WANT TO WIN A 360?

DotNetSlackers announced a contest with the chance to win 1 of 3 Xbox 360 Core Systems. How? Just writing an article.

From the post: "... DotNetSlackers is proud to present its authors with the chance to win 1 of 3 Xbox 360 Core Systems (worth 299$). Simply write an article for DotNetSlackers, following our Submission Guidelines, and you’ll automatically have a chance to win 1 of 3 XBoxs. It couldn’t be simpler!

Every month, for three months, registered DotNetSlackers users will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite DotNetSlackers article and the winning author gets a brand new Xbox 360! ...".

Hurry up!

XBOX 360 NEWS

Microsoft has announced that Instant Messaging is coming to the 360 through Windows Live™ Messenger, among other new features to be distributed within the "XBOX 360 Spring Update".

You may wonder: "ok, but how can one input text to the 360 fast and easy?". The answer is straight ahead by just looking at the following picture:

Please follow this link for a full description of all the new features available within the Spring Update.

Now, if only I had a 360 ...

"360ZINE 5" NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

This month issue of 360Zine is now available for free download. As always, you have read it right, free download.

The issue includes a first look to the XBO 360 Elite plus previews of "Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA 4)" and "Fable 2", and more, much more.

So, what are you waiting for?! Download it now!

I'LL BE OUT FOR THE EASTER'S WEEKEND

Hi guys! I know I've been a bit hidden in my ultracave these days but as you may have guessed I just taking this week-end off to enjoy Easter with my family.

Still, I'm aware that there have been some great news lately so next Monday check out this blog for the cascade of news I'm going to publish.

In the meantime, I leave you with 2 great links:

• John's list of links to XNA resources (thanks for " ... My favorite XNA News Blog ...").
• Abi's easter bunny ... ;)

Cheers!

[Also check the new design of my blog: on top part of the page you will find a dynamic news banner and on the left side you will see some random links to YouTube's videos related to game design, XNA GSE, xBOX360 and so on ...]

APRIL'S DIRECTX SDK AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

In a recent post, Dave has informed that the April's DirectX SDK has been released for public download.

The new features include:

• Improvements to the XACT UI,
• Improvements to PIX,
• Shader compiler update, and
• an effect-pools sample.

Please read Dave's post for full details. To download the SDK just follow this link.

Cheers!

VISUAL3D.NET: BETA 1 ANNOUNCED

Along with the new design for Realmware's site, beta 1 of the long-awaited "Visual3D.Net" framework has been announced.

From the announcement: "... Realmware is happy to announce that Visual3D.NET Beta1 will be released April 30th, 2007. The list of features to be included in Beta1 as well as future releases can be seen on the Visual3D.NET Features page. Please register now to sign up for the Beta ...".

Visual3D.Net vs. Blade3D vs. TorqueX vs. doing all by your-self. Hummm ... so many choices ... which one will you choose?

JAD ENGINE 1.1 RELEASED

For those of you that never heard about Jad engine, it's one of the first shader-prone engines created using MDX that was released to the public for free.

I was following its development since it was originally called "Haddd" engine, so let me tell you that if you want to learn how to develop a robust and powerful engine, then Jad engine is a great knowledge base on the subject.

From the announcement: "... After more than 6 months of work the Jad Engine Team has finally released Jad Engine 1.1. This new version comes with lots of bug fixes, minor improvements (math library, multiple viewports,...) and major new features (virtual file system, scripting,..) ...".

You can download the engine from its hompage in Codeplex.

Cheers!

"XNA WEEKLY ROUNDUP 27-03-07 TO 01-04-07"

Mykres has published his "Weekly Roundup" which covers source codes, projects, games, new blogs/sites, tutorials and game releases from March 27th, 2007 to April 1st, 2007.

From Mykres' post: "... it as been another quiet week in the world of XNA, but this week we have seen a few new Bloggers come onto the scene (Lets hope they keep the content flowing). We have also seen a refresh of the Garage Games Torque X Systems and the introduction of another starter kit, 'Platformer Starter Kit'.

Ziggy has posted an update to his tutorial collections, and we have seen an example of a Windows GUI System for the XNA Framework.

Just a Reminder guys that a lot of the XNA Community already hangs out on IRC on the Efnet Server in the #xna Channel, please drop by and say hello… it has been a but quiet there as well ...".

Find the whole news update here ...

"XNATEXTURES.COM LAUNCHED!"

XNAResources has announced the launch of the second site in its network of sites: "XNATextures.com".

From the announcement: "... The site was formerly known as The TextureBin and already has over 1700 seamless high resolution textures!  XNATextures.com is membership based though... we offer 3 types of membership:

• Free 15 day Trial - Same as the standard below but limited to 15 days.
• Standard Membership - Access to all the content on the site in lower resolutions (500 pixels wide).
• Premium Membership - Access to all the content in the standard membership AND full access to high resolution versions of all the textures as well as bump maps, alpha maps, and games sized versions (powers of 2) of the textures in high resolution ...".

See ya!

"THRUST": THE SUCCESSOR OF XNA5D

Remember this post? Well, John Sedlak has announced the successor of his XNA5D engine ... and the name is "Thrust".

From John's post: "... Let me preface this story with a note that this is in no way an April Fools joke. The successor of Xna5D is Thrust and composes of all I have learned thus far. I am also pleased to announce that I have been working on several aspects of it with Matthew Randall. I thank him very much for contributing what he can to the project, even with his very busy schedule. I have decided that the development cycle of Thrust will be much slower compared to Xna5D ...".

So, let's thrust this is no April fools joke ... just kiddin' ... :)

THE END OF KRISC'S "XNA5D"?

Let's hope not.

From John's post: "... I have been getting e-mails and have had some comments about the next release of Xna5D. I am happy to say that it won't be coming, at least not in the way anyone would expect it. I have been taking some time to take a deeper look into the design of the core as well as the design of XNA. I am specifically taking a look at content management, abstraction of services and entities. I have been working closely with a developer on the prior, working on a set of prototype classes that will serve as a complete replacement for any component functionality present in the Game class. I want more layers of functionality while maintaining 100% compatibility so that no one has to rewrite code if they do not want to. The latter, has yet to come to realization, but I have been researching some scripting and dynamic assembly programming so that code can be compiled and ran on the fly as well as loading and running of a complete assembly during game time ...".

Before you panic, then John adds: "... In the next few days I will be bringing a few changes to the site that reflect the new library and will at some point make the announcement about all the goodies ...".

Watch this space!

MORE ON XNA RSS-FEEDS CENTERS

In line with my previous post: Garret Hoofman has published the link to subscribe to his XNA Tab on Netvibes.

From Garret's post: " ... For those that use Netvibes, I have shared my XNA tab full of RSS feeds. I slimmed it back down a little bit so there aren't any more of the dead blogs.

Click --> Here <-- to add the page to your netvibes ...".

Cheers!

"XNA PORTAL": YOUR RSS-FEEDS CENTER FOR XNA

Now this is an interesting site ... XNA Portal is hosting RSS Feeds related to XNA.

So, if you have a site with news, articles, tutorials, games or any other topic or content related to XNA -and also has a RSS-feed enabled- then head over XNA Portal main page and add your news feed by entering the url of your RSS feed.

Nice one, guys!

"PCGZINE 4" NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

This month issue of PGCZine is now available for free download. As always, you have read it right, free download.

The issue includes a full interview with Michal Madej -Chief Designer of the RPG "The Witcher", previews of "Empire Earth III" and "Frontlines: Fuel of War", and more, much more.

So, what are you waiting for?! Download it now!

VISUAL3D.NET PRODUCT DEMO VIDEO

Continuing the news of upcoming amazing frameworks for rapid game creation, a new video showing off the features of Visual3D.Net has been released:

Nice ... now, licenses and prices?

"XNA WEEKLY ROUNDUP 18-03-07 TO 26-03-07"

Mykres has published his "Weekly Roundup" which covers source codes, projects, games, new blogs/sites, tutorials and game releases from March 18, 2007 to March 26, 2007.

From Mykres' post: "... It has been a relatively quite week in the world of XNA; this must be due to the April Update coming soon. But through the week we have seen some discussions on Performance. I remember with Managed DirectX everyone seemed to be talking about the Perfect Game Loop, but with XNA it seems to be Performance and the Foreach functions, this month cornflower Blue gives us some thoughts on the Foreach loop.

We also got to see the release of some more applications including Sky burner and Realms of Keldar, both of these are games ported from another code base.

This week David Weller gives us an introduction into Source control with the express products, as well as giving some praise to Sharky on his Air Legends Game (Which now includes Multi Player Split Screen). But most of All David tells us that the XNA Teams are Hiring, note that you do not send your information to David please follow the correct path for any applications or Questions.

Also George from XNADevelopment has posted a brief game design spec for his Dream Build Play entry. ...".

Find the whole news update here ...

BLADE3D PRICES HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED!

Along with the latest build of this amazing framework (that is, build 1595), the guys behind its development have finally announced both licenses and prices.

From GameDev.net's announcing post: "... Pricing for Blade3D 1.x will be $99 for non-commercial use, and $249 for commercial use. The open and free Beta 1 of Blade3D can be downloaded from the product website at http://www.blade3d.com ..."

Let's the games begin ...

NEW XNA BLOG: "ADVICE FROM THE SWAMP"

There's a new blogger in the XNA Community: Thomas Aylesworth (you can also see screenshots and or download his game: "Space Invasion").

And he's opened with a great subject ...one of the topics that Shawn likes most :) ... Software Efficiency and Optimization (Part 1).

As you an see this is the first installment of a series so stay tuned to his blog.

Cheers!

DAVID WELLER SAYS "WE ARE HIRING!"

Dave's latest post informs that there are 5 opening jobs in the "XNA Developer Connection" organization, so if you're interested and think you qualify just follow the links included in his post to submit your resume.

Good luck!

[When will be the day when only C# is requested? ... C++ is still a must ... also, what about "tele-working"? ... ok, let's stop the daydream ... back to the ultracave!]

NVIDIA GDC'07 PRESENTATIONS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

nVidia has released for public access the slides presented during GDC 2007, which cover among other things: rendering tips and tricks, Direct3D 10 topics, and a preview of the features included in the long awaited FX Composer 2.

The slides are available in PDF files and can be found here.

By the way, for those that heard some rumors about FX Composer 2 coming out next month, the slides are clear, and I quote:

• Public Beta, early April 2007
• Final Release, early May 2007

Cheers!