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XNA Indie Games! Now with 80pt ($1 USD) game option!

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Posts

  • DelzhandDelzhand Hard to miss. Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Delzhand wrote: »
    IIRC the bone count limit can be gotten around by writing your own content importer and fx file.

    That's the thing, I don't want to have to do that unless I absolutely have to. The situation that I'm in currently leaves me in a position where I can avoid that.

    I don't see having more than 80 bones per mesh (just using a simplified biped rig), but I can see there being a higher total of bones amongst all the models. worse come to worse I'll end up hacking something together, but I'd like to try and plan and avoid the inevitable.

    I'm fairly certain the bone count limit is per model. You could have hundreds of units loaded with 80 bones each if you wanted. If that's not the case, someone please tell me.

    Delzhand on
  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Delzhand wrote: »
    Delzhand wrote: »
    IIRC the bone count limit can be gotten around by writing your own content importer and fx file.

    That's the thing, I don't want to have to do that unless I absolutely have to. The situation that I'm in currently leaves me in a position where I can avoid that.

    I don't see having more than 80 bones per mesh (just using a simplified biped rig), but I can see there being a higher total of bones amongst all the models. worse come to worse I'll end up hacking something together, but I'd like to try and plan and avoid the inevitable.

    I'm fairly certain the bone count limit is per model. You could have hundreds of units loaded with 80 bones each if you wanted. If that's not the case, someone please tell me.

    Gah, now I've got you wondering... I'm sure it is too. It defies any reason that I can think of for it not to be. I'm probably just getting caught up in niggling details, which is why I just do instead of plan first, but that's a bad habit I need to break (or intend to with this project), so I'm stuck contemplating my navel on things like that, lol... sorry if I got you caught up in that.

    I was just looking for an answer that didn't involve throwing a large amount of models into the project and seeing what happened or rigging out a model with 80 bones then throwing it and another one in and yea. *is crazy*

    tastydonuts on
    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • PrimePrime UKRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    So ive been told to come here :)

    Been messing with c# for just over a month now and I think ive got the hang of it (come from a programming background so just learning c# stuff), so its game time!

    Just for reference im going to start with a nice simple top down 2d space shooter.

    So im drawing up some psudo on what kind of classes/logic i'll need and ive hit a bit of a snag, not with the code really more like the layout/structure of said code.

    From what ive seen there are two main loops that come with the XNA base file, Update loop and Draw loop. Now my current plan is to make a gameManager class, this will have all the other classes as part of it but also its own Draw(), Update() methods which will call the update(), draw() methods of any instantiated object currently in play.

    Is this a good way to do it? Any better suggestions?

    Prime on
  • gjaustingjaustin Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    That's a great way to do it.

    gjaustin on
  • PrimePrime UKRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Good to hear im on the right track, to the pixel mines!

    Prime on
  • DelzhandDelzhand Hard to miss. Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    That's how I do it, but you might want to look into Components and DrawableComponents. The engine will actually take care of calling the Update/Draw methods automatically. On my next engine rewrite I'm definitely going to look at them.

    Delzhand on
  • PrimePrime UKRegistered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Ok well for my first attempt this will suffice, once im happy with how a games structured I'll start playing.

    Prime on
  • DelzhandDelzhand Hard to miss. Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    I know that I've done this before, but I can't find the code on my hard drive or remember the math. How would I go about finding the 2d screen coordinates of a 3d point, as viewed through a camera (with view/projection matrices, obviously)?

    It wasn't a lot of code, but I can't remember it.

    Delzhand on
  • HandkorHandkor Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Delzhand wrote: »
    I know that I've done this before, but I can't find the code on my hard drive or remember the math. How would I go about finding the 2d screen coordinates of a 3d point, as viewed through a camera (with view/projection matrices, obviously)?

    It wasn't a lot of code, but I can't remember it.

    Isn't it just (doing this off the top of my head from work, this may not work)

    Matrix viewproj = projection * view;
    Vector3 screenPos = Vector3.Transform(position, viewproj);
    The Z-coord of the result indicates if the point is in front or behing the camera and the XY-Coord is your screen position.

    Handkor on
  • DelzhandDelzhand Hard to miss. Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Hmm. Seems close, but not exactly.

    Delzhand on
  • RainbowDespairRainbowDespair Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Any regulars want to take over the creation of a new thread once we hit 100? I'm really busy right now trying to get Breath of Death VII finished so I don't really have the time to do the new thread opening proper justice.

    RainbowDespair on
  • DelzhandDelzhand Hard to miss. Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    If I knew more about the currently available XBLIG titles, I'd do it. I could probably handle half an OP about the XNA portion.

    Delzhand on
  • HandkorHandkor Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Here is pseudo code to transform 3D to 2D, found it in the XNA forum

    1. Multiply the 3D point by the View matrix to convert to eye/camera space
    2. Multiply the eye space vector by the Projection matrix to convert to projection space
    3. Divide the projected point by its w component (called the perspective divide) to convert to Normalized device coordinates [-1, 1] for X and Y, [0, 1] for Z.
    4. Then to scale and transform to [0, 1] you want to multiply by .5 and add by .5

    Handkor on
  • DelzhandDelzhand Hard to miss. Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Found a post on MSDN by Shawn Hargreaves. There's a pre-existing method, naturally.

    myGraphicsDevice.Viewport.Project(Vector3 point, Matrix projection, Matrix view, Matrix world)

    Delzhand on
  • KupiKupi Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Delzhand wrote: »
    Found a post on MSDN by Shawn Hargreaves. There's a pre-existing method, naturally.

    myGraphicsDevice.Viewport.Project(Vector3 point, Matrix projection, Matrix view, Matrix world)

    I'd recently considered making a sort of run-and-gun Star Fox game, where you're a dude just sort of running toward the horizon and blowing stuff up, but I had no idea how I'd handle the pseudo-3D (sprites scaled based on their distance from the camera). This could helpful for that.

    And yeah, XNA handles close to everything, doesn't it? :lol:

    Kupi on
    My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
  • DelzhandDelzhand Hard to miss. Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    You mean like Space Harrier?

    Delzhand on
  • KupiKupi Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    ... huh. Yeah, something like that, only more land-bound and you can aim at angles other than "straight ahead".

    Kupi on
    My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Kupi wrote: »
    ... huh. Yeah, something like that, only more land-bound and you can aim at angles other than "straight ahead".

    so more like Panzer Dragoon? I wanted to try that myself, lol.

    the design itself is pretty straight forward, you have a track/timer and spawn enemies using that, and just have them spawn in one of the four cardinals. L/R or something to change what direction you're aiming, projectile collisions etc... it would be very asset heavy though, or not. hm.

    But most of my time has been spent learning weight painting for rigging and transferring my OCD over misplaced uneven or pixels/lines to misplaced vertices...

    edit: lol. I remember actually trying to do it in like, high school. not in 3d though. but just that concept. D:

    tastydonuts on
    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Kupi wrote: »
    ... huh. Yeah, something like that, only more land-bound and you can aim at angles other than "straight ahead".

    Like Sin & Punishment?

    slash000 on
  • KupiKupi Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Like the Landmaster stages from Star Fox 64, only you're on-foot and running at 180 MPH.

    Kupi on
    My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Kupi wrote: »
    Like the Landmaster stages from Star Fox 64, only you're on-foot and running at 180 MPH.

    So it's not like the Landmaster stages from Star Fox 64 at all... since the Landmaster got outpaced by a freight train. ;p

    it shouldn't be too hard to to implement though in theory, as it is essentially a scroller translated into 3d. go for it!

    tastydonuts on
    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • slash000slash000 Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    Kupi wrote: »
    Like the Landmaster stages from Star Fox 64, only you're on-foot and running at 180 MPH.

    Sounds exactly like Sin & Punishment.

    Which is an incredibly good game and a shame there aren't more games like that.

    If you do a game like that I highly endorse it.

    slash000 on
  • KupiKupi Registered User regular
    edited March 2010
    I will consider it once I get the albatross that is Shadows Over Volgadan off my neck. :lol:

    Kupi on
    My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
  • Lindsay LohanLindsay Lohan Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I know there's a lot of programming chat in here and I've read about 10 pages back and can't seem to find much - but can anyone recommend some good indie games? I like about anything except rpgs - so far I've got Miner and Shoot1Up for Indie titles.

    Lindsay Lohan on
  • Psychotic OnePsychotic One The Lord of No Pants Parts UnknownRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I made a game with zombies in it is pretty much solid gold tits. There are worse things to spend a buck on.

    Psychotic One on
  • LunkerLunker Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    I know there's a lot of programming chat in here and I've read about 10 pages back and can't seem to find much - but can anyone recommend some good indie games? I like about anything except rpgs - so far I've got Miner and Shoot1Up for Indie titles.

    I've scratched my shmup itch with a lot of Indie Games. I really love Echoes+, which is essentially Asteroids: Retro Evolved. Great soundtrack, about five different modes that each play fairly different, and just smooth-as-butter gameplay.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR4K50xN_Gg

    Another great title is Leave Home, which is a score-attack shmup. Each session only lasts 5 minutes, but it dynamically changes the stage and enemy patterns based on your performance and score, so the throttle is always right where you want it, and it always has me coming back for more.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7yyM_Tdzmk

    Lunker on
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  • AlejandroDaJAlejandroDaJ Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    So, I organized 65 unique travel photo wallpapers for my game to use as unlockables. They're in three different formats: 256x256 thumbnail, 640x480 standard def TV, and 1280x720 HDTV. As JPEGs, all 65 x 3 =195 images total about 35mb.

    "Awesome," I say aloud. "I can stay under 50mb for the $1 sales mark."

    I then build them into XNA and am shocked, shocked to find out that the .xnb versions of the images total out to be about 150mb. Each individual image increased three to fivefold in size.

    Does anyone know what gives? Or what kind of methods ensure the best compression on built images?

    AlejandroDaJ on
  • RainbowDespairRainbowDespair Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Try saving them as PNG files. XNA seems to like that format.

    RainbowDespair on
  • AoiAoi Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Been a while since I checked up on the Indie games. Anything new from Arkedo since Pixel was put out?

    Aoi on
  • KupiKupi Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Try saving them as PNG files. XNA seems to like that format.

    It's not that. XNB stands for, I believe, "XNA Bitmap". Any content you import, from JPEG to PNG, gets converted into that proprietary format, which is HEUG. I'm not sure if there's anything you can do.

    However, between the guy who says "It's hopeless" and the guy who says "This might work", I'd take the advice of the guy offering a solution. :lol:

    Kupi on
    My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
  • AlejandroDaJAlejandroDaJ Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Indeed! However, the PNG thing didn't work. File sizes stayed exactly the same, so it appears that the level of quality/compression offered by different formats is lost on a pixel-by-pixel basis to XNA's proprietary format. Which makes godawful huge images.

    Damn. My options are:

    a) Cut down from 65 to 20 or 30 unlockable images, which would hardly solve the problem, and most of these images are awesome
    b) Significantly cut down on the resolutions of these files, which would also suck, but pending testing on an HDTV, might not offer terrible results
    c) Find some other method of compression supported by XNA, which is unlikely.

    Maaaan.

    AlejandroDaJ on
  • savooipeerdsavooipeerd Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Kupi wrote: »
    Try saving them as PNG files. XNA seems to like that format.

    It's not that. XNB stands for, I believe, "XNA Bitmap". Any content you import, from JPEG to PNG, gets converted into that proprietary format, which is HEUG. I'm not sure if there's anything you can do.

    However, between the guy who says "It's hopeless" and the guy who says "This might work", I'd take the advice of the guy offering a solution. :lol:

    Actually XNB stands for "XNA Binary"; every file that goes through the content pipeline comes out the other end as an .xnb file. What's happening in this case is that all image files get converted to a general-purpose texture format which most likely use little to no compression, resulting in huge .xnb files.

    Unfortunately the Texture2D.FromFile method is only available on Windows, so the only workaround I can think of is to tell your project to skip the content pipeline for that file and then write your own PNG or JPEG importer using StorageContainer.TitleLocation and Texture2D.SetData.

    savooipeerd on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • RainbowDespairRainbowDespair Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Aoi wrote: »
    Been a while since I checked up on the Indie games. Anything new from Arkedo since Pixel was put out?

    Nope.

    RainbowDespair on
  • MetalbourneMetalbourne Inside a cluster b personalityRegistered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Well this thread is done :)

    Metalbourne on
  • AlejandroDaJAlejandroDaJ Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Kupi wrote: »
    Try saving them as PNG files. XNA seems to like that format.

    It's not that. XNB stands for, I believe, "XNA Bitmap". Any content you import, from JPEG to PNG, gets converted into that proprietary format, which is HEUG. I'm not sure if there's anything you can do.

    However, between the guy who says "It's hopeless" and the guy who says "This might work", I'd take the advice of the guy offering a solution. :lol:

    Actually XNB stands for "XNA Binary"; every file that goes through the content pipeline comes out the other end as an .xnb file. What's happening in this case is that all image files get converted to a general-purpose texture format which most likely use little to no compression, resulting in huge .xnb files.

    Unfortunately the Texture2D.FromFile method is only available on Windows, so the only workaround I can think of is to tell your project to skip the content pipeline for that file and then write your own PNG or JPEG importer using StorageContainer.TitleLocation and Texture2D.SetData.

    Ooh, great idea! Thanks!

    AlejandroDaJ on
  • UbuRoiAAUbuRoiAA Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    "Relativity" is a new game that seems interesting, anyone bought it?

    It's kinda weird that you can save in the demo... and then when your demo time is up, start the game again and load your saved game...

    UbuRoiAA on
  • GibbsGibbs Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Well, I made a game with zombies in it lets you play for something like 20 minutes.

    Quite frankly I'm bored with it before I even hit the limit. Hard to justify buying something when the demo is more than you need.

    Gibbs on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    I've got a bad case of lovin' you.
  • AlejandroDaJAlejandroDaJ Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Actually, you know what I did to cut the image size down? I changed the ContentPipeline Processor from "Color" mode to "DXT" mode, which, since the wallpapers don't have alpha channels, compresses the image with DXT1 compression. Went from 150mb in size to 31mb in size.

    The compression is usually reserved for textures on 3D models, however. I've been programming through LogMeIn all day so I haven't been able to see the presentation quality in-person. I'll check it out when I get home and see if it looks good.

    AlejandroDaJ on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    edited April 2010
    new thread time

    Tube on
This discussion has been closed.