Showing posts with label Game Development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Game Development. Show all posts
Monday, April 23, 2007
QUO VADIS CONFERENCE 2007
Head onto Benjamin Nitschke's blog to see some photos from this year's "Quo Vadis" Conference in Berlin, where Benny's showed off some of the XNA-based games he made (like the formerly called "XNA Racer" and GDC's "Dungeon Quest").
From Benny's post: "... There was not much interaction with the audience because most people had no questions, but I talked my way through it and I heard some positive feedback about XNA later ...".
Shy audience, ugh?Friday, April 20, 2007
TUTORIAL: INTRODUCTION TO XNA
There's a new tutorial available on c-sharpcorner.com site entitled: "Introduction to XNA: The Microsoft 2D and 3D Game Development Platform" -by Mike Gold.
From Mike's post: "... Although I couldn't name all the episodes, I think I watched every original Star Trek episode that was produced. My fascination with Star Trek didn't end with the original, but continued into the Next Generation. After that, I kinda lost track...Anyway, this month, Microsoft came out with an article in MSDN on the XNA framework, written by Charles Cox and Michael Klucher. I became intrigued and decided to pursue exploring the XNA Framework. In doing so, I created this simple example. Most of the inspiration for this article didn't come from the MSDN article, but from a game called elves revenge on a website called Errolian. By examining this code, I was able to piece together this demonstration of XNA ...".
Read on.A GLIMPSE ON XNA'S PER PIXEL LIGHTING
Yes, you've read it right: on the upcoming release, the XNA Framework will add a "built-in" per pixel lighting -through the "BasicEffect" class, and Shawn's explains how to deal with it.
From Shawn's post: "... Per-vertex lighting is efficient, and it looks good on models that contain lots of highly tessellated triangles or which don't use too much specular. It can look pretty bad on lower resolution meshes, though, ..."`.
Read on ...Thursday, April 19, 2007
SETTING UP "GUIMANAGER"
Check out Aaron's blog for his first tutorial, which covers setting up his GUIManager class.
From Aaron's post: "... The simplest way to begin is to use the GUI_Testbed project as a starting template. I simply created a new source file containing a class called Tutorial1, and set that as the startup Game object in Program.cs. You could also just use the existing GUI_Testbed.cs if you don't feel like starting from scratch ...".
More news after the break ...TIPS: "SOFTWARE EFFICIENCY AND OPTIMIZATION - PART 3"
Thomas has published the latest installment of the series on software efficiency and optimization.
From the post: "... I'm trying to decide where to take this blog from here. I could continue focusing on software engineering as it applies to games. Or I could start taking in-depth looks at particular game algorithms and how to implement them for XNA — for example, I could show how I used the minimax algorithm with alpha-beta pruning for finding the best move in my Othello game, and how to implement it in XNA; or show how to implement the A* algorithm for pathfinding. Or I could start showcasing my Dream-Build-Play entry and how various parts are implemented. If you have any thoughts or preferences, please leave a comment ...".
To get to the above-mentioned part of the post -actually the final part- you'll need to read a bit more than usual ... trust me ... so you'd better hurry up and start reading right now!MORE ON "FOREACH" LOOPS
Eli's second part of the series is available now.
From Eli's post: "... For you impatient readers, here's my results: As I just found out, this holds true on the Xbox360 as well. Read on to find out how I came to this conclusion, and maybe learn something about (deep breath) The XNA Framework Remote Performance Monitor for Xbox 360 ...".
So, want to find out? Read on ...XNA & THREADING
Joseph Molnar, whose blog is entitled "The Pensive Gamer", has published a series of interesting articles on XNA and threading:
A must read.
A must read.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
UNLEASH YOUR IMAGINATION WITH XNA GSE
The XNA Team has announced that a new article about XNA GSE -by Charles Cox and Michael Klucher- is available on May issue of MSDN Magazine.
From the announcement: "... The article presents a high-level view of XNA Game Studio Express, and then walks through how to create a copy of Spacewar and modify the source to add new functionality to the game--in this case, a shield ...".
Cannot wait, ugh? Then get to the article by following this link.Monday, April 16, 2007
MANAGING UNITS
Machaira has published a couple of examples, being one of them a class that manages units in a RTS game.
From the post: "... In response to a post on the Creators Club Online forums, I whipped up a quick sample of a class that manages RTS (or any genre) units. Check it out here. If I get a chance, I'll spruce it up a little since the current version is totally barebones (what do you expect for a half-hours, if that, worth of work) ...".
Well, I guess it's all for today ..."EQUALIZING ARTWORK"
Shawn has published his latest installment on lighting: "Equalizing artwork".
From the post: "... Any time you draw more than one thing on the screen you need to think about how well their colors, brightness, and contrast levels will fit together. By far the most important tools for controlling this are the lighting and fog settings ...".
Read on!GET A BETTER SERVICE
Uhmm ... typo, sorry, my mistake: "A Better GetService" by Rhysyngsun.
From the post: "... so recently there's been a lot of major discussion on the XNA forums about GameComponents. Now, I love the idea of having integrated components that automatically get get updated and also drawn in the case of DrawableGameComponent, however, when it comes to accessing the Game class's Services. I also have at issue being able to access said Services in a class that is not a GameComponent. I understand the XNA's team for making the services the way they are, however I don't want to have to derive from GameComponent and add it to the GameComponentCollection every time I want to check to have access to the ContentManager or whatever. For the most part, input components are the only issue that I have with the way Services are set up ...".
Read on!IS "SILVERLIGHT" THE NAME OF A COLOR?
Maybe not this time ... it's the new name for the Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere (WPF/E).
Want to know whether XNA GSE will integrate it? Then read David's post on this regard.
From the post: "... How can I use Silverlight with my XNA Framework-based games?" I will directly answer that we have ...".
Curious? I told you to read David's post ... ;)Saturday, April 14, 2007
NEW TUTORIAL: XNA OCTREE SYSTEM
Rhysyngsun has published a new tutorial explaining hot to build an XNA-based octree system.
From the post: "... First of all, what exactly is an octree? An octree is a spatial partitioning system that divides a cube recursively into eight equally sized cubes until each cube contains a specified number of polygons or objects. This tree can then be used to quickly determine visibility or to quickly rule out objects for physics purposes. For the purposes of XNA, I've designed my system to be used on a per-object basis ...".
Read on!MANAGING GUI ELEMENTS
Francesco Forno has posted a sample solution showing how to handle GUI elements.
From Francesco's post: "... The sample at last! I managed to put together a small sample solution which shows how to use the GUIManager library. All required DLLs are included in the sample, but it's unlikely that I'll keep it updated, so always refer to the main download link (GUIManager, on your left) to get the latest library version ...".
Cheers!Thursday, April 12, 2007
BASIC EFFECT AND SPECULAR-LIGHT CONTRIBUTION
Shawn has published the second part of the series on XNA and lighting, which focus this time on "specularity": what it is, and how to tweak it by using "BasicEffect".
From Shawn's post: "... Specular light can be harder to understand. When viewed in isolation, its contribution seems incredibly minimal ... But in combination with the diffuse light, specular is a critical part of making a model look good. Set it too low, and your objects will appear flat and uninteresting. Too high, and everything will look like plastic: waxy and unnatural ...".
Read on!RHYSYNGSUN WANTS TO BE ENCOURAGED ...
... to post mini-tutos and code snippets, all related to XNA, of course, since he has been working hard to implement an octree functionality, multiple viewports, input management, etc.
From Rhysyngsun's post: "... I have a few more ideas for mini-tutorials that I may post here. Some are just quick code snippets, but others are a bit more detailed. Leave some comments to encourage me ...".
So c'mon, want to get some tutos? Then give the guy the encouraging comments he is asking for ...Monday, April 09, 2007
SHAWN HARGREAVES ON THREE-POINT LIGHTING
For those of us who sometime happened the get or still get in touch with 3D animation (or photography, or cinematography, ...), hearing "Three-Point Lighting" technique should ring a bell.
It does, doesn't it? But, have you ever wonder why you had to use this visual technique? If you don't know the answer yet and still wonder why, just browse to Shawn's blog to find out.
From Shawn's post: "... Pretty much every movie ever made and every fashion shot ever photographed have depended on this lighting rig. There are many variations:
- To increase the perception of shape without needing too much contrast between light and shadow, tint the key light yellow and the others blue.
- For a moody drama, make the key light much brighter than the fill.
- For a cheerful sit-com, make all three lights equally bright.
- For a scary effect, position the key light low to the ground.
- For a mysterious or fantastic effect, make the back light unusually bright so the character seems to glow around the edges.
But the underlying principle is always the same. Things simply look better when lit this way ...".
Read on!"TORQUE CONSTRUCTOR" NOW AVAILABLE
Again, news not related to XNA (at least, for now).
GarageGames has released the long awaited "Constructor" for the Torque Game Engine (TGE) and Torque Game Engine Advanced (TGEA), for free.
To read the full list of features go here, and to download it, here.
[Now that TorqueX is out, maybe integration of this level editor to XNA is on the roadmap ...]FLUIX: CREATE UI ELEMENTS WITH FLASH FOR XNA
Fluix lets you create user interface elements for your XNA-based project in Flash.
The second release is out and includes:
- FSCommand implemented,
- texture alpha being broken in some cases fixed,
- lines support, including bevels,
- gradients supported,
- fix reported bug on not finding helper applications,
- basic version of Sound object working,
- fonts/text working with some caveats, and
- various string manipulation functions implemented.
Worth testing, don't you think?
[Now, I'd like to see the same with XAML. Can you picture that? XNA, XAML and DX10 ...]
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