Tutorials: Have Your Say

[Dark0ne]

Hi folks,

 

I'm going to be re-doing the tutorials section of the site soon and want to make it something special. I'm just in the contemplation and design stages at the moment. This is the perfect time for you guys to have your say and let me know what a good tutorial system needs; think Wiki but..not wiki. I'm tired of looking at wiki's now. They're good, don't get me wrong, but I often find them hard to navigate (often having to do about 10 clicks to get to a page worth reading).

 

I've jotted down a few things I want to do, here's the list:

• Seperate template (like the file db has a seperate template) that uses 100% of screen for easy reading.
  
• Ability to upload multiple images to place within a tutorial.
  
• Ability for other users to suggest improvements to an article for the original author to approve. Could directly use the suggestion or use it in their own way and give credit to the suggestor.
  
• Easy "bbcode" style formatting tags for headings, code, quotes, links, images, etc..
  
• Ability to provide references or "learn more" links at the buttom of a tutorial.
  
• Rather than a rating system have a feedback system, 1 - 10 as usual, with people who provide feedback having to leave a comment with, hopefully, suggestions on how to make the tutorial better (or just some kudos for ego boosting).
  

If anyone has any functional ideas for a tutorial system then please go ahead and suggest them.

 

Similarly I'm not a modder and would love a hand with the categories that should be available for tutorial posting. If possible could you stick to a simple format; for each level of category add two hypens "--". i.e.

 

Construction Set

-- Quests

---- Dialogue

---- Voice

---- Markers

---- Miscellaneous

 

(well aware that these, more than likely, aren't viable categories)

 

Would make it easier for me to understand.

 

Please don't just give random categories (i.e. "Oh you should have a <insert category name here> category!") cause that just won't help! If you're good at making models for the game, provide a good structure for a modelling category and sub-categories, for example, not just a solo category.

 

Thanks in advance for any input.

[LHammonds]

I like most of your suggestions...especially the "not a wiki" part because like you said, it's hard to navigate and a pain to link the pages right. Turns into a jumbled mess if not properly managed.

 

"upload multiple images to place within a tutorial" - Oh yes. If that can be done directly from the tutorial page, that would be awesome. Also, the ability to control position of the image would be very important. Maybe use something similar to DIV tags that can specify relative position in pixels to provide left, center, right, indentations etc. If nothing else, at least provide left, right and center ability. ;)

 

Regarding categories, I prefer checkboxes that allows a page or mod to be associated to multiple categories. For example, if I create a tutorial on how to retexture and add new creatures, it could fit under multiple categories such as "Construction Set", "Scripting", "Creatures", "Textures", "Enchantments" and "AI Packages" Searches for tutorials later could yield this tutorial if somebody wanted any information on scripting...although the tutorial is not titled and dedicated to scripting, I may have some awesome scripting info related to creatures. Also, if you later determine that another category needs to be added, you could do so without any adverse effects. You could also group these categories much like how you described above such as (just an example):

 

CONSTRUCTION SET

-- Scripting

-- AI Packages

-- Buildings

-- Creatures

-- NPCs

-- Dialog

-- Quests

-- Objects

-- Enchantments

-- Spells

MODELING

-- UV Mapping

-- Shaping

-- Lighting

-- Best Practices

-- Techniques

TEXTURES

-- File Formats

-- Best Practices

-- Techniques

-- Transparency

 

etc.

 

Thanks,

LHammonds

[Dark0ne]

I was thinking of sticking with the category side of things but also allowing the user to "tag" the article with other categories. I'm sure you've seen tagging on other sites, especially blogs. Just need to work out how to do it now ;)

[SickleYield]

Speaking as a modeler AND a tutorial writer, I'd suggest the Modeling section look more like this and in this order:

 

MODELING

 

Blender:

 

--Design

--Shaping the mesh

--UV mapping

--Weight painting/skinning

--The Export Workaround (this is complex enough that 90% of fatal errors happen here, it really needs its own section)

--Collision

--Special techniques: things like Blender's lattice modifiers, sculpt mode, etc.

 

3ds Max:

 

--Design

--Shaping the mesh

--UV mapping

--Weight painting/skinning

--Export

--Collision meshes

--Special techniques: things like Garment Maker and the cloth and rope modifiers, etc.

 

IMO It's very important that Blender and Max have their own sections, because a general tutorial covering both will be utterly useless given their radically different interfaces.

[LHammonds]

Good idea SickleYield, let's keep the ideas comin!

[SickleYield]

I would also suggest a separate section covering NifSkope, not for the export workaround (which should go in modeling) but for things you can do without a modeling program. There are certainly enough people out there who would rather cut/paste than learn to model; they might as well do it right and learn some things about materials settings and nistencilproperties and so on at the same time.