\Managed DirectX and XNA Framework news
Tom Miller did a Managed DirectX talk at GDC 2004 and Meltdown 2004.
The talks look pretty much the same to me but there are other non DirectX presentations that are interesting.I'm really starting to regret taking the shortcuts and doing this in straight HTML. Sure I'm going to get it up quicker but its been a real pain keeping the static parts of the pages in sync and more cut'n'paste than I care to do. However here's the last 3 sections of links:
Another day of HTML typing and the 2 more sections of links
- Tutorials - Links to all the external tutorials I know about
- General Game Dev - General game development sites that are full of useful news and tips
Under promise and over deliver. Jason says "don't expect to see anything for a month or two" and then delivers 2 articles in 10 days. The second article is all about the implementation of the development environment.
Punch'n'Crunch is a game under development using the Purple# engine.
There's no doubt that using a game engine can seriously cut your game development time. But are there any you can use from managed code? It seems there are several though not all use DirectX so read carefully if that's the technology you are interested in. Of course one of the points of an engine is that you don't have to worry about the underlying technology but most of these provide the source to tinker with so choose wisely.
ZBuffer category: Game Engines
Sourceforge location,
Devmaster.net entry
| " | The Axiom Engine Project is a fully object oriented game engine development effort using C# and the Microsoft.Net platform to create an easy to use, flexible, extendable, and powerful engine that allows for rapid development of games for various genres. By using the .Net framework as the target platform, developers can focus more on core functionality and logic, rather than dealing with the complexities of languages like C++. The core of Axiom is a port of the very popular OGRE graphics engine, which was chosen based on its clean object-oriented design, powerful features, and flexibility. | " |
Sourceforge site, Bunnz Productions, Punch-n-Crunch, Devmaster.net entry
| " | Purple# is one of the first full blown game engines for .NET concentrating on flexibility, programming efficiency and quality using the newest technology. Keywords: DirectX, Scripting, Sound, Cg, CgFx, vertex and pixel shader, 3d | " |
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Lugh3D
is a game engine developed with .NET and Managed DirectX developers in mind.
The engine will be published as two components, one a windows user control
easily imported into any windows form, thus allowing developers a full 3D
rendering environment. Second as a class library which will allow users the
flexibility of extending the base engine, or just by using the default. Lugh3D is in the middle to early stages of development and is expected to reach beta in September - early October. |
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| " | MCDX is a free game development library that uses Managed DirectX. MCDX is written in C# and can be used with any .Net language for writing games on the Windows platform. | " |
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The Ovorp game engine is written in C# and provides the following features:
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| " | The TV3D SDK is a complete programming suite that accelerates the development of 3D games and applications. If you need to quickly prototype an idea, or need to quickly bring a product to market, then the TV3D SDK will save you time and money. With our 3D engine you have the power of an expensive 3D SDK, at a price that will not break your budget. | " |
Homepage, Devmaster.net entry, Managed Interface
| " | The Web Driver provides a platform for the development of high quality, high performance, compact 2D and 3D content for the Internet. It consists of a high level API for Java, JavaScript, and other COM enabled languages such as C, C++ and Visual Basic, and has a powerful graphical engine underneath. The API provides both 2D and 3D support, allowing the creation of everything from simple 2D or 3D content such as product visualizations for e-commerce, through to full-fledged 3D games. All of these can run within a web page, simply by visiting a web site. | " |
Without an SDK (thanks Microsoft) and a powerful graphics card (thanks NVidia and ATI) its really, really hard to get pretty pictures on the screen. Added links to the developer sites for the big 3 companies.
ZBuffer category: 3d graphic technologies
Lots of people wonder if Managed DirectX is fast enough to write a commercial game that can get published. Well there are a couple of companies that have done just that. So take some inspiration from them and get coding for Tom Miller's game programming competition.
Justin Rogers has some blog entries about game development and managed languages. He's also calling for feedback on a book he wants to review.
ZBuffer category:People & blogs
Jason has his 1st article on Managed world up. He's going to do a series on writing a 2-d sideways scroller and the 1st article is all about how to set up a decent development environment. I know everyone wants to get those graphics up on the screen as soon as possible but having a good project layout, build script and source control has saved this developers butt on several occasions. Off to a great start Jason.
There are not too many sites devoted to managed DirectX, but those that do exist are mostly people who blog in the subject. Some are world famous authors: Tom Miller, David Weller, Lynn Harrison and others are just keen enthusiasts ZMan, Jason Olson, Brandon Furtwangler, Craig Peterson, Joakim Karlsson, Craig Andera and Mitch Walker
ZBuffer category:People & blogs
Microsoft have announced the latest update to the DirectX SDK which includes the Managed DirectX SDK. Download it here. From the readme file it appears there are 3 new managed samples and some bug fixes including one for the texture loading memory leak
In an attempt to prove that I have some artistic skills I created my 1st Maya animation. It looks much nicer at 1024x768x16 million at 60fps but Animation Shop did a reasonable conversion to 121x49x256 15fps.
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