Locoweed is absolutely correct.

What is missing from the shader forum is quite obvious.
Their is no tutorial, that defines exactly how to start working with shaders from the ground up. Their are a few attempts at entry level explanations, but nothing that I would consider a great "help."

And for Rhuarc, who's opposition to this thread seems to be the most vibrant, I can garuntee you (without even reading your examples) that none of those tutorials is what Loco is talking about. Take the tutorial on the wiki, one line says "All you need to do is multiply R1 * R2 and LOOK what happens." Well that begs a few questions, what is stored in r1 and r2 that requires multiplication, not addition? Those are the types of questions that should be answered in a quality tutorial, not just, that this is what you have to do, but why you are doing it that way in the first place. That is how you LEARN a topic.
Secondly, I'm taking it that no one asked you specifically to write the tutorial, so stop "being offended" by a post no one directed specifically at you, keep your mouth shut, and maybe some more knowledgable dedicated-to-helping-others forum members will make this tutorial, your flaming of locoweed is just a waste of time.

(I don't mean any of that personally Dan, but it needs to be said)

This is silly, there are many basic tutorials on the net, and there is the direct3d documentation. I just dont see why we need some super basic tutorial for shaders. Do you want to be shown how to tie your shoes? If you dont have the energy to learn a little on your own, what good is it going to do.. writing shaders is not for non-programmers(or at least knowlegeable amateurs), so you should learn something about programming before trying to learn shader programming. Why do you need someone to write a basic tutorial, when there are already plenty of these on the web? just do a search on google! sheesh, how do you think other poeple have learned these things?

I would suggest that, in this thread at least, everyone just ignore Matt and anyone else that chooses only to criticize. For those that wish to get involved and use this thread to help or be helped, then let's carry on and be productive

I'm not 'chosing to critize', the point is this: there are plenty of tutorials on this subject so why bother? Make some effort on your own. This whole thread was like saying, you shader poepl are lazy and have a duty to write tutorials for us newbs. come on.

Matt,

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I'm not 'chosing to critize', the point is this: there are plenty of tutorials on this subject so why bother? Make some effort on your own. This whole thread was like saying, you shader poepl are lazy and have a duty to write tutorials for us newbs. come on.

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This is a fairly puerile argument perhaps you should let it go...

I just dont see what's so hard about searching for basic info on the the web.. Wolfgang Engle has some very good shader tutorials up, better than any you would find here.

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I'm not 'chosing to critize', the point is this: there are plenty of tutorials on this subject so why bother?

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Why don't we all just curl up in a ball and die?


The point is this, shut your mouth. We want a tutorial, why bother you ask? Because people need it. Just because you think we don't, doesn't mean we don't. If you were half as smart as you think you are, you'd just be quiet. Ever heard the expression less is more? If you don't want to see it happen, just don't offer to help, because if no one wants to see it happen, no one will help, and then locoweed will just make his own, your just wasting your time here.

edit.. and when locoweed makes his own, he will put you all to shame, and then you'll be sitting at your computer screen saying.. wow... i'm an idiot.

@Matt, if anyone in here would like to do that, they are perfectly entitled to do so - and I'm sure that it would help many users. But please do not provoke argument, and go off topic.

@Everyone, please keep this thread on topic. If it goes too far off, I'm going to have to close it (in which case Loco or anyone else can start a fresh new thread).

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The point is this, shut your mouth. We want a tutorial, why bother you ask? Because people need it. Just because you think we don't, doesn't mean we don't. If you were half as smart as you think you are, you'd just be quiet.

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Are you being purposefuly dense? All i'm saying is that this basic stuff is covered in many places, and it's easy to find. I dont care if you want to make a tutorial. But what i wonder is that some people think that shaders are somehow A6 specific, and therefore require A6-based tutorials. This is of course not the case, and any shader written in assembly or HLSL is easily ported to A6...the same thing goes for most of the tutorials out there. So its easy to go out and find relevant information, you dont need to get it here.