"PROFESSIONAL XNA GAME PROGRAMMING" BOOK: UPDATED SOURCE CODE

Ziggy has posted a message from Chris Webb -Executive Editor at Wrox- who announces that the source code of the book "Professional XNA Game Programming" has been recently updated.

From the message: "... Yesterday I received updated code from Ben for Professional XNA Game Programming, and it is now live on the book’s page at wrox.com. This new code replaces all of the code previously available on the book’s download site, so all readers should update as soon as possible.

The update includes bug fixes, all samples now compile on both XNA Versions and on Windows (XP and Vista) and Xbox 360. In addition, Ben also included new support for some older ATI video cards because he’s cool like that ...".

What are you waiting for? Just go and download the updated files!

GARAGEGAMES IS HIRING

If you need a job, are looking for it, and think you qualify, then read this post, since GarageGames is likely looking for you.

From the post: "... What We're Looking For:We are looking for experienced Engineers, Web Developers, Marketers, and QA Specialists ...".

Hurry up!

RUMOR: "WILL MICROSOFT BUY YAHOO?"

This is an off-topic post about a rumor that has suddenly appeared: Is Microsoft pursuing a deal to buy Yahoo?

Maybe we can find the answer to this question in this video.

Intresting ...

MICROSOFT GAME STUDIOS OPENS DOORS IN EUROPE

Microsoft has announced the opening of a European base of operations for Microsoft Game Studios.

From the OXM's article: "... MGS Europe will be headed up by Phil Spencer, general manager, Microsoft Game Studios, who will report to Shane Kim, Microsoft Game Studios' corporate vice president ..."

Cheers!

"XNAPROJECTS.NET" IS LIVE

Benny has announced that his new site "XnaProjects.Net" is up and running. But, what is it? A new XNA Community site where you can submit your games and links.

From the announcement: "... Yesterday I wanted to put all the samples from the book on my blog, but it is already way to overloaded here with screenshots and games, adding another 10 games will not make anything better. Instead I had a crazy idea to create a XNA Community site in one day. It is called XnaProjects.Net. The idea is for everyone to submit their games and links. News are grabbed with Google Blog Search and more features will come in July 2007 when I got more than 5 minutes time in a row ...".

Cool!

VISUAL3D.NET BETA1 IS OUT

RightRiot has announced on Realmware's forums that the first open beta for Visual3D.Net framework has been released.

Finally!

BORTREIST'S GUI

Bortreist has started blogging on the progress on his GUI system, called "SimpleGUI".

From the posts: "... Below is a shot of a SimpleGUI Window hosting a SimpleGrid control and four ButtonLegendLabels (I need to come up with a new name for that one) ...".

Welcome!

VISUAL3D.NET BETA 1 EVALUATION GUIDELINES

Realmware Corp. has recently released the "Guidelines for Evaluating Visual3D.NET Beta 1".

From the guidelines: "... In order to make your evaluation a positive experience that helps us better Visual3D.NET and ensures you have the information you need work through crucial issues we ask you to adhere to the following guidlines during your evaluation of Visual3D.NET ...".

If you are a betatester, you should have already read them or be reading them right now.

"XNARACINGGAME.COM" IS NOW ONLINE

As announced by Benjamin Nitchke, the new site for the just-released "Racing Game" starter kit is now up and running.

From the announcement: "... The download file is 130 MB in size and will eat up almost 290 MB of your hard disk space extracted. It is also only available in the .vsi format and can't be used in anything but XNA Game Studio Express or Visual C# Express. The main reason for this incredible size is the Textures directory, with uses mainly uncompressed .TGA files ...".

Let's race!

2007 INTEL® GAME DEMO CONTEST

Do you believe in second chances? What could you do if your game didn't make it in the Dream.Build.Play contest? Maybe (1) you decide to hold to your more-than-8-hour daytime job -plus you quit your dreams of cash, more cash and glory- or (2) the "Intel® Game Demo Contest 2007" could be your next solution.

However, you'll have to consider that the contest calls for entries elegible for the following two categories:

1. Best Threaded Game: for the demo that best shows off the computational power of a multi-core processor, and
2. Best Game on the Go: for the demo that best shows advances in laptop gaming.

Life is not that easy, isn't it? Well, before say "naaahh, it's not for me ...", check the prizes and the official rules.

From the rules: "... Contest begins March 5th, 2007. Registration Forms must be received by July 1st, 3:00pm PST 2007. Community judging to determine finalists will begin July 1st, 3:00pm PST 2007 and run until August 1st, 3:00pm PST 2007. Executables of finalists must be received by August 15th, 3:00pm PST 2007. Winners will be announced at Austin Game Developer Conference on September 5th, 2007, and published on the contest website the same day ...".

Let's code!

NEW CONTENT FOR "XNA'ERS"

Ok, so you downloaded the refresh update for XNA GSE v1.0, read the readme page and updated the framework on your system, but have you happened to check the new content available at http://creators.xna.com?

I knew it! Don't be a lazybones, pay a visit to the XNA Creators Club Online site and:

• Download the new starter kit: finally! The long-awaited "Racing Game" (formerly called "XNA Racer"),
• Download the new samples: 3D audio, bloom, 2D particles, and many more.
• Read the new articles: data structure and the shader series,
• Watch the new video tutorials: advance audio series, and,
• Download the new utilities: the "Bitmap Font Maker" utility and controller graphics.

Wow!

[Are you an "XNA'ER"? Sounds cool, doesn't it?]

"PROFESSIONAL XNA GAME PROGRAMMING" BOOK

Andy ("TheZMan") has written a good review of Benjamin Nitschke's book "Professional XNA Game Programming".

From Andy's post: "... The postman left a nice gift for me this morning, a copy of Ben's book. I've had a grand total of about 30 minutes to look at it so don't consider this a full review.... Firstly you can get the code for the book included versions of XNA Racer and XNA Shooter from the Wrox website. The XNA Racer and XNA Shooter sites are not up yet but Rocket Commander has been up for quite a while. I have no idea if the Racer game is identical to what was supposed to show up on the creators club site or a different version, but looks like the book version is available first ...".

Although, Benny didn't include in the book's readme file some of the XNA-news blogs that have been working hard to keep you up-to-date in the XNA world ... snif! snif! ... :( ... I still believe this is a great book, so go and buy it ... ;)

SHARKY'S "AIR LEGENDS" AND XNA GSE "REFRESH"

Lawrence has announced that you'll do fine with the latest release of his game -"Sharky's Air Legends"- and the "refresh" update for XNA GSE v1.

From Lawrence's post: "... So I won’t be needing to rush out a new release to be compatible. You’ll be fine with the last one ...".

YAY!!!

XNA GSE 1.0 REFRESH RELEASED

Finally!!! The first update for XNA GSE v1 is now out ...

From the XNA Team Blog's post: "... We’ve gone over many of the features outlined in the announcement we made at GDC 2007. One thing we didn’t really cover previously is compatibility. The entire team made a conscious effort to maintain compatibility with this release.

Your game should just recompile in 1.0 Refresh with no changes required. Any game that is compiled should run fine if you have 1.0 Refresh installed.As mentioned, you can continue to use 1.0 on your Windows computer with 1.0 Refresh on the Xbox 360 console.

Games that are built on 1.0 Refresh may run on 1.0; however, if you are using new functions or features in the XNA Framework (such as font functionality), it will not work properly.You can download the XNA Framework 1.0 Refresh for including in your installer as you start to upgrade your games ...".

Donwloading it right now!

XNA GSE UPDATE IS AROUND THE CORNER

There's a new post on the XNA Team Blog: Dave Mitchell comments on the following:

• XNA Creators Club membership extension (4 months "on the house"),
• Community resources, assets, premium content, etc.,
• The update to XNA Game Studio Express 1.0,
• The brand new "Club Packaging" format, and
• Dream-Build-Play compo.

From Dave's post: "... As a gesture of thanks to our incredible community and especially those who have jumped on board the XNA Creators Club train earlier than others, we’ve extended each and every active XNA Creators Club membership that was active on March 5th by an additional 4 months ...".

Read on!

FROM ZYGOTE'S SITE: WANT TO WIN 100 BUCKS?

Ziggyware is hosting a contest: write an XNA article/tutorial, submit it to Ziggyware, and you will have the chance to get USD 100 if you're picked as the winner.

From Zygote's post: "... Ziggyware is hosting an XNA tutorial/article contest. Simply submit a quality article covering any range of XNA related content.

Top prize is currently One Hundred Dollars USD. Contest deadline is May 30th 2007 ...".

So, do you want to win 100 bucks?

VISUAL STUDIO CODENAME "ORCAS" BETA 1 NOW AVAILABLE

Microsoft has released the first beta build of the next version of Visual Studio product family (known as "Orcas").

The first great thing is that you can donload and betatest a fully functional version of the Team Suite, either by downloading ISO images -not available yet- or the VPC images (for the latter, you will need to download Virtual PC 2007). I had previously downloaded March CTP's VPC images and everything worked ok.

But this time, there's something more, with this release comes the beta builds for the VS Express editions. Although I have not installed VC# Express "Orcas" yet -I'm downloading the installation files as I write this post- it seems we'll be getting an object-relational UML designer tool (probably a lite version of it).

Great news!

[BTW, does anybody know whether the upcoming release of XNA GSE will support "Orcas" VC# express edition?]

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 ...

"CHAOS": A SIMPLE AND SMART GAME

As announced by Ziggy here, the guys from Borderline Interactive have released a demo version of the game "Chaos" and a video showing off the gameplay:

The game is simple in concept but still presents with elegance a nice and catchy gameplay -I really like this kind of smart games- and of course the physics were implemented accordingly.

Stay tuned to site for the upcoming release of the full version of the game.

"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 ...]