Why is there such a lack of documentation?

Just to clarify my earlier comment about Lua - the problem is not the writing of the Lua code, it's how to integrate it into the editor. Yes there's demonstration code available, but the tutorials/wiki don't focus on how to integrate it into your game/the editor - just here's a sample of code that should do xyz, figure out how to make it work yourself. It's the examples that show you how to get things working from beginning to end which are lacking.

AFRLme - for documentation purposes I find greenshot (http://getgreenshot.org/) saves me time as it does the screenshot and cropping in the one action, hopefully you'll find that helpful.

Simon - I understand that this isn't a full time job for the developers, so documentation isn't high on the priority list. I'm just providing you feedback that as a customer if I pay money for a product I expect to have enough information given to me that I know how to use it. If that information isn't available I'm not likely to spend money buying it - hence why I haven't bought a license at this point. I hope you are not losing many sales to other potential customers who feel the same way. Maybe more documentation would bring you more customers and hence make you more money?

What do you mean how to integrate Lua into Visionaire Studio? The methods are explained at the top of the page titled "scripting".

There are 3 official methods for using Lua script. The 4th method involves third party applications.

1. You create a script in the script section. Write or paste your Lua code into it, then set it as a definition script via the properties tab of the script. A definition script is triggered/loaded into memory on game launch. These type of scripts are great for defining variables & functions at the beginning of the game, which can then be later accessed via execution scripts or inside of an execute a script action part.

2. Same as above, except you set the script as an execution script. This means you have to manually call the script via the call script action part. This method is more ideal for scripts not containing functions or global variables.

3. The execute a script action part is mostly used to write inline Lua script inside of your action blocks. It's great for small scripts, accessing/updating global functions or for reading/writing of the Visionaire Studio data structure tables & fields.

4. You can also write your scripts inside of a third party program like Sublime Text, Notepad++ etc, & use the Lua OS file functions to include the .lua file into your game. I sometimes do this while I'm working on a script as I prefer working in Sublime instead of the VS script editor. I however do recommend pasting the final version of the script into Visionaire Studio, when you are happy with it.

That's about it really.

Cheers for the link, I will check it out later on.

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Maybe more documentation would bring you more customers and hence make you more money?

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I'm totally agree with you. I have been studying visionere for a while, and thinking to spend the 500 EUR in the mobile licence, but the lack of documentation make me doubt.
I think visionaire it's an amazing software, but it seems like the grial quest too. Only the brave ones can beat the beast

I know isn't impossible, but is hard to make a game and learn at your own the software to do it. This forum is the only real wiki of visionaire. It is a shame, because in spite of the lack of documentation, Visionaire is a great great software and have a great comunity.

For Visionaire Studio 3 i've worked on a manual. You can find it here, but it's in german: https://images.siteface.net/siteface/forum/17869/1_Visionair...

When I find the time I start once again... but time is the most rare thing in my life

I might be willing to write up some basic how to mini-guides, once the Visionaire Studio competition is over & done with. Currently I lack resources & I'm no artist. I mostly lean towards the development & scripting side of projects.

@ Thomas: the old manual is somewhat out of date - especially if you compare it against the new features & parts of the editor that have changed. Otherwise the video tutorials by Suro & the text/image tutorials by Glenfx would still be valid.

I also have a feeling that a lot of the documentation will need to be reworked once the new GUI is finished, which is one of many reasons I'm not feeling very motivated in using the majority of my spare time for writing documentation that could soon be null & void, at some point in the near future, or at least sometime this year or the next.

I have started writing a reference manual, Lee, maybe that's more our way to go. Not so much tutorials but explaining all features and common questions and pitfalls. But I think I won't take any screenshots or something like that. Just basic explanation.

You mean an overview of all the features, forms & buttons etc? That's what I was initially doing, but it was hard to keep motivated & focus as it was so dull & boring to write in comparison to actually scripting or developing something.

All of the actions, well up to a few builds ago should be explained in the actions page. I think most of the data structure stuff is in date now - I think David was looking over it a couple weeks back or so to see what was missing. I know I covered some other sections but I don't know if they are valid anymore.

The scripting page should still be valid & up to date with the latest functions/commands. Although it could do with a little bit of information in regards to the new shorthand scripting stuff.

You writing it on the wiki or as a pdf file? I intended to use pdf originally but David setup the wiki for me instead, which was a lot more customizable & faster to use than open office or adobe indesign.

I think there are sections that are to simple, that aren't fun at all. But some things that aren't self explanatory I would like to see written down.
I'm doing a pdf with latex, can send you over how it looks if you want.

Sure, I'm online on skype even though it says I'm away.

Most recent pages I've written for the wiki were tips & information on recommended audio/image formats & encoding/conversion etc & one about game optimization tips. Was thinking of writing one about naming conventions & structure. All of those pages sound boring but were less boring to write than an overview of the editors features!

I totally agree with the main idea of this thread about the lack of documentation. I'm sure you now know that I am a regular user of Visionaire and that I like the soft, but I really had a hard time at the beginning to find how to start and what to do. I think I more or less complained too about the lack of documentation (I was just... lost!)

Contrary to what you may think, it is quite difficult to start working concretely with your engine. There are menus and tabs everywhere, a lot of subtleties, few help with the LUA scripts and their possibilities. It is starting to get better with the new wiki (which will be very good, in my opinion), but what is really missing is something to clarify the steps. A good official tutorial - and not only videos (I'm an old-school worker and don't like learning with videos, I prefer text!).
The fact that Daedalic used VS doesn't make it easier - on the contrary I think it shows that it can be a professional tool, which means a lot of things to discover and learn! How can you learn if you don't have a manual or a teacher? It's like at school.

What I mean is that you should definetely add a big red button on the site, call it "start here", and explain what we should do with the soft and how. The GlenFX tutorial could be a good starting point if updated correctly. Something similar should definetely be added in the wiki and be VERY easy to find!

I have been starting creating games with Adventure Maker. The soft is quite old now, but in my opinion it is a very good reference for what you could do.
This is their documentation :
http://www.adventuremaker.com/help/contents.htm
Please have a close look.
It's very well detailed, with a series of questions/answers, from beginner level to advanced level. Of course they probably didn't build this in one year, but it is something you should keep as an example.
The following page was particularly userful and easy to use:
http://www.adventuremaker.com/help/vbscript_reference.htm
I was hoping for something similar to use LUA in Visionaire... You shouldn't expect indie devs and amateurs to learn LUA by themselves, in fact. They usually don't have the time or the money (well, that is true if you really want VS to be easy of use, so it's up to you to define exactly your goal and target audience...)

A very good process to build your help file is to take benefit of your community. Everytime someone asks a question, it's because they didn't find the answer by themselves. So you should automatically copy/paste the question and your answer in the wiki, even if you think it's silly - which hasn't always been done imho. You shouldn't expect your users to help building the wiki, because they pay to use your services, but you should not hesitate to copy/paste their activity. This is the best and only way to build a complete wiki that will answer everyone's need. There has been a lot of questions and answers posted in the past in the VS forums that I find useful.

I know it's a lot of work. I personally don't ask this to be done in the next few months, and I will probably not need it anymore soon. I'm just slipping these ideas to help future users.
There are several indie developers who used to work with different engines, who were interested in learning Visionaire after I talked to them about it, but they quickly gave up because "they didn't like the soft". And after asking why, it was obvious that:
1 - they didn't know where to start! (a lack of a good tutorial was the first reason)
2 - they didn't like the system of licences and price of the pro version
3 - they didn't like the site, which shows a lot of errors (specifically when visiting http://www.visionaire-studio.net without being logged in! You should definetely fix this!)

A team (professional or not) who wants to develop a business has to take its users by the hand and explain them what they should do, step by step. The soft can be excellent, if it's too obscure to be understood, it won't become popular.

Well sorry for the long message, I just hope you understand what I mean and don't take it bad. It's my feedback after using VS for more than a year. Maybe it was not the best place for it, but when I read this thread I thought I had to tell you. Hope it helps!

I too prefer text/image tutorials over video, but a lot of people prefer a more visual/audible approach to learning.

I'm not sure why everyone thinks the Lua section isn't documented enough. The scripting page gives a basic overview of how Lua script is used with VS & there's loads of pages full of scripts with syntax & examples. I even started working on a beginners guide to Lua script a few months ago which gives a basic introduction to Lua script with explanations & examples & screenshots.

http://wiki.visionaire-tracker.net/wiki/Basic_lua:_Index

SimonS is currently working on a new pdf version of the manual. As for the wiki, I might do some text/image guides at some point but as I said: I lack art/animation resources as I'm not an artist & I'm not willing to spend hours/days (whatever) trying to create assets myself.

Also final point. I do not receive any of the money that you pay for the licenses. Everything I do is gratis, so I have no incentive to spend every waking hour, minute or second of my spare time sat in front of my computer creating documentation for the engine. I would probably end up looking like a crazed hermit if I did that.

I would also like to point out that writing explanations for each part of the engine/action/feature is very, very time consuming. The overview of the action part list for example took ages as there is around 100 action parts, probably needs updating again actually as there are some new action parts since the last time I updated it.

http://wiki.visionaire-tracker.net/wiki/Actionparts