HLSL Shaders(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 3 years, 4 months ago

Koen Samyn, lecturer interactive programming at the University College of West Flanders (curriculum Digital Arts and Entertainment) wrote an excellent KNOL (a unit of knowledge) on HLSL Shaders. You can find the article here: http://knol.google.com/k/samyn-koen/-/2lijysgth48w1/2# Extract: What is a shader ? A shader ( or effect) is a program that is executed on the GPU (Graphical Processing Unit). The GPU is located on the graphics card off course and the GPU contains many cores that can execute a shader program concurrently. This allows the GPU to have high throughput (number of triangles that can be processed per second). If for example a GPU has 4 available cores (run of the mill GPU have much more then that) each code transform the vertices of 4 triangles simultaneously. There are several shader API’s and languages that are targeted to curent GPU’s : … read more...

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XNA games coming to the Zune, Xbox Live Arcade(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 3 months ago

This morning at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Microsoft announced the next step in its Xbox Live and XNA initiative: the Zune will become the third pillar supporting XNA software, with over 1,000 games ready for the device by year end. XNA software developed for the Xbox Live Arcade is now going to be opened to the public. Microsoft showed off an XNA game running on a Zune during a keynote speech presented by vice president John Schappert. A top-scrolling space shooter was shown running on a PC, an Xbox 360, and, lastly, a Zune. In addition, Zune games will be multiplayer: users will be able to play against each other online. Games for the platform will be arriving this year alongside the launch of Xbox Live Community Games. The new XNA-oriented service, Xbox Live Community Games, allows select user-created software to be distributed through Xbox Live, effectively opening user-created games to the masses. Titles will be selected through a democratized game distribution system pulling on the Creator’s Club user base. Members will be able to screen and vote on games, with those reaching a certain level of approval cleared and released to the public. A handful of these games are now available as trials on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Creator’s Club members are paying subscribers who have access to the XNA development platform. Much like the gamercard, a “creator card” will show what games specific creators have built. XNA is a suite of development software which Microsoft introduced in 2006. The suite allows developers to create projects that can easily be translated between the support platforms. Previously only the PC and the Xbox 360 were supported, but the Zune represents Microsoft’s first significant step into the mobile gaming market. read more...

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Xbox LIVE Community Games(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 3 months ago

Xbox LIVE Community Games The XNA team is delighted to announce the Xbox LIVE community games, scheduled for launch in the holiday 2008 season, with a beta coming in spring 2008. This offering gives the opportunity to share, peer review, download and play games created by the community, for the community. Read the FAQ for more details, or discuss in the special forum thread. FAQ Link Forum Thread Discussion Link read more...

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XNA_BUG : February 2008 XNA Contest(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 3 months ago

The XNA Belgian User Group organizes the February 2008 XNA Contest This contest is open for developers and designers, working on XNA Games. The development and demo can be done on a PC platform or XBOX 360. The participants can form teams of 2 people working together. Participants have to be 16 years old at the days of the finals, but not older than 36 years (born between February 23, 1972 and February 23, 1992) AND live in Belgium. The contest is based on a ’starter kit’, consisting of a ‘nearly finished’ game, build on top of XNA. The purpose of the contest is to extend this starter kit in the best and most creative way. The starter kit will be made available from February 1 on http://www.xnabug.net/starterkits.htm Submissions will be judged on creativity, innovation and ‘playability’ of the demo. To judge the submissions, participating teams need to: - Enroll for the contest by mailing an enrollment form to [BRECHT at XNABUG dot NET]. The enrollment form is available here. The enrollment form has to be received by February 18 midnight. - Prepare 2 ‘posters’ explaining the submission. The posters have to be printed on A3 paper size. These posters will be used during round one on during the finals, February 23. Based on the posters and questions and answers, the jury will select the teams which will present and demo their submission. - Prepare a presentation/demo of 10 minutes and 5 minutes of questions and answers. This demo and presentation will be done February 23 in front of the jury and the audience. It will be executed on the equipment of the participating team. The facility to project on a large screen will be provided by the organization. Judging criteria: The submissions, posters and presentations/demo’s will be judged by a multidisciplinary team of gaming specialists., active in training, development, design and press. The judging criteria will be: |innovation|, |creativity| and |play, demo|. What can you win: The winning team will receive an XBOX 360 elite for every participant (up to 2). Every team presenting / demo during the finals will receive an XNA Creators Club account and more. The finals will take place in the auditoria of Groep T, Campus Vesalius, Vesaliusstraat 13, 3000 Leuven (INFO). For more information: http://www.xnabug.net http://www.microsoft.com/xna read more...

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Few Seats Left for XNA Game Studio Event in Belgium on 29 November(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 6 months ago

Only a few seats are left for the XNA Game Studio event on 29 November in Utopolis, Mechelen. Register here. And thanks to Walter and Tom, I can share some more details about the event below. Are you interested in learning how to build great video games for either Microsoft® Windows® or the Xbox 360™ console? Would you like to be one of the first to see the all new version of Microsoft XNA Game Studio before it releases later this year? Want to discover just how easy it is to build a game with XNA Game Studio in just 60 minutes and get to grips with the XNA Framework and the disciplines of games development? Then the XNA Game Studio European Tour 2007 is a not to be missed event, visiting seven different countries and bringing together top speakers from the Microsoft XNA product group in the US, local Microsoft speakers as well as experts from the games industry. Microsoft XNA Game Studio is the revolutionary tool that makes it easy to develop video games for Windows and Xbox 360. So whether you’re an experienced games developer or a total newbie, sign up for the XNA Game Studio European Tour to build the games of your dreams. Agenda * Welcome * Keynote: The Ongoing Democratization of Game Development, Dave Mitchell, Microsoft Corp (US) * Games Industry Overview, Tommy Boffin & Hector Fernandez BGin & Streamline Studios * Diving in to XNA Games Studio 2.0, XNA Framework and the disciplines of game development, Dave Mitchell, Microsoft Corp (US) * Putting XNA to the test: Building a game in 60 minutes, Charles Cox, MS Corp (US) * Closing & Wrap Up, Luc Van de Velde, Director DPE, Microsoft Belgium & Luxembourg Keynote: The Ongoing Democratization of Game Development, Dave Mitchell, Director, Microsoft XNA, Microsoft Corporation Join Dave Mitchell from the Microsoft XNA organization as he shares Microsoft’s plans to democratize game development beyond the initial XNA Game Studio Express offering. As the video game industry is reaching a critical juncture in its growth as a mainstream entertainment form, consumers are becoming an increasingly important partner in the creation of innovative, fun gameplay experiences which compliment commercially released titles. This keynote will share the next instalment of the XNA vision to further democratize game development by the community. Diving in to XNA Game Studio 2.0 and the XNA Framework, Dave Mitchell, Director, & Charles Cox, Developer Educator, Microsoft XNA, Microsoft Corporation XN read more...

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Now Available: XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Beta)(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 6 months ago

Now Available: XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Beta) from the XNA Team Blog has the announcement. The XNA team is pleased to announce the Beta release of XNA Game Studio 2.0! This Beta release is your chance to try out the new features available in XNA Game Studio 2.0, including support for Visual Studio 2005, multiplayer support over System Link and LIVE, and many more features and enhancements, many suggested by you, the community members. If you’re an existing XNA Game Studio Express user, you won’t have to worry about uninstalling anything – XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Beta) lives comfortably side-by-side with XNA Game Studio Express. Just follow the link below to find out what’s new in XNA Game Studio 2.0 and download the Beta, as well as updated sample content you can use with the Beta right away. There’s even a multiplayer-enabled starter kit you can use to familiarize yourself with multiplayer programming in the XNA Framework. XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Beta) supports multiplayer gaming over Games for Windows - LIVE. If you are planning on making multiplayer games on Windows that make use of any Games for Windows - LIVE features, you will need an Xbox LIVE Gamertag that has an active XNA Creators Club membership, and a special token. To receive your token, send a message to xnacgp@microsoft.com with the subject “Beta Key Request”. Note that you must send this message from the same e-mail address that is associated with an Xbox LIVE Gamertag that has an active XNA Creators Club membership. (Note it may take up to a few days to receive your code in email) If you’re not an XNA Creators Club member, you can use the System Link functionality or program against the multiplayer API’s without a code. Please keep in mind that the timeframe between this release and our final release will be very short, in fact we’ve already had a chance to fix some of the larger issues that you may run into during the beta. That said, if you do run into issues I would encourage you to file them through our Microsoft Connect site at: http://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=226 XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Beta) Download Page Thank you for your interest in XNA Game Studio 2.0, and we hope you enjoy the Beta! read more...

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Your way, Your play, XNA: Modify a 2D Game in 10 minutes(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 6 months ago

Your way, Your play, XNA: Modify a 2D Game in 10 minutes is a video based learning on Springboard. The Video: Your Way, Your Play, XNA: Modify a 2D Game in 10 minutes is an introduction to Gaming: Modify your first 2D Game using XNA Games Studio Express. It walks you through some of the key gaming concepts and then add in Collision Detection and Score Keeping to the game. Resources: * Original 2D Project * XNA Creators Club * XNA Team Blog * TorqueX (Drag & Drop Game Components) read more...

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Getting started with XNA - First Person Camera(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 9 months ago

What’s a game or an interactive presentation without a way to move around? So in this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make a first person camera. As usual, this tutorial will work on the code of the previous one, available for download here. Let’s start with some basic concepts: yaw, pitch and roll. Yaw is when you move your head from right to left or left to right. Pitch is when you move your head up and down, and roll is when you roll your head from one shoulder to another. The illustration below shall shed some more light... read more...

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Getting Started With XNA - Animating a 3D Model(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 10 months ago

In the previous tutorial, we’ve loaded and displayed a 3d model. But can you think of a game with static 3d models? No, it’s time we start animating our model. Most of the time, a 3d artist will handle the animations, and you’ll just load it and play it. But animations aren’t supported out of the box in XNA. There is a demo on creators club which allows you to load skinned animations, and there is a project on codeplex, called the XNA Animation Component Library, which allows you to load skinned and unskinned animations, with multiple meshes, and so on. But in this tutorial, we’ll animate our model from code. We’ll do a tutorial on the XNA Animation Component Library later. read more...

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Mapscript And XNA(brechtkets.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 10 months ago

There’s a series of articles on Spatial Horizons about Mapscript and XNA. Mapserver is a map-rendering program mainly used for web mapping applications. It can also be used for desktop applications via it’s Mapscript API. In our previous Mapserver and Mapscript posts, we used a sample dataset of Canada that can be downloaded here. Since it is freely available and easy to use, we will continue to use it in this project. We will cover making your own datasets for Mapserver in a future post. Here are the links to the articles: * Mapscript and XNA (1) * Mapscript and XNA (2) read more...

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Mapscript And XNA(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 10 months ago

There’s a series of articles on Spatial Horizons about Mapscript and XNA. Mapserver is a map-rendering program mainly used for web mapping applications. It can also be used for desktop applications via it’s Mapscript API. In our previous Mapserver and Mapscript posts, we used a sample dataset of Canada that can be downloaded here. Since it is freely available and easy to use, we will continue to use it in this project. We will cover making your own datasets for Mapserver in a future post. Here are the links to the articles: * Mapscript and XNA (1) * Mapscript and XNA (2) read more...

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Another New Round of Content On creators.xna.com(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 10 months ago

Another New Round of Content On creators.xna.com Michael Klucher Program Manager – XNA Community Game Platform We have another great round of content available for you on http://creators.xna.com for the month of June, including an all new mini game and more. Here is a full list of what’s new this month: Mini Game: * Pickture Pickture The goal in Pickture is to slide the puzzle chips until the picture is complete. However, there is a twist: on the more difficult settings, the board is two sided and puzzle chips can be flipped! Tutorials: * Authoring Particle Systems Using XML and the Content Pipeline This tutorial teaches you how to extend the Particle 3D Sample so the particle systems are defined using XML files loaded with the Content Pipeline. * Collision Series 3: 2D Collision with Transformed Objects This article details how to perform per-pixel collision detection on sprites with linear transformations such as rotation or scale. Samples: * Chasing and Evading Featuring a cat, a mouse, and a tank, this sample demonstrates how to implement several simple behaviors for AI, including chasing, evading, and wandering. * Non-Realistic Rendering This sample shows how to implement stylized, non-photorealistic rendering techniques, such as cartoon shading, edge detection, and a pencil sketch effect. NonPhotorealistic * Picking with Triangle-Accuracy This sample extends the Picking sample with a more accurate picking algorithm, which tests against individual triangles that make up a mesh. * Shader Series 3: Per-Pixel Lighting This sample shows how to use a pixel shader to perform per-pixel lighting with specular highlights that shift depending on the viewer’s orientation. Enjoy the new content! If you have any feedback make sure to leave it for us on the forums (http://forums.xna.com) or this blog entry. We’ll see you over at http://creators.xna.com Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/archive/2007/06/28/another-new-round-of-content-on-creators-xna-com.aspx read more...

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XNA Terrain Editor(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 11 months ago

Eric Grossinger released an XNA Terrain Editor. Functions: Create or modify heightmaps and color distribution maps. Rise, lower, flatten or smooth the terrain. Generate a random terrain. Paint textures on your terrain. Day-Night lighting cycle. Import/Export heightmaps and colormaps Save/Load Terrain xml files and more.. You can download it here. read more...

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The Physics in Games - Real-Time Simulation Explained(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 11 months ago

Check out this great talk at http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=314874. Ever find yourself wondering about the math behind your favorite simulation game? Did you know that the motion physics of a car are much more complicated than the those of an airplane? Brian Beckman, physicist, programmer and Channel 9 celebrity sure does. Besides spending time innovating programming languages and tools, Brian spends time working on the mathematics behind real-time physics simulation. Most recently, he worked on the math behind the tire physics of the popular racing game Forza. Simulation, by definition, needs to be accurate. Otherwise, well, it’s not simulating reality, really, which is of course the idea of simulation. Games like Forza in fact simulate real physics of racing in a predictable and highly mathematically precise manner. That’s exactly why Forza is a real-time automobile racing simulation game. The past, present and future of computer simulation of real-time physical events, or simply computer-based simulations that involve highly accurate representations of things moving/changing in space and time that are precisely affected by multiple variables like wind, rain, gravity, mud, oil, planets, waves, etc are very fascinating topics for gamers(many may not realize this explicitly, but they sure experience it!), mathematicians, programmers and physicists alike. Heck, any body who thinks about the thinking behind things that they experience in a simulated environment should watch/listen to this interview (available in podcast form as well as video). Towards the end of this conversation, Brian mentions Rigs of Rods and Plasma Pong. Check out the Rigs of Rods simulation demo at 00:58:11! Thanks for the link Walter! read more...

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Getting started with XNA - Drawing a 3D Model(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 11 months ago

In the previous tutorials, we’ve learned how to draw primitives and 2D textures. It’s time we step up to drawing a 3D model. To start with this tutorial you’ll need the following source code. It’s just an empty project containing our heads up display. Our 3D model is also located in the content folder. When you click on the forklift.fbx file, notice that it uses the Autodesk FBX - XNA Framework importer and Model - XNA Framework processor. Forklift.fbx is a 3d model which has been exported from 3D Studio Max. You can find screenshots of the model and the export below. ForkliftForklift WireframeForkliftForklift WireframeForklift Export So let’s get started! Add a class to your project and call it Forklift.cs. Then adjust the class so it inherits from DrawableGameComponent. This makes sure that our LoadGraphicsContent, Update and Draw method will be called automatically. When you’re writing a full game, you’ll probably write your own component based system, but for this tutorial, DrawableGameComponent will do just fine. public class Forklift : DrawableGameComponent Then we’ll add 3 variables to our class. The first containing the content manager, which will load our content. The second a variable which will contain our model, and last but not least, a variable which will contain the bone transforms of our model (the transform of each bone relative to the parent bone). // A variable containing our content manager private ContentManager _content; // Our model private Model _model; // Array holding all the bone transform matrices for the entire model. // We could just allocate this locally inside the Draw method, but it // is more efficient to reuse a single array, as this avoids creating // unnecessary garbage. Matrix[] _boneTransforms; Then add the following constructor, where we’ll pass the Game class to the base class and save a reference to our content manager: public Forklift(Game game, ContentManager content) : base(game) { _content = content; } Now there are 2 things we have to do left: load the model and draw it. We’ll load the model in the LoadGraphicsContent method. protected override void LoadGraphicsContent(bool loadAllContent) { _model = _content.Load(”Content/forklift”); // Allocate the transform matrix array. _boneTransforms = new Matrix[_model.Bones.Count]; //rotate the model 90 degrees _model.Root.Transform *= Matrix.CreateRotationY(MathHelper.ToRadians(90)); base.LoadGraphicsContent(loadAllContent); read more...

2 comments |category: C# |Views: 322

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XNA GSE and Xbox 360’s added to Assembly 07(3dgameprogramming.net)

submitted by brechtkets(235) 4 years, 11 months ago

Dave Mitchell Director | XNA XNA Game Studio Express and the Demo Scene? That’s right. We’ve partnered with the Assembly 07 conference organizers who are including Xbox 360s and XNA Game Studio Express for the first time in their demos and game development competition! A number of top Demo teams are hard at work developing their first Xbox 360 demos ever and we look forward to them being shared later this year at the Assembly Summer 07 conference. To find out more on the Demo Scene, Assembly and even the links to a few blogs from the participating Demo teams, head on over to Assembly’s site and check it out. Source: XNA Team Blog. read more...

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