Answer Questions

• Jake52 By the numbers - why so big?

  My content, using JPG's, is roughly 14.4 MB. However, the XNB version is roughly 515 MB. About 38 times bigger than the original. Is this normal What steps do I need to take to reduce the size of this I'm just begining with my development but if I can't augment this behavior of the Framework I'll have to serverly strip down my game. Maybe, I'll have to replace Content<T> altogether ( ) I've noticed the same thing. I had a 2.5 MB JPG turn into a 24.5 MB XNB plus a 2nd ~0.XNB which was 4 MB. I guess Microsoft considers JPG files to be evil. The original BMP files totaled 355 MB. Hence, why I went to JPG. Even that is 200 MB less. I would say the typical size for a &quo ...Show All

• Jeremy Grand DirectX Questions... Problems with .lib and ddraw.h

  Hi, ... ... ... I use the Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, Visual C++ 2005... I've done some Windows programming and been using the GDI to make some graphics so far, it works well... But can anybody tell me how to Clear the screen after using the GDIs to draw some polygons... You see, the screen then becomes full of polygons, and that's what was wanted, but then, finally, how about Clearing the Screen completely and then start to draw some other, say, triangles instead... So, What is the exact Command to Clear that Window that the polygons were drawn in... ... ... ... OK, Now, here's the problems... I've finally started to get into Direct3D and DirectX... So, I've read and Understood all the materials about how to creat ...Show All

• Prakhar XNA Framework for Tool programming.

  I would like to use XNA Framework for tool programming but as far as I know XNA Studio does not contain System.Windows.Forms namespace. Is it possible to use XNA framework with Visual Studio 2005 If not then how can I use XNA for tool programming without WinForm Are you forgetting tool programmers While that's true, you may find that we're not enabling a scenario that you may run into when writing your tools. My suggestion would be to give the beta a try and see if you find any limiting factors send us some feedback here. For our first release we are mainly focused on users being able to create games based on the framework but are interested in supporting using XNA for other appli ...Show All

• Jamie Thomson telling the difference between xbox 360 and pc

  Is there a way for your game to detect what environment it's running in (eg 360 or windows) There are some environment specific issues I want to play with. I guess this is a little premature since we can't compile/export to the 360 yet. Thanks for the answer. Another question. How do you create different build configs in Visual Studio Do I just make custom MAKEFILEs I apologize for my ignorance. I'm new to C# and visual studio. mpipe wrote: Thanks for the answer. Another question. How do you create different build configs in Visual Studio Do I just make custom MAKEFILEs I apologize for my ignorance. I'm new to C# and visual studio. My last post in this thread shows how to turn on build configurations in C# Exp ...Show All

• Tarh ik Will we be able to shared compiled versions of XNA apps?

  Ok, so before someone flames on me. I searched the forums and what not for a long time, before I posted this. I only saw threads about actually selling the homebrew games and I'm not interested in that. What I want to know: Is there plans in future releases to share only compiled versions or some sort of package I mean if I spend my heart in soul making a game that I think others will will enjoy for the love of the community. It doesn't seem fair that everyone gets my source. So are there plans for just sharing complied versions of some kind If so, whats an approximate time frame Thanks, Nick Here is a workaround -- it's not pretty, though. Create your XBOX 360 game pro ...Show All

• Dan H UW Networking Code Information

  Is there a description on the network code(xBox Live) support I need to give some estimates on how long a room based chat would take to implement, but I haven't been able to find information about networking support in the XNA dev kit. Is there an API to handle this, or do we have to develop this from scratch TIA, Scott There is no network support on the 360 at this time. On the PC you're free to use whatever networking model and code you want. ...Show All

• Learning VB My first attempts with XNA

  I downloaded XNA on its release and have been playing around with a few things. Its my first time using C# and I really like it. I have a very small amount of C and C++ knowledge but it has been easy to pick up C#. I have made the usual Pong, Space Invaders etc. There are two things Id like to share with you 1. Zombie sim http://gorgon2357.50webs.com/zombiesim.rar Its not really a game just a simulator. To add a zombie press Z, an army guy press A and for a civilian press C. (starting amounts of zombs, civils and army can be changed in the code. Also you can add buildings(grey rectangles), just look in the loadresources part. Not quite got it right yet with them. The people can get stuck. Started a bit using ray ...Show All

• Franco Finstad Xbox 360 Official Dev Kit vs. "the XNA thing"

  Here goes, The official dev kits intergrate within Visual Studio and compile on PC and send the executable to the machine and launch it via remote debugging. This also allows for breakpoints, steping thru code, etc. Will this new XNA subscription and Game Studio Express be similar to this idea I'm dreading things like relying on Windows support and burning it to a CD to play it on the 360. (For example) From what I have heard in sessions that I have been in at Gamefest is the Express remote debugging will have breakpoints, stepping thru code, watches, and traces back to the PC. I am looking forward to the full release of this tool because it will speed up prototyping. Hopefully some of the slides from ...Show All

• ejn76 XNA performance

  In the past i learned c++ cause its faster as managed code for games and stuff. Now we are about to start a pretty large game project. This project will be an multiplayer first person shooter (swat kinda game, like Swat4 of sierra, Raven Shield of UbiSoft, ...). Cause high performance is a big requirement on this project we want to know if XNA framework (using XNA studio express) is the best (or good) sollution for this. Writing this game in c++ will be a long, long, long way, maybe XNA can shorten this development process, only we want to be sure about the performance. Passing structs by reference is far worse than passing by value, because the CLR does boxing behind the scenes. It does not ac ...Show All

• dmb13 Resizing the game window with code

  I've tried to reset the window with code: this .graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height = 800; this .graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width = 800; or the same without the this keyword. But I keep getting an error that says "Cannot modify the return value of Microsoft.XNA.Framework.Graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport" because it is not a variable". I have no clue what is going on, and the help doesn't help. Don't forget you ahve to apply the changes you made to the buffer sizes. this.graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth = 800; this.graphics.PreferredBackBufferHeight = 640; this.graphics.ApplyChanges(); The error you are seeing is related to ...Show All

• ksunnithan commercial or not?

  Reading the new FAQ, I found this: Q: What’s the difference between XNA Game Studio Express and XNA Game Studio Professional A: XNA Game Studio Express and XNA Game Studio Pro are related products targeting non-professional game developers and established professionals respectively. Both products integrate with Microsoft Visual Studio. XNA Game Studio Express is intended for the hobbyist/small development group and therefore designed to help create non-commercial games. XNA Game Studio Professional will include additional functionality needed by professional game developers wishing to create commercial, signed titles. Does that mean that we are not allowed to sell stuff we created with XNA GSE I can remember that, a week ago, the ...Show All

• Yachtsman Crash when rendering billboard

  Hi I am trying to port beta 1 to beta 2 code. I have this crash in the rendering. Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong //Load effect myCompiledEffect = Effect.CompileEffectFromFile("content\\shaders\\bb_shader.fx", null, null, CompilerOptions.Debug | CompilerOptions.SkipOptimization, TargetPlatform.Windows); myEffect = new Effect(Game1.graphics.GraphicsDevice, myCompiledEffect.GetEffectCode(), CompilerOptions.SkipOptimization, null); public override void render() { myEffect.Parameters["WorldViewProj"].SetValue(myTransformNode.getTransform() * myScene.myView * myScene.myProj); myEffect.Parameters["WorldViewMat"].SetValue(myTransformNode.getTransform() * myScene.myView); myEffect.Para ...Show All

• James_AGENCY.COM New 2D Xmas Themed Game

  I have written my first ever XNA game, it is a Christmas themed 2D game. It is called Elves Revenge, and screenshots and gameplay demo are available at http://www.errolian.com Full details of the game and the downloads (game, plus source code) are at http://www.errolian.com/2006/11/22/3d-buzz-xmas-game-coding-contest-elves-revenge/ Hi Errolian - I downloaded and played your game. It's great! I really liked it a lot and had a lot of fun playing it. A couple of things that would be nice: 1. Being able to control the Santa with the left joystick control. I realize that the character cannot move diagonally but to me it would be easier to move using the stick. Not sure how hard that would be. I am jus ...Show All

• chaza Quake XNA update

  Since the XNA 1.0 release I have been quite busy at first trying to run stuff on my XBOX360 and then doing the jump to a fully working port of Quake (best deathmatch ever!) So after 3 week of hard part time work on this I can now see something that look not too bad =) The lightmaps still have issues but I'm quite happy of the result so far. Before starting I had a good knowledge of C# but I my C/C++ skill are still far behind but enough to understand what the Quake code was about in most case. This is my first 3d engine ever but in RL I'm an animation TD for a major game publisher, meaning that I do understand quite well what I had to do and how to do it. So far I'm having a really good time using this and I don't have much to complain abo ...Show All

• Jubber XNA Toolbox

  in the first XNA CTP was a XNA toolbox with a kind of workflow symbols (integrated in vs 2005 ) is this feature still there Totally different package. GSE is a stripped down tool. From the FAQ: Q: What’s the difference between XNA Game Studio Express, XNA Game Studio Pro and XNA Studio A: XNA Game Studio Express and XNA Game Studio Pro are related products targeting non-professional game developers and established professionals respectively. Both products integrate with Microsoft Visual Studio. XNA Game Studio Express is intended for the hobbyist/small development group and therefore designed to help create non-commercial games. XNA Game Studio Pro will include additional functionalit ...Show All