Lee,
I am new to Game Guru and Lua scripting but been in various IT roles for literally decades. For fun, I started to get into gaming I was pleasantly surprised with GG and especially with its simplicity and now the new graphics. One area though that needs help is documentation. I'm not sure why it isn't already there but it would be a huge help to those who are trying to learn LUA and get familiar with the various scripts provided if there was a one or two line description for each script and what is used for. I think Game Guru would gain a much larger following and many new users if there were more information about the Lua scripts, an associated comprehensive description of all API components and GG Lua script relationship diagrams. The claim of being a simple game engine would be tremendously advanced in the market as an alternative to the other more complicated engines. At this point, however, for the trouble it takes to figure out each script and the APIs for GG, it is almost easier to go through the long tedeous process of going through the documentation and training process to learn one of the move complicated engines.

It could also be revenue stream for you or someone as I would eagerly buy a version the GG documentation if it was offered through the store.

Thanks much and I'll be interested in get your thoughts and those of other fledgling game developers.

JASAILOR

global.lua contains a list of all the available commands with brief description.
The Lua scripting guide (which for some strange reason is only available on the steam pages) is a good first step.
Someone is currently writing a book! (which everyone can buy and then not read)
The Script forum is the best place to hang out for Lua related stuff, there is a whole - very long - thread there full of example scripts.
Then there are the video's, tons of them made by Lee showing off his scripting skills.
Oh and there is this https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219215#msg2594062 which is quite handy.

But first I'd suggest learning Lua, buy the official book it's well worth it. GG uses Lua 5.2 btw.

btw, welcome to GG land.

btw2, I am in the process of creating a suite of modules to provide more useful Lua commands, utillib.lua & physlib.lua are already available in script bank. Each new function has a description with it. The idea behind the modules is to provide more powerful and better performing functions for the more common things people need to do in scripts.

Thanks for the recommendation. I found the scripting guide is very informative but not comprehensive enough in the API area since it doesn't provide a description of the typical uses of the various API/Command or the situations that each should be used. It would be likely sufficient if there were more specific comments in the Global.lua and in the scripts in script bank. Although somewhat helpful, the names of the functions just aren't sufficient to really explain their use. Can someone please do a great service to the Community and add meaning comments? It would only provide support for a growing enthusiastic following.

Thanks

JASAILOR

Post Script:
I'm not sure where the idea came from that using video tutorials can take the place of documentation. It does give examples, but It just doesn't work as a reference. For example, if you don't remember something it is very difficult to find where it demonstrates it.

This overall lack of documentation is really a barrier for really getting into Game Guru. Perhaps Game Guru could hire a summer intern and get some documentation built!

That's a good idea. Lee is a great and magnificent programmer but that doesn't mean he likes to write documentation or is even very good at it. To hire somebody who can do that (usually programmers don't make good document writers anyway) is always the best bet. Also, if that's all they do it won't take very long and shouldn't cost as much as a programmer. Problem is, Lee will still have to somehow tell them what the command does. So, I don't know if he would have the time to do that.

Im going to read every single word from it , im sure we will all learn something from it, and yes we all know who is publishing it.



The problem is that there is thousand of GG commands , so we might drown in words just reading a description of each command. i think that a book that cover the most impotent features is much more useful , but thats just me , normally when i work ( no matter what program it is ) i press F1 when i need help and then search for whatever i need, i think this has always been the best way to gain information

And yes google is always your friend!

BOTR is busy with it or has my brain collapsed again?

I'm sure going to buy it and read it in order to learn.

Thanks for your comments. At lease I know that I'm not entirely alone in being a bit frustrated.

I appreciate that an entire book may be a lot of work but there is one written for AGK and assume it has a more limited following by now than GG. If it doesn't, having betting information would propel GG to have a far larger following in the long run. Even if there is not a full book written, just commenting the code on a high level would help tremendously.

If there were comments in the script indicating the relationship between the scripts would help. For example, I was playing around with the BlastDoor in the SiFi DLC. I placed it in a test scene and walked up to it in test mode and nothing happened. I could see in the blastdoor script that the door was dependent upon both the player being visible (why it wouldn't be, I have no clue) and an engineer door password not being zero. To find out where and how the pass word variable was set took twenty minutes of searching. A few simple comments in the blastdoor.lua script that says that "for password see engineer.lua" would have save 20 minutes of searching. I would have much rather been attempting to add code so the player needed to supply the specific combination. I still don't know why there is checking for the player being visible.

I would imagine that there are other people around GG who know the commands and scripts who could instruct and intern or take a few days and write some comments. The person who did the Plugin for NotePad++ should be commended because it does help. The only issue is not knowing which API to use to accomplish a specific need.

JASAILOR