Func_Msgboard: How To Attract Coders To The Quake Scene

How To Attract Coders To The Quake Scene

Posted by mankrip on 2019/05/30 19:31:06

From this thread (see it for full context):

There's little reason left for anyone to implement graphical advancements in Q1. [...] Q1 engine coding seems to be dead.

The constructive question in my comment is: How will you attract new talented engine coders?

Talented coders likes to do crazy stuff. It's a waste of their time not to do it. Programmers are fuelled more by challenges than by artistic visions. They are primarily driven to make things work, not to make things look good. Making things look good is the most boring part of their work, often being a chore because of how subjective things can get.

How do you expect programmers to feel compelled to work in Q1 engines if you keep telling them that doing crazy stuff is wrong?

Baker was one of the most amazing coders here because he did lots of crazy stuff. There's lots of stuff in his work I don't agree with, like hacking the QC code behavior to shoehorn the fish count fix through the engine. But despite not agreeing with his methods, lots of stuff can be learned from them. He contributed a lot.

People hates Darkplaces because it does lots of crazy stuff. But that's exactly why it's one of the best engines for any Quake modder who wants to make wholly new games: almost any crazy shit you throw at it will work. Engine coders doesn't think only of the mappers, they also tries to improve things to 2D artists, modelers, texture artists, musicians, gameplay programmers, and so on.

How do you expect engine programmers to enjoy working in Quake engines?

Mankrip, I'm presuming you're drunk posting with the "community rejects any graphical advances in Quake rendering these days" gibberish.

Years ago the community was more receptive. Nowadays, it isn't.

Just because some rendering things that look completely out of place with the rest of the game aesthetic are rejected doesn't mean that people reject advancements

Some maps in some map jams are very poor, yet people don't reject maps jams because of them. Nobody says "this jam is bad because of that map", but they say "this engine is bad because of that feature". It's sad to see lots of good work being ignored because of small stuff.

The quake scene on here should be mature enough to use stuff subtly... [...] And the more people do that, [...] the more the advancements can progress overall

there's so many areas that remain to be advanced harmoniously and appropriately...

Guess what, the skills to do such things comes from the same place of "pissing around with disco lights". Programming is not art direction. If you want a good programmer, you must let him exercise his programming skills, instead of forcing him to develop artistic skills.

The question remains: How to make engine coders enjoy working with the Quake engine?

First | Previous | Next | Last

How About A Github Issue Tracker

#52 posted by ericw on 2019/06/05 08:40:45

For feature suggestions not specific to one engine. Only use the issue tracker bit of GitHub. I checked out Feathub and it looks good but there is a JS execution vulnerability and I was getting popups..

No downsides to, worst case is it doesn't catch on.

#53 posted by Thulsa on 2019/06/05 08:48:07

Sure, this would work too. It may be a good idea to start GH org for that so it's easier to switch maintainers if this is needed down the line.

I'm also wondering: is there any point in updating quakewiki with more technical stuff? I want to spend some time comparing code of various engines (mostly non-rendering code) and it would probably make sense to document it somewhere.

It Was Because Of QuakeWiki..

#54 posted by Izhido on 2019/06/05 13:09:02

... that I could move QuakeEd from a mass of old UI code from a forgotten era, to a working product for Macs so I’d vote for adding *more* content, instead of less.

#55 posted by Kinn on 2019/06/05 13:23:41

To adding engine coding info to QuakeWiki

That place needs more love

Does Anyone Object

#56 posted by dumptruck_ds on 2019/06/05 17:33:49

If I create a repo for this as ericw mentioned above?

#57 posted by Kinn on 2019/06/05 17:44:58

Yes to ericw's idea.

@dumptruct_ds

#58 posted by Thulsa on 2019/06/05 17:54:21

If you currently have no beef with anyone then I don't think anyone objects. ;-P Once again I suggest starting GH org for quake related stuff but this can obviously be done later.

@thulsa

#59 posted by dumptruck_ds on 2019/06/05 19:15:26

You mean this type of setup?

https://help.github.com/en/articles/about-organizations

#60 posted by Thulsa on 2019/06/05 19:56:38

Correct.

#61 posted by dumptruck_ds on 2019/06/05 20:02:03

I'd like to do the organization thing upfront I think. I'll make a catch-all email account for this and maybe the org can be: The Worldwide Quake Mapping Community. Something fancy like that.

I am pretty slammed with work and other Quake related obligations but I will get this cook at some point today or tomorrow.

QuakeDads

#62 posted by Thulsa on 2019/06/05 20:10:18

That'd be the best name.

@dumptruck_ds

#63 posted by GoatEmperorI on 2019/06/06 13:06:06

+1 to that

Github Org Is Up

#64 posted by dumptruck_ds on 2019/06/06 21:09:00

I've created this:

https://github.com/quake-mapping-community

I'll add more info and a repo later as I have time. I dropped the Worldwide from the name.

#65 posted by dumptruck_ds on 2019/06/07 06:38:42

Alright a repo has been created. If you'd like to post issues in the tracker I've started with one that was sent to me on Discord. If you'd prefer not to create a GitHub account email me or post suggestions here. I'll likely create a func news post about this soon.

Anti-spam Re-bump.

#66 posted by Shambler on 2019/06/20 20:01:48

1 post not shown on this page because it was spam

First | Previous | Next | Last

You must be logged in to post in this thread.