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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Microsoft XNA attempts to free game developers from writing "repetitive boilerplate code", allowing them to focus on producing enjoyable gameplay rather than tedious and complicated setup. The Framework has reduced the once steep learning curve for game development, transforming it into something more attainable, and this cookbook will help you to take full advantage of XNA to bring reality into your virtual worlds.
"Microsoft XNA 4.0 Game Development Cookbook" is the perfect resource for propelling your game development capabilities from the simple 2D demo towards engaging and exciting, professional looking games. With a diverse selection of game-related topics covered, discover how to create rich 2D and 3D worlds filled with interesting characters, detailed scenery and dynamic special effects applicable to PC, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone 7 game play.
There is no shortage of introductory texts available for XNA, a number of which are fantastic for getting started with simple 2D games, but "Microsoft XNA 4.0 Game Development Cookbook"ù will help you take the steps to start producing games that have deeper gameplay, compelling graphics and that little bit of extra polish!
The book's recipes will get you up and going quickly with the next level of game features such as 3D graphics, AI, and network play.
With this practical cookbook to hand, even the more experienced developer will be better equipped to achieve high level tasks with XNA in a quick and efficient manner.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Seitenzahl: 239
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012
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Table of Contents
Microsoft XNA 4.0 Game Development Cookbook
Microsoft XNA 4.0 Game Development Cookbook
Copyright © 2012 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: June 2012
Production Reference: 1130612
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-84969-198-7
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Sandeep Babu ( <[email protected]> )
Credits
Author
Luke Drumm
Reviewers
Jason Mitchell
Kenneth Dahl Pedersen
Acquisition Editor
Stephanie Moss
Lead Technical Editor
Kedar Bhat
Technical Editors
Rati Pillai
Ankita Shashi
Copy Editor
Insiya Morbiwala
Project Coordinator
Michelle Quadros
Proofreader
Joel T. Johnson
Indexer
Rekha Nair
Production Coordinator
Melwyn Dsa
Cover Work
Melwyn Dsa
About the Author
Luke Drumm is an experienced software developer and consultant who wrote his first computer game at age 10, and has been enthusiastically exploring the world of game development ever since. With the first public release of XNA in 2006, Luke quickly latched onto the technology and began creating and talking about how to create games within XNA at every possible opportunity. This culminated in his regular presence at conferences, game camps, and user groups, and in his becoming a recipient of the Microsoft MVP Award, for XNA and DirectX, for at least four successive years. Luke lives in Sydney, Australia, with his amazing, patient, and supportive wife Cheryl, and two dogs, who may or may not rule the roost.
About the Reviewers
Jason Mitchell is a passionate .NET developer and an independent game development enthusiast. He has worked with Microsoft's XNA Game Studio since its initial release and has experience using it to create games on Windows, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone.
Kenneth Dahl Pedersen, now aged 35, has been programming basically since he got his first computer at age 6, starting on the Commodore 64, with small programs that could do next to nothing. This quickly evolved when he migrated to the much more powerful Amiga 500 with some demos and light applications, and finally culminated when he got his first PC.
Since then, game development has held his interest in a vice grip, and Kenneth has studied numerous programming languages and APIs for this purpose. His repertoire includes C/C++, OpenGL, DirectX, C#, WPF, WCF, MDX, and XNA.
With the appearance of readily-available, high-end engines, such as Unreal Development Kit, Kenneth found another interest to keep him well-sated in his thirst for game development knowledge, UnrealScript, providing another mountain top to climb.
Kenneth is a Systems Analyst and Developer. Originally from Denmark, where he still works, he now lives in Sweden with his wife and baby daughter.
Other than being with his wife and daughter, he uses his spare time for game development, seeking new knowledge and dabbling in 3D visual arts in applications, such as 3D Studio Max and ZBrush. And of course, Kenneth is an avid gamer. After all, you cannot make games if you don't enjoy playing them!
First of all, I would like to thank my wife, Nina, for the patience she's shown me while I was doing this review. I have probably not been as helpful around the house as I should have been, while this was going on.
My beautiful daughter, Nadia, for always giving me a reason to smile and laugh.
And last, but certainly not least, Michelle Quadros, for believing in me and giving me this incredible experience and opportunity to do a tech review of this awesome book on XNA.
My advice to you, the Reader: Read it, cover-to-cover. You will not regret it, as it contains some absolute treasures of tips and techniques for your own game projects.
www.PacktPub.com
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Preface
The Microsoft XNA 4.0 Game Development Cookbook is all about what happens once you've completed the various introductory tutorials, and want to create something with a little more substance.
In this book, you'll find examples of how to flesh out some of the more complex, or initially less intuitive, pieces of what goes into a full-blown game.
Not sure what it takes to add water to your Xbox 360 Indie game? Confused about maps for your Windows Phone game? Curious over what it takes to get started using Kinect with XNA? Then this book may just be for you.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Applying Special Effects: Discover the principles behind some common special effects used in big budget titles, and add them to your own games.
Chapter 2, Building 2D and 3D Terrain: Learn some of the tricks behind creating landscapes in both two and three dimensions.
Chapter 3, Procedural Modeling: Explore what's involved in creating models in code, instead of using an external 3D modeling package.
Chapter 4, Creating Water and Sky: Add depth to your worlds with some virtual atmosphere.
Chapter 5, Non-Player Characters: Inhabit your virtual worlds with characters that can move and interact in intelligent and interesting ways.
Chapter 6, Playing with Animation: Have a peek into some of the ways that animation can be both produced and displayed.
Chapter 7, Creating Vehicles: Launch your players onto the roads or into the skies with the addition of vehicles.
Chapter 8, Receiving Player Input: Discover how your players can drag, drop, point, and type their way through your games.
Chapter 9, Networking: Expand your virtual world across to the real one by adding the ability to communicate.
What you need for this book
To write games using the examples presented in this book, you'll need:
For the Kinect-based recipe, a Kinect or Kinect for Windows unit is required along with the Kinect for Windows SDK.
Who this book is for
If you are an XNA developer who has already successfully dabbled in some of the simple 2D and 3D functionality provided by XNA, and are eager to find out how to achieve some of the more advanced features presented in popular games, dive into the Microsoft XNA 4.0 Game Development Cookbook for an example-based approach that should have you safely on your way towards the next level of game creation. You should be comfortable with the basics of the XNA framework and have experience with C#.
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In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: "We will be using the BasicEffect class in this example, but any effect that implements the IEffectMatrices interface and has some way to darken the rendered model should be adequate."
A block of code is set as follows:
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes, for example, appear in the text like this: "Start by adding a new Content Pipeline Extension project to the solution."
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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Chapter 1. Applying Special Effects
In this chapter we will cover:
Introduction
In this chapter, we will be creating some of the common special effects used in 3D games to help increase the level of realism, and thereby help the player to immerse themselves in the virtual world.
The examples in this chapter assume that at least the bare bones of a 3D scene are already present, with one or more 3D objects being rendered successfully to the screen. If inspiration for how to achieve this is in short supply, Chapter 2, Building 2D and 3D Terrain and Chapter 3, Procedural Modeling, provide some examples on possible ways to get started.
Implementing lens flare within the Reach profile
A realistic lens flare can be achieved within the Reach profile by being "physically correct" and performing a check of each frame to confirm that the source of light is, at least partially, visible from the camera's point of view. (Tests involving whether something is in line of sight from something else are commonly referred to as occlusion tests.)
The bad news is, that without the benefit of hardware accelerated occlusion testing like the HiDef profile's OcclusionQuery class can offer, this test can be beyond the processing resources available to a game (especially one running on either mobile or older hardware).
The good news is that we do have a relatively cheap alternative that may just provide enough approximation for a game, and no one need be the wiser that the "proper" technique wasn't used, as the following illustration of the approximation in use demonstrates:
