59 posts, 8766 views, 2019-02-14 to 2019-08-02
Hi there Xenko community,
In this topic I want to refer to all the Xenko video tutorials I make and plan to make. Always feel free to give constructive feedback.
All source code, full projects and videos will be listed here:
Xenko Game studio - Basics - Youtube playlist:
Xenko - How To’s
See the google doc
C# - Beginners
See the google doc
I think it would be right to start with simple operations. Work with prefabs in the editor, and scripts. The movement of the model along the coordinates, along the axes of the curve. Creating splines. In general, all that will give an idea of working with scripts, but not immediately complicated, but the simplest operations, so that you can understand the first time opening the editor. For example, how to make the ball move along the axis of the road. How to bind the control of the light on the keys … The simplest, and already from him - to the complex. I think this is useful to many, because the engine is very versatile.
After all, we are talking about learning … I understand correctly? 
I couldn’t agree more with you, besides tutorials Xenko has everything, amazing technology (those visuals!), good API documentation and a decent manual. It just lacks a good base of video tutorials, and beyond that of course the killer feature X that will come with time, that’s not a problem since it’s feature packed but the 3D gaming world evolves too fast.
I presume that a “getting started with Xenko” tutorial is in order, where the instrutor shows how to get from zero to the FPS template for example, that would be an easy win. With a mandatory video “Xenko basics” where the user is introduced to the interface. Once people get to see how (hopefully) easy is to get done something like the FPS template, it will pick their curiosity to go on from there.
I’d recommend basically looking at the Xenko manual -https://doc.xenko.com/3.0/en/manual/index.html , and start with projects that cover and expand those topics.
Then, once there is a solid baseline of material, get footloose and fancy free with more advanced topics, maybe looking at some of the questions that get asked the most on the forums and discord and trying to cover those.
Totally agree with this idea, I’ve talked about this in the community for a long time and such lessons a long overdue, so I’m all for it! 
So well, the way I see it:
Thanks for the feedback so far. Perhaps a video version of the existing getting started pages is not bad a idea to start with. My main aim is to spread get new comers to get adjusted to Xenko as fast as possible. I think once the videos covering the core parts of the editor and the basics of the art pipeline are done, we move on to scripting and creating a basic game.
Previous experiences have almost always led to FPS templates. It doesn’t have to be an actual shooter but it does make things easier to showcase various game play mechanics and how to tackle them.
I edited my first post with some ideas on the introduction series. Let me know what you think and if we can expand/improve this list.
Thank you for your efforts @Aggror. It looks like you already have a comprehensive list there. Only thing that I miss on a quick overlook right now is building distributable packages for different devices (desktop, Android, etc). That would close it nicely
starting with the basics is nice, i think everyone here agrees. if you go further, this is a good read on how to title things, how to talk about them and how easy/deep something should be:
https://www.divio.com/blog/documentation/
Looks great! Thanks for the list, it is also should think about how to draw attention to these tutorials (post links to popular game development resources), etc.
Just had a thought, how about an initial ‘What is Xenko?’. A preliminary dive into the engine and its features from a technical standpoint, the features available in the engine, open source, supportable on patreon, available as separate nuget packages (almost).
A brief history, a spec of current capabilities and a hint at the future plans, before launching in the development side itself.
Awesome, delighted to see somebody willing to start making video tutorials!
I would be happy to feature those (twitter, or even possibly blog/post or even include them in a doc section).
Also, if you feel some of the operations are buggy or could have improvements that could be done easily/quickly, please let me/us know and would be happy to fix it before you capture the video.
On this note, covering the graphics compositor at some point would be good (and necessary for UI even)
Still, great to see someone willing to start making some video tutorials, welcome!
Thanks again everyone.
@Yuuki_terumi
I do want to cover what kind over shaders to use that come with Xenko. Writing shaders on the other is a far too advanced topic for now. Most users will probably never go anywhere near those. Without the core editor usage tutorials I would be completely overshooting the target audience.
@DiegoBm
I added exporting/distributing the game to the list
@SoulRider
and UI to the introduction list. Those will still be the basic coverage or a quick “how to” more than anything. Later tutorials can dive deeper.
@tonfilm
Thanks for the link on documentation
@profan
That is interesting one. I might cover this briefly in the UI tutorial and make a separate more in-depth tutorial once the basics tutorials are done.
@Toriadus
Once they are out I will leave it to the rest of the community to help out with that. I personally dislike the “share”, “hit subscribe” and “like this video” strategy you here on most youtube endings.
@xen2
Thanks for the offer. If anything comes up I’ll be sure to reach out. While I am it: * Consistency in the video material is key. Is there a specific logo (https://xenko.com/legal/xenko-logo-regulations.pdf) you prefer when it comes to the tutorial intro? (title screen/thumbnail)
I might express an unpopular opinion.
If some of those videos are very advanced/professional you could publish them on services such as PluralSight and get back some income. It will make Xenko visible in the professional (and more traditional) community as well.
Making tutorials is a difficult and time-consuming task. So it would make sense to be rewarded. Alternatively you could open a Patreon to support your work.
When do you plan to start?
I will try to make sure we can use the logo freely with Silicon Studio by then.
@Kryptos
The 2 lists mentioned in the first topic are starter to intermediate at best, and I have no problem doing those regardless of income. As you said, it just takes up a lot of time, but I like doing it and I think it can help out Xenko in the long run. But I also think you are right about using patreon/pluralsight/udemy for the advanced concepts. This gives a more ‘professional’ vibe to the platform. We will cross that bridge when we get there. Thanks for the input.
@xen2
I think I will work out my first recordings tomorrow. I will do some test runs to get the audio and zoom factor right. I will post some samples to get some new feedback.
@Aggror
I am still in discussion with Silicon Studio to get the trademark for Xenko transferred to the future NPO Xenko will belong to.
Hopefully it should go smoothly but there is a chance this fails, and in that case we might have to take the decision to rename Xenko.
Even though chance is moderate, I prefer to let you know in advance as this can impact and invalidate a lot of your work.
I will be sure to let you know as soon as you know more. I engaged again Silicon Studio last Thursday to try to resolve this, waiting for them to answer back to me still.
@Kryptos @Aggror
It might also be worth considering if I could add this work as one of my Patreon goal (and redirect that part to you).
I think tutorials are really important so would be happy to see it get kickstarted.
Later down the road, moving to a NPO might probably go hand in hand with involving people to vote how funding/donations are distributed.
Oh wow, that is an important decision. I will eagerly await their answer before starting the recordings. For now I will just be working on my own little xenko project, but as soon as you have an answer we can get started.
Most people needing tutorials won’t pay and will jump to Unity free tutorials.
Xenko need to become more popular first.
It’s better to give some money from Patreon to make tutorials or do kickstarters like Godot GDQuest.
I think many have asked themselves the question … - “And how are the Xenko logo and video tutorials related?” Suppose did not give the go-ahead to the logo - there will be no video ?! Or is the logo part of a colorful screensaver? Yes, you can and without a screen saver, because the meaning is not in it, but in the video.
I don’t recall asking for permission to mention the name “Blender 3D” or its logo when recording video on 3D modeling. And a little later, when I better deal with the engine, I will record video in Russian, in order to explain what and how. The main thing here is the information in the video, not the label.
If I am wrong, and without a label it is impossible … Please excuse me, this approach is not clear to me!
The title and thumbnail of a youtube video can always be changed and aren’t a problem, should the name change actually happen.
But try to image every time I say something like ‘with Xenko you can do this…’ or ’ …another feature of Xenko is that…’. Also don’t forget the name ‘Xenko’ and its logo are part of the launcher and the editor. This would look unprofessional and I think it is kind of confusing for potential new users. Sure, the people already familiar with Xenko and its ‘namechange’ wouldn’t really mind, but that is just because they know why.
What I really want is to have new users feel comfortable with the engine, but if the video already starts with a program that looks different than the one you have installed, this gives of an ‘outdated’/‘bad taste’ vibe. Of course this is always a risk with video tutorials where menus change, options get removed/added. But something as big as a name change, that just seems like something quite easy to avoid. Especially considering that this all might change rather soon (few weeks?), why make videos now that are outdated rather quickly. If this is something that is further away in the future (a year or so), then recording it now isn’t a big deal.
All things considered, lets just first see if @xen2 gets an answer. Perhaps the name change won’t happen at all and we are worried about nothing. I can’t wait to get started with the recording, believe me, I just want to do it right.
You can always say Xenko on the first video, or put xenko on every video title and say “with the engine” after that and will be perfectly natural. The title is easy to change and just one video is easy to change. But yeah, it’s a pain…
This is a great idea. If you want any collaborators let me know. I’m about 1.5 months away from releasing the first version of my netcode called “Resync” on GitHub. This will feature a small multiplayer Xenko PVP arena game. I don’t know if I’ll host the game server online anytime soon… but maybe in months to follow or next year.
I’d love to contribute to tutorials.
While we are waiting on @xen2 to have a meeting with Silicon studio, I went ahead and recorded a sample for the first video tutorial. For the past few days I have been toying with the best setup for audio quality and I had to get myself reacquainted with the video editor.
Let me know what you think:
Here is my recording setup btw. Added my cat for additional echo/reverb cancellation.
Thank you so much for the sample, I really liked it! Good intonation, optimal information feed rate, beautiful starry sky background =) It looks and sounds professional. I’m looking forward to all video tutorials!
Feels quite professional, looking forward to seeing the real series out there in the wild!
this is fantastic! it really feels professional and well produced. clear voice recording and understandable speaking in just the right pace. the cat makes it even better
also content-wise, its a great intro i would like to share with beginners getting into the engine.
let’s hope for a good outcome on the xenko trademark discussion.
keep up the good work!
That is pretty good overall.
If possible, try to remove the keyboard strokes noise. I have heard that some people redo an audio capture separately to remove any hesitation and background noise, but that’s at least twice as much work.
I’m just nit picking. The quality is really good already.
Keep up the good work.
This is great quality material! The only thing I can think of as missing would be as @Kryptos mentioned to record the audio separately so that you can edit and cut whatever you’re not happy with, and probably adding a really low volume background tune to mask the silence.
Could you be kind enough to describe your rig? Microphone and shield brand and model, gfx card, ram, CPU, software used (I reckon I saw obs for recording, but what did you use for editing? Davinci?), Etc. Thank you in advance
Thanks for the feedback everyone.
I will have a look at the noise coming from my keyboard. In tutorials such as this one, there is barely any keyboard needed, so removing/re-recording a part is not a big task.
Recording audio separately is something I have done before, to improve audio quality. The downside, other than taking a lot of extra time, is that it messes with the flow of speech. You record only a few sentences before pausing everything. Dialogs will become stale and feel robot like. It is extremely time consuming getting that right.
Perhaps I can find a quieter keyboard that doesn’t make as much noise.
Do you mean like a really chill trance music beat? Do you have an example of what you are describing?
Software:
Thank you @Aggror for sharing the information.
The video series from Jayanam could be a good example. There is a background music that you can’t barely hear (it does not mess with the message), but it’s filling any possible silence in the video. It makes it more professional and pleasant in my opinion:
Nice setup!
And thanks for that demo video, top-notch!
I had first meeting with Silicon Studio today and had a chance to explain them in details our plan and what we want.
I also stressed out I needed an answer quickly.
There is a follow-up meeting next Tuesday (in 1 week), hope we will have a definitive answer by then!
Sorry that it’s taking little bit of time.
No need to apologize, legal issues can be such a painstakingly slow process. The timing is also a little unfortunate, as I will be away from home for 3 weeks as of 18th march.
New version with background sound:
Astounding! It really makes a difference
@xen2 any answers from silicon studio yet? I will be from home for about 3 weeks as of 17th of march. Next week will be the final free time I have to spend on this.
Latest status:
BTW, I apologize if those things take little bit of time to solve and are little bit out of my hands.
We badly need video tutorials to bring user to Xenko and it’s unfortunate it is being blocked by this decision.
Anyway, my current feeling is that we should be able to keep the name.
But there’s always a chance negotiation fails so I can’t say it’s 100% sure yet (might take a few more weeks).
Fingers crossed.
by the way: do you own the official youtube channel for Xenko?
If these tutorials are to become the official videos, I have no problem uploading them there. It would look even more professional. I think it would give newcomers a sense of trust that there are official videos.
Yes I control it.
Sure, would gladly accept if you want to update them with Xenko account.
However, you would loose the credits.
So you could also keep your name and they could be featured on the Xenko channel.
I am fine either way, up to you!
Maybe in the future, Xenkos youtube channel could have some new promotion materials.
Hi again,
@xen2
I am back from vacation and work related activities. What is the latest news on the name/logo etc? I think it is time to get my hands dirty.
It’s currently still stuck waiting for .NET Foundation answer.
However, I have a verbal agreement with Silicon Studio to transfer it and we could always start our own foundation if .NET Foundation doesn’t work out, so I would say it’s 90% sure it will be fine to keep the name Xenko (assuming Silicon Studio doesn’t change its mind).
I think we waited long enough. The risk is relatively small. I am just going to start recording.
Can’t wait!
I would like to support you as much as I can, so please keep me posted if you need any help, for example:
Could I suggest perhaps not including background music. None of the many professional tutorials I have purchased have a background track, and I would find it annoying. I often have my own music on in the background, and this would be an unfortunate addition, IMO. I would disagree that it makes for a more professional product - it’s unnecessary, and reduces the choice of the user.
Yes, go for it! Really looking forward to share the tutorials to our users at vvvv.org as well.
@bash
Thank for your input. As other users have indicated, it can nicely fill the gaps were there is silence. But I do understand that this might not be something everybody wants. I guess the middle-ground here is to not put any music in it, and let users play their own music in the background.
@tonfilm
Recorded the next one last night. I expect to have a few videos ready this week.
The first post has been edited and now contains the roadmap and the youtube playlist.
I think that’s excellent. Very clear, well-paced, and professional. If you complete that roadmap, I think it will be a huge boost to the Xenko project.
Hi folks,
Would you kindly listen to a test preview for the next tutorial covering the Xenko asset pipeline. This tutorial will not really cover the editors interface, but instead serves a generic overview to the asset pipeline in general. I want to know if there are important details missing and whether everything I said is correct.
Some details about the recording that can be ignored for feedback:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YYK6TEEzuYf2MFUsG53P-xBLdJdc3q7h
Thanks in advance
i think is a great explanation and intro to the terminology. not much to add from my side.
Overall looks good.
One important point though to avoid confusion when you will later deal with runtime-side:
At 2:47, you mention about asset being used in game.
“Asset” (design-time) gets compiled to “Content” (runtime representation that can be loaded while a game is running).
When writing game code, user loads “Content”. “Asset” don’t exist anymore. API reflects that too (cf ContentManager).
Originally we used the word “Asset” at runtime too but it was leading to confusion so we decided to use two separate words.
Note: I leave it up to you if it’s better to mention this or not (but be careful if you talk about asset on runtime side and it leads to confusion later).
Thank you so much for pointing that out! I am glad I asked for feedback on this.
That is some really vital information right there. That particular sentence is almost an exact copy of the line in this doc page (very first line). I said it slightly different in the recording, but it changes the whole context of the word asset. https://doc.xenko.com/latest/en/manual/game-studio/assets.html.
I think it is really good to know the exact difference between asset and content. I will add the word ‘Content’ as 1 of the 5 prime terminology you need to know when it comes to the asset pipeline.
After these videos I want to spend some time on the docs as well, so that the word ‘content’ gets used a little more. Right now if you search on ‘content’ in the docs, you do not get a single result.
Agree, even looking at https://doc.xenko.com/latest/en/manual/game-studio/use-assets.html#load-assets-from-code it is not reflected well. The doc was probably written before that renaming.
Hi folks,
slowly but steadily new videos are being added to the “Xenko Game studio Basics” playlist and there many more to come.
After the basics are done, I will start looking in to How to videos covering very specific subjects as well covering common/beginner C# scripts. Those C# videos go hand in hand with updating the Xenko docs/Api documentation. These scripts can provided sample snippets for users to try it using a C#-snippet example project.
I invite you all to have a look at this google doc and add your ideas/suggestions to this forum topic. This goes for both the How to videos as well as the C# beginners tutorials.
Looking forward to the rest of the series.
Newer tutorials will have accompanied Xenko projects for people to try out. All videos, source code and full project will end up on this repo:
Older videos unfortunately contain some paid assets, which I can not simply upload. I might replace them with some free to distribute assets later on.
