"SHARKY'S AIR LEGENDS": MULTIPLAYER AT LAST!

After a couple of weeks locked working hard on the next update of this great game, Sharky has decided to see the sunlight and publish the latest build of "Air Legends", which includes a 2-player splitscreen multiplayer feature.

Nice!

ARE 'FOREACH' LOOPS THAT BAD FOR YOUR GAME?

Lately, many developers have been asking about any performance issues that the use of "Foreach" loops could bring to their XNA-based games, both in the PC and XBox360 platforms.

As a result of all those questions, Cornflower Blue decided to carry out its own research with the help of the "CLR Profiler" tool.

From Eli's post: "... I wanted to get the whole story. Plus, this was an ideal reason to learn to use the Windows and Xbox 360 CLR profiling tools, which I've put off doing for some time. So, I figured I'd do just that: do a foreach loop over a bunch of collections, use the profilers to see if I'm making garbage, and hopefully we'd all learn something in the process. ...".

It's a nice read, but most important, the results Eli's obtained are quite interesting, so go ahead, pay a visit to "Foreach, Garbage, and the CLR Profiler" and read on.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: "THE DUNGEON QUEST" GAME

Benjamin has released a new build of the game called "The Dungeon Quest", which was part of the XNA Challenge (GDC'07).

The update fixes some minor bugs, boosts performance, and adds new features but it requires a videocard that supports Shader Model 3.0 -if you happen to have a lowerend GPU, say, the nVidia GeForce 6600 card (like I do), make sure to run the game in a lower resolution to seed up things a little bit more.

Those big ogres are awesome.

Great level ... Cannot wait to get the book ... ;)

THE NIGHTMARE OF PROGRAMERS: DOCUMENTING SOURCE CODE

Let's face it! There are some tasks that most programers avoid doing and leave them as a "sticky" ToDo entry, and one of them is to document all the software elements in the source code they are working on: classes, structs, properties, operations/methods, etc.

Why can't any programer take the proper time to execute this task? The quick answer: because it's too boring ...

... and please bear in mind that we are leaving out any references to other aspects of the task, like how hard is to find common rules to follow (and learn them by heart) and, of course, writting the proper words or explanation so that any person (including yourself at a later time) can understand what is going on with that particular piece of code.

Well, exactly a week ago Eric ("TehOne") and I exchanged a couple of messages about tools that make your life easier when you want to document source code (by the way, having read the code of his mouse component, one realizes the great benefits of properly commenting source code).

There used to be an open project called "nDoc" (I bet you know it) which never reached a beta stage for v2 (which would support the whole .NET Framework 2, once released the final build).

Unfortunately, the project was abandoned on the alpha stage. But luckily, Microsoft came to the rescue with "Sandcastle": a console application that builds documentation from the xml files that the Visual Studio IDE generates by request (even in the express editions).

"Console application"? Yes, you've read it. And I know what you're thinking: "Why things have to be so complicated?". Well, to answer that let me tell you that there exists some open GUI projects that will ease the task, being -in my honest opinion- one of the most useful and easy-to-use applications: the "SandCastle Help File Builder".

The beauty of it is that it really works and does a great job with any XNA-based programs, but there are some things that you must know though:

• The process verifies any dependencies for the assemblies you want to document, so you have to specify whether you want to include the documents of these dependencies in the final help file or not. In case of the latter, you have to manually add the assemblies to the dependencies' collection in the GUI.
• Sometimes, when you want to open the "Namespaces" form -so as to tell the GUI which namespaces must be documented and which ones must not - you may find that that an exception is thrown by the application and not all the namespace or none are listed. If that is the case, you can edit with the notepad the project file (".shbf"), adding the missing namespaces:

<namespaceSummaries>
<namespaceSummaryItem name="NamespaceRoot.MyNamespace1" isDocumented="true">This is an example.</namespaceSummaryItem>
<namespaceSummaryItem name="NamespaceRoot.MyNamespace2" isDocumented="false" />
...
</namespaceSummaries>

Now, you may say "Ok, but I still have to type the whole comments, explanations and links to all those "see" and "seealso" references (like, say, complete namespaces)" in VS IDE. Right. But there's exist an add-on for Visual Studio that -even though it does not miracles in some cases- makes the task a lot easier: "GhostDoc". I must admit that never used this add-on, but for what I can see and read in this site it seems to be a great tool. However, it does not support express editions ... :(

To sum up, take your time to comment the code, find the method that suits you, but don't leave the task as an "never-ending" ToDo entry; just believe me you won't regret it.

Take my case for instance, it took me two days to properly comment the source code of my Warm-Up Challenge entry! (And yes, I'm still working on it -on my sparetime- even though the challenge is over ... Why? Becuse it helps me learn and implement my-own "best practices" on designing and implementing a game with XNA -either for the main compo or any other compo to come). And by "properly" I mean the way I want to see the comments on the final documentation.

So remember: do as I say, not as I do ... or did, actually ... ;)

BTW, if someone happens to know any program like GhostDoc that works with VS Express editions please drop a comment (and or message to my email address). Ditto for any free application/add-on that helps building Design Class Diagrams of .NET applications.

'till later.

"G": STANDS FOR "G"ENEROSITY

Remember this previous post about the game named "G"?

After playing the game I was really curious about the way these guys had implemented that tractor beam fx ("graviton ray" as they call it), so I decided to make use of their public invitation to get the source code so I contacted them a couple of days ago.

The result: they contacted me back, provided a link to a zip file and gave me the rights to access the server in order to download it.

Thus, having downloaded the zip file, I feel the obligation of publicly thanking them for sharing the source code of the game.

Great game, great code, great "G"enerosity!

Now, back to the Ultracave ...

360ZINE ISSUE 4 NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

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

If you missed my previous post, Gamerzines.com publishes a set of online magazines in 4 different flavors, being 360Zine one of them.

This month topics cover a full review of Tom Clancy's "Graw 2" and an exclusive of "Bioshock", inter alia.

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

D.B.P.'S WARM-UP CHALLENGE ENTRIES

Do you want to know which were the entries submitted to D.B.P.'s Warm-Up Challenge, watch screenshots of each game, and or download builds to play?

I bet you do, so jump to XNA Matrix site and be amazed!

Thanks to dczraptor for sharing the links with all of us.

Cheers!

WARM-UP CHALLENGE'S "UDDER ASSAULT" GAME

Continuing with news related to DPB's Warm-Up challenge winning entires, you can visit this site to get information related to "Udder Assault" -one of the winning entries, plus you can also download the latest build of this great game.

Information on "Cracklin Crackles" is available on this site, but there's no link to any build of the game, though.

If you know links to sites where builds of "Cracklin Crackles", "Earth vs. Mars", and "Viduce" are available for download and want to share them with the XNA community, please drop a comment.

See ya!

"G": A WARM-UP CHALLENGE WINNING ENTRY

Zyggyware informs on the release of the latest build of Mutant Penguin's "G" game.

For those that do not know, G is one of the winning entries in the Dream.Build.Play's Warm-Up Challenge Competition.

Very cool entry, the eye-candy is great and the gameplay is really funny.

Download the latest build from this link, and let's the joy begin!

VIDEO: REALTIME TERRAIN GENERATION WITH XNA

Channel 9 has published an awesome video from the TechFest 2007.

The video shows Andy Wilson's first XNA project: real-time terrain generation with XNA through the use of a depth-sensing video camera and real world objects.

Enjoy!

XNATUTORIAL.COM: "NO MORE WEEKLY UPDATES"

Since XNA GSE started we have enjoyed for months of every "Weekly Update" reported by XNATutorial.Com.

Today, Joran has announced that due to an increase in his workload, he has no time left to spend in order to bring more weekly updates to the XNA Community.

It's sad to hear this news. However, at the same time, after reading his post, it's completely understandable.

But not everything is bad news: "... On the upside, this means I should be able to get back to making tutorials. Although, with the increased workload, I doubt there will be one per week, like during last year ...".

So let's thank Joran for all the efforts he made in order to bring  this invaluable resource week by week and wish him luck in his new "split" of activities.

BLADE3D BETA 1 (BUILD 1543) NOW AVAILABLE

The latest build of this impressive framework is now available for registered beta-1 testers.

From Blade3D's forums: "We are happy to announce the availability of the latest build of Blade3D.

Here is a list of features and improvements for this weeks release. 

• Entirely new multimedia help system with embedded video tutorials
• Integrated web based asset delivery mechanism for textures, models and modules
• Over 400 free textures and more than 70 models ready for delivery
• New menu commands for quick model import, selection and scene insertion
• Improved, more intuitive translation tool
• Ability to define custom bone controllers for animated models
• New animation graphs provide basis for total animation control in future
• Ability to import/export any part of the module to shareable packages
• Many bugs fixed

Registered Beta 1 users should go here to download the latest build

Enjoy!"

So, ... enjoy!

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 ...

GDC UPDATE: "DUNGEON QUEST - DAY 2"

Benjamin Nitschke has posted a brief update for the second day of development of the XNA-Challenge's game "Dungon Quest".

Looking that good, in only two days ...

Thumbs up!

CAPTAIN AMERICA DIES?

Steve Rogers meets his end by a sniper shot as the hero leaves a courthouse. This was announced yesterday and today here, there and everywhere (and of course at Marvel's site).

So it must be true ... :( ... but is this really the end for "Captain America"? We shall see ...

Godspeed in the afterlife Steve!

GDC UPDATE: WE'VE GOT VIDEOS!

As we wait for Andy's and or Benny's updates about their journeys into the GDC's madness, Coding4Fun's Weblog brings a breath of fresh air by directing us to Joystiq's blog.

Joystiq shares a lot of interesting information from GDC, including four posts with exclusive videos of these ongoing XNA Challenges:

• "Dungeon Quest" by Benjamin Nietschke and Cristoph Rienacker,
• "Simian Escape" by Jonathon Stevens and Patrick Glanville,
• "Abdux" by Andre Furtado, and
• "Final Stand" by Josh Butterworth.

Enjoy!