Which measurement system?

XNA Game Studio Express

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    - Installing DirectX wizards DirectX has little integration into Visual Studio any more. Shader Debugging is now done in PIX and the project wiaxrd is reaplce by the 'empty project' template in the sample browser. So the answer is that there are no wizards but there are otehr ways to do the same thing. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
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    - hello... and please give me a GUI Did you put your request in Connect Also check out some of the xna tutorials (use google!) - several people are working on this sort of thing Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 3
    - problems creating a triangle strip for a terrain section Just for some knowledge: in DrawIndexedPrimitives you specify the number of primitives to render. As you are telling the API you will render a TriangleStrip, it knows how to deal with the vertices passed through. i.e. If you are rendering "Lines", you specify the number of lines (for example 2) with the array of vertices (for example 4, two for each line). But you tell the function numberOfPrimitives = 2. The API expects 4 vertices as is expecting "Lines". In TriangleStrip is nearly the same. Knowing that, your problem is: I guess you cannot express that kind of geometry arrangement with a single triangleStrip. In triangleStrips, each triangle shares two vertices with the previous one and that’s not your case. I mean, in triStrips, the first triangle is rendered with the first 3 vertices, and after that, each new triangle is rendered with the last 2 vertices of the previous tri, and a new one. You will have to think of another way of arranging your geometry. Dont even think in triangle fans, as they won’t work either (in a fan, all the triangles share one vertex). I’m afraid you will have to store every vertices and indices separately (with no vertex sharing). Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 4
    - Model Exporting From Maya (.fbx) I wouldn't really agree that FBX is flakey: we've been testing the latest exporters from many packages with generally very good success. What code are you using to render the model From your description it sounds like you might not be setting the World matrices correctly, so your rendering is ignoring the local transform matrices from the model bones data. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 5
    - Has anyone thought of making XNA screen savers? I'm more interested in doing games with XNA than screensavers, but that's just me. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
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    - Advice on number of DrawableGameComponent While 100-200 components seems reasonable, I'm don't think having your game "actor" implemented as a component is the right level of detail. An actor manager, that allows you to add/remove actors, query, etc. that would then Update and Draw all of the children would probably be a better, and more scaleable, solution. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
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    - Need assistant in volume texture Well, it obviously loops through the three dimensions of the box (w, v, u). Each dimension is divided in 16 parts (0..15), and it fills each part up with the color calculated in the variables r,g,b. To know what shows that color, let’s examine how it’s calculated: 1.- First, the du, dv, dw seem to be differential values (basing on their name). It’s courious the 7.5f value. If you look at it, it’s easy to discover that it’s the half of the biggest index that u,v,w will have (15). 2.- All of du,dv,dw are calculated in the same way. Let’s see what’s the result for du with some possible values of "u": u = 0 --> du = ( 0 - 7.5f) / 7.5f = -1 u = 7.5 --> du = 0 u = 15 --> du = 1 3.- It’s easy to see that the du,dv,dw show the distance from the current u, v, w to the box’s center (normalized to the range -1 .. 1). 4.- So, once we got the du, dv, dw values, knowing that they represent the distance to the center, fScale is calculated with the formulae Sqrt( du * du + dv * dv + dw * dw). That’s exactly the Vector Length formulae. What I don’t know is why it divides that by Sqrt (1f) (which will be always 1). I don’t think that’s important. So, fScale is the length of the vector composed with (du, dv, dw). In other words, it express with a single number (instead of a vector ) how far from the center of the box is the point (u,v,w). 5.- Because of the way fScale is calculated, it must be always positive (the length ecuation). After that, we see that it inverts the fScale value, truncating it to the range 0..1 too. So now it shows the inverse of the distance to the center (it’s bigger as it’s closer to the center). 6.- At last, a r,g,b color is calculated. Firstly composing each color’s component (r,g,b) based on the inverted distance of point 5, and later composing the final color as an integer, with a typical composition of RGB colors, just like the one used in System.Drawing.Color.ToArgb(). Conclusion: This algorithm fills up the Volume Texture with 16 samples in each dimension. Each one gets a higher color as it gets closer to the center of the box. In other words, it’s a gradient that fades out as it get’s closer to the edges of the box. Regards ! Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 8
    - Animation sample? Our skinning sample is on its way through the release process, but I can't predict exactly how long this will take, sorry. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 9
    - Generating an assembly error with the mscorlib when building sln Just guessing but it sounds like your project's references are mixed up. You could edit the .csproj in a text file and see if you can see what is wrong (you might have two references to mscorlib). Another option is to create a new project and then add all your source and content files into it, so that you have a fresh set of references. Cheers, Leaf. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 10
    - Reading the buttons of Joystick Saitek x52 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. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 11
    - C# - Managed DirectX - Secondary Monitor For debugging, it's handy to have the 2nd adapter so that it doesn't loose focus with the attached window. I have a handy bit of code that changes the render method depending on whether I'm debugging or not. But remember, you should always handle the DeviceLostException appropriately so that the application does not crash when in a production environment. #if DEBUG // Run in while loop mode (better for debugging). using ( Game game = new Game ()) { while (!game.Exit) { game.Render(); } } #else // Run in invalidate/paint mode (more efficient). Application.Run(new Game()); #endif Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 12
    - Getting adapter format BEFORE device creation? I don't think you can do it with XNA if you want to do it before the GraphicsDevice is created, but you can use the .NET Framework. Put the necessary code in a separate file and just don't include it for the 360 version. Screen [] screens = System.Windows.Forms. Screen .AllScreens; int UpperBound = screens.GetUpperBound(0); for ( int Index = 0; Index <= UpperBound; Index++) { Console .WriteLine( "Device Name: " + screens[Index].DeviceName); Console .WriteLine( "Type: " + screens[Index].GetType().ToString()); Console .WriteLine( "Working Area: " + screens[Index].WorkingArea.ToString()); Console .WriteLine( "Primary Screen: " + screens[Index].Primary.ToString()); } Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 13
    - XML usage on 360 Have you tried it on the 360 Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 14
    - loading textures "in game" You can load a texture at any time during the game. If you're using the content manager it would be content.Load<Texture2D>(AssetName); and that can be anywhere in the code if you wish. If you want to do it simply from a file(PC only), it would be Texture2D myTexture = Texture2D.FromFile(FileName); also can be put anywhere in the code. on this one, make sure you get rid of it when you don't need it anymore. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 15
    - Managed DirectX vs Native DirectX performance Managed DX is basically a wrapper for the DX API. If you're not getting performance near that of native C++ and DirectX your code probably needs to be tweaked, especially if it's simple 2D stuff. Managed DirectX 2.0 is not going to be released. XNA is basically the next version of Managed DirectX. There's a ton of differences, you might want to look at the FAQ . Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 16
    - Export Games Well, they'll need to have previously installed the XNA runtime drivers, the .NET Framework 2.0 runtime drivers, not to mention DirectX 9c drivers. That's more than 25 megabytes of software. If you're posting your game online, your best bet is to tell people where they can download those things easily. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
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  - 1
    - best way to do 2d parallax floor sprite Orthogonal projection means that an object rendered 50 units away from the camera will look exactly the same an object 500 units away, at exactly the same size. Perspective will render objects in the distance smaller than objects in the foreground. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
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    - HLSL's tex2Dlod (Vertex Shader texture fetch) difference between PC and XBOX360? Handkor wrote: So color does not work on PC and Vector4 does not work on the 360, does anyone have more information on why this is and what does the 360 support I agree that this would be pretty handy stuff to have documented. To add to this question, I think there should be a listing of the differences between the xbox and pc shader model support. see this post where Shawn Hargreaves says: " XNA supports all the DX9 shader models on Windows (1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 2.0, 3.0). On Xbox it supports shader model 2.0, plus an extended Xbox-customised variant of 3.0. " Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
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    - Managed DirectX Sprites: Is it possible to light them? It should work. Have you try rendering something else but sprites in order to see if lighting is working with the exact same code Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
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    - Debug a XB360 project on PC? Yes, you can debug a game running on your 360 from your PC. Stick a breakpoint somewhere and press start the app. I believe you can edit and continue, but I haven't tried it. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
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    - Drawing order of primitives The default xna coordinate system is right handed, so Z values ARE increasing when heading towards you. Btw- why aren't you just using a fog type of effect for the smoke Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
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    - File Data structure design There are a couple of ways of doing this, you may want to think about what you want your file format to achieve. Do you always read the entire fire in a single shot, or would you like to be able to randomly access any one of the resource file at any time Do you care about speed Do you want to exchange the file between different platforms Lots of fun choices and lots of different way to approach this, for example: - take a look at something like the iff format (or gif/jpg/zip..etc). You can keep the size info as part of per resource header. Since you know the how big your data content is, you don't need a separator. - if you want separator, either pick something that will not appear in your data (maybe 0xDEADBEEF ). Or you will have to "escape" your data, like how you can use '/' in your strings. But this usually means you have to look at the bytes to figure out if you hit a separator - You can keep your data in something like an XML format. You can uuencode your binary data into a string and keep it in a text file. Btw, if you keep your data in binary and want to share between Windows/Xbox (maybe other platforms down the road), you have to be aware of endianness . Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
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    - Applying Texture to Mesh You can only apply a texture if the mesh has texture coordinates. If it doesn't then you need to clone the mesh and add some coordinates. This is not something that is obvious as usually its done by the artist that makes the mesh. Check out the tutorials in the DirectX SDK. They show adding the banana texture to a cylinder. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 8
    - Multiple sprite batches? It's better, if possible to use one sprite batch. The amount of sprite batch start and end calls will be one of the biggest performance impacts in your 2D game. The next big performance tip is to use as few Texture2Ds as possible, and if you have multiple sprites coming from the same Texture2D, draw all those sprites in sequence then move on to your next texture since each time you switch the texture you are drawing from there is significant overhead. Ideally you would have all of your sprite graphics in a single texture, but at least limit it if possible. Bill Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 9
    - Tiling a texture? Making a texture stretch the entire terrain is a good start, all you would need to do now is scale the texture coords in the shader. here is an example of how to do this: sampler2D Base; float4x4 matViewProjection : ViewProjection; struct VS_INPUT { float4 Position : POSITION0; float2 Texcoord : TEXCOORD0; }; struct VS_OUTPUT { float4 Position : POSITION0; float2 Texcoord : TEXCOORD0; float2 Texcoord1 : TEXCOORD1; }; VS_OUTPUT vs_main( VS_INPUT Input ) { VS_OUTPUT Output; Output.Position = mul( Input.Position, matViewProjection ); Output.Texcoord = Input.Texcoord; Output.Texcoord1 = Input.Texcoord; Output.Texcoord1.xy *= 2; return( Output ); } The input texture coordinates using the semantic TEXCOORD0 is copied to another set of texture coords with the semantic TEXCOORD1 and then multiplied on the line Output.Texcoord1.xy *= 2; this would tile the texture twice if used in the pixel shader when sampling the texture. You also need to change the texture states addressu and addressv to wrap. hope that helps. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 10
    - Bug Report (Is this related to Direct3D 10, if not you've got the wrong forum) All of the core components for *running* a DX application should be installed into system areas thus the directory for the SDK is irrelevant. However the headers and binaries for *building* DX applications is dependent on the SDK, but provided the files are visible (your removable disk is connected) then it shouldn't matter where the project files are. I routinely create projects on different physical disks - removable or not - and don't have the problems you describe. hth Jack Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
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    - Mouse wheel not responding This is a known bug - we'll hopefully get it fixed in the next version. In the meantime a possible workaround is after your menu is activated, set the Mouse.WindowHandle property to null, and then back to the handle of your game window. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 12
    - Unable to connect to Xbox 360 console using Connection Keys? I've not seen that particualr issue before, hopefully one of the XNA guys can help you - or maybe its fixed in the soon (no I don't know when) to be released update. If you want a refund you need to call xbox support for your country - yes annoying, but I don't make the rules. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 13
    - XNA : Absolute Beginner I am going to move the thread to the XNA GSE Groups, there you will be able to find heaps of information that will help you get started. Also if you do a quick search for XNA Pong you will find that a lot of people have completed their own version. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 14
    - XNA in Internet Explorer? Neither XNA nor DirectX are enabled to work in IE. There are significant security issues running a DirectX application (which has direct hardware access) from inside an Internet browser. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 15
    - Loading a Model from a List<> problem? Assuming you have the properties for ModelName, ModelPosition, etc. in your Model class, you could change your list to be a List<Model> (or whichever type you use). Since DrawModel wants a model object, and you are passing in a float, you get the error. Also, how is the ModelName a float Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.
  - 16
    - Got a Feature Suggestion for the Next Version of the XNA Framework? I just want to be able to write audio bytes to some buffer in the AudioEngine. Tag: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system? Game Technologies: DirectX, XNA, XACT, etc.

jeffmorris

Which measurement system does XNA Game Studio use - inches & feet or metric I was trying to create 3D boxes for a 3D game and the boxes look too small. I used the code from this link: ms-help://MS.VSExpressCC.v80/MS.VSIPCC.v80/MS.XNAFX.1033/XNA/Math_HowTo_FirstPersonCamera.htm

Re: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system?

dczraptor

I don't think XNA uses any measurement system. It's just plain "units". If you take a look at your model file, XNA will use those hardcoded numbers, no matter what measurement system they represent. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Re: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system?

jeffmorris

There is a loop in the program that places 100 boxes in the game world. I wish to create a city but one box uses two texture files and another box uses another texture file. Can the loop be modified for two boxes and three texture files

Re: XNA Game Studio Express Which measurement system?

Bill Reiss

As long as you're consistent with your units it shouldn't matter. I do think it's helpful to decide on your units up front and base them on what makes sense for your world. For example, in my air hockey game, 1 unit equals one inch, but in a tank fighter game 1 unit would probably be something bigger, like a meter, foot, or yard.

It's probably best to make all of your models to the same scale so that you don't have to scale everything to the proper size, but if you don't have control over the scale of your models you can always scale them in the game code.