Where do I go to get started?

General Discussion
1

I watched the greeting card and have been looking through the tutorials, but where do I go to start making the game???

2

Okay, do they have Panda3D for dummies?

I go to run, and then I see this window that is NOT blank like in the screenshot. And, it does NOT have the same writing in the blue bar above the black. I entered “C:\Panda3D-1.0.2\Tutorials\Part 1 - Solar System(scene graph)” and then it said the system couldn’t find the path recognised. I tried entering “self.mars” etc, and then, once again, the big fat goose egg. Then I try entering “ppython” into the thing. Some words appeared on the screen. I read them, and they didn’t say anything about a file not found or anything, so I thought I must have done something right. Then I tried entering “ppython solar_system.py” and then it said “invalid syntax”. I get confused, and I go to the python 101 thing. A lot of good that did me. I couldn’t find what I needed to know! Can someone please give me a link or something that can teach me scripting for Windows XP users?

3

By the way, me, and the other people posting above me are the same guy, in case you got confused.

4

Well if you just downloaded panda then it will more than likely be installed at

“C:\Panda3D-1.0.5”

The tutorials are under,

“C:\Panda3D-1.0.5\samples”

Open up windows explorer and have a look. There should be a shortcut named something like "Run " with the panda logo on it. Just run that like you do any other program. This should get you started for now.

5

It’s kinda difficult at first isn’t it? I had lots of troubles too when I first started. So I wrote a sort of mini-tutorial to help out a couple of others who had the same problems, you can check it out here: discourse.panda3d.org/viewtopic.php?t=516

I hope it helps.

Cheers

6

[quote=“Witchetty”]
You must now save this script with the .py extension. If you’re using Notepad, then enclose the entire File name in quotes “ __â€

7

And I kind of have trouble understanding that step that I quoted in the post above.

8

Hmmm, I’m sorry about that. I’ll try to walk you through it. I’m guessing that you’re using Notepad to write your scripts, so I’ll just write instructions for Notepad.

First off, to make things easier for you, create a folder in the Panda3D samples directory called ‘MyStuff’. To do this, click ‘Start’, then click ‘My Computer’ then double click ‘Local DisK ©’ to open it.

Now scroll down until you find the ‘Panda3D’ folder, then double click on it to open it. Now find the ‘samples’ folder and open it. You should now see lots of folders named ‘Basic and Feature tutorials’.

At the top of the screen you should see the standard Windows menu’s ‘File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools and Help’. Click on ‘File’ -->‘New’–>‘Folder’. And a new folder should appear in the samples directory. Name it MyStuff (if the name isn’t blinking, you can right click on it and choose ‘Rename’ to change its name).

Ok, you’re all set. Open Notepad and type the following:

import direct.directbase.DirectStart
run()

Now, to save it as a .py script, click ‘File’ -->‘Save As’. And a new window should pop up. If you look at the very top of this new window, you will see a dialog box that has ‘Save In’ written in front of it. This dialog box lets you specify where you want to save your script.

So click the little downwards pointing arrow at the side of the dialog box, then scroll down and click ‘My Computer’, then double click ‘Local Disk©’, find the ‘Panda3D’ folder and double click it. Now find the ‘samples’ folder and double click it. Inside the ‘samples’ folder you should see your folder named ‘MyStuff’, double click on the MyStuff folder to open it.

Ok, you’re all set, you’ve now told Notepad where it should save your script. To actually save the script, do the following: At the bottom of the window you should see a text box with ‘File Name’ written in front of it. There should be *.txt written in the text box. Backspace this out and type “MyPandaScript.py” (with the quotes!) in its place.

You MUST use quotes “ â€

9

I entered "cd D:\Panda3D-1.0.5\samples\MyStuff\ (somehow the program saved in “D” file, I had downloaded 1.0.5, and I did in fact, name the folder “MyStuff”) and then, it just came up as “C:\ Documents and Settings(First name) . (last name)>” instead of the thing which was suppose to come up. Should I re-download Panda3D, and make sure it’s in the “C” file, or download “Panda-1.0.4” or what?

10

Try typing just “D:” first and it should switch over to your D drive. Then type “cd D:\Panda3D-1.0.5\samples\MyStuff” and you should end up in the right place.