azb
Level: Smiter
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Registered: 03-08-2014
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Thank you so much! Do you know if you were able to view the Photoshop and music playlists, and if so did you get a chance to see the videos and get a feeling if you found them well organized and informative or not?

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Lucky Luc
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1215
Registered: 08-19-2012
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Hey! I watched the first three videos of your audio tutorials. It feels very well structured and you definitely manage to convey a lot of information in a nicely condensed manner without going on many irrelevant tangents, which I very much appreciate.

However, while I'm personally a big fan of understanding the basics of things, I think your structure might be a little too centered around technicalities for the general audience. If someone is making their first game and they want to know a quick way to make a sound effect, they don't really want (and also don't really need) to hear an exhaustive explanation of sample rates and bit depths first. Don't get me wrong, these are definitely important topics and I like that you cover them, but I think they would be more appropriate at a later spot in your tutorial. You don't teach physics by introducing elementary particles and interactions. You start teaching physics by letting go of a ball and seeing it fall down to earth.

If you prefer this kind of bottom-up structure, which I think is completely fair, and want to continue doing it like this in the future, I would suggest to maybe add an introductory video to your courses that goes over when you will teach what and what points are good points of entry. I know this is additional work, but I think it could be helpful for people who just want to learn how to quickly make a sound effect without learning all about audio fundamentals.

You are very clearly knowledgeable about the topics to discuss, but I would still advise having a second person read over your script to double-check a few things. Some of the things you said seemed a little off to me, or at least a little weirdly phrased. For example, saying that the sample rate tells you how many square waves are used to approximate your signal sounds sort of like you're doing a Fourier-like process where you decompose an audio signal into square waves with different amplitudes and frequencies and reconstruct it by adding them back together. As far as I'm aware, that's not how uncompressed audio data usually works, though. To my understanding, the analog signal is sampled at different points in time and the relative current value of that signal is stored as a value between -1 and 1, which seems like a much more simple approach. Also, I think your use of the word "volume" to describe the value of the audio signal is a little dodgy. Saying that the current value of a signal is equal to its volume at that point would mean that a simple note would constantly oscillate between positive and negative volumes (what even are negative volumes?), which just doesn't fit to how we experience volume in real life.

Apart from a knowledgeable person reading over your script, it can also be very useful to have an amateur read over it, especially if they are not afraid to ask "stupid" questions. After all, your course is aimed at amateurs. And an unfortunate fact is that there are some things that are completely clear to you that a newbie has never thought about before, and that it's very hard to catch all of those things if you have too much knowledge about a topic. As an example from your course, you start it by telling some facts about audio output devices and in the next lesson, you talk a lot about how digital audio signals look like. However, you don't mention how those two things are connected. And while this might be completely clear to you and me, someone who has no prior knowledge about audio might not make the connection. It doesn't even have to be a lengthy explanation about the physical processes that take place within your speakers, but just say something like "this signal is sent to your speakers or headphones, which then convert it into physical sound waves that you can hear."

As for your presentation style, I very much appreciate that you speak slowly and clearly. I thought some of the pauses within a sentence felt a bit long and awkward. If you struggle a bit with reading from a script, that's totally fine, but maybe some audio editing would help to make the flow feel more natural. I know that this is quite a lot of work and if you want to keep your current style, that's also fine.

I hope this doesn't come off as too negative. Making an exhaustive online tutorial series about game design is certainly a huge project that requires a lot of dedication and effort, and I think you are doing very well overall. Please try to see this as motivation to keep working and improving and not as discouragement.

azb
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 491
Registered: 03-08-2014
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No problem at all. I take zero offense, and I know other people told me that my presentation style might seem bizarre/awkward in terms of pauses before, which I know is 100% legitimate compared to hearing people like college professors deliver their speeches.

I do go over how to make sound in a more basic way in later videos, such as how string or percussion instruments work, I just decided to start at technical stuff first so that way it is easier to understand how recording works before you begin recording. However, I definitely understand how your perspective makes sense too and will definitely keep that in mind.

Thank you very much for your feedback!

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azb
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 491
Registered: 03-08-2014
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It's funny that you mention physics too, because I have begun teaching real life mechanics/physics as a way to help supplement the game physics tutorials. Could you please take a look and tell me if you think I do a good job presenting the concepts?

I do mention delta for velocity and acceleration, but would you say it is not a huge problem because I explicitly mention that delta is a subtraction/difference, and that someone new to game design would know what basic subtraction and division/fractions are already?

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqvGFhXbDTLr5C3iDPCk6fb7M0m9LYu1R

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azb
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 491
Registered: 03-08-2014
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I also plan on teaching in this order after the most basic kinematic equations:

* Acceleration from gravity (Free fall)

* Projectile motion, so the above combined with a horizontal constant velocity motion

* Newton's three laws of motion

* Weight vs Normal force

* Tension and Friction forces (as tension is slightly more complicated, and friction is the most complicated because it converts mechanical energy to heat)

* Uniform circular motion, so arc length, tangential velocity and angular velocity (the rate of rotation)

* Centripetal acceleration and force

* Rotational acceleration and Torque

* Moment of Inertia

* Density (focusing on classical solid mechanics, fluid mechanics will touch on density in a later video)

* Linear momentum, Newton's Second Law revisited, and center of mass (I decided to teach it here because of how I revise the Second Law for accuracy, so I plan on demonstrating how objects move in a straight line only in response to forces near the center of mass)

* Angular momentum, so how objects gain angular momentum in response to forces further away from the center of mass

* A rigorous explanation of how gravity was determined to be 9.8 m/s/s, including Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation and a proof of the formula

* Archimedes Principle and buoyant forces, including how density of solid objects vs the fluid determine what kind of buoyancy it will experience

* Pascal's Principle, using a cup filled with water that gets squeezed

* Continuity equation for containers (typically pipes) of different radiuses having the same vertical position, and how Pascal's Principle can explain what is happening

* Bernoulli's equation, for more general flows that do not have turbulent or viscous forces, and how it demonstrates that higher velocity regions have lower pressure contrary to instinct/intuition

* Viscosity, laminar vs turbulent flows (including a demonstration of factors that determine what type will happen, which includes viscosity so that is why I teach it then)

* Drag coefficient of solid objects immersed in a fluid, so an object with a higher drag coefficient (IE a cube) will make the flow more turbulent, while an object with a lower drag coefficient (IE an airplane wing or swordfish) will make the flow more streamlined/laminar, which is why the shape is called "streamlined"

However, since I teach physics only for game programming, I decide to overlook all the other studies of physics, such as light optics, heat transfer, quantum mechanics or electricity and magnetism laws.

Would you guys still say it is really well thought out though, or do you think it might overwhelm my audience?

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DiMono
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1181
Registered: 09-13-2003
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So I've been gone a long time, right? I'll bet you're wondering what I've been up to. Well, I'm going to tell you anyway: I make sudokus now. Not for a living, just casually. Here's a link to most of them (stars are difficulty, % is logical beauty). I've gotten good enough at it that not only has the YouTube channel Cracking The Cryptic featured six of them, they actually put up a video I recorded about how I made one of them. So, if you've ever wanted to hear someone talk for half an hour about creating a very difficult puzzle in my voice, you can check that out here:


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Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

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[Last edited by DiMono at 05-07-2021 02:02 PM : Moved youtube link to its own line for better presentation]

Kaelyn
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 79
Registered: 01-21-2019
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What should employees do in the frighteningly likely event that the NASA Ames Research Center is attacked by Vikings.

Cognizant
Level: Goblin

Rank Points: 16
Registered: 04-11-2022
IP: Logged

Radio Garden - a world tour of radio channels. Explore what music and stuff do people of foreign countries listen to:
http://radio.garden

Incredibox is a place to produce good melodies in just a few clicks. Numerous samples are easily combined into hits)
https://www.incredibox.com

Kevin Games is a free web gaming website for all tastes and ages. Hundreds of online games in one place to cure boredom:
https://kevin.games

Do Nothing for 2 Minutes - a real challenge for every Internet lover. Just sit and do absolutely nothing. You may think and breathe of course
http://www.donothingfor2minutes.com

Color Rope - an online interactive puzzle to develop creative thinking:
https://colorrope2.com

The Useless Web - more than another weird spot - it's a whole universe of the most useless websites ever appeared. Don't forget to return back from this vacation of procrastination)
https://theuselessweb.com

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I love life =)

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[Last edited by Cognizant at 04-21-2022 05:04 AM]

NoahT
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1139
Registered: 06-17-2003
IP: Logged

I shared this Sporcle quiz in chat yesterday, as it contains a face we're all familiar with: https://www.sporcle.com/games/Noodle33/click-crowds-game-characters?playlist=click-crowds&creator=daran&pid=3C21d02b0B

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And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

My stuff: