So I was thinking...

[WoRmINaToR]

I have been wanting to start getting myself into the world of coding for games for quite some time now, and as of yet I simply haven't been able to figure any way or place where I could get started on that. I have already taken several tutorials on C++ coding and I know the basics, however I mainly worked with console-type applications and ones with simple/no GUIs or things like that (they were more business-related applications for processing shipping files and requests, my dad is the IT manager for a major shipping company and he teaches me some things).

So I was thinking, since you guys encourage people to submit code and patches to Ares, perhaps I could get involved?

I know I don't have to ask permission to help, but the thing is, at this point in time I honestly don't know how to help. Like I said I can do basic coding, but I don't know how to access the YR source to learn how it all works, and I don't know how to compile the Ares.dll, and I don't know how all of this Ares stuff works in relation with your YR++ project.

I'm not going to ask you to babysit me through the entire process, but if I could get some guidance as to where I should go to inform myself or if you could help get me started I would really like to contribute to this project and get myself some game programming experience.

[Renegade]

Easiest way to start is either a) looking into bug reports for existing Ares code, since you probably won't need new stuff for that, or b) using the "No ASM required" filter, which pulls up all issues for which the necessary ground work has already been laid, and that just need the actual C++ implementation written.
Check out the source, do your modifications, have svn generate a .patch file, attach that .patch file to the issue in question.
Someone will look at the code and either request changes or apply the patch.

For general information, you can have a look at the auto-generated API reference coming with the source, but "the old guard" isn't big on commenting...so it's mostly bare-bones technical information, save for some newer Ares functions written by Alex and me.

Also, actually staying in IRC for communication purposes helps.

P.S.: The UI and event management functions are buried in a mess of ASM anyway, and you usually work with plain functions and inside hooks, so the lack of GUI app experience shouldn't be an issue.

[DCoder]

"the old guard" isn't big on commenting

Quite. Not the best state of affairs, but it is what it is. I don't really want to go over the hundred+ classes YR++ has and comment everything now

The UI and event management functions are buried in a mess of ASM anyway

Very true. The UI in particular is a mess of WinAPI stuff, I would really advise staying away from it.

And yes, get on IRC, ask questions, receive answers, learn. Maybe when you do learn you can put up a modenc page about the process to make it easier for other new coders

[WoRmINaToR]

Yeah, I was browsing through the .cpp files on the SVN earlier yesterday... and man, you guys are doing some pretty serious stuff here. I guess the biggest problem that hinders my ability to understand the code is that I don't have any access at all to the source game code and all of the functions that it defines, which are referenced throughout your codes.

If I could gain some access to the source (something other than a hex editor?) I might be able to understand and potentially actually contribute some code that's beyond simple math edits and re-arranging stuff.

I mean, how the heck do you guys do it?

[DCoder]

Black magic.

pd, me and Alex read the raw assembler code and turn the game's data structures and functions into YR++ definitions, which are later used in Ares to actually perform stuff. I admit we don't always document the stuff we find, but we're getting better at it these days.

[WoRmINaToR]

so all most of the functions that are referenced by Ares' code can be found in the YR++ files?

That's helpful.

[DCoder]

Um, not entirely. In YR++, you can see the function declarations, but not their actual code.