based on the “Quixote” example I did for testing AppStates in the SDK I started doing a new series of jME SDK and Engine video tutorials, based on actual use cases that I take as an opportunity to show a few things in the SDK and Engine.
Its a whopping 22min of doing a whole “Quixote chases mills” project including model import, scene creation, terrain editing and use of Controls and AppStates among other things. Some parts didn’t get recorded because of the other computers monitor going to sleep, I had to replace some footage with other images and re-record a small part, tell me where it is an if it doesn’t work out at all
The idea would be taking other “use cases” like importing an animated model or creating a scene with batched content and doing similar videos about that, all touching a few more topics than those actually at hand to give a wider overview of the SDK and Engine. What do you think about the format and content? More like that? Better redo it before releasing? Yes, I know I make that smacking sound all the time, people complained about the computer voice, now live with it Feedback appreciated!
Cheers,
Normen
Second video on Models, Materials, Particles and Batching
Thanks guys, if you like it thats a good reason to do more
@kwando: The problem with “specialized” tutorials is that people will then only look for “Video with exactly the topic I look for, best with my own variable names” and only need more and more videos about “exactly this” or “exactly that”. Like the guy who wanted something between the chat example and MonkeyZone, just to fit what he thinks will help him. The purpose of this kind of format is more to give a broader view on the thing so people go “Oh if this works like so I can also use it to solve my problem here” and to communicate “best practices” along the way. Basically just like we say “do the whole tutorial, don’t just copy-paste that bit of code”
Generally I found the problem sometimes isn’t understanding Controls or understanding the code in the tutorials or understanding how to import a model, its more often getting all those things together to make a workflow and finally a game. For example theres so many ways to do a model, saying “it should be UV mapped and have few vertices” is a start but theres much more to making a good maintainable model. I want to do a video on that too btw, I am not a great modeler but I do know a thingor two about models for games
I feel like the existing tutorials covers all the “basic stuff” pretty well (putting a model on the screen, play a sound etc) but as soon as you have to integrate the subsystems to make something useful then your are on you own. Maybe your screencasts will fill in those blanks for people =)
Anyway, I appreciate your work and I will probably learn some neat things from them =)
This video is great. I’m defenetly going to load the project and fiddle around with it.
I think it’s a good idea to have video’s that give a complete overview of some aspects of the SDK / engine.
Wouldn’t it be a good idea to make a folowup video that gives examples how to solve the CharacterControl vs CharacterControl collision problem ? It is a topic that is a lot of asked on the forum.
@Vortex said:
Wouldn't it be a good idea to make a folowup video that gives examples how to solve the CharacterControl vs CharacterControl collision problem ? It is a topic that is a lot of asked on the forum.
Well, this is implementing one certain class, pretty boring topic for a video I guess.
@kwando: q.e.d. ;)
So I fixed the automatic subtitles by hand now, so even if you don’t speak english… you should now be able to somehow make sense of whats being said by using googles translation features… instead of rolling on the floor laughing Quite some work but also quite fun and admittedly much, much easier than doing it all by hand ^^
Some fun:
@Vortex said:
@normen:
Maybe something with the Vehicle Creator would be cool.
Yeah, maybe as part of a general "SDK and physics" tutorial.
@normen said:
Thanks guys, if you like it thats a good reason to do more ;)
@kwando: The problem with “specialized” tutorials is that people will then only look for “Video with exactly the topic I look for, best with my own variable names” and only need more and more videos about “exactly this” or “exactly that”. Like the guy who wanted something between the chat example and MonkeyZone, just to fit what he thinks will help him. The purpose of this kind of format is more to give a broader view on the thing so people go “Oh if this works like so I can also use it to solve my problem here” and to communicate “best practices” along the way. Basically just like we say “do the whole tutorial, don’t just copy-paste that bit of code”
Generally I found the problem sometimes isn’t understanding Controls or understanding the code in the tutorials or understanding how to import a model, its more often getting all those things together to make a workflow and finally a game. For example theres so many ways to do a model, saying “it should be UV mapped and have few vertices” is a start but theres much more to making a good maintainable model. I want to do a video on that too btw, I am not a great modeler but I do know a thingor two about models for games
That would seriously be awesome!! I’ve spent maybe 3 quarters of my time trying to deal with models, fitting them to JME, finding ways to import or adjust the models so they work with jme. Half the time I feel like i’m running around in circles!
Video #2 is up, exemplifying model import, material editing, particles and model editing. I am not quite as happy as with the first one but theres a lot of information to cover so I guess I’ll have to be okay with what I came up with, the cut down material is still 37min :lol:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-YWxD3JByE[/video]
Nice tutorial, really pleasant to watch, like the first one. Keep going and maybe one day I’ll get into NB and the SDK. (Its not easy for an Eclipse user)
Feedback appreciated!
