As I said in my last post, I've recently installed XNA 3.0. I also noted that I'd copied across my ongoing Adventure Game project, but wasn't sure if that had auto-upgraded from 2.0 or not.
Well, I discovered that the .proj file is the place to look. It turns out it's just an XML file with descriptions of what's in the project. Lo and behold, it still said version 2.0.
I half thought I'd upgrade my project cunningly, by updating the .proj file. Then I thought, sod it, I'll just start a new project and copy the files across.
That's all worked fine - but there were some interesting points along the way.
I needed to add System.Xml as a dependcy to some files. And System.Windows.Forms.
I needed to add cross-dependencies from the Game project to the Content project.
I needed to set the game project's assembly name to what it was before, for the content readers to work.
The .fx content needed to be marked as "copy when newer" due to how I access it (not just through the content pipeline)
All content was marked as action "compile" now action "content", strangely. I might need to investigate that one!
Finally, I also discovered these blogs on C# 3.0, which adds interesting new features both at compile-time and run-time. I think some will be useful for my project, so will probably make some tweaks to make my code tidier.
26 Always read the instructions
I've been struggling to install XNA 3.0 (RTC). Apparently I needed to uninstall the Games for Windows - LIVE runtime. It does say that in the instructions. I guess instructions don't lie!
So yes, I'm now geared up to use the latest version of XNA within my newly-acquired Visual Studio 2008. So far, I've got my old game working, but I think it's still working off the 2.0 codebase, not the 3.0. I'm not quite sure how to check though!
I still want to muck about with Silverlight and Java some more - but XNA is still on my hit list of things to do.
15 XNA Update
Right, time for a proper XNA post. At least, I hope that's how this pans out!
The plan is for my games page to start showing my XNA blogs directly; I have this working, but the formatting is funny (and not just because I'm using a rubbish font!). Firstly, the tags aren't all getting pulled through correctly (hence I'm using preformatted text), but also I'm getting some "spurious" characters that I don't understand. I've logged a query in the WordPress.org forums.
This post might therefore seem "out of context", but hopefully it will become in context once that setup is sorted.
OK, so my adventure game programme. I thought I'd start but noting down some of the features, and then maybe going to them in more detail as they stand now - before covering each of them as they evolve once I get back to XNA coding!
So the main features then;
Basic 3D landscape picked up from a 2D heightmap.
Heightmap loaded from an XML file, via the context pipeline (my .map extension)
Choice of turnbased, cell-walking or free-walking character.
Full state engine for the game states.
Basic intro screens, including text displays with fade in's for written dialogue and intros
Reflection off the .map file to allow scripting
Text, line and texture "manager" classes to help easily manage static and dynamic scenary
Post screen shader
13 Quick update
I haven't had much time to do stuff over the last few evenings...
Anyway, I've made some progress with CSS and PHP. I've written some basic functions to help me with my page - like displaying headers, text, code etc. - and I've written a couple of styles - agains, such as headers, text and code.
I haven't done any actual XNA programming though!
My next plan is for some more webpage stuff, then set up a quick database for my game-related stuff, then get back to coding proper :-).
5 XNA -Where I'm at
OK, so one of the initial aims of this blog was to log my XNA development.
I've done a few programmes now, some of which are avaialable elsewhere on this site, but I plan to spruce up their presentation and make it clearer what the system requirements are to get them running.
I'll then try to bring in the latest version of my current project - a turnbased RPG. Screenshots to follow, plus some highlights of where I'm at.