The ZBuffer : Hexic HD for XNA framework (the forgotten demo!)

I can now give you more details on the secret project I have been working on the for the past 3 weeks.

Brian Keller asked me about producing an XNA Framework demo. Once I had recovered from the shock of learning about it running on both PC and Xbox 360 (though right now dev kits only) I, of course, told him I would love to. The Culture and Pocket Jongg demos were already under way and I got to do a conversion of Hexic HD. Its pretty widely (though unofficially) documented that HexicHD runs on a limited functionality flash interpreter and the XNA team thought that moving Hexic over to managed code would make a great demo and provide them with a solid code base to test the Framework and document the changes people will have to make when they move from Managed DirectX to XNA Framework. The downside - no real documentation and 3 weeks to do it. The upside (besides someone finally paying me to write managed code) - source was available and there was access to some of the original developers.

Reading flash is interesting stuff. Its chunks of animation with trigger like actions attached that fire off code that does the game play. Whilst I got a lot of useful information from the code I spent quite a few hours playing Hexic to get a feel for how things work and how the animations play out. Since Flash is all vector based I had an art guy extract the assets into textures. The sound files were available so nothing to worry about there. The game has to, of course, run in HD resolution (1280x720) and though we knew there would not be time for a 100% conversion the idea was to have something that was playable.

Why has it not got as much publicity as the other demos? I'm not 100% sure. There were some logistical problems with the GDC booth meaning it wasn't up and running until Friday but I understand it was running inside the Microsoft suite. Either way its nice to be able to do the publicity for my own demo.

So here are some screen shots (click for the 1280x720 images), a couple of videos (15fps and half size but the game runs around 150fps at HD size) and a picture of The ZMan posing in the Microsoft booth.

Videos: 640x360 (11.2Mb), 320x180 (5.5Mb)

Videos by FRAPS


Search ZBuffer News Articles Downloads Links FAQ Blogs/People Games Applications Technology Game Engines Tutorials Books Game Dev Tools Resources Forums About Advertise Contact ZMan Privacy Partners Ad Survey	Hexic HD for XNA framework (the forgotten demo!) I can now give you more details on the secret project I have been working on the for the past 3 weeks. Brian Keller asked me about producing an XNA Framework demo. Once I had recovered from the shock of learning about it running on both PC and Xbox 360 (though right now dev kits only) I, of course, told him I would love to. The Culture and Pocket Jongg demos were already under way and I got to do a conversion of Hexic HD. Its pretty widely (though unofficially) documented that HexicHD runs on a limited functionality flash interpreter and the XNA team thought that moving Hexic over to managed code would make a great demo and provide them with a solid code base to test the Framework and document the changes people will have to make when they move from Managed DirectX to XNA Framework. The downside - no real documentation and 3 weeks to do it. The upside (besides someone finally paying me to write managed code) - source was available and there was access to some of the original developers. Reading flash is interesting stuff. Its chunks of animation with trigger like actions attached that fire off code that does the game play. Whilst I got a lot of useful information from the code I spent quite a few hours playing Hexic to get a feel for how things work and how the animations play out. Since Flash is all vector based I had an art guy extract the assets into textures. The sound files were available so nothing to worry about there. The game has to, of course, run in HD resolution (1280x720) and though we knew there would not be time for a 100% conversion the idea was to have something that was playable. Why has it not got as much publicity as the other demos? I'm not 100% sure. There were some logistical problems with the GDC booth meaning it wasn't up and running until Friday but I understand it was running inside the Microsoft suite. Either way its nice to be able to do the publicity for my own demo. So here are some screen shots (click for the 1280x720 images), a couple of videos (15fps and half size but the game runs around 150fps at HD size) and a picture of The ZMan posing in the Microsoft booth. Videos: 640x360 (11.2Mb), 320x180 (5.5Mb) Videos by FRAPS Updated 3/29/2006 8:00:00 AM by Zman