Answer Questions

• Gravy Rendering based on distance and subsets

  Hi, Im trying to find out two things about rendering based on distance. As i understand it the best way to render a scene is draw the objects closeset to the camera last and the same with the objects subsets. 1) Is the best way to check the distance of a subset from the camera to send a ray from the cameras position to the subsets position and use the intersect information for the distance 2) Is the best way to render the scene to build the list of objects inside the view frustum, sort based on distance and then render. Thanks for any help, -Dave A ray will be too expensive as you need only sort by the Z/depth distance. A sorting based on the “real” distance between the eye point and the objec ...Show All

• John Padilla XNA shader parameters from 3d studio

  Hi! I'm currently using 3D Studio Max to create scenes, then export them into .x file format and then import with a standard content pipeline. What I miss is that after the content pipeline processes my scenes I can't find the shader's parameter values I've set up in 3D Studio Max. Is there a way to overcome this problem Any help appreciated, Pawel Jarzebski Well I'm not a user of 3D Studio Max and so I'm not familiar with exactly what is supported by its X file exporter, but once you get a Model imported into an XNA project, and assuming each ModelMeshPart within your Model has a valid Effect (FX file) associated with it, you can access the HLSL global parameters of the effect (which is what I ...Show All

• dhall241 GameComponents?

  Does the GraphicsComponent really need to be added to GameComponents Does the update really need to be called What does it do Thanks. -Nick For a must see demonstration of the GameComponents class, watch this video: http://xnateam.members.winisp.net/Videos/gamecomponentsdemo.wmv The update for the components is called every 16.66 milliseconds by default from the game class.  This is intended, I think, to give components a way to time-sync and allow for them to easily interact.  In the video you will see how the XNA framework, by way of an interface (well, a class), makes interaction between different game modules powerful and "universal." The GraphicsComponent does need to be adde ...Show All

• perun minimum requirements

  Hey im new to this forum and i was wondering what will the minimum system requirements be. My computer's a bit out dated and I'm thinking about updating soon but not until after Vista is realesed most likely. From the FAQ: Q: Will the XNA Framework require D3D9 hardware A: A Direct3D 9.0 card, capable of supporting Shader Model 1.1, is the minimum. The recommended level is a card that supports Shader Model 2.0, since most samples and starter kits will require a Shader Model 2.0-compliant card. If you don't have a good enough card, chances are the rest of your hardware is outdated as well. There are three levels in the requirements of the graphics for XNA Game Studio Express. But maybe you ...Show All

• tee_user5 MDX or XNA i don't understand which to use!

  I first started MDX programming about a year ago, to create a simple 3D viewer app, after creating the app, I stopped and didn't touch mdx at all since then so i have forgotten quite a bit of it. Anyway I was suprised to find that mdx seems to be phased out and this new XNA thingy is replacing it. Is XNA just for games on xbox360 I am not interested in xbox360 or games programming, only programming 3D visualisation apps for windows pcs. I don't know if I should still learn MDX or learn XNA, i don't want to learn something and just have it phased out again... Any advice would be appreciated. ='( My app isn't very complicated, but native DirectX and C++ is not something i'm too keen on using for what will ...Show All

• nicromi Problems with DirectDraw

  I have a game with fullscreen DirectDraw and the drawing loop works fine most of the time. However a few minutes after I start the game (after it has already been drawing things to the screen for a while, including text), it usually gives me a CannotCreateContextDevice excpetion when I try to call backbuffer.DrawText. I'm using Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition and the last released DirectDraw version. In my catch statement, I try to call primary.RestoreSurfaces (primary being the surface for the screen) in order to close the game down since an error occured and I get an UnsupportedException. I know that both primary and backbuffer are not equal to Nothing (I thought they might be if the surfaces were lost or something) and that primary.Te ...Show All

• Altabear 3D picking - possible solution?

  I was pondering, and something occured to me. Let's say I have a 3D model. Now lets say I want to enable 3D picking for that 3D model. That is to say, I want the mouse to be able to change its properties / response when it is over the 3D object, or clicking while over the 3D object. I assume that one way to solve this would be to create a ray that originates from an equivalent point in front of the camera, and passes along a Vector3 through the scene. I could then test the ray to see if it colides with any 3D objects (or their bounding boxes) and return values for that particular object. But it also occured to me that this method for picking would be a huge pain in the neck, and would probably end up being far more costly in terms of pr ...Show All

• Cerem Beyazıt Could C# be the future of gaming?

  Since XNA is using C#, and is is a more intuitive language than C++, is it possible that in the future that C# will dominate, espessially in AAA titles. Could XNA be ushering a new way of programming in the main stream I think the 20% performance decrease is an extreme. I think you'll be looking at under 10% in the vast majority of cases, probably just a couple of % points. I think most developers wouldn't even worry about it unless they're working on next-gen stuff. QuantumMischief wrote: Since XNA is using C#, and is is a more intuitive language than C++, is it possible that in the future that C# will dominate, espessially in AAA titles. Could XNA be ushering a new way of programming in the main stream I t ...Show All

• mikecuth Game and GameComponent Feedback

  We've been combing the forums and the Connect database for bugs, feedback and suggestions around the application model. We still have a small amount of time to consider any other feedback you may have. So this is the thread that you post your latest likes or dislikes with Game, GameComponent, services, etc. Please scan the other threads before posting here, I'd like to just gather things that haven't already been discussed or reported elsewhere. Thanks! Let us take the example from ASP - Asp.Net, before were not used components, now that exist components that application of the real world does not use them Matute wrote: Let us take the example from ASP - Asp.Net, before were not used components, now that exist ...Show All

• Adithi Tell us about your website or game!

  As part of our effort to reach out to the XNA community, we would like to create a special community page on the XNA Developer Center that links to YOUR site or game. Here's what you need to do, send me (David Weller) an email (click on my name link to the left of this post for the email address) telling me: 1) Your name 2) Your contact email 3) Your website or game 4) (Optionally) If you send me a link to your game, please let us know if you give Microsoft permission to use your game as part of any press-related activities we might do (i.e., incorporate a screenshot/video of your game, etc.). Please don't reply to this post with links to your site/game, I need the information emailed to me. Thanks! By website.. ...Show All

• PublicError Racing Game Tutorial

  Hi. A little time is past since the beta of XNA is been released. So, can someone write me a little 3D or 2D racing game tutorial Please! I think that all of us want to know how to build a racing game with XNA don't you One way to start is to think of a top down game like the old style lemans car game from the atari system.... Then look at scrolling background examples and moving sprites... That should get you started.. So try to ask a more specific question. What is it in moving from arkanoid to a racing game do you not get Is it moving in 3d - is it the physics - the collisions - reflection maps on the cars Start with a 2d racing game like super sprint (you can evern use 3d models in 2d like we did in space ...Show All

• hazz CreateDevice Failed.

  So I have just recently started into DirectX native programming, and I had my application running without error; but I changed something within the code and now I am having a crash when trying to run the application though no compiler error on compile. Comming to forums have been my last resort, but I can not for the life of me figure out why or what I can do to fix this crash. Below is a link to the related code and the output from the debugger. Any help would be greatly appriciated, thank you in advanced for any insight given. Related files: http://www.dev.zetahost.net/public/D3DError.txt It might be that a certain D3D object creation call is failing and your code is not checking for that, and you're j ...Show All

• Pauly C I need to create a mesh from scratch

  Hi Xnacers: I need to create a mesh the from scratch, not load a predefined mesh from an x file using the content manager. I have looked into the ModelMesh and I see that it has Vertex and Index buffers but there is no constructor defined. Is there a way to create a mesh without loading it from a file The code (MDX 2.0) I need to port to Xna is the following. I want to know if this is posible. The steps I used to create a in MDX 2.0 mesh where: //1)we create the mesh mesh = new Mesh (this.device , solidPrimitiveIndexList.Count , solidVertexList.Count , MeshFlags.IndexBufferManaged , PositionNormalTextured.Format); //2) set the vertex buffers using (Graphi ...Show All

• Yousef ED Duplicate DLLs when building application (C#)

  Trying to bulid the following code with C# 2005 Express Edition, i'm taking the next error message: CODE using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Data; using System.Drawing; using System.Text; using System.Windows.Forms; using Microsoft.DirectX; using Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3D; namespace DXTriangle { public partial class Form1 : Form { public Form1() { InitializeComponent(); } private Device device = null ; public void InitializeGraphics() { PresentParameters presentParams = new PresentParameters (); presentParams.IsWindowed = true ; presentParams.SwapEffect = SwapEffect ...Show All

• shax Draw Texture2D in 3D space

  I'm fairly new to XNA and I've hit quite a simple problem that I'm not sure how to fix. I'm wanting to create a simple Asteroids style game with 3D models to teach myself XNA. I have the 3D model loaded correctly and I'm using an orthographic camera so that it looks like a 2D game. Anyway, the problem is, I'm wanting my 3D model to fire bullets. Now, I've been an OpenGL programmer for quite a while and this is an extremely simple thing to do in OpenGL. Either by drawing GL_POINTS or creating a GL_QUAD and texturing it, effectively using it as a billboard. I have an image I want to use for the bullets and have loaded it into a Texture2D but I have no idea how implement this in my game in a 3D scene. The only way I can think of doing it is t ...Show All