MOUSE2D GAME COMPONENT FROM TEHONE.COM

TehOne.com has published a mouse component for XNA.

From TehOne's post: "Here is my Mouse2D DrawableGameComponent. I started out just wanting to be able to put a custom Mouse pointer/cursor on the screen instead of the windows mouse. From there the code just seemed to keep evolving more and more. After I got my custom pointer on the screen, I wanted to then place a Texture2D where it clicked (this was mostly for debugging etc, but I think turned out to be useful for other things). I could see this feature being used in map editors maybe, or something where you want to give the user the ability to design what they see on the screen."

You can download the source code and or a demo game, and check the online documentation ... and please, don't forget to read the license.

"As always, I would really appreciate some feeback on this. I'm sure people can make use of this code (especially beginers). And I'm even more sure that it can be improved with input from others (especially those with more experience then me)."

Let's give the guy some feedback.

XNA GSE CHALLENGE GAMES RELEASED!

Head over this thread on the XNA Creators Club Online, and download each game as soon as the authors post links to their respective builds.

Four games in four days ... great!

GAMERZINES: FREE MAGAZINES FOR GAMERS

Gamerzines? What's that? Glad you ask.

It's a set of e-magazines written by UK game reviewers that anyone in the world can download for free. Yes, for free!

But what is so special about this magazines? Well, not only you will find previews, reviews, interviews, and contests, but also as the magazines are dispatched as PDF files there's lots of multimedia content included, like demo videos and trailers of brand-new game releases and upcoming games.

The magazines comes in this four different flavors:

• 360Zine: for XBOX 360 gamers.
• PCGZine: for PC gamers.
• HGZine: for Sony PSP and Nintendo DS gamers.
• PESFanzine: official "Pro Evolution Soccer" e-magazine.

So, what are you waiting for, go and get them now!

BTW, 360Zine #3 includes an exclusive interview with Larry Hyrb, Microsoft's Xbox Live Director of Programming, also known as "Major Nelson".

Enjoy!

VISUAL3D.NET VIDEOS

Many of us may have been lately asking what have happened to this promising framework. Well, at least, I did.

Two new videos show the power of Visual3D.Net:

Pretty impressive, imho ... :)

NEWS, MORE NEWS AND EVEN MORE NEWS!!!

Spread the word! A new update for XNA GSE is on its way: bug fixes, changes, new additions, and potential features being investigated.

You can find complementary information on the following sites:

• XNA Team Blog,
• TheZBuffer (which also includes a rumor), and
• Shawn Hargreaves Blog.

And if you think this is it, you are wrong! Browse to this link and download Microsoft XNA Developer Slides presented to this year's GDC (which cover many interesting topics).

Too much info to process in no time. Ok, let's start ...