Need some advice on code contributions to the community...

I have been around gstudio for a while but I have never cared about programming seriously until recently. Mostly I have in the past been more of a script kiddie/artist.

SO ANYWAY now that I am getting interested in programming I have my first code contribution ever, it is the basic Craig Reynolds steering behaviors and a flocking demo based on those behaviors. But I have some questions about it before I release it.

***#1 PLEASE bear in mind that it will be a free contribution, I am not expecting any money or other favors for it.***

Question 1: Though the code is not finished, it has basic functionality. There are many true physics formulas I would need to add and many optimizations needed before I could ever call it finished, but it in its present state it works. Should I wait until it is more perfected, or should I just release it as it is with the idea that it is free after all, and people can adapt it how they want.

Question 2: Question 2 depends on question 1. If I decide to release it as it is(finished but not perfected and optimized), should I release a very thorough documentation with it so that anyone can easily understand it? (Costing me many hours of writing)

My theory is that if I document it very very well then I will never have to support it by answering people's questions because I have written so much documentation that noone could have any questions.

The problem with so much documentation is that it is a long long time to make such thorough notes, and it would be easier just to make thorough commented code.

Question 3: Is just for fun.


I hope you guys will think about giving answers which most resemble what course of action YOU would take, not trying to add any other factors in. What I mean by factors are if you need flocking and want me to hurry up, or you would never need flocking and dont care if it ever gets out. Pretend like this is just generic code without those factors and how you would do things.

Whatever you say I'm looking forward to any discussion/comments you might have.

Thanks

im not sure what that even really is. Ill probably looking it up later, but some discription or a link to an article describing what it is might be usefule. good to see you getting into programming, its fun work, but less payoff in the indie area, that's the sole reason i started doing art, because people kept paying me more, and more often to do art work after I told them that i do it as a hobby and showed them my work.

same here.. am not sure what it is either... but i'm thinking i'd have problems if i waited until it was finished... well good luck on finding tha easier route.. am ok with whichever

I also dont know what it is from your description, but seeing as it is real-physics
concepts, maybe add some references to wikipedia entries on those concepts.

Ive voted, but I want to add minor comments to my votes.

Release It :: Release it now. Remember the community will help find AND FIX bugs/optimisations.

Document It :: Document it fairly thoroughly. Remember it is going to evolve,
so the documentation will keep changing with it. And you'll want to clarify bits
that others dont understand.

Give to Acknex :: Once its evolution has stabalised. Or before any major evolutionary steps.
PS: Dont forget the conitec wiki too.

Part of the problem with releases is that there are 2 types of members in a general sense.
1. Noobies
2. Experienced.
My criteria is to dev for noobs as experienced users can and do find methods to adapt, use or discard as they see fit.
Noobs though have very few resources they can plugin and see working straight away.
I think this is the area that needs the consideration for any release.

I like the last option best

google "opensteer" for what his contrubition is going to be like.

I wonder what difference it would make in practice. If the code's usable for both newbies and pros it will be worth releasing for the people that benefit anyways.

Personally I think a good documentation will be beneficial to everyone as it will improve accessibility to the code so to speak, but that part is really all up to you.

All that's left to say is; thanks in advance!

actually, I am pretty excited to hear you've done that much - working flocking would be great - Is it 3D (birds) or 2D (persons on street) capable, or both?

As such, I'd say release now


Don
have a great day

OK. Thanks for the input. I will release it without optimization or advanced physics however FYI steering behaviors can be used for the base layer of any physics and/or ai engine made-from-scratch. As a matter of fact, I would like to use these functions for the basis of my own physics/ai engine. So in the future as things get more complex the calculations will have to change.

I will also plan on writing extensive documentation both in terms of commented code and an additional manual type of thing. That will help noobs a lot, but it will also help new team members to my game get up to speed quickly.

Yeah, its 2d now, useful for crowd simulations or any land-bound flocks. There will be a 3d demo also but I'm not sure if that will be in this initial release, probably not. I think that when people see the documentation they will be able to do 3d by themselves either based on my code or using their own adaptations.

That definitely sounds interesting enough to me.

Cheers