Sam's Xna Blog

MOGRE

2008-01-24T23:06:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been some time since I have posted here and the main reason is going back to school. But one thing I have discovered is a little C# Game programming thing called. MOGRE .
Mogre is a .Net graphics engine. Based on OGRE, the name is for Managed-Ogre. I found this very cool and promising. Besides have amazing graphics capabilities it is as easy as XNA if not easier. It also comes with extra add-ons like physics etc. Since Also I am an Windows only xna developer this seems very promising. This may end up replacing my primary platform for Game Development instead of XNA. But most likely the two will probably be put together to work on projects. If anybody has any experience with MOGRE please do comment and let me know your opinion.

P.S. As far as the plane game goes I'm thinking that may (As in this is not official) be put to death. Simply because I'm busy.

Audio Tutorial

2008-01-05T12:51:00.000-04:00

When dealing with audio in XNA, Xact can be very frustrating so I've decided to write up a VERY short audio tutorial for Windows only. It can handle any audio file that Windows Media Player (WMP) can handle. Such file types are WMA, WAV, MP3, AVI, MIDI, AU, AIFF, and ASF. Why Windows Media Player you may be asking. Well that is what we will be using to play our audio files. I chose this because most people have it installed and it supports quite a few file types. And the best part is it takes only two lines of code to initialize. And one to play the file.

First start a new XNA project and go over to your left on the solution explorer and open up the references tab. Then right click the reference tab and click add reference. Then click and the COM tab. Scroll down to the bottom and click on Windows Media Player. Then press OK. On the right under the references tab you should see WMPLib. Then under the Content Folder add a new one to hold audio files. Mine will simply be called "Audio". Then right click that folder and click Add Existing Item. Then find whatever audio file that fits one of the formats above. I chose an mp3 called Mortal Combat Techno theme. (Odd I know but it makes pumping background music in a game.) Next click on it and go to the properties window. ( View Properties Window) Then change build action to None, and copy to output directory as copy if newer.

Now for the coding. That first section set up the project now to make it happen. Add the following line of code right above the game1 method.

//Our class refferal
WMPLib.WindowsMediaPlayerClass Sound_Player;

Now in the initialize method add these lines of code.

//create an instance of the class
Sound_Player = new WMPLib.WindowsMediaPlayerClass();
//Play the File Make sure to replace the URL with whatever your file is
Sound_Player.IWMPPlayer_URL = "Content/Audio/Mortal Combat Techno Theme.mp3";

And that is it if you did everything correctly your audio file should be playing. Also Inside the WindowsMediaPlayerClass you will find MANY more advanced options for audio. And as always Happy Coding!

Happy New Years

2008-01-01T11:04:00.000-04:00

Well first post I've made here in a while simply because the Holidays are a very busy time. Nevertheless the plane game is still on hold because I think I've realized that I just didn't know enough about XNA... yet. I've been taking tutorials... but I still don't know when I will have a version uploaded. Oh Well. And as always Happy Coding!

No News...

2007-12-22T21:24:00.000-04:00

Still really no news... But just a quick update on the game. I'm currently implementing the terrain system and It's coming along quite nicely! Anyways I'm still planning on having the first update avaible on Monday.

Well Today...

2007-12-18T21:19:00.000-04:00

As I said before today was mainly finals and studying for tomorrows finals. But there is some good news, I got to work on the game for at least a little bit... Still hoping for a sample release on Monday, But we will have to see. I've also decided that once it is over I will be giving some quick ideas on how to implement flight in XNA. Then I also remembered I will absolutely need Joystick support.

Finals... Ughhh

2007-12-17T09:37:00.000-04:00

Well this week is finals week at school so it will be very slow here. But after that my mind will be free to wander through my game... (It's a joke OK? I'm not that obsessed) Anyways As of right now you can just fly the plane around a blank 3d world with no terrain or anything. So before I have a sample uploaded I want the following.

A terrain (Just a Basic one)
A propeller (Spinning, maybe not motion blur in the 1st release though)
Physics (I've already read about 20 pages on aircraft physics and how to put them in games so I'm feeling confident here)
Simple AI (At least one that follows you and shoots. Even though the final one will be much better.)
Basic Bullets (Ones that hit the plane and then it and the enemy plane disappear.)

Well I think that will be about it for version 0.1 In future releases I want the whole thing. Exploding planes, motion, decent graphics. How long that will be I have no idea. version 0.1 though I'd say 3-4 days past finals. (So about a week or a little bit more.) And as always happy coding!

Plane Game

2007-12-15T23:26:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'm definitly going to work on some sort of dogfight plane game. The image on the left is my first render. There is no propeller yet and the plane can't even fly. But this is still what I will be working on. In the end I'm hoping for some sort of absolutely chaos 100 planes on the screen at once.. etc. Graphics are meant to be fairly good, yet not mind blowing. This game will be windows only as of I don't own an Xbox 360! This week is finals so I went get much done. But over the winter holiday a lot should happen. cheers! Happy Coding!

Note: This game is not meant to be compared to sharky's air legends. The 2 aren't even comparable. I'm going at a totally different style of gameplay.

Writing Tutorial

2007-12-12T22:48:00.000-04:00

I think I am going to write a full fledged tutorial on making a game. It will cover sound, AI, graphics, game state etc. What I'm thinking right now is a shooter with hover crafts. Not sure if the view will be 1st or 3rd person but I will see soon. I probably will not be writing it until Winter Break though because of school. Oh well happy Coding!

Tutorials

2007-12-11T17:26:00.000-04:00

No one forget the many tutorials out there for xna. like riemers and blue rose games can be found by googling. Then the doc's that come with xan gse are absolutely amazing. These cover topics like networking, sound, shadows, 3d programming and much more. Then take a look at the tutorials online. Another great resource for finding out how to do things is by looking at samples, starter kits, and even other games. Game Dev .net also can provide a good insight on many generally game programming things.

First Post!

2007-12-10T23:12:00.000-04:00

This will be my first post here on my blog! I will try to keep it conformed to xna, c# etc. But I may also wander. LOL. Anyways I hope you all will be hearing from me soon!