Answer Questions

• DCMonkey Integrating Joystick

  Hello, I am fairly new to the .NET platform and currently using VB.NET to read joystick input. I am using DirectX 8 and following a reference I found on MSDN. However, this piece of code is generating a run time. EventHandle = inp_device.CreateEvent( Me ) EventHandle of type long, inp_device is of type DxVBLibA.DirectX8. The exception generated reads as follows: Cannot cast windowsApplication1.joystick_controller to a DirectXEvent8 object. I would appreciate any direction in this matter. Thank you, Nath Sir, using DirectX8 was the option as there was documentation avaliable. If you can guide me in another direction while still being able to use VB.NET, I would appreciate it. And I was using Dir ...Show All

• KDiv Update() Running too many times before drawing new frame

  I'm having a slight issue with timing animations...I'm using the IsFixedTimeStep = true to limit the frame drawing to 4 times per second, but its running the Update() method 2 times before each frame draw, meaning I'm only getting frames 1 and 2 of the animation and never 0 and 3...help please protected override void OnStarting() { base .OnStarting(); LoadResources(); graphics.DeviceReset += new EventHandler (graphics_DeviceReset); // Call Update 4 times per second IsFixedTimeStep = true ; TargetElapsedTime = new TimeSpan (2500000); } void graphics_DeviceReset( object sender, EventArgs e) { throw new Exception ( "The method or operation is not implemented." ); } ...Show All

• Abelard Need Info On The Basics

  OK, Ive read a large part of this forum and HAVE recieved alot of answers. With that said, over the past few days Ive been burshing up on my old C++ skills and plan to start learning C# here in the next week. My plan is to do this as a Hobby (Mainly cause Im an electrician with a family) so ive set some really long goals. Im not expecting to pump out a 3d game in a year. Ive been very interested in writing code for years now and have been a lover of Game design ever since Missle Command came out in the Arcade (Just Dated Myself). Since Ive taken this up, a Tattoo Artist buddy of mine has become interested inthe graphic end of the whole thing. So in short, what would be a great 3D design software for a begineer (with years of drawing expert ...Show All

• hellomahesh XNA Framework in Vista

  Will XNA Framework ships with Windows Vista Ship with: no. Work with: yes! ...Show All

• Frank J DeFalco Where is the download?

  It is 12:48 pm here (GMT + 1)... in Nuku'alofa (GMT + 13) it is tomorrow... So where the hell is my download link :-D IIRC, Beta 1 of Game Studio Express is coming out tomorrow (Aug 30th)...you're about 19-ish hours too early ;) I imagine when they said the 30th, they probably meant some time during business hours... Then move there and check the Internet. damn, where did I leave that time machine... It's 4:57 PM here in Adelaide, Australia.. I've been waiting since 2:00 PM for the download and it's still not out! It's just about 12:30 AM, my guess is you'll still have to wait several more hours, probably at le ...Show All

• Mikael Håkansson Best way to make a map with mouseover highlight.

  OK, maybe I'm going about this in the wrong way.  I'll explain what I want and let the people that know everything tell me what way they feel is best to pursue.   I'm generating a flat map of terrain, some ocean, etc.  I need to be able to determine where the mouse is over the map.  Both for instant feedback and for double-clicking to edit that map tile.   I currently highlight the tile using an alpha-blended red square.  This could change but I need a way to highlight the mouse position over the map.   I also need to zoom in and out to make reading the map easier.   What's the best way to this   I'm open to doing any research I just need a starting point (for a ...Show All

• LouArnold Write your own SpriteBatch 101 (long:code included)

  People keep asking "why doesn't SpriteBatch do X ". I keep saying "write your own". Well I decided to just write one for you, so people can see how it's done. The SpriteBatch class I wrote performs about 50% faster than the XNA SpriteBatch when all Draw calls are using the same texture. (Best case scenario, but you SHOULD put all your sprites in one or few textures for performance anyways.) On my card, I get about 188 fps with 1000 sprites with MySpriteBatch, and about 124 fps with 1000 Sprites using xna SpriteBatch. MySpriteBatch also supports, or could easily support: Using your own effect file. (2 parameters, viewProjection, and diffuseTexture) Using 3d vertices if you want. (just add the Draw method for it) World, View, Projectio ...Show All

• JulianRidley Depth?

  I'm a bit confused about the whole depth buffer/stencil/z buffer thing. Does anyone have any resources that explain these concepts and/or how to use them Currently, I'm sorting my objects manually, and then rendering from back to front. Is this the optimal solution, or can the GPU/API do this for me I'm working in 3D, if that helps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-buffering is a good overview. Rendering back to front is necessary if you have transparency so that further layers aren't obstructed by nearer ones. In this case though you can draw the nontransparent objects in any order - the transparent ones are the only ones that need to be sorted and drawn last. If you have a lot of overdraw, such as when you're in a first perso ...Show All

• Scott Leathers DrawableGameComponent - Need to create Texture on fly!

  I have created and drawable component but need to recreate a texture (2d sprite) on the fly from a bitmap using Texture2D.FromFile. To do this i need to access the Graphics Device. The graphics device (this.GraphicsDevice) exposed from the base class (DrawableGameComponent.GraphicsDevice) returns a null reference in both the Update and Draw (override) methods. Help Still not sure why its happening but found a way round it by creating the following helper function. private GraphicsDevice ParentGraphicsDevice { get { IGraphicsDeviceService graphicsservice = (IGraphicsDeviceService)Game.Services.GetService(typeof(IGraphicsDeviceService)); return graphicsservice.Graphic ...Show All

• battlex how to copy the data to depth buffer

  Hi, i am just a beginner, so please help me Actually, I try to copy the values in one ordinary texture to the depth buffer, how could I write the data into the depth buffer I see the usage of texture has one type "D3DUSAGE_DEPTHSTENCIL", but I don't know how to use it. I really appreciate if you could give me any suggestions. Thanks! For pixel shader usage, you can output the z coordinate of the vertex in the vertex shader and have the pixel shader interpolator (any of the texcoord registers) interpolate this value across the rasterized triangles. You can then access this value in your pixel shader... You usually fill your depth buffer by rendering primitives that cover the re ...Show All

• imanish11111 Shooting

  What code could u use for something to shoot. would this event work: if(GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.one).Buttons.A == ButtonState.pressed) shoot = true; if(Shoot = True) { bullet.X = Player.X; bullet.Y = Player.Y; buller.Y += bulletSpeed; shoot = false; } could u show me exactly what u mean by static constant or enumerated type. also du u have to render the bullet texture in the loadgraphics method and yes i have intitiad my player class whenever i hit A to fire, it doesn't draw my bullet to the screen and says Sytem.NullRefence to  bull = new bullet(position, new Vector2(0, bull.bulletSpeed));            ...Show All

• canuck81 Loading and rendering .swm files

  Does anyone have any code for loading an .swm file and rendering it on screen I'm just trying to get one of the space ships to work for now, I've copied the swm file, and the following classes from Spacewar: AssetCache MeshCache SimpleMesh SimpleMeshRenderer and then I'm calling this OnStart: meshes = new MeshCache ( this ); meshRenderer = meshes[ @"D:\\player.swm" ]; and in my Draw() method, I'm doing: meshRenderer.Render(); However nothing appears :( I can move the camera around, so I don't think it's appearing in the wrong place, I just don't think it's being loaded at all. I'm trying to keep the amount of code for this to a minimum, since it'll all be replaced, which is why I just copied all the above ...Show All

• Womble-- Starting work on my GUI system

  Well, I've hit a wall with my game's development, and since there was no GUI with XNA 1.0, I've decided to go ahead and make my own GUI system. I implemented a lot of mechanics for my game, but I need greater interaction to proceed development in a sane manner. So far I've just implemented the text drawing stuff from scratch. It uses only monospace fonts generated with BMFontGenerator without using the generated .xml file. It's decidedly minimal to use only monospace fonts, but keep in mind two things - 1) my particular game doesn't require anything more robust than monospace fonts and 2) a game's engine should be designed around the game's specifc requirements. Otherwise you're scope creepin. I remind myself constantly not to let cool ...Show All

• MarcGBeauchamp New Analogy for Materials?

  I'm starting to screw with lighting in XNA and I'm hitting a brick wall trying to get my mind out of the fixed-function paradigm (which seems even worse for me since I've yet to stumble across an OpenGL->XNA FAQ, the best I've found is some MDX->XNA). My latest problem has to do with finding a new metaphor for materials. The 3D tutorials aren't helpful in this department, and I've been unable to find any information on the forums. The migration guide ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/xna/migration/ ) says that Materials are gone; how does one define the lighting traits of a mesh now Let's say, for example, that I want to take the cube demo (where each face is a different color) and have each surface wi ...Show All

• TRACEYMS question about ATI 3D Rage pro

  Is my ATI 3D Rage pro graphics card fully compatible with XNA or do I need to upgrade, and if I upgrade which ATI card will work the best with XNA If you are looking for a shader 2.0 card, I think you should go for 9600 and up. However, I don't think you can get that in PCI. Your best chance for a PS 2_0 card is a Geforce FX5500 PCI. The only ATI card that I could get ahold of in my area was an ATI Radeon 9250 PCI will that card work with XNA Unfortunately the ATI Rage Pro is a little bit dated for XNA. If you want to buy a new card you should check first the graphics slots of your motherboard. ...Show All