Answer Questions

• Gwiz Visual Studio 2005 Pro and XNA

  For whatever reason, I can't get XNA of any flavor to run with Visual Studio 2005 Professional. (A legal copy, before you ask.) I'm told when I try to install XNA that I need Express Edition. Surely XNA won't lock me out because I have a better program than the required edition Anyone If you uninstall C# Express, what runs Game Studio Express Do you mean "your box will be running XNA in VS without any problems" Jim Perry wrote: I seriously doubt it was C# Express that did this. I've been running both C# Express since the betas and VS2005 Pro on 4 different machine with no problems whatsoever. Well, I compiled the product I was working in the morning and it worked fine. I installed c# express at ...Show All

• prashant_katwate Using windows forms components with XNA?

  Is it possible to use windows forms components with XNA For instance... what if I wanted to add a menu bar to my game I realize that most games have their own interface, but it would still be very useful to have (especially for setting up quick temporary interfaces). Any ideas It is not really possible to directly integrate Window Forms controls and XNA (or Direct3D). Providing a full featured GUI solution is one of our top priorities for the next version. What if I wanted to run windows forms components side by side with xna in the same window So there wouldn't be any overlap, but they would still both be attached to the same window Cant use forms in the XNA wi ...Show All

• Thomas B Winans How to only draw visible meshes? Performance problems.

  Ok, I have a simple mesh loaded that contains 24 faces. I have a loop that draws 144 of these boxes on-screen like so: for (int i = -(mapwidth / 2); i < (mapwidth/2); i++) { for (int j = -(mapheight/2); j < (mapheight/2); j++) { modelPosition = new Vector3((i * 10.0f)+5.0f, 0.0f, (j * 10.0f)); DrawModel(myModel); } } I noticed that if I have only one model in view (the camera is zoomed way in) or I show the entire grid of objects the time elapsed between frames does not change. The time elapsed between frames does change if I increase or decrease the number of objects drawn though. This leads me to believe that the framework is drawing every object whether or not it is visible. ...Show All

• Andreas Asterlund Loading Content After Device Reset

  I'm going through my code to make sure everything properly releases and reloads when the device is destroyed, and I'm finding a problem with one particular case. I have a class that is basically a container for my bullets (textured quads). When the program runs initially everything runs fine, but if I minimize the window and bring it back up, all my models and things reload properly (including a textured model, non-textured model, and grid) except my bullet manager. Is there something tricky about something with the texture I figure the basic effect isn't my problem because my grid uses a basic effect. Here's the content loading code for it: public override void LoadGraphicsContent(bool loadAllContent) { if (loadAllContent) { ...Show All

• larange 1.) Lock/Unlock vs. SetData/GetData and 2.) predefined vertex formats

  Two points spring currently to my mind. Is there any reason besides simplicity not to use the common Lock/Unlock mechanics I would prefer the addition of this to the API. GetData/SetData canthe simply be mapped onto this. I have a large terrain, that I tesselate into the locked buffer directly... With this new scheme I have to build a temporary array and then copy over via SetData, same with textures. On the other hand, if we have to live with this, why do we have the managed pool anymore, kind of pointless! The other thing are the predefined vertex formats... Any reason to not expose the members directly and use setters and getters instead I don't see the point here too, this just forces us to create one intermediate result and copy oper ...Show All

• toadspit Generate random numbers for every class instance

  I'm trying out some AI techniques but I'm having a problem generating a TRULY random number. I create 20 instances of an ant class that should move and change directions on a random basis. They are doing that, but all in unison instead of each changing directions at different times. Its like synchronized ants. Anyone know how to create a truly random number each time the ants use this method Random r = new Random (); if (r.Next(100) < 5) ant.Speed = new Microsoft.Xna.Framework. Vector3 (-ant.Speed.X, ant.Speed.Y, ant.Speed.Z); if (r.Next(500) < 2) ant.Speed = new Microsoft.Xna.Framework. Vector3 (ant.Speed.X, -ant.Speed.Y, ant.Speed.Z); Thanks kindly, George. I don't wa ...Show All

• Six Dream Build Play - partner in crime

  I'm still hard at work on a new game I'm working on, but it's more for fun than anything I would submit for a contest.  But I really want to enter the dream, build, play contest too, I just don't think I'll have the time to do it all on my own. Does anyone out there want to partner up   I'm no programming guru, but I've got a few skillz.  I've been messing with XNA since beta 1, I got one (and a half) xna game(s) under my belt, and I'd say my biggest assets are creativity, thinking outside the box, analytical problem solving, writing, story, plot, characters, and high fives (not necessarily in that order) ...only reply if you plan on winning!  Art is n ...Show All

• donkaiser Blending Multiple RenderTargets to the BackBuffer (Another RT)

  Ok. I am trying to write a SceneManager that contains a list of RenderGroup. Each RenderGroup is responsible for rendering a set of items (models, etc) to a RenderTarget and then rendering their RenderTarget to the BackBuffer (in this case a RenderTarget that SceneManager sets). The Problem: Blending between RenderTargets is not working. I have it working so when a RenderTarget is rendered multiple times with separate passes in the PixelShader it blends in Add mode. Between to RenderTargets, or RenderGroups in this case the blending fails. No matter what order I have the RenderGroups setup, it just won't blend correctly. Here is a picture of what I am trying to do: http://images.jsedlak.org/random/Xna5D_SceneManager.jpg ...Show All

• Cyanide13 XNA with Windows Forms - Game does not stay active

  I programmed my own FormsGraphicsComponent like this: public class FormsGraphicsComponent : IGraphicsDeviceService , IGraphicsDeviceManager , IDisposable {   public FormsGraphicsComponent( Game game, IntPtr renderWindowHandle)   {     ...   }   ... } Then used a standard windows form as a base, placed a Panel on it, that I exposed as a property of the form. Starting with almost a standard game, I modified the main program to this: MainForm form = new MainForm (); using (MyGame game = new MyGame(form.RenderPanel)) {   game.Begin();   form.Game = game;   form.Show();   while (form.Created)   {     Application .DoEvents();  &nb ...Show All

• WineNCheese Different behavior on different computers?

  Hi. I've compiled the latest version of my game, and when I run it on my development computer, everything works as I expect it to. However, when i gave it to my friend to run it, he ran into strange glitches, such as unlimited speed and incorrectly rendered models. I tried it on two different computers of my own, and got a weird combination of glitches for each computer. My question is, is there anything that would be causing these glitches All computers have XNA, DirectX, and .NET2.0 installed, and they all have PS2.0+ graphics cards. My game can be found at http://xnamatrix.com  . Version 0.0.1.8 worked fine on all computers, but for some strange reason, 0.0.1.9 does not work anymore on all computers. Although it seems like it mu ...Show All

• Jonas Beckeman DreamBuildPlay is up!!!

  Now go register!!   Actual contest details to come the week of Feb 5th More missing states... North Dakota, New Jersey, and Vermont are all missing... uphhh....they turned this piece of junk off. M$ please keep pro. Hmm... State location and phone number seem to be USA specific. An oversight, or is the rest of the world excluded ..jeez whoever designed the website should be shot for this oversight Yup, sorry. In fact, it will only allow you to enter if your name is XNA Rockstar. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news guys Plese, Someone at Microsoft.. ...Show All

• grsgrs Game completed and posted online. Have a look...

  I recently developed a 3D game using XNA and have posted the binary and source on www.threesixbox.com . The game's name is Snake and it can be found at http://www.threesixbox.com/project/ id=f580fc1536 I've been developing games since the early 80's but just downloaded XNA last week. During the course of the project I went through several iterations of optimizations and learned quite a bit about XNA.  I know that whenever I'm learning a new development language or library, working examples are very helpful to me.  If nothing else, this project can be used as another source of information for anyone interested in XNA development. Let me know what you think...   Looks really ...Show All

• Krad 3d games 101

  Ok, once one has mastered the art of 2d games, what are the best tutorials out there to jump into the 3d world Honestly I am staying away from 3D until the content pipeline is released. I know I am not the only one that is waiting. I have seen many XNA projects and I think we as a community have not yet mastered the art of 2D games. Not that I'm claiming to have mastered 2d graphics (even though I am pretty freakin awesome at it), but its good to know where the next step in the process is. I think I'll just wait for the next release with the content pipeline. True, the content pipeline is probably worth waiting for, last I heard is that another Beta release ...Show All

• 0xDEAD Accessing the VertexBuffer of a ModelMesh

  I want to load a model from file into XNA and then warp it and then store those vertices back into the model mesh and use that warped version as the final mesh. Is this possible I've seen information on creating a vertex buffer, storing data in it and then using it for rendering, but not information on creating a vertex buffer and storing it into a ModelMesh or even BETTER, taking a ModelMesh's data and modifying it. That's really what I'm looking to do. If I cannot grab the ModelMesh's data and modify it, I at least need to know how to grab the data and copy it into my own vertex buffer and then if there is a way to store it back in, how I could do that. Is it possible to modify the contents of an existing ModelMesh's Ver ...Show All

• SEMuser Proper use of GameComponent? (yet another post about them)

  I've seen a lot of posts regarding proper use of GameComponents. I'd like to get some feedback on how I intend to use a GameComponent for a simple SriteManager. Here is how I intend to architect my Srite Management System 'Sprite' will be a simple custom sprite object. 'SpriteManager' will be a normal c# class that encapsulates all logic for managing Sprites. It will maintain a list of sprites and it will have Add, Remove, and Draw functionality (it will Draw using an ecapsulated SpriteBatch object). 'ISpriteManagerService' will define an interface that is implemented by SpriteManager. Essentially this interface will be a subset of the functionallity contained in SpriteManager and will only expose metho ...Show All