TechEd Barcelona. 2007

Tomorrow I´m traveling to Barcelona to attend the Microsoft TechEd Developers 2007. I´d be glad to meet you there if you also attend.

I´ll try to post session comments here too, at the end of each day.

Cheers!

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Mañana viajo a Barcelona para asistir al TechEd Developers 2007 que Microsoft organiza esta semana.

Estaré encantado de veros por allí si estáis, y también trataré de postear comentarios, impresiones o resúmenes de las sesiones a las que vaya asistiendo.

Saludos!

Great master of chess trying Simax

Several months ago, we had the pleasure to receive at our facilities to the great master of chess Miguel Illescas.

He was trying one of the first prototypes of the simax simulator. Although it was in a very primitive stage, he liked it and enjoyed a ride with a Volkswagen Polo.

I include this post now, because I´ve received this link with some info about it (Basque Language)

http://www.xake.net/6Gogoratzen/2007_EUS/2007-05-29%20Miguel%20Illescas,%20xakelaria%20eta%20informatikaria%20-Berria-n.htm

XNA Game Studio 2.0

It seems that version 2 of XNA Game Studio is around the corner. We are all willing to test the new features described here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/archive/2007/08/13/announcing-xna-game-studio-2-0.aspx

Just one note: it will finally work with all versions of Visual Studio (2005 professional, ...).

Cheers!

MSFT Madrid

Today, I had the chance to visit Microsoft facilities in Madrid. It´s a beautiful place as you can see:

Good to work here, specially after you see several XBox360 at the entrance ;)

Thank you guys!

Photoshop CS3 Layers. Select all pixels & rasterize effects

I´ve been messing around with Photoshop CS3 and I´ve found a couple of things I´d like to share with you.

In versions of PS prior to the CS2, only one layer in the layer palette could be selected at a time. Now, there´s the possibility to select more than one layer and work with them alltogether, in the typical ctrl+click way to select and de-select layers.

This is great, but that combination (ctrl+click) was previously used to select all layer´s visible pixels. So now, how is this thing done? Well, after 15 minutes trying, searching, and desperating, I´ve realized it´s the very same thing, but clicking in the layer´s thumbnail instead of any part of layers entrance.

Second trick I´ve found here:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/photoshop/qt/flatlayereffect.htm

HOWTO flatten, or rasterize all layer´s effects:

If you have applied some effects to a layer, all of them keep editable at all the time. This is also great but if you need at some time to "apply" all that effects, rasterize them in the layer and reset all the effects properties, so you can work again with the modified layer "from scratch", there is no obvious option to do so.

A very easy way to do this, is to create an empty layer and place it just below the layer you want to flatten. Then merge that layer down (ctrl+E) to the empty layer you just created and voilá! all the effects get applied and disappeared.

Cheers!

Tutorial de desarrollo de Juegos: Diseño basado en componentes

No siempre voy a hacerlo, pero hoy me veo con fuerzas y voy a tratar de escribir este tutorial en ambos idiomas. Allá va...

Si habéis leído algo sobre XNA, probablemente hayáis visto un concepto que, aunque lleva ya bastantes años por ahí, su aplicación en el sector de los videojuegos es bastante nueva y especialmente apropiada. Estoy hablando del: Desarrollo basado en componentes.

La idea es diseñar todos los objetos del juego siguiendo un mismo interfaz:


// Inicialización del objeto, construcción de recursos, etc
void Initialize();

// Actualización: Incluye toda la lógica del juego necesaria para el objeto
void Update(double pAppTime, float pElapsedTime);

// Dibujado, en los casos que proceda
void Render(Device pGraphicsDevice);

Los parámetros de esos métodos pueden variar a gusto del consumidor. XNA o DX9 tienen sus parámetros típicos, pero tu usa aquellos con los que te sientas cómodo.

Lo importante de todo esta metodología es que mantiene una estructura de aplicación muy muy simple, fácil de comprender y de extender, ya que todos los objetos se comportan de la misma manera. Si lo piensas bien, practicamente nunca vas a necesitar nada fuera de esos tres métodos.

En los siguientes posts bajo este mismo TAG, iré incluyendo un tutorial que muestra el desarrollo de un juego muy sencillo, del estilo al arkanoid, que sigue este patrón o filosofía. Está basado en C# y GDI, y aunque no es nada complicado, sirve para mostrar este concepto.

Saludiños!

Game Development Tutorial: Component based design or more precisely, the Interface used in CBD

If you´ve read something about XNA, you have probably seen a concept that, though it´s out there for many years now, it´s quite new and specially appropiate for games: Component based programming.

Some people pointed out that I´m talking more about the interface used in the Component Based Design of XNA than the CBD itself, and they are right. Absolutely right.

The important idea I wanted to transmit here is the convenience of using game objects or components that share an interface like the following:

// Object initialization, boot up, etc
void Initialize();

// State update: Put your game logic in here
void Update(double pAppTime, float pElapsedTime);

// Draw method: draw the object if needed
void Render(Device pGraphicsDevice);

The important thing about this methodology is that it keeps a very simple application structure, and every component behaves in the very same way. If you think about it, most of the times you don´t need anything appart from those 3 methods.

In the following posts in this same tag, I´ll include a very simple arkanoid-like game application that follows this mothodology. It´s quite simple, C# and GDI based, but it performs pretty well and shows what I´m talking about.

Cheers!

Double Buffer Graphics in C# + GDI

Hi all,

recently, I was building a test application that needed some basic graphic drawing to show some physical values in real time. I wanted to do it simple and fast, so I didn´t want to deal with all the DirectX stuff (devices, resources, etc). That´s why I went into the simple Windows Forms GDI solution.

I wrote the program and run fine but, as expected, flickering appeared all around when animation came into scene. This is something that was obviously going to happen, so I decided to remember the old times and search for a double buffer drawing solution.

It is very simple to fix this behavior, just draw everything appart, to a different surface, and then dump the whole picture to the screen. Among the different solutions I found over the internet, one of the best and most simple is the code included below (NT Almond. 2003):

Just include it in a class and perform all the rendering through its Graphics object.

et voilá!

using System;
using System.Drawing;

namespace GDIDB
{
///

/// Class to implement Double Buffering
/// NT Almond
/// 24 July 2003
///

///
public class DBGraphics
{
private Graphics graphics;
private Bitmap memoryBitmap;
private int width;
private int height;

///

/// Default constructor
///

public DBGraphics()
{
width = 0;
height = 0;
}

///

/// Creates double buffer object
///

/// Window forms Graphics Object
/// width of paint area
/// height of paint area
/// true/false if double buffer is created
public bool CreateDoubleBuffer( Graphics g, int width, int height )
{
if ( width <= 0 height <= 0 ) return false; if ( width != this.width height != this.height memoryBitmap == null graphics == null ) { if ( memoryBitmap != null ) { memoryBitmap.Dispose(); memoryBitmap = null; } if ( graphics != null ) { graphics.Dispose(); graphics = null; } this.width = width; this.height = height; memoryBitmap = new Bitmap( width, height ); graphics = Graphics.FromImage( memoryBitmap ); } return true; } ///

/// Renders the double buffer to the screen
///

/// Window forms Graphics Object
public void Render( Graphics g )
{
if ( memoryBitmap != null )
g.DrawImage( memoryBitmap, new Rectangle( 0, 0, width, height ), 0, 0, width, height, GraphicsUnit.Pixel );
}

///

///
///

/// true if double buffering can be achieved
public bool CanDoubleBuffer()
{
return graphics != null;
}

///

/// Accessor for memory graphics object
///

public Graphics g
{
get
{
return graphics;
}
}
}
}

Code found here, among other sites:
http://www.koders.com/csharp/fid8D1742BF7E30AEB520A0548A95C99DD48CDAA645.aspx

Simax en Navarparty 2007

Muy buenas,

hace ya bastante tiempo que no escribo en el blog. Como dirían algunos... busy, busy, busy...

En fin, que este viernes estaré en la Navarparty (Pamplona), presentando el proyecto Simax y respondiendo a cualquier duda que salga. También habrá alguna demo del sistema, técnica, etc.

El horario provisional es 17:30 de la tarde. Si por algún motivo cambia, podréis verlo actualizado aqui:

http://www.navarparty.org/content/view/69/115/

Salu2!

New simax video. ABS braking practice

In the following link:

http://stage6.divx.com/user/graphicdna/video/1403012/Simax-DS--Practica-con-ABS---ABS-Braking-practice

you can find the latest Simax Project video. An exercise practicing braking with and without Anti-lock Braking System.

cheers!

Discover the Logitech G25

As you probably already know, the G25´s shifter is extremely functional as it can be configured as an h-pattern shifter or a sequential shifter.

What maybe you don´t know yet is that you can push the shifter down when h-pattern mode is selected. "Pushing down and setting a gear", will result in a different button than just "setting that gear".

This feature allows you to simulate, for example, a 6-gear car gearbox, configuring the reverse in the push-and-first_gear or push_and_sixth gear, just like in many real cars.

The G25 is fantastic !

Unveiling the power of the Porsche 911

Take a look at the newest Simax Project video. It shows a high speed ride with the Porsche 911 Carrera through a highway, closed to traffic.

http://stage6.divx.com/user/graphicdna/video/1351013/Simax-DS--Porsche-911-highway-ride--HD

More info at: www.simax.es

Simax HiRes Videos

Muy buenas, estamos subiendo los videos del proyecto Simax al siguiente link:

http://stage6.divx.com/user/graphicdna/videos/group:uservideos

Stage6 soporta videos HD, así que hasta nuevo aviso, todos los futuros videos serán subidos allí.

Saludos

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Hi, we are uploading all the simax videos to:

http://stage6.divx.com/user/graphicdna/videos/group:uservideos

They are HD, so every new video will appear there too.

Cheers!