XNA Is Fun

[eric_ruck]

And easy too, if you're already a programmer anyway. I've been developing since 1987, and I'm doing production C# for work, but I installed XNA for the first time over Visual Studio 2005. Had a tank controlled with the keyboard in under an hour, with zero knowledge of the XNA framework beforehand. Oh yeah, if you're going to do this it would help knowing a little about linear algebra.

 

Oh yeah, the tanks have a little physics...I made acceleration and deceleration. Basically you just manage a vector pointed in the direction where the tank should go, and add it to a vector representing the current tank position. You can do something like newVector = Vector2.Transform(oldVector, Matrix.CreateRotationZ(MathHelper.Pi / 50)) to rotate.

 

So this morning I spent maybe 30 minutes moving my tank code to a class so I could make another tank that controls with the Z-X-C-S keys. Then I was out for errands and picked up a wireless XP adapter for my 360 controllers, and 10 minutes later I'm moving the tanks with the D-pad. Very fun. Hopefully I can get the analog sticks done before the laudry is finished and I have to knock off.

 

Anyone else try it out?

 

This all started because I found an article that M$ is opening XBLA to indies so Ben ("legeek") said we should do a game. I said OK.

 

Eric

[moycon]

Wow Thats awesome.

I checked out the games they had available, I'm not really all that interested in trying to make my own games though.

I would subscribe if a fellow AAer got their game on XNA though just to give it a go.

[eric_ruck]

We're mucking around in Windows first. I'll keep you all posted. I just implemented analog stick control, it didn't take that long either. Honestly this is pretty fun. Since the laundry isn't finished yet I might take a stab at missiles.

 

Eric

[JB]

I downloaded that to muck with the other day.

...

Then found out my .NET install was totally hosed. The .NET installer won't run because it thinks it's there already. Nothing else will run because it ISN'T there.

[eric_ruck]

I downloaded that to muck with the other day.

...

Then found out my .NET install was totally hosed. The .NET installer won't run because it thinks it's there already. Nothing else will run because it ISN'T there.

 

Yeah Ben is having trouble getting this to work on his machine. If I come up with any bright ideas I'll let you know. Basically if you have an OS that comes with .NET 2 you're set, otherwise you could be in for a huge headache.

 

Also the docs are lacking but you can usually fill in the info with Google. I found a nice algo to detect collisions between rotated rectangles that I ported to C#, and found the solution to using repeating textures for a large area (apparently it doesn't work unless the texture size is an even power of 2).

 

That said I currently have two tanks that control by either keyboard or gamepad. They can shoot at each other, and when you hit one it spins out. There are also walls around the edges and in the interior that the tanks can't drive or shoot through. All this took me a sum total of probably less than 6 hours.

 

Eric

[moycon]

I'd like to see a game like Ballblazer on Live.

I always liked that game on the 7800. These days you'd need multiplayer, online support, but the core gameplay could remain the same.

[JB]

I downloaded that to muck with the other day.

...

Then found out my .NET install was totally hosed. The .NET installer won't run because it thinks it's there already. Nothing else will run because it ISN'T there.

 

Yeah Ben is having trouble getting this to work on his machine. If I come up with any bright ideas I'll let you know. Basically if you have an OS that comes with .NET 2 you're set, otherwise you could be in for a huge headache.

I solved it.

Was due a new computer anyways. Fresh XP installs work wonders.