve what I have in mind for my own game, but for now, this docs are lacking. It has improved a lot with the inception of 1.3, even if it’s not launched, but there’s still a long way to go. But, for myself to get there, I need to properly learn how it works. Know its guts. So I thought I could use the docs as my own notepad, so to speak, and put my findings there.



After that it was an easy step to come here and ask you guys what you needed so a proper documentation could be done in the order that is important to its users. At least for the jME users.



I think with void’s help I can give you a faster access to Nifty’s real potential.



As for your points, yes, the effects and their respective description are the number one priority. There are also updates to be done for 1.3. Many documents on the wiki are not complete or are missing key information, that will be fixed first.



Controllers should be pretty straightforward and I’ll probably work on that while I work on the effects list or soon after.



Thanks for the input!

1 Like

Hey,



It’s great that you are looking to update some of the NiftyGUI documentation. It is a great capability that in my opinion is currently limited by partial information. When it is combined with completed docs this will be truly awesome.



My priority list would be…


  1. Complete reference for effects and events.
  2. Skinning and how to do it.
  3. How to make new controls from scratch.
  4. Everything else.



    As this seems to pretty much fit with your own priorities I am very very happy!

    While the reference for effects needs to be completed to bring this into its own I think skinning is critical for a full game project. Each game calls for different GUI look and feel so eventually everybody needs to be able to skin their GUI to their own requirements. You are right that a certain amount can be reverse engineered from the included skin but without documentation it is difficult to know how to start from scratch.



    Good luck and thanks for your efforts!



    EvilNoodle
evilnoodle said:
You are right that a certain amount can be reverse engineered from the included skin but without documentation it is difficult to know how to start from scratch.


Reverse engineering is always possible, the problem is that it's extremely time consuming. I'll sacrifice myself so you guys can be ready to do your things. ;)

Oah yes, right. I also am quite curious how the design of custom styles could be done in an efficient way… GO FOR IT MADJACK!!! :slight_smile:

Dodikles said:
Hi madjack,

2) Maybe more and better use cases when creating controllers and such because I always ran into problems. But could have also something to do with some bugs that were in the current snapshot version back then.


Do you mean ScreenControllers or Controllers? They're not the same thing.

For those wanting to know, two effects have been fully described and even contain a quick example that should be very easy to test.



Those effects are Shake and Remote.



Unfortunately, before I fill more effects I’ll wait for void to reply to an email I sent as it seems I might have found some issues.



Also, I’m currently putting together notes on how to create a style for already defined controls so they can look different than their current implementation.



Here’s a comparison. On the left side is the default implementation of the Window control. Both panels on the right use the same control but use a different style (the same for both). It might take a bit of time before the tutorial is fully made as I don’t want to get things wrong. So please be patient. :wink:

1 Like

Hey wow,



this looks cool. I’m looking very forward to this. Concerning your question: Both, actually. :slight_smile:



Keep up the good work!

Brilliant work. My hat is off!



EvilNoodle

Seems like you will have to help me with the NiftyGUI editor in jMP soon too :wink: Great work, great contributions.

Thanks Normen. It’s appreciated.



I’ll help as much as I can, that’s a given. But I’m far from having mastered Nifty yet. Right now I’m dabbling in the GUI part of my game before jumping into AI, enemies, quests system, etc. I’d like to implement a Journal system tracking quests and well… a journal. :wink: So I have to learn about Nifty.



Just send your questions by PM or post them here. I’ll do what I can.