Mapping Tutorials

seeing as documentation is minimal I am going to make some mapping tutorials for you ^^


so... what format do you want

video -- (with text summery)
pictures
text and pictures
only text


also what kind of map should I make for the tutorials ... I was thinking small dm space (the yard size) but I could do anything

I will start on these after I'm done with my contest map ... (only one mapping project at a time)

Text and picture.

The problem with videos is the pacing. It might be too slow for some and too fast for others. Plus, the video format is not very convenient, it's large and it's kinda hard to print a video too.

Just download camtasio studio 7 and record how you work best way

That's proprietary, paid windows software. He runs linux and there is free, opensource recording software available.

That said, what makes you think video is better than text with images?

Text and pictures IMO, maybe some videos.

Recording on GNU(GNU/linux) can be done with ffmpeg :-)

If you have the patience, going with both text+images and video is the best way to go about things like this. :p

A lot of people prefer text, as stated above, because they can go at their own pace, or even skip things that aren't important to them, which is more difficult with video. A lot of people also like video, however, presumably because they are like me, and their attention span is too short to read thro...Oooh, a bunny!

Oh, right, anyways, If you decide to go that route, I usually make the video tutorial first, and then use screen grabs on important spots to use in the text version. It isn't always optimal, but I find it to be the most convenient way to go about making both.

Personally I love video tutorials for stuff like this, when they are done right. One example that comes to mind is Blender Guru his tutorials are well done IMO and he uses some video overlay software that displays his keystrokes for any given part which i found to be rather helpful and probably makes it easy for him to just talk about what he is doing instead of explaining the keys skip to 6 minutes in and watch the bottom left of the screen to see what I mean.

I would say use text and screenshots of simple maps.

Also I´d like to know which kind of tutorials you want to write.

first -- I can record with ffmpeg ... I have done it before

second -- looks like video and text preference are kinda spit even ... so I might as well do both

For tutorial type ... I would kinda follow this order

-- mapping set up
-- intro to radiant / (taunt window users on how ugly it looks for them)
-- very basic editing (lights caulking detail structure weapons spawns texturing )
-- intro to entities (show off the easy and "cool" ones (buttons doors bobbing))
-- teleports bounces warpzones lifts
-- more advanced mapping

-- intro to shaders / textureing (ill do everything from gimp)
-- making custom textures
-- making awesome shaders
-- compressing as jpg

-- maybe a modeling section ... but I am not very fluent on that myself (I can do some)


...
...
...

do you want me to do the tutorial in small bites of data?
or the process of creating a whole map ....

I think it will take lots of your time hutty if you gonna follow everyones requests.

Do the kind of tutorials you like to do, i think they will get better then :-)

i think most ppl here would be glad with any tutorial as long as they're helpful either if they are in text or video format. Do what fits you best. ;-)

Good luck, looking forward for them

I would check to see what others have already covered in tuts like Sep3lio has done the very basics in his 3 part tiny room tutorial.

heh .... those were the tutorials that I learned from ...

I was hoping to make something better that those though ....

I'm thinking to do 2 types of tutorials ....

1 is a set of videos in which I remake lostspace

2 is a bunch of text tutorials (hopefully on the xonotic wiki) that cover mapping aspects in detail ... not creating a map a a whole

Doing proper mapping tutorials will be a huge, tremendous work, but it'll pay in the long run.
I sincerely suggest you to first team up with multiple people, with probably diffrent OS-es to reach, as mapping can be done both on Windows/Mac/Linux, and they all have some tiny different aspects.

I'd personally go with video tutorials of captured dekstops, while podcasting in the microphone too - yeah, I know, I too have a terrible accent, but you can only talk on your own voice .
A video tutorial is the best way to visualise every aspect of a procedure, and can help to autolearn a lot - loot at blender tutorials for an exmaple.
However, there's a real con of doing videos: once something changes, you HAVE to redo the whole thing all over again - here a text based one is clearly a winner, as that's not so static.

Also, I'd suggest to get in touch with really experienced mappers (tZork, kuniuthefrogg, Cortez, Nifrek, Strahlemann, Maddin, SavageX), and show them the script of your tutorials, so they can review it, and correct mistakes or give advices.

As for the topics of the tutorials, I'd go from square one: setting up the mapping environment on windows, linux, and mac os, with both releases (stable or autobuild) + mapping pack pk3, and setting up the mapping environment with git + own compiled radiant.
Yes, like I said, this will be a HUGE work.
I'm happy to help any way I can, though my free time for the summer and early autumn (yes, for the nex 3 months!) is very, very limited

Good luck Hutty! Making a tutorial team is definitely the way to go about this. How about a new Mapping Tut Clan!

I'd like to see videos + text and images. You could make a page on the wiki with text and images, then break up the text with videos (as Cube Owl said, they allow people to visualise what you've been talking about better).

ok ... I will post the script of the first video on this topic when I make it ... for review ...

There is already a mapping clan ... its called [PS] Paradox Space -- Postage Stamp -- Philly Steak ... look in the clan section of the forums ... and join if you wish

I live midwest (kinda the middle) of the us .... As far as I know ... I have no accent (although somebody may disagree) ... so recording sound shouldn't be an issue as long as noise cancellation doesn't botch things up

There's no such thing as "no accent" heh.

Actually, I'd class myself as having no accent. I do have a very nasal voice though.

"no accent" does not exist, even if you speak clean english doesnt mean you have no accent.

Yeah, well I don't have much of one.

Lets keep to the topic, and there is not that "no accent" thing I think you guys confuse accent with talking proper and clean english.

This discussion is done, if you still want to discuss it, do so in another thread.

thats why I said some people may disagree ...

Looking forward for these tutorial, thanks for making them hutty ^^

ok... change of plans ... I'm not going to make a script ... because kinda sucks all the fun out of it ...

however I will be starting a video tutorial set where I will be creating a new duel map !

I'll start with basic mapping setup for linux (windows is pretty much the same but without the compile ... mac is ... um ... i have no idea)

basic outline of first video
-- where to get mapping tools
-- extracting zips ? (I sure hope everyone knows how to do that)
-- putting pk3 thing in data dir (and mock windows and mac users at the suckyness of thier default file managers (no multi tabbing or multi paneing? what were the developers thinking))
-- compiling radaint (I think ill set up a fresh vmware machine for this) just realized I am actually running a bit low on disk space ... maybe I don't think having a third copy of xonotic (and kde based linux) on my system is a good idea ... I will briefly go over it instead
-- running radiant (again taunt windows users on how ugly theirs is)
-- end of video 1

note :: im not going to be too mean about the taunting ... ...

Yay! sounds awesome, can't wait