Some tutorials

[Feralidragon]

Hi there guys.

I was planning to do this after I released my last stuff, but I decided to go ahead with this before that since it would take a while, considering what I decided to add.
Basically I am going to do a set of tutorials very soon starting with the basic assumptions that you know zero (nothing, nada) about programming itself up to the most complex and confusing things such as replication, weapon making, probably a bit on AI and security too, together with some curiosities and tips relative programming in general and UScript specifically.

Almost every tutorial will have practice material bundled and "exercises" for you to understand what you're looking at by messing up with it, so everything I want to know is what exactly would you like to understand about the engine for me to write about. However, keep in mind one thing: my knowledge is still limited, so I can't write at all about things I don't know about.

For now, these are the things I want to cover:
- What's programming/coding?
- What's OOP?
- UScript as a language (UVM and syntax)
- Tools
- Your first mutator
- Your first trigger
- Algorithms
- Standards
- Best practices and tips
- UT main Actor classes and functions
- Import directives
- Inventory
- Weapons (probably it's going to be split in 2 or 3 parts)
- Replication
- Security basics
- AI (?)
- Making your first online server-client mod from start to finish

If there's something you want to add to that list, please refer so (it can be anything, as long as I know it), since I am going to sort it by lessons (starting with Lesson 0, then Lesson 1, etc, trying to higher the bar as smoothly as possible to make it seem easier to understand).
I must warn though, I suck at teaching, however since plenty of people asked me some tutorials on how to do things, I will do this set of tutorials so I can have a place I can point at whenever someone asks me "so do you know a place to look at to start modding?".

[Hook]

Hey, I am so glad to see something like this - I will love to learn more about these topics!

[JackGriffin]

You should theme this out Ferali so there is some coherence across the tutorials. For instance you might do something like:

- Introduce the concepts and theory, but not heavily. No one understands this until they go back to it anyway after they learn some coding.
- Creating a sniper rifle from scratch. I say sniper because it has most of the standard stuff: a canvas draw, it has a projectile (even if it's just an effect), it has trace functions and hit effects, plus everyone uses it at one time or another and everyone has seen a blue billion versions. You can hit on replication some here too.
- Now move this weapon into a gametype and show how to assign it as an arena
- From the arena move into server stuff, security, and how to understand the architecture of UEngine. Heavy replication discussions here.
- Then lastly I'd close with playerpawn. Assign the sniper rifle you made to players and bots and show how it works with both and what is needed to ensure clean usage.
- For the final tut I'd start pointing backwards at the first part and show where the theory is applicable across the different parts. That's when it will start to make sense.

If you need any help with this please let me know. I tried so hard to get something like this off the ground when I made the coding school forum but there was just zero interest from people. If you have sections you want written I'd be glad to do them. I know your knowledge is way better but at least it could help you by giving you something to correct and flesh out rather than write yourself from scratch.

[UnrealGGecko]

Hey, I got a few simple (probably) mutator ideas, I would really need some tuts as well

[DeathoX 8]

Sounds great! Looking forward to them

I agree with JackGriffin that it's probably better to not get too heavy with the theory when starting out, IMO it would be better to make some very simple things as the very first lessons (like the Your First Mutator, Trigger) since that way when someone reads the theory afterwards the pieces of the puzzle start completing themselves, while if you start with a lot of theory first it's likely that a part of it will be forgotten before putting it into practice.

Personally some tutorials I'd like to see are about the UI (e.g. adding a config window for a mod/mutator), it's a topic I've never seen covered but I'm not sure if those are time-intensive (and since the config pages are more of a decorative thing than functional it's definitely better to focus on more important things like replication first!)

[GenMoKai]

I think you can make a lot of people happy with it

[Feralidragon]

Well, I switched the order a bit and merged some lessons. However the very first one, lesson 0, is pure theory, not "coding theory" itself, it's mostly something for who doesn't even know what programming is at all, thus calling it lesson 0 and not lesson 1.
Lesson 1 will be the making of the first mutator, however it won't put weapons in the mix, nor any other actors besides just 1 class which is the mutator itself. Actually I am finishing lesson 1 as I speak (I just need to arrive home to take some screenshots and assemble an example package too), and it has less than 10 lines of code, it's something really really basic and simple.

I think starting off with weapons and whatnot will make the whole thing seem difficult for new developers, it's like teaching a recruit how to drive a tank when the biggest thing he ever drove was a shopping cart.
Like I said, I will try to make this as smooth as possible, without any big steps, since if the novice coder starts doing things and they start to work from the start and in the most simple way possible, then motivation will be kept along the whole way.

I will try my own methodology in this one based in the amount of people I already helped both in UT as in RL on other coding/PC related things, and then modify depending on the feedback.

[Dr.Flay]

1 thing I remind myself (and check for after), is to always use the full name or phrase, for the first occurrence of any acronyms.
Including over-looked common ones (eg. Joint Picture Experts Group etc.)

This way you don't have to worry about providing a glossary or key (and people wont be put-off if they really are a total beginner).

A good tutorial or article, example I can think of (this is for Jack or Loathsome), is the how and why a pack such as the swarm-zombies, got its makeover.
Even articles that don't go into the nuts and bolts can be very useful to explain concepts.