\Managed DirectX and XNA Framework news
I came across a short tutorial from the department of Acoustics, Audio and Video at the University of Salford in England.
Tutorials
- Virtual Environments with 3D graphics and 3D audio. 3 simple sections on getting graphics to the screen, playing normal and 3d sounds and capturing audio using Managed DirectX. Source code is provided and I would recommend downloading that rather than following the dangerous instructions on making your computer trust the entire domain.
11/25/2005: Added forums
GPWiki is a wiki devoted to general game development that also has some Managed DirectX content.
Tutorials
Forums
Flight Simulator - Next Generation (FSNG) is Andreas Jung's ambitious project to build a flight simulator using Managed DirectX. There are some screen shots and a project status page.
As I mentioned on the other blog I was asked to participate in a Channel 9 video for Coding4Fun a few weeks ago and it went live today. So remembering that the camera adds 100lbs here is ZMan demos Xbox controller using XInput and Phidgets camera kit.
You can get the pan-tilt camera kit at PhidgetsUSA
Updated description of December SDK to indicate this will still be in beta
Managed DirectX for .Net 2.0 beta (Microsoft.DirectX.Dll v2.0.900.0) is NOT compatible with any builds of VS2005/.Net 2.0 apart from beta 2. The issue occurs due to conflicting release schedules of VS/.Net and Managed DirectX. This is documented in the readme for the October SDK.
If you try to use it with any RC, RTM or released Visual Studio product including the Express editions you will get:
The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)
The only workaround is to go back to a beta version of VS2005.
The compatibility issue will be fixed with the release of the next BETA of Managed DirectX for .Net 2.0 in the December SDK. See Microsoft's confirmation in MSDN forums and Managed DirectX newsgroup. The final release will be in an SDK beyond December 2005.
Versions affected: Managed DirectX for .Net 2.0 beta (Microsoft.DirectX.Dll v2.0.900.0) from the October 2005 SDK when used with Visual Studio 2005 and .Net 2.0 RC, RTM or Released products
Updates and other suggestions regarding this FAQ entry should be emailed to ZMan
Added DirectShow forums
Microsoft has a set of official support forums on MSDN.
Pieter wanted me to let you know that though http://www.pieterg.com is currently down his is aware, working on it and it will return soon. His blog is still up and some of the articles are there.
9/28/05: Changed date and final reminder
Miguel has the last call for registration.
Good to see more publicity for Managed DirectX. Miguel and Diego are putting together content for a code Camp in Madrid, Spain sometime in November. It sounds like they are going to do a hands on lab, where participants can create a 'demo', using c# and Managed DirectX. Code camps are not just for gaming/directX they are free to attend, very community driven and lots of fun. Looks like this is the first one in Spain too.
When? November 19-20, 2005 Where? Camping El Escorial Details and agenda and registration: Miguels Blog
For those of us not close enough to attend, lets hope they post the results and the code.
And don't forget that for the price of a plane ticket and a (cheap) hotel room, The ZMan will happily attend any of your Managed DirectX events especially those in warmer climates than the Pacific Northwest.
11/11/05 - added more details
Jesper has hit the three post target and can now be called a Managed DirectX blogger. If you speak Danish you can read his Managed DirectX posts or you can try the translation to English. Either way, take a look as there is a really nice picture of doing transparency. I'm not sure if he is working on a game or just playing with drawing shapes.
Thanks to Thomas for the following translation:
He is unfortunately not doing anything game related. He is creating an application for visualizing some sorting algorithms of a kind. He does not specify what exactly. So even though it looks a bit 3D Tetris like - it is not. But perhaps he'll do the tetris part when he's finished with his current software. We are all game developers at heart anyway!
11/5/2005: Reformatted, added links to new tutorials
Mike over at The ramblings of a hazy mind has a series of tutorials describing a managed DirectX game engine he is building.
Tutorials
Ryan is not a frequent Managed DirectX blogger but he has a post about getting Managed DirectX running in a Windows control that I'm sure some of you will find useful. There's a couple of samples there too. I had a few issues with rendering and resizing, but Ryan has fixed some of them. Even if its not perfect its a great start point.
Sample Code
I have quite a collection of short but sweet FAQ type things I want to write about, plus common bug reports and other things that crop up in forums and newsgroups. So I have added an FAQ section to the site. If the FAQs are short I will likely also post them to the news feed when they are created and updated.
If there is an FAQ that you want to see written, or you have an FAQ answer already written (hosted elsewhere or not hosted is fine) then let me know and I will start adding things to the list.
Land of Legends is a turn-based fantasy strategy game where eight unique races vie for supremacy using a combination of cold steel and hot magic. Players will have to use their wits and each race's special abilities to bring defeat to the forces of darkness plaguing the lands in the thirty-two mission campaign. The game doesn't end with Evil's defeat though, as a built-in matchmaking service allows infinite replayability by giving players the chance to play against live opponents around the globe.
Land of Legends was developed by Scott Lance from Tiny Hero game studios and is published by Shrapnel Games. There are more screen shots here and you can download a demo here.
According to a write up on sharpSpace, Scott did a presentation to the IGDA Seattle chapter in October (2005) and mentioned that he used Managed DirectX.
Added information on Rocket Commander
Benjamin was involved with building Arena Wars, began writing Lost Squadron (currently on hold), and is currently working on a new game project which has yet to be officially announced (I saw a sneak peak video of some of the graphics at PDC and it looks good).
His blog contains a development diary and other game related items such as the normal map compressor tool.
He is also producing a new game called Rocket Commander which will be cross marketed by Microsoft as part of their Visual Studio 2005 release plans. Congratulations on that Benjamin. As the game is developed he will share tips, tricks and code samples. The final game is going to have all of the source code provided. This will be a great learning tool - Benjamin is doing some of the top graphics work with Managed DirectX so its going to be good to look at his code.
Matthieu Laban is working on a Flight Simulator using Managed Direct. That's a nice screen shot and there are many more in his flight simulator gallery. The project uses ODE for the physics simulation and is mostly written in C#. It also has the ability to use real DEM data and has written a neat google earth add in that plots the course you flew.
Download it here.
