\Managed DirectX and XNA Framework news
I would like to announce that Google has completed their purchase of The ZBuffer for $1.2 billion in cash and stock.... I would *love* to announce that but sadly that's not happening
However something almost as big is now less than 1 week away. After almost 9 years at Microsoft I have handed in my notice in order do to the Managed DirectX thing (and a few other projects) full time. When I say 'full time' - I don't mean I have a job, I mean I am going to sit here at home and milk the savings account for a while to hopefully get my gaming and/or graphics skills to a point that they are very marketable.
It means The ZBuffer can be updated more often and I can start working on the pile of post it notes I've been collecting for 12 months with 'good ideas' on them.
I could ramble on for hours about why I chose to do this, how I'm going to pull it off and what my future plans are but that sounds a lot like a whole new blog to me - so I present to you Indie Game Guy. For now its just my online journal of a journey I am learning lots of people would love to take. It will be fairly slow updating until after my last day at work and a little R&R but point your aggregator to it. I'm finally running on some decent blog software so you can even leave comments now!
Finally, much as you all think Microsoft folks are all millionaires its sadly not true (otherwise I would have quit years ago!) so send Ramen noodles to help get me through the year.
[update - added Chris Williams]
As I previously reported, Jason is helping to organize Code Camp Portland. They now have their website up and running and you can register to attend by joining a Yahoo group.
No official speaker list yet on the site but here's what I know:
- David Weller - something Managed DirectX is likely
- The Zman - depends on what David does and what Jason thinks will be useful - any MDX requests, let me know
- Rory - I don't know if he's speaking or not but I'm looking forward to meeting him. I've never met Rory, but he got drunk with a friend of mine once and I'm a long time reader of his blog.
- Chris Sells - another blogger (and author) that I regularly read.
- Chris Williams - fellow .Net gaming dude and the creator of Heroic Adventure. (He also gets really excited when I link to him 3 times).
This is going to be quite a fun experience for me. My first speaking gig since I started The ZBuffer, meeting some (in)famous bloggers and finally going to Portland (I've only lived in Seattle for 9 years - its about time!). So if you are in the area sign up and come say hello.
Its not specifically Managed DirectX, but its not excluded either(and as I've often pointed out its my blog so I can break the rules when I want). GameDev.net is having a game development competition with some great prizes. The game concept is both simple and humorous.
"Create a game that includes at least two of the four elements: robots, pirates, ninjas, and zombies. You have complete creative freedom over how you want to include these elements"
Full details here. You have till October 31st to write the game.
Congrats to Steve Lanuit, got some google juice from Scoble this week - hopefully this helped raise Managed DirectX's profile a little.
Suddenly the old Kevin Bacon game came to mind:
So Scoble links to Tom who links to Steve who links to me. So I am just 3 degrees of separation from Scoble.
Then I remembered that Scoble linked to Steve Lacey who has a link to me. Now I'm down to 2 degrees.
[update: Hmmmmm apparently I'm not the first person to think of this.]
Well I'm not sure if it was the changes I made, the requests from Roms Rants or the sheer luck of being in the right place at the right time and getting linked from MSDN but as of last week The ZBuffer finally shows up in page 2 of google for Managed DirectX and on the first page for "Managed DirectX".
- MSN Search has me in 2nd place right behind Microsoft (I can accept that)
- Yahoo list me 4th but again behind 3 Microsoft links
- Ask Jeeves is a little less generous, insisting I'm a page 2 kind of site
So there's still a little work to do to convince google. Rom's Rants suggested that including the words Managed DirectX inside the link rather than just The ZBuffer may help.
Mark has just started a blog about Managed D3D for Devices (MD3DM). It early days for this technology since it relies on both Windows Mobile 5.0, which was recently launched and as yet there no no release devices using it, and .Net Compact Framework 2.0 which does not release until November. You can however get the beta of .Net CF 2.0 which includes all the emulators you need to get going. The frame rate won't be great but you can start experimenting. So you read Mark and get ready. We will cover this technology fully here on theZBuffer.com.
Mykre over at Inner Realm is proposing community driven extensions to the sample framework. If you are interested in giving him ideas or helping then head on over to the forum and contribute.
For the 3 of you that read my blog but not Tom's, he has put out a call for features and updates that you would like to see in the VS2005 release of managed DirectX. Tom is the main (only!) Managed DirectX developer so you really are speaking directly the the guy who makes it happen - how often do you get that chance with a Microsoft product? Don't waste the chance - leave him some comments or send him a message.
Jason Olson is helping organize a Code Camp in Portland at the end of July and they are hoping to have a game development track. He's looking for ideas and presenters. Read more here.
Developez.com is a french language website for developers. They have a published article (English through google) introducing Managed DirectX.
There is also a tutorial on video playback (English)
I've been watching the Ventuz web site for a while since I had heard they were using Managed DirectX. Well they have just announced their beta and it appears to be open to all. I've just got my acceptance email so I will tell you more when I have had a chance to look. But from their website...
Overview
VENTUZ is a real-time presentation program. It translates DirectX commands into an intuitive Graphical User Interface. Ventuz is completely coded in .NET managed and runs on standard Windows XP workstations. [read more]
iDim has announced he(?) is writing a racing simulator with Managed DirectX. Early days, but the post suggests that he may look to build a team. So keep your eyes on this if you are interested in being part of a project.
Once I've got it installed I'll do a more detailed post on any changes.
OK, AQ has posted a screen shot of an application he(?) wrote to do meta balls in c#. (If you don't know what meta balls are he also has some links). Its a conversion of the C++ sample from the SDK. No source code yet but its promised.
Cs3D is "A 3D graphics engine for use in 3D games and other real-time rendering applications using managed code (C#) and the .NET framework and supporting both the OpenGL and Direct3D APIs"
It looks like its pretty new as the sourceforge project was created May 9th and so far there is nothing to download. One of the team members has a blog with development updates.