Programming Sub-Forum?

Eric Chadwick

Should we add a new sub-forum in the Technical Forums section?

We are generally hesitant to add new forum sections, as they tend to dilute discussion, and they require more moderation overhead. But maybe this makes sense? Let us know what you think.

Programming and Technical Art - Topics about tool development, shader writing, and game coding. 

Threads like this could go in there:
Tech Artist - What are you working on: FOREVER Edition!

Technical Talk would still be the place to share finished shaders, scripts, and new software. The new section would only be for development discussion, not "selling" your stuff. 

What say you?

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MikeF

Yes

I think its worthwhile, there's a growing amount of crossover jobs that require both art and programming skills. Technical talk is the closest thing we have rite now, but its almost completely relegated to the tech artist thread

sacboi

Yes

For me of course there's an interest,  'A Game' by sheer definition is essentially a piece of.software so minus scripts or any level of core programming to speak of, you've just a bunch of stills to look at.

zaha

Yes

Also a lot of 3D packages offer scripting capabilities these days (Python for Blender, Houdini, even Substance now).

thomasp

No

I don't see the point. There's already a dedicated forum for tech artists: tech-artists.org

JordanN

Yes

Where would something like Unreal Engine's blueprints fit in?
Technically, it's programming but without the written code.

throttlekitty

No

I agree with @thomasp . I'd rather go where the action is than split everyone up. This tends to lead to the bad etiquette where write the same post to three places and wastes a lot of peoples time when the poster finally decides to stick with one thread. Not that I'm too active as a tech artist personally, but I've been learning a lot the past months.

But it would be cool if Polycount was the cool place to be. A readable code block would help a lot, as would some markup calling out simple commands.

RN

I think Technical Talk could be incremented to accept the type of threads that would go in that new area.
Technical Talk: tool development, shader writing, game coding as well as finished shaders, scripts and new software. And unicorns.

PolyHertz

Yes

Are there really enough people on Polycount interested in code to warrant it? The tech artist thread is basically the current equivalent, and it only gets about 2-3 post a week.

Zack Maxwell

Yes

PolyHertz said:

Are there really enough people on Polycount interested in code to warrant it? The tech artist thread is basically the current equivalent, and it only gets about 2-3 post a week.

Do you mean the "What are you working on" thread? That has a very particular purpose. I never saw it as the place to have general discussions about technical art. I always saw it as just a "Hey, I made a little thing!" type of thread. Even if you had anything big you wanted to show off, it'd generally just go in 3D Art Showcase instead.
Technical Talk as a whole doesn't feel like the place for Tech Art stuff, anyway. It's all "I need help with this program" or "This program got a new update".

PolyHertz

Yes

Yea you're probably right.

Eh, why not try I supposed. I voted yes.

lefix

No

Voted no, even though I started programming recently. Polycount simple doesn't seem the place to go for programming and will probably be difficult to bring them over. But if we manage to do it, it would be pretty awesome.

Alemja

No

I think it's best if it gets rolled into the technical talk forum, I'm not sure if the user-base here is large enough.

Blond

Yes

Alemja said:

I think it's best if it gets rolled into the technical talk forum, I'm not sure if the user-base here is large enough.

This. I would all for at at first thought but how many actual code programmers are there coming here? Programmers have their own sites to discuss codes imo...And i even doubt this forum would make a successful bridge for both worlds to understand each other's work...

JordanN

Yes

Hmmm, maybe we do need a programming sub.

Robots are evolving at a fast rate, might as well have a backup ready for when they come for our jobs. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARpd5J5gDMk

Eric Chadwick

Flypaper. We'll make it a honeypot, and kill all who enter.

wirrexx

Yes

Yes, because i'm currently learning to code (started with C#) and having a blast even though a lot of stuff is hard to understand! 

CreativeSheep

Yes

The deeper stuff in programming that will make learning the syntax flow like water.

PyrZern

Yes

Trying to pick up C# atm, so, yes

pior

So on the one hand, there are definitely a gazillion ressources for each language out there, so I understand that it could be seen as redundant. Currently learning some Lua myself, and the documentation is solid.

However, on the other hand ... there is definitely some value in learning things by proxy through frequent, casual browsing and by peaking at other people's progress and questions (especially in a practical context). So if anything, I could see some value in such of a subforum simply because it would be easy to access, and in a familiar environment.

Now whether or not it would pick up steam is another question - but there's definitely a certain appeal to it. There might be some overlap with the engine specific subforums though - for instance, it wouldn't be clear where to post a question about Blueprints, or Unity scripting : UE/Unity subforums, or programming subforum ?

Or, maybe the rules of the engine-specific subforums could be adjusted to be about anything related to an engine *except* coding - who knows. That said, best way to find out about all this imho is to just try and see what happens rather than trying to think of complex rules in advance.

throttlekitty

No

@pior A tagging system would help in a single subforum setting. Like if the tags were visible on the thread title lines, and clicking one (or more?) would filter to show posts with those tags.

But this also means enforcing stricter rules on that subforum for it to work. Tech Talk already has a problem with thread titles.

Kwramm

No

No

Even though both is programming, I see little overlap between game-dev and tool programming topics. It's like mashing VFX and environment art together - you use the same app / language, but you do different things with different approaches, and you wouldn't design a tool like you design a game (or vice versa) except maybe on the very, very highest abstraction level. Besides, there are already great resources for either.

Personally, I'm not a fan of "a little bit of everything" approaches. I don't think we'll have the user base at PC to make it a really 1st class resource on the net (which PC is for many, many things game dev!)

poopipe

No

Kwramm said:

No

Even though both is programming, I see little overlap between game-dev and tool programming topics. It's like mashing VFX and environment art together - you use the same app / language, but you do different things with different approaches, and you wouldn't design a tool like you design a game (or vice versa) except maybe on the very, very highest abstraction level. Besides, there are already great resources for either.

Personally, I'm not a fan of "a little bit of everything" approaches. I don't think we'll have the user base at PC to make it a really 1st class resource on the net (which PC is for many, many things game dev!)

Sort of this.. 

it probably wouldn't hurt to have subsection of technical talk set aside for scripts/tools/shaders. the WAYWO thread is great but it's not ideal for searching and doesn't really facilitate getting into detail on what's been made.  Some of my favourite threads of recent years were the ADN toolset / autobeveller development ones that popped up last year - some really good ideas got thrown around and the conversation led to some really impressive tools . 

Actually, while we're here -can we split the substance forum into a section for painter and a section for grown-ups?

SHEPEIRO

Yes

Absolutely. I may post once in a while as most of my free time these days contains a little coding rather than any art worth posting. 

CarlCraft

Yes

I started a thread some months ago, about how I don't really know where I would post my shaders/vfx for critique or feedback. Right now Technical Talk is 95% people posting their scripts in Max and the likes, which is not the kind of technical art I'm looking to post.

Zack Maxwell

Yes

CarlCraft said:

I started a thread some months ago, about how I don't really know where I would post my shaders/vfx for critique or feedback. Right now Technical Talk is 95% people posting their scripts in Max and the likes, which is not the kind of technical art I'm looking to post.

That's something I should actually specify; I'm more interested in programming in so far as it involves technical art. Stuff like shaders, particle effects, procedural models, etc. Not so much coding a climbing system in Unity.

throttlekitty

No

CarlCraft said:

I started a thread some months ago, about how I don't really know where I would post my shaders/vfx for critique or feedback. Right now Technical Talk is 95% people posting their scripts in Max and the likes, which is not the kind of technical art I'm looking to post.

So post it! The Tech Talk subforum is a good place for that regardless of whatever other posters are putting up.

Zack Maxwell

Yes

throttlekitty said:

CarlCraft said:

I started a thread some months ago, about how I don't really know where I would post my shaders/vfx for critique or feedback. Right now Technical Talk is 95% people posting their scripts in Max and the likes, which is not the kind of technical art I'm looking to post.

So post it! The Tech Talk subforum is a good place for that regardless of whatever other posters are putting up.

Wouldn't there be an issue with people reading it, though? I certainly never do. Until this thread, I didn't even know there was any intention for tech art stuff to go there, because no one ever uses it for that.

throttlekitty

No

Zack Maxwell said:

throttlekitty said:

CarlCraft said:

I started a thread some months ago, about how I don't really know where I would post my shaders/vfx for critique or feedback. Right now Technical Talk is 95% people posting their scripts in Max and the likes, which is not the kind of technical art I'm looking to post.

So post it! The Tech Talk subforum is a good place for that regardless of whatever other posters are putting up.

Wouldn't there be an issue with people reading it, though? I certainly never do. Until this thread, I didn't even know there was any intention for tech art stuff to go there, because no one ever uses it for that.

Personally I don't see why not, it's a discussion board first in my opinion. For me it's a fun and educational place to help people, but I'm kinda bad at anatomy stuff, so I'm no good for critiques for 3D Showcase threads.  Or in other words, I'm way more interested in the techier threads than I am in seeing typical art progress threads when it comes to giving appropriate feedback. I don't know about the other TT regulars.

I guess it just depends on what kind of feedback or showing off you want, never thought about it much honestly.

Wesley

Yes

Totally! I started taking up MonoGame and it would be cool to learn/get help alongside people from similar backgrounds. Lots of coding forums are full of folk with CS backgrounds and it's a little difficult at times.

DEElekgolo

Yes

Yes!
Would totally love for a medium of "more-technical talk" discussion outside of basic software interfacing and more into the "SDK" life of operating such software and would love for some themed shadertoy threads.

Eric Chadwick

You win!

https://polycount.com/categories/coding-scripting-shader-writing

(it's not a honeypot, I swear)

Zack Maxwell

Yes

Brand new, and it's immediately filled with nothing but "I'm having this bug in my 3D program" posts just like Technical Talk.
My bad, just one of them....

Eric Chadwick

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