How is the Documentation?

[lyravega]

Hello gentlemen. Simple question, how is the documentation for CryEngine?

[Tikigod]

From a reply I made to a thread asking pretty much the exact same question as this 2 or 3 threads down:

Very bad at present coming from a engine such as Unity, for the simple reason that the vast majority of the documentation for CE either:

* Simply doesn't exist.

* Is outdated and no longer accurate.

* Covers just enough of a subject explain where something is and any potential CE special factors in play but assumes you already know everything there is to know about the subject and just needed a refresher on the CE specific factors.

And thanks to the free SDK that's been available for so long, the sheer bulk of the community information and guides are either:

* 1-2 years out of date.

* Starts a video guide series about a subject that ends after the first video, after the person running the series realised they haven't got a clue how to do the subject they started covering and there's no documentation to it for them to figure it out to then explain to everyone else.

* All about CE SDK as a level editor, making cool maps and tweaking entity attributes.

* From people who picked up the free SDK a year ago, got all excited when they threw together a quick generic sample FPS. Started large scale plans for all the awesome stuff they would do with CE.... then left and went back to Unity and/or UE after a week.

Where the documentation and explainations are sufficient for CE is for just using the SDK as a glorified level editor, if you want to just make something thrown together as a general FPS from pre-bundled assets and behaviour. Maybe if you're feeling out going replacing default red barrels with your own ultra custom brighter red barrels using several different community resources to cover how to do that in the gaps in the documentation. But mostly just use the editor in the same way someone would use 'Worldcraft' (Or Valve Hammer Editor I suppose it's called now)... you'll likely get on fine and find the learning curve is often non-existant as that's the redeeming factor for the SDK ATM. It allows you to make generic thrown together FPS from sample assets you can jump into and think "Wow! I'm making games!" in seconds.

If you want to do much else and weren't gifted with Omniscience and don't know all things already... in the words of Samuel L. Jackson's chain smoking dinosaur chow persona... Hold on to your butt.

It's going to be a bumpy ride... and unfortunately there aren't any cool dinosaurs to make for a cool distractions... well except for the documentation, that's a dinosaur. :)

In other words, at the moment it's sparse, very selective and frequently out of date. And existing documentation seems to be aimed at two types of people:

* Experienced devs who already know how to do what they're setting out to do and just need some CE specific process information for adapting their work over to CE.

* Hobbyists who just want to mess around and use the sandbox editor as a ramped up level editor, and have no interest or inclination toward anything else.

Anything in between isn't really catered to at all in the documentation or other resources.


For myself, coming from the Unity Engine it's actually somewhat baffling how under documented and overlooked the entire thing is. Especially considering there was a 2 or 3 month lead up between EaaS being announced and it being released as a paid service.

During which it seems there are zero documentation prep work done, except merging some areas together and leaving the information itself pretty much "As was" even the parts referencing to the sheer basics of getting started not even being accurate anymore.

[Muffin]

I can't agree more, the documentation by developers is very sparse even in the source code. Most of it's up the individual to personally document functions.

They have been updating the technical documentation this past week. So if you have a lot of patience I would give it go, CryEngine has a LOT of potential. If you have questions ask the community until the developers can catch up.

[lyravega]

Uh, I see... Thanks!

[Tikigod]

I think going forward the 'go to' point for examples, orientation and fleshing out details will most likely be the CryDev community forums, however it will be some time before the transition from "Accurate based on the free SDK" and "Accurate based on the commercial SDK" resource will properly establish itself.

CryDev community forum: http://www.crydev.net/viewforum.php?f=295

At the moment a large bulk of the information and examples there are still from older SDK versions specifically the free SDK, but already some more recent and put together tutorial/explaination series are showing themselves, which will hopefully be seen through and not dropped after the first few videos.

This one caught my attention for example as exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for as a basis of how to apply things directly to Cryengine to then move on with my ideas and needs: http://www.crydev.net/viewtopic.php?f=291&t=123898

Whilst that's presented more as a 'learning C++' series, the fact it's all based around utilisation of CryEngine will hopefully lead to a lot of extra context being supplied on the foundations of how to move deeper into developing with the engine.

As that's the area which is sorely lacking in documentation and a lot of the past community resources I've found, there's really no "Where to find elements that deal with xxxx within the SDK and provided source code" or "What direction to look into if you want to begin developing your ideas into a proper project using CryEngine".

Because what I'm wanting to develop is by no means a FPS, there's going to need to be a fair bit of leg work on my part... but the official documentation and resources provided don't really even establish the areas to look into to even get started with that.

And because I am still a beginner who's extent of familiarity with development is what I've built up utilising Unity and making it my own over the years as it has developed.. I'm left feeling like a fish out of water when moving to CryEngine to see what it offers.

[Frag Do]

Well this sucks, I was just looking over everything and making my decision, I mean $9 a month isnt allot of money but more that I don't want to invest time and effort into something ill have to ap hazzardly smash my way through. I would be classed as a basic beginer and was hoping considering theres a fee they would at least walk you through what there is to know (obviously there is allot but hey, not everyone went to uni for 3 yrs to learn it)

[Tikigod]

Originally posted by Frag Pimp:

Well this sucks, I was just looking over everything and making my decision, I mean $9 a month isnt allot of money but more that I don't want to invest time and effort into something ill have to ap hazzardly smash my way through. I would be classed as a basic beginer and was hoping considering theres a fee they would at least walk you through what there is to know (obviously there is allot but hey, not everyone went to uni for 3 yrs to learn it) :csgogun:

Indeed.

Hopefully it's something that will be expanded on as they get a better feel of where a lot of the interest in CryEngine is coming from and the shortcomings of the current documentation and resources to make CryEngine accessible to that audience.

Unfortunately it doesn't really help matters right here and now, which is made more critical given the cost model involved in accessing CryEngine means that 'sitting back and waiting for them to catch up' isn't really a viable option as maintaining access to the SDK is a monthly expenditure.

[Collin]

This is coming from someone that knows the engine quite well. I can say the documentation is good. The issue is that it is a very technical program. It is almost like taking a 6 yr old child and sticking him in a calculus class. He won't know what any of it means until he has built up a foundation. This is where people suffer because the engine has so many options and so many hidden menus. You think you have one thing figured out and that you are almost done. Then you realize you must script something and then at the very end create a new class. Endless amounts of work. So take my word as it stands. This engine is very technical and hard to use. Stick with it and you will be paid off handsomely. Unfortunately there are few that do...