The Z Bufferhttp://www.thezbuffer.comNews, Information and resources for Managed DirectXen-usCopyright 2004, TheZBuffer.comzman@thezbuffer.comzman@thezbuffer.comWed, 07 May 2008 15:10:00 GMTthezbuffer.publishing 0.1http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss360http://www.thezbuffer.com/images/zbufferlogobig.gifThe Z Bufferhttp://www.thezbuffer.com49121News, Information and resources for Managed DirectXXNA Game Studio 3.0 CTPhttp://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/535.aspx

Its here... get it while its hot

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DF4AF56A-58A7-474C-BFD0-7CF8ED3036A3

Read the official announcement

Watch Michael Klucher do a demo

Read the GamaSutra article about Zune Development

Read the zune developer FAQ

But most importantly BUY A ZUNE!!! (and help ZMan pay the mortgage!)

 

]]>]]>]]>zman@thezbuffer.com535:633457446000000000Wed, 07 May 2008 15:10:00 GMTGuess the Date of the CTPhttp://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/534.aspx

8:00am competition closed.... well actually I closed entries at 7:30am when Klucher twittered a hint and several people sent me entries for the 7th Hmmmmm

The winner of the pen is JudahH

With much speculation of the date of the CTP its time to have some fun....

Send me the date (and time [PST] for tie breakers) you think the download will appear on Microsoft.com and the winner (closest) will get my very sexy XNA pen that I got from GDC. If I determine that you had inside information and used it to win a pen I reserve the right to disqualify you and report you for NDA violation

6
7
8
9
10JudahH(9:00am)
11
12
13boki(2:00am), GriffinE(9:30am)
14
15ultrahead(7:00pm)
16
17JoelM(7:00pm)
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19
20ajmiles(2:00pm)
21JoshU(12:00noon)
22GregD(8:00am), StephanT(10:00am)
23MichaelQ(9:00am)
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30BrianK(1:00pm)
31

 

]]>]]>]]>zman@thezbuffer.com534:633457440000000000Wed, 07 May 2008 15:00:00 GMTPortland XNA user group TONIGHT - starring "The George"http://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/533.aspx

While "The George" may sound like a kind of a sandwich with too much mustard on it to some folk we all know its really none other than our very own George Clingerman, MVP, OBE, VIP.

So if you are in or around Portland tonight - April 23rd 2008 - at 6:30pm then head along and see George do what he does best and make a 2d game right before your very eyes

Details at the PAXNAUG blog

]]>]]>]]>zman@thezbuffer.com533:633445508400000000Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:34:00 GMTXNA GS talks in South Africa starring "The Pieter"http://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/532.aspx

Ok so maybe Pieter is not as famous as some of the US speakers but I hear that in South Africa he is "The Man" when it comes to XNA.

So if you live in South Africa you can see him speaking at NMMU on 29th of April and Rhodes University on the 30th April. The talk will be 'Developing a game in an hour or less'. If you can attend both Pieter promises to do a different game at each one

Sorry there are no details on time - you will have to contact Pieter through his blog

]]>]]>]]>zman@thezbuffer.com532:633445503000000000Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:25:00 GMTTwin Cities XNA User Group - Starring "The Shawn"http://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/531.aspx

Just coming out of that winter and want something to look forward to that isn't cold and wet? Then May 15th head over to Minneapolis to see the Shawn Hargreaves double bill. Networking and Shaders.

May 15th 6pm at Magenic headquarters. See Twin Cities User Group for all the details

]]>]]>]]>zman@thezbuffer.com531:633445500000000000Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:20:00 GMTGame Studio Connect patch for 'repaired' Xboxeshttp://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/530.aspx

For the few folk you discovered that they couldn't use Game Studio Connect after they got a repaired Xbox a patch is finally imminent - today March 12th 2008. Its been a while since the bug was found but remember everything that runs on the xbox 360 has to go through the Xbox cert process which isn't always a speedy process.

Michael Klucher Program Manger - XNA Community Game Platform

We just wanted to give our XNA Creators Club members a heads up that tomorrow we'll be releasing a title update for XNA Game Studio Connect. There are no significant new features in the update, however this should fix the issues that several forums users have experienced with XNA Game Studio Connect failing to run when they have had their console repaired or used XNA Game Studio Connect on another console. The update will be applied automatically and if you have had previous problems your connection keys will be reset.

]]>]]>]]>zman@thezbuffer.com530:633408156000000000Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:00:00 GMTPAXNAUG - Portland Area XNA user group March 26thhttp://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/529.aspx

Sure Seattle area may be famous in the XNA world due to Microsoft, The Zman and Nick Gravelyn but just a couple of hours south is MVP George Clingerman and some other XNA buddies and while he is not having babies he is writing XNA tutorials and magazine articles.

And now if you live near Portland you can meet George and other XNA users at the 1st PAXNAUG meeting - March 26th at 6:30pm. For all the details check out the PAXNAUG website. If enough people sign up then there's a good chance The Zman will get in the ZCopter and fly down....

]]>]]>]]>zman@thezbuffer.com529:633404022000000000Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:10:00 GMTWho is going to GDC 2008?http://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/528.aspx

Once again I will be heading off to San Francisco from Monday 18th-Friday 22nd for the Game Developers Conference. This will be my 4th year.
The first year I went people said 'Managed What'?
The second year they said 'Oh .Net - you can't write games with that its too slow' but Microsoft announced the XNA framework and they were running MY managed version of Hexic at the Microsoft booth
The third year the XNA Framework sessions were full and Jamie announced Schizoid (when will that ship!)
What fun and games will happen in 2008?

So if you are an XNA framework guy and want to meet up this year then drop me an email. I am trying to set up a beer with some of the XNA team so its well worth your while. Here's who I know about so far:

]]>]]>]]>zman@thezbuffer.com528:633377448000000000Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:00:00 GMTXNA team Requesting Content Pipeline questionshttp://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/527.aspx

It's been a while (even longer than me!) since Eli updated his blog but over on the XNA forums he is asking for some subjects related to the content pipeline:

I've started to look through some of the feedback from our recent survey, and noticed that there's a lot of you out there who are having trouble understanding the content pipeline. Documentation was a frequent complaint, and a few people mentioned a lack of a high level overview. To remedy this, I'm considering starting a series of blog posts on the content pipeline. Are there any topics in particular you would like me to cover, or any parts that you find particularly confusing?

Good chance for some 'straight from the horses mouth' information. So reply to that thread if you have anything you want to know about.

]]>]]>]]>zman@thezbuffer.com527:633377412000000000Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:00:00 GMTThe Last Announcement of GS 2.0 releasinghttp://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/526.aspx

As often requested by boki in #xna I would like to finally announce the following:

Microsoft has announced the release of Game Studio 2.0

Yes I've been a little lax about updating ZBuffer for a couple of months. Hey I've been very busy! What you don't read my OTHER blog? Well shame on you!

]]>]]>]]>zman@thezbuffer.com526:633377376000000000Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT