Microsoft XNA 4.0 Game Development Cookbook

By Luke Drumm

“Microsoft XNA 4.0 Game Development Cookbook” is a fast-paced cookbook for taking your knowledge of the framework further with advanced game development tasks. Packed with step-by-step instructions and screenshots, the book will solve an experienced developer’s everyday coding problems. If you are an XNA developer who has already successfully mastered simple 2D and 3D XNA tasks, dive into “Microsoft XNA 4.0 Game Development Cookbook” for something more challenging. You should be comfortable with the basics of the XNA framework, and have experience with C#.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Release date: Jun 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781849691994

Book preview

Table of Contents

Microsoft XNA 4.0 Game Development Cookbook

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers, and more

Why Subscribe?

Free Access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Applying Special Effects

Introduction

Creating shadows within the Reach profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Creating shadows within the HiDef profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Implementing lens flare within the Reach profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Implementing lens flare within the HiDef profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Implementing smoke within the Reach profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating explosions within the Reach profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating explosions within the HiDef profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also...

2. Building 2D and 3D Terrain

Introduction

Displaying hexagonal maps

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Displaying 2D isometric maps

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Importing and displaying 3D isometric maps

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Generating 3D height maps

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating block worlds within the Reach profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Textures

Creating block worlds within the HiDef profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

3. Procedural Modeling

Introduction

Modeling triangles

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Dynamic vertex buffers

See also

Modeling discs

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also...

Modeling spheres

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Modeling tori

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Modeling trees

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

4. Creating Water and Sky

Introduction

Creating water within the HiDef profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Shallow water

Deep water

Building skyboxes within the Reach profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Building skyboxes within the HiDef profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Cloud generation within the Reach profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Billboarding

See also

5. Non-Player Characters

Introduction

A* pathfinding

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Distance estimation

See also

Character state machines

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Scripting

Animation

See also

Constructing dialogue

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Scripting

See also

Decentralizing behavior

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

6. Playing with Animation

Introduction

Applying animation with SkinnedEffect

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Motion capture with Kinect

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Under voice command

Integrating rag doll physics

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Part time action

Rendering crowds

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

7. Creating Vehicles

Introduction

Applying simple car physics

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Getting more physical

See also

Implementing simple plane controls

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Rendering reflective materials within the Reach profile

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

The cost of reflecting

See also

8. Receiving Player Input

Introduction

Adding text fields

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

On the phone

Creating dialog wheels

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Dragging, dropping, and sliding

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

9. Networking

Introduction

Connecting across a LAN

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Connecting across the Web

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Synchronizing client states

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Index

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.

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First published: June 2012

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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.

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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:

Windows Vista (SP2) or later

XNA Game Studio 4.0 (usually bundled as part of the Windows Phone SDK) or later

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#.

Conventions

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:

Vector3 lightDirection;

BasicEffect reachShadowEffect;

Matrix flattenShadow;

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.

Reader feedback

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To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <[e-mail]>, and mention the book title through the subject of your message.

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Downloading the example code

You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

Errata

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Questions

You can contact us at <[e-mail]> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.

Chapter 1. Applying Special Effects

In this chapter we will cover:

Creating shadows within the Reach profile

Creating shadows within the HiDef profile

Implementing lens flare within the Reach profile

Implementing lens flare within the HiDef profile

Implementing smoke within the Reach profile

Creating explosions within the Reach