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xna
XNA Things
Oct 3rd
For some reason my blog appears high in the list of XNA blogs on particular topics.
One of the searches I get is step by step XNA, as I was bitching about the lack of docs from MS, probably a little harshly considering its a beta alpha.
There are plenty of resources out there most notably the Starter project, but for those unfamiliar with studio and c# that too can be daunting.
One good starting point for step by step is the XNA Book that LearnXNA has on its site. This is quite good. Its a shame its stopped at chapter four but then XNA is kinda stopped at chapter four till the next release comes out.
Take a good look round that site its pretty good. There is also XNASpot
Also my delicious links have some handy resources there and I will add to this as I find good stuff.
However there are many blogs out there “lets kill dave” being one I check up on a lot, worth reading, one for content and two for a jump off point.
So hope that helps anyone interested in XNA finding a better place to be than here. Until I get more involved of course.
XNA Physics API
Sep 15th
Can’t speak for it but I found the link on the forum and thought I’d publish it, just to raise its profile a little more.
Project is here
SWM To X Converter and Mesh Loader
Sep 8th
Haven’t tried these yet but as the family are away this weekend I will be trying them out, but if you want to beat me to it here they are.
tags: XNA+Programming, game+development
XNA Trouble
Sep 6th
So I did my 2d now I’m trying to knock together a 3d. I understand now that a mesh is essentially a pre-created bunch of triangles that save you coding things.
So first things first then. Lets create a mesh file.
Can’t – Need tools.
Ok so Maya do a free to learn version, oh damn it plasters text over everything.Ah found some free things, blender, an opensource 3d creator tool
Lets create a model then.
Can’t need talent.
Lets find a free one.
Great, hmm what’s this 3ds format, lwo format
Lets load it
Cant DirectX needs .x format
Convert it
Blender can export, great.
Lets Load it
Cant XNA only reads sml files all .x format capabilities, the original and most common are not in this release.
So convert that then
No tools to convert this yet, some hombrew version thats explodes but in XNA, nowt.
Sod it I’m gonna watch CSI instead.
XNA First Play
Sep 6th
Yesterday I finally managed to sit down, install and try the XNA framework. After some initial struggle, more to do with my hardware than anything else its on.
I read the read me and decide to start with appropriately a starter kit. Wow, that’s a lot of code but it is a working game, not a very good one, but it works. I had a look through and what struck me was the content folder and how many different types of file there was, from the TGA textures files and backdrops and sprite files, to the unknown SWM mesh format. From this I concluded I have a hell of a lot to learn about 3d programming.
So I started with a blank project instead. Whilst it’s nice to have a bells and whistles project to reference there is no substitute to starting from scratch. Within minutes I had me a bouncy ball sprite program that ran very smoothly in next to no code very easy to understand. This is the “Your first XNA program” in the help files so its no wonder the web is filling up with new versions of pong. I haven’t gone as far as creating pong, it will More >
XNA Continued
Aug 15th
There is a definate buzz about yesterdays XNA annoucement. However the downloads (well the beta 2) version is not released but today (UK time) there is more information on the XNA site complete with forums. Still no depth to exactly how the xbox 360 stuff is going to work but at least a little more. So this is the last about it from me, well until I actually try some things, for those interested keep an eys onthe XNA team blog and the newly revamped XNA site. Tom Miller XNA Team Blog XNA Developer Center
tags: XNA, Game+Development
XNA Announcement
Aug 14th
Having quite a few friends in the Games industry in Core, Gusto, Climax, Rare I keep an eye on things as once I looked into moving into this area but it did not pay enough for the hours worked, especially as I would have been moving from a lead role in business web development to general tool lackey in games. Even now I see the effort that my friends are “subjected” to and I really don’t want it. But that doesn’t mean that games writing does not still interest me, last year I bought the managed DirectX programming book. But down to the details. MS are announcing some cool things for the hobbyist in games, the ability to write your own, with managed DirectX you always could have a go but the XNA tool-set makes this easier, but the really cool bit here is to be able to write for Xbox 360, now that really grabs my attention. The Xbox stuff is not announced or released fully yet but keep an eye out for this imminently See Here http://blogs.msdn.com/tmiller/archive/2006/08/13/699131.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/default.aspx
tags: microsoft, games+development, xna, directx