what's up with the help section

I'm new to unity and new to the forums. I really really didn't want to join a forum but I realized that i wasn't going to find enough info else where...but the help forum is dead.

So uh I'll ask here; in general is it okay to follow unitycookie's tutorials on shaders cause I noticed a few problems and I don't know if it's unity or his shader. Has anyone heard of the guy?

The 3 problems I get are: when a directional light faces away from an object with his shader the back side of the object is lit up.
Point lights light cut off instead of fades off as you move them away from an object. Objects with his shader can't receive shadows.
Is this normal when using vert/frag shaders?

 

ask in the help section or check out the irc on freenode if you want a faster answer or here http://answers.unity3d.com/index.html

 

how do I get into the irc chat because answers is deader than a zombie

 

irc.freenode.net #unity3d

 

having trouble registering my nick name

 

Yes, chat and not Answers or you could look at the Lux thread at http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/221985-Lux-–-an-open-source-physically-based-shading-framework

 

The help forum's dead? There are like fifty new posts in each section every day.

 

It's not but this is someone wanting to 'chat' but they'll find someone knowledgeable in shaders and available for chat with a stranger over the internet is not a common thing.

 

Try asking better questions, I always get plenty of help when needed.

 

the issue was that the post and replies were coming from the same person. Regardless I will try.

 

Well if they answer their own question why would anyone else comment on it?

 

If they anwser their own question before anyone else has and it's been 6 hours...then yeah there's a bit of a problem.

 

If you're talking about UnityAnswers, there are at least dozens of questions and answers every day, probably more like hundreds. That's very far from "dead". Typically questions go unanswered if they are unclear, overly complex, or they've just been done to death and people are tired of answering the same thing again.

--Eric

 

The only thing I can see wrong is the question. I hardly ever see a good question go unanswered, so I'll just assume the questions you are referring to aren't of high quality.

You seem to think help is entitled to you, and not a gift. None of us are getting paid to help, we all do this because we like it and it's just what we do. If you think we all just sit here waiting for your questions, your wrong. We have jobs, school, and a life. If you want faster help, I'm sure loads of highly qualified people would be happy to give you paid immediate help. Otherwise, we will keep to answering the questions that interest us and not on a timed clock.

Ill take the time to say thanks to anyone and everyone whom has helped me or others. It's a large number and I could name a whole page. Thanks guys; awesome community.

 

You know, if I knew how to help some one I would help I would not sit around and and let a question go unanswered. One reason why these forums are here is to help people. In the past I worked with another gaming engine where documentation was lacking so the only thing a person could do was plead for help from the experts. I looked at these forums before I joined and I saw some of the same problems which was why I was so reluctant to join.

So tell me the truth what does it take to get information out of people. Do I have to beg, do I have to give you money or do I have to cater to you whims. Or Is there actually nothing but n00bs here like my self.

 

If only we all sat around and chose to stare blankly at the screen because we hate helping. You once again seem to think we should be forced to help. A lot of people here will help for nothing in return, something that should not be taken for granted. I can guarantee every question you can think of about unity could be answered by some user on the forum. Honestly, if you want professional, fast, and accurate help, then pay someone to give it to you. It's not exactly easy to write up help, and surely gaining the needed knowledge is anything but easy. When you become some amazing guru, please do spend all your time answering questions that have been answered hundreds of times, plenty of guys will be happy to have the opportunity to surpass you in skill and perhaps take your job.

TL;DR: Don't ack like we are all asshole because we do other things then helping people whom usually don't try hard enough to help themselves, we choose only the ones that interest us, since we have S*** to do also.

Please link me to a "good question" that went answered, I'll be amazed!

 

Ask good questions. That is pretty much it. There are plenty of people here willing to help and do so regularly.

 

This.

I skip questions that can easily be answered by a search. I will also skip questions by people who are way too noob for the questions they are asking, as it almost always is followed by a PM asking me to write something for them or help them build their game. But I try to answer as many of the well thought-out questions that I can find the time for.