Answer Questions

• Chyna440156 Programs used to make .bmp files and such?

  I was wondering what programs people use to make the .bmp files and other image files for their heightmaps and stuff. Please dont say Adobe Photoshop as one, I have GIMP where that comes in. but any other program names will be very helpful, thanks Its no problem, and while writing in this thread, I was wondering, how do people get the images thay make into the black/white/gray mix Some of the painting programs have filters to convert to grayscale. So, should I make the colors of my picture in RGB format, and then grayscale it BodyPaint 3D is somewhat popular: http://www.maxon.net/pages/products/bod ...Show All

• ss1234 Reading the buttons of Joystick Saitek x52

  Hi all, Did anybody come across a C# sample that relates to Saitek X52 I have found some generic Joystick samples which help me read the buttons EXCEPT the Mode button. The GetButtons() function returns the codes of the pressed buttons, but I cannot get the status of the Mode button out. I just spoke to Saitek support - No .NET samples whatsoever. Any tips will be appreciated. Best Moni. Does the mode button show up on the DirectInput setup wizard in the control panel You can test all the buttons in there. If it does NOT then this means the driver does not expose it and no DirectInput application could read it, managed or native. Did you try the native(C++) version of the progr ...Show All

• mfauziii I found the guy who creates the game XNA Racer.

  http://abi.exdream.com/ It's greate! I think the game will be avaiable on Dec 11th with the release of new XNA framework.. And he is writing a new xna book " Professional XNA Game programming". In his blog ,he told us he just flied to Seattle to debug his game on Xbox 360 for Microsoft. I didn't know he was lost. I believe the Amazon.com page for the book (and another) was given out already (maybe that was another site though, I lose track sometimes ). ...Show All

• Kea Camera Mouse-Look Algorithm

  Hi, I'm writing a camera class and have gotten just about everything laid out. But for some reason, when doing the Mouse Look method (basic first person shooter look around), I get completely screwed results. The camera never seems to properly orient itself and something is very wrong. I've checked my algorithm a dozen times and I can't figure out what's wrong. If anyone can tell me, I'd appreciate it. Here are my MouseLook and Orthonormalize methods: public static void MouseLook(float x, float y) { // Rotation speed is always 0.001f and I've also substituted the Object's 'Up' and 'Right' Matrix xRot = Matrix.CreateFromAxisAngle(Vector3.Up, x * rotationSpeed); Matrix yRot = Matrix.CreateFromAxisAngle(V ...Show All

• Gurpreet Singh Sawhney Reformulated Discontent

  ok sorry, i calmed down a bit. hope that last post gets yanked, actually. in case they do, i'm starting a new and less emotional thread. i hope i wasn't the only one who went through some significant frustrations when just about everything went boom on that first re-compile...here's a more articulate (i hope) expression of my discontent. i understand that things need to change if it's going to be done right. however, there were many things missing that were good (i.e. WindowsGame_Starting/Exiting overridables) that are now gone. in addition, some changes were outright arbitrary. adding the full-screen feature is a good example of what you *want* to do in a second beta -- though it is a basic enough feature that i personall ...Show All

• dragoncells Video/Animation Playback

  Hi, I'm currently writing a library (for XNA/DirectX) for animation/soundless video playback, and I have a few design questions for the pros out there if you don't mind answering them : I'm having my animation class inherit from game component, and update the frame depending on game time in the overriden Update method, and render it in the overidden Draw method, but even when I preload my textures to render, playback is choppy. Not sure exactly why, but I notice this only when I have significant number of frames (I noticed it with 100 frames, but *not* with 10/15). This problem may be linked and solved by the 2nd point, so please read on. When I preload all the textures for the frames in the animation (and the no. of frames ...Show All

• Tom D Locking vertex and index buffer while rendering

  Let me see if I got this one right. I have a vague memory of reading that if I have a vertexbuffer and lock it with the discard flag, then I can get a buffer to write into while the gfx card is still rendering the previous buffer that I locked. Is this correct Will I need to do this in two threads then As far as I know, the drawPrimitives call is blocking so it does not return before rendering is done. What I would like to do is to render with a vertex buffer and an index buffer while I am showeling vertices into a vertex buffer and an index buffer that I locked. That way I can double my speed, assuming that the showleing and rendering takes the same amount of time. Thomas Greenleaf wrote: Will I ...Show All

• stiflersmom100 Collisions for user controlled sprites

  I've looked at every post I could find for sprite collision but all of them seem to assume a sprite with a given velocity (already in motion) I have written the code to display two sprites. They are controlled by two different sets of keys on the keyboard (awsd, arrows) They finally rotate and move along their vectors like I want them to (that took two days for me to figure out, lol), but I can't figure out how to keep them from going off the screen and going through eachother. All of the examples that reverse direction on collision are useless to me as my sprites move a set number of pixels per keystroke (or held key per update loop). I need help figuring out how to tell them that they cannot rotate or move in a direction wher ...Show All

• Leon Mayne No components in toolbox in beta 2

  Searching previous threads I can't find an answer that werks. I have no components in mah toolbox. when I try to insert... I get the error message saying that installed sdk assemblies could not be shown because I am missing one or more components: The Microsoft.DirectX.dll. I have directX 9c installed. I am hoping it is not an issue with amd64 winXP sp2 I keep uninstalling. opening c# express and reinstalling with no luck. Nvidia 7800 gtx with newest drivers Thanks neogir Counting down the days to release like Santa waz coming This feature does not included in Beta2.  But in one of the next releas ...Show All

• Kyle_W Displaying textured 3D objects

  Hi there, I've been working my way through the tutorials at http://xna101.spaces.live.com/ , and I am stuck on lesson 16, the first 3D tutorial. The download of die.x didn't work, so I whipped up my own little 3D cube in Blender and applied a simple 64x64 pixel texture to it and saved it in DirectX format as cube.x. I was able to add it to my Project fine, but when I try to compile the program, it has all sorts of trouble understanding any texture I put on the thing. It will say the texture file is not found in the debug/bin directory; or it will give me other error messages about the structure of the texture file. I tried saving the cube as cube.3ds and cube.x3d and whatnot, and none of that worked. (Indeed, the Project didn't even rec ...Show All

• XNA Rockstar GameComponent.Draw()... why?

  I'm a bit confused about the GameComponent class, and its intended use. It would seem that it would be perfect for inheriting particular subsystems. InputComponent, NetworkComponent, etc... but you wouldn't want to draw any subsystem. So what was the logic behind having a Draw method for GameComponent Did the cart come before the horse, so to speak, with the GraphicsComponent How exactly is GameComponent meant to be used I thought I'd get it straight from the horse's mouth... and I have no idea what's with all the horses in this post. (My suggestions are in third post, if anyone cares). The concern (which is a bit dramatic... it's more of a suggestion) is a design issue. If GameComponents are to be reu ...Show All

• kevin delafield Problem with linker file libci.lib ...?

  Hi, ...   ...   ...   I'm using the Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition with Visual C++ and DirectX 10, 9 and 8 ... I get this kind of linker error from the compiler as below...   1>------ Build started: Project: Chapter 9_Project, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------ 1>Linking... 1>LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'libci.lib' 1>Build log was saved at "file://c:\Documents and Settings\Ly Heu\My Documents\C++ Codes\Chapter 9_Project\Chapter 9_Project\Debug\BuildLog.htm" 1>Chapter 9_Project - 1 error(s), 0 warning(s) ========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========   _________Seems the Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition ...Show All

• Tzal World to screen conversion.

  Hi. Something weird when trying to covert world to screen coordinates. Vector3 res = Vector3.Transform(worldPoint, Camera.View * Projection); I get the result vector with values greater than 1. Aren't the values post projection supposed to be clamped Both the view and projection matrices are valid (and are used to display on screen). Cheers Hi thanks for the replys, turns out it was working perfectly, however a bug in where i drew the overlayed textures on the screen caused the incorrect positioning. Cheers Steve googling for that will totally turn you away from 3D drawing. if you have a 4D, or homogeneous, point, you simply need to divide the first 3 coordinates by the 4th coor ...Show All

• Simon McMahon Rotating model, with multiple parts

  Hi all, One of the persons on my team has designed a model, that has more than one part. When we try to rotate the model in XNA, it rotates every piece. If there anyway to choose to rotate the whole model, instead of the piece Don't quote me on this, but I think you can grab the root bone and apply the transform to that. It should do what you are asking for. Verification anyone Use Model.Root.Transform to set the rotation and translation matrices. Here's a hack that will probably work: Tell your artist to set the all the pivot points for the model as one location. Then, all the pieces will only rotate around that pivot point, not ...Show All

• Ruhina Upcoming Starter Kits

  From yesterday's webcast (where was everyone ), it was mentioned that a puzzle starter kit would be included in the RTM version and that the XNA Racer starter kit would come with the Creator's Club membership. I didn't get a chance to confirm this. Is this the case Also, are there any plans for other starter kits down the road I don't have an Xbox 360.  I'd love to have one but its not in the budget.  Without one, the Creator's Club seems kinda pointless to me.  Plus, I imagine there are plenty of people who only care about Windows Development.  Me and many others will just be left out in the cold.  I just don't see the point not making all starter kits freely available.  Its certainly not going to mak ...Show All