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Need some input

Started by Myopic Rhino Jan 15, 2001 at 1:08 PM 11 replies 750+ views

Original Post

Jan 15, 2001 at 1:08 PM

I'm pretty disappointed to hear on a regular basis that people come to our site looking for articles, and then claim that they couldn't find what they were looking for, when I know for a fact that we have a lot of information on the subject they were seeking. Not everyone has this problem, but the fact that a few do is troubling to me. As a solution, I'm working on a greater degree of integration between our articles, books, forums, links, etc. To make this work well, I've decided I need to come up with a "master list" of categories to divide everything into. Of course, taking almost 1000 articles, a hundred books, over 500 links, and billions of threads, and trying to neatly divide them into a hierachical list of categories is no trivial task. This is where I need some input. Below is the category hierarchy as it now stands. I'd like to see if anyone has any suggestions for improving it. I don't care if it's a minor tweaking or a major overhaul. Art

No clue how to organize this baby

Design

Design
- Design Docs
- Game Design
- Level Design
- Post Mortems
- Story Development
Psychology
- Emotion

Industry

Humor
Industry
- For Gamers
- General
- Getting into the Industry
- Independent Game Development

Music

Composition
Effects
Music Theory
Synthesis

Programming

3D Graphics and Theory
- Algorithms and Data Structures
- Fog
- General
- Hidden Surface Removal
- Landscapes and Terrain
- Lighting & Shading
- Particle Systems
- Ramblings in Realtime
- Shadows
- Texture Mapping
- Voxels
- WWH Series
3D Math and Physics
- 3D
- General Math
- Physics
AI
- AI Theory
- Applications
- Documentation
- Gaming
- Genetic Algorithms
- Introduction
- Natural Language Processing
- Neural Networks
- Pathfinding
Consoles
- Cybiko
DemoFX
- 3D
- Bump Mapping
- Feedback
- Fire
- Floor
- Interference Effect
- Landscape Generation
- Morphing
- Palette
- Plasma
- Roto-Zooming
- Scaling
- Transparency
- Voxel Terrain
- Water
DirectX
- Direct3D
- DirectDraw
- DirectGraphics
- DirectInput
- DirectPlay
- DirectSound
- General
Game Programming
- Code on the Cob
- Collision Detection
- General
- Optimization
General Programming
- Compression Algorithms
- General
- Sorting Algorithms
- Windows Programming
Graphics
- Alpha Blending
- Denthor's Asphixia Tutorials
- Dithering
- Michael Abrash's Articles
- Misc
- Mode 13h
- Shading
- Texture Mapping
Isometric and Tile-based Games
Languages
- C and C++
- General
- Java
- Scripting Languages
- Win32 Assembly
- x86 Assembly
Networking
OpenGL
- General
- GLUT Library
- NeHe Tutorials
- Win32 OpenGL
Sound
- Audio File Formats
- Gravis Ultrasound
- Misc
- PC Speaker
- Soundblaster and AdLib Programming
Sweet Snippets

Jiggold

Jan 15, 2001 at 1:21 PM

Quick question: shouldn''t there be a sub-category for music under Programming-Sounds, or is that already covered in Audio File Formats?

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Now, there''s your crap post.

civguy

Jan 15, 2001 at 1:48 PM

Art

Textures
- Free
- Commercial
Game art
- Eat it
Custom art
- Eat it

Edited by - civguy on January 15, 2001 2:52:29 PM

Myopic Rhino

Jan 15, 2001 at 1:59 PM

Jiggold: Sound is definitely an area that needs some work; most of those categories aren''t even relevant now.

civguy: I should have clarified this, but these categories are mostly for articles, so the art section would be divided into articles about how to create art, not what types of art are available. So, although a section on creating textures would be relevant, free vs. commercial is not.

JonnyQuest

Jan 15, 2001 at 2:04 PM

Hmm in "Languages"
Maybe make something like "other languages"... After all, there''s still VB, Delphi and later maybe C#.

Other than that it looks great.

- JQ
PWC Software
"And I thought I was insane..." -friend of mine after I said something

Jiggold

Jan 15, 2001 at 4:15 PM

An idea for sound: possibly create another main category for Sound Production for those seeking a more professional approach to it. It would be more for actual sound engineering and techniques used to generate your own sfx.
As for the languages, that does sound like a good idea to list them as Alternative Languages.
Art... yikes. How about Art And Visual Design as the title? Less vague. As for the actual content, that seems like a nearly impossible task. Can we get some real artists opinions in here?

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Now, there''s your crap post.

Myopic Rhino

Jan 15, 2001 at 4:22 PM

Flasher from 3dpalette is going to be doing some work on the Art section, so it''s not as much of a concern.

Adding new languages to the Language section isn''t really a problem; I''ll just add a new subsection for each new language as needed. The reason there are no VB, Delphi, etc. subsections now is that we don''t have any articles covering them.

As a side note, though, is there something wrong with calling that section Languages? Someone told me that they came here looking for C++ info, and couldn''t find it. I don''t know, but it seems that in the list of high level topics, Languages would be the obvious place to look.

dwarfsoft

Jan 15, 2001 at 4:25 PM

I like the idea for languages. That way, I could find some Delphi (even crusty old Pascal

) BASIC, C, C++, (C# if I ever do any of it) and whatever else . (Assembly etc)

Anyway. Sounds like a good idea. I dislike the way that the articles are handled now. Far too much trouble to go downloading all the ones that I have missed

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche

Jiggold

Jan 15, 2001 at 4:32 PM

Programming Languages would be the only alternative for a title, but there shouldn''t be a problem with just calling it Lanuages. When I first showed up here, I had no problems finding my way around.

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Now, there''s your crap post.

nes8bit

Jan 15, 2001 at 5:15 PM

quote:
Original post by Myopic Rhino
The reason there are no VB, Delphi, etc. subsections now is that we don''t have any articles covering them.

Myopic Rhino

Jan 15, 2001 at 5:21 PM

Technically, that article isn''t about VB, it just uses VB. i.e. it wouldn''t be for someone who was trying to learn VB. I do have some VB articles in the queue though.

wrenhal

Jan 16, 2001 at 8:56 AM

quote:
Original post by Myopic Rhino

1) Adding new languages to the Language section isn''t really a problem; I''ll just add a new subsection for each new language as needed. The reason there are no VB, Delphi, etc. subsections now is that we don''t have any articles covering them.

2) As a side note, though, is there something wrong with calling that section Languages? Someone told me that they came here looking for C++ info, and couldn''t find it. I don''t know, but it seems that in the list of high level topics, Languages would be the obvious place to look.

1) But you do have links and resources listed for those, so I think they should be included.

2) Would it be possible to call it Programming Languages?

Be

S
It''s Da BOMB Baby!!!

wrenhal

Jan 16, 2001 at 9:03 AM

quote:
Original post by nes8bit

[quote]Original post by Myopic Rhino
The reason there are no VB, Delphi, etc. subsections now is that we don''t have any articles covering them.

You do have a VB article actually. The one on scripting languages. It''s completely based on VB/VBScript using callbyname. Doesn''t matter though, there''s only two VB programmers on this board anyway. Me and some other dude...

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"the only thing I ask, is that if my games get pirated, people must do a good job of it." - Erick

I''m not sure if you meant me or not. I sort of know VB, and help out a little when I can, but otherwise I still consider myself Beginner to Intermediate (somewhere in the middle).

Be

S
It''s Da BOMB Baby!!!

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