Getting started with Croquet development

[Dominic Espinosa]

Hello,

I'm interested in using Croquet for linguistics research. My basic
requirement is for a programmable shared virtual world from which I can
extract information about what the participants did during a session.
Croquet looks like a good framework for this, but I have some questions:

1) I read earlier that Croquet is being superseded by Cobalt, for all
intents and purposes. Is that true? I don't need to be able to connect
to other virtual worlds; I just need to be able to create one virtual
world and connect my participants to it, in a controlled setting. I also
don't need it to run in the browser, necessarily.

2) One thing I would need to do is implement a custom heads-up GUI. Can
anyone point me to some documentation (examples, tips, tricks, classes
already in the codebase, etc) for this?

3) Is there anything else I should know about how to get started
developing such an application? I've read the Croquet materials
available under the 'Documentation' section of the website, but some of
them seemed a bit dated, and the long guide translated from Portuguese
(that primarily concerned Cobalt) sort of danced around the
functionality I'm interested in.

I have done some Squeak programming and have no problems with the
Smalltalk language; I'm just a bit overwhelmed by Croquet and Cobalt and
could use some initiation.

Thank you very much.

[Darius Clarke]

Hi Dominic,

Welcome!

I sounds like your project is something that Cobalt can help you with. 

1) I read earlier that Croquet is being superseded by Cobalt,

Cobalt is currently in active development. It is a 3D application that is built on top of the Croquet architecture and Cobalt is focused on achieving the same educational goals for which Croquet was designed.

 

2) One thing I would need to do is implement a custom heads-up GUI.

Up to date information about the fluctuating architecture and GUI use can best be gleaned from the Cobalt discussion list and by asking specific questions on the chat list in Google Groups Cobalt group or Skype chat list. We use Tweak to create the HUD. You'll want to look at the classes for the menu system, bottom tool bar, and avatar navigation buttons. 

 

3) Is there anything else I should know about how to get started
developing such an application?

Basically it's all in the code. But, ask any questions which come to you when browsing the code. The Harness controls most everything about the TeaTime island, a 3D world that processes the same instruction in parallel on all client machines. So, start learning about the Harness first I'd recommend.

Also consider your art path. How are you making your models and textures? What converters are available to you? How complex are the worlds you intent to create? What sort of input do you want your participants to have for creating/sharing/texting/etc.?

Others will chime in with more suggestions as well I'm sure.

Cheers,

Darius

 

[Darius Clarke]

Hi Dominic,

You might check out the developer documentation on the Cobalt wiki:

https://wiki.duke.edu/display/Cobalt/Developer+Documentation

Here's the Google Groups site:

https://groups.google.com/group/cobaltcroquet

Cheers,
Darius

On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 11:08 AM, Darius Clarke <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Dominic,

Welcome!

I sounds like your project is something that Cobalt can help you with. 

1) I read earlier that Croquet is being superseded by Cobalt,

Cobalt is currently in active development. It is a 3D application that is built on top of the Croquet architecture and Cobalt is focused on achieving the same educational goals for which Croquet was designed.

 

2) One thing I would need to do is implement a custom heads-up GUI.

Up to date information about the fluctuating architecture and GUI use can best be gleaned from the Cobalt discussion list and by asking specific questions on the chat list in Google Groups Cobalt group or Skype chat list. We use Tweak to create the HUD. You'll want to look at the classes for the menu system, bottom tool bar, and avatar navigation buttons. 

 

3) Is there anything else I should know about how to get started
developing such an application?

Basically it's all in the code. But, ask any questions which come to you when browsing the code. The Harness controls most everything about the TeaTime island, a 3D world that processes the same instruction in parallel on all client machines. So, start learning about the Harness first I'd recommend.

Also consider your art path. How are you making your models and textures? What converters are available to you? How complex are the worlds you intent to create? What sort of input do you want your participants to have for creating/sharing/texting/etc.?

Others will chime in with more suggestions as well I'm sure.

Cheers,

Darius

 

[Matthew Fulmer]

On Fri, Sep 04, 2009 at 01:21:01PM -0400, Dominic Espinosa wrote:
> 2) One thing I would need to do is implement a custom heads-up GUI. Can
> anyone point me to some documentation (examples, tips, tricks, classes
> already in the codebase, etc) for this?

I made all the code that runs the bottom toolbar in cobalt; it's
the most hud-like thing we have. It's written in tweak, and I
can help you get into it if you ask in the skype chat or after
the wednessday meeting.

The code starts in class CobaltHudBar

--
Matthew Fulmer -- http://mtfulmer.wordpress.com/