ZGameEditor forum

I found an embeddable youtube-style flash video player here:

http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/

The I converted jph's video to FLV using the excellent FFMpeg downloaded from here:

http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/builds/

It's a command-line tool, I typed "ffmpeg -i tutorial__a_start.avi test.flv".

I tried converting to higher quality mp4-format also, but couldn't get it to work in the player, it just keeps buffering.

Here is the result of flv-playback using jw-player:

http://www.zgameeditor.org/videos/test.html

It's grainy but readable if you watch it in fullscreen mode. I will continue to test if I can get it working with mp4, meanwhile if anyone has any other suggestions please let me know.

As far as the content of the videos are concerned: when I visit a homepage for a new program I look for short videos (in addition to screenshots) to help me decide if I should try it out or not. So in my opinion we don't need full-blown tutorials at this stage, instead short clips demonstrating core features (in impressive ways ).

Hmm... at least

http://www.zgameeditor.org/videos/test.html

works, allthough it is the size of a playing card. I couldn't get jph's avi to play at all.

edit - found the expand button - works
edit - it should be downloadable

Maybe a little early still, but HTML5 has a <video> tag .. which allows for easy fallback to Quicktime / Flash / etc.

K

Back on this topic again, I found this free software for capturing screen recordings in Flash swf-format:

http://www.debugmode.com/wink/

Has anyone tried it? I'd much appreciate if someone could give it a try and see if it is useful for ZGE videos!

I knocked this off in less than an hour after I downloaded Wink.

Click the .htm file.

Well that looks decent, I will try to have a go at it,. although simple text/screenshot based turorials are also usefull, and don't have the bandwith/posting issues., perhaps some of those would be welcome as well?

Techsmith has a free screencast application as well called Jing .. and there are a dozen more out there, TipCam even supports real-time / dynamic zooming.

K

About the texture problem: I also get the black walls in the Fpsdemo sometimes so it's not a ATI-only issue. Running the project using F9 always seems to give correct textures though. I think I know why this happens and I'll see if can fix it.

I uploaded yoffsets video here to test it online: http://www.zgameeditor.org/videos/ATIpreviewBug.htm

I think the video looks really nice. Excellent quality and relatively small file size. So I guess we can use this product for ZGE-videos.

Jph, let me know if you need to send me large files and I'll see if I can find a ftp-server where you can upload it.

Kjell, nice find. They can be alternatives if we find limitations in Wink.

I wasn't even trying to keep it small or pretty - just to see how quickly one could produce something from start. Easy to learn and quite modable. I just watched the two vid tuts.
After actually reading the pdf, I could have done it on a clean desktop, and put it in an 800x600 window and probably made it a lot smaller.

Here's a possible lead on the black wall bug. Also, I tried to make the presentation a little better.
EDIT - If this content is created as a flash file, the three components total 699 kb. Compressed to .zip to 560 kb.
Compressed to .7z to 517 kb.

I made this package as a possible advertisement for ZGE, or a tutorial, or whatever.

Your call VilleK.

Edit - same file - I just compressed the .exe


You're welcome, Villek. My thought was to aim it at people with some experience, so I kept the number of shots small and relied on the dialog to fill in the blanks. If someone finds it interesting, they can read tut 1 itself in greater detail.

Yoffset, I like the idea of making a tutorial video based on the existing text-tutorial. Maybe it is not always very clear in the video what's going on (the mouse cursor does not seem to indicate the right action) but it is definitely a good start so I'll upload this to a new video-section on the wiki soon.

Just to let everyone know that Kjell has been busy doing a series of video tutorials.

You can find them here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ZGameEditor

I will put them on the wiki too when they are all uploaded and youtube accepts the audio (they have already pulled one of the videos because Kjell used background music from Warner Music, they are fast on the trigger ).

Ah!! Most excellent!!
I look forward to when they are in the Wiki. Then a person can download and work thru each one offline at their own snail speed, commenting as they go.

Kudos to Kjell!! We're lucky to have someone as adept at ZGE as he.

Very nice,. I learned some new moves! Lov the titles, and the music is cool. (w/ referances to; pilot wings, evangelion,.?) keep it up,. I am sure these will help interested people,. as well a help interest new people.