So I won’t be needing to rush out a new release to be compatible.  You’ll be fine with the last one.

YAY!!!

I saw this first at Mykres Space, but it’s out now.  More info at this XNA Team Blog post.

We’ve gone over many of the features outlined in the announcement we made at GDC 2007. One thing we didn’t really cover previously is compatibility. The entire team made a conscious effort to maintain compatibility with this release.

• Your game should just recompile in 1.0 Refresh with no changes required.
• Any game that is compiled should run fine if you have 1.0 Refresh installed.
• As mentioned, you can continue to use 1.0 on your Windows computer with 1.0 Refresh on the Xbox 360 console.
• Games that are built on 1.0 Refresh may run on 1.0; however, if you are using new functions or features in the XNA Framework (such as font functionality), it will not work properly.

I particularly like this bit…

Your game should just recompile in 1.0 Refresh with no changes required.

Go here to download it.  The runtime “redistributable” is also available here.

So, I guess I should get busy and re-release “Sharky’s Air Legends” for the new XNA (although it might just work regardless).  Tis a shame as I was in the middle of a pretty cool new feature too.  I just hope I haven’t broken too much to prevent me re-releasing real soon. 

Stay tuned.

p.s.  Today (25 April) is “ANZAC day” here in New Zealand, Australia & I think some Pacific islands too.  Go the ANZACS, you’ll never be forgotten!

Soul food

I recently revived another old hobby.  Surfing – the waves, that is. Actually Bodyboarding to be specific (which is why my gaming name is SharkBiscuit).

Anyway, this weekend the surf was absolutely pumping here in Wellington, New Zealand.  I went out both days and I’m stoked, and still buzzing.  Soul food.

A funny thing happened on the Saturday session.  I paddled out, caught one great wave, and the waves inexplicably stopped coming.  Must have been a good 20-30 minute wait before any worthy sets came through again.  During that time I got chatting with another surfer.  Inevitably, we discussed the option of paddling in closer to shore for some smaller waves.  Of course, we both realised that as soon as one of us did, a big set would roll in and we’d regret it.  Murphy’s Law/Sod’s law, whatever you call it.  Still, it got to the point where with nothing to surf I started getting pretty cold. I said to the guy, “You know, I’m gonna paddle in for some small dribbly surf, so that you guys don’t have to (because the big sets would surely start rolling in then) I’ll take the hit for the team. Y’know, for the greater good ‘n all”. yada yada yada.

So I did, and sure enough the big sets started rolling in again, and everybody was happy.  No regrets - I needed the exercise anyway.

It got me thinking though…

Here am I holding off on releasing my most exciting ”Air Legends” release yet.  Preferring to wait for Microsoft to release their latest and greatest XNA framework first.

So I’ve decided I’m going to invoke “Sods Law” once again, and take the hit for the team.  I’ll release early after all.  If the XNA release comes shortly afterwards then so be it.  You’ll all be able to thank me!

Get my best release ever… here.

(I’ll release an XNA v.next version just as soon as it comes out and I’ve done any conversions.)

Howdy folks.

I have some cool stuff waiting in the wings to release as soon as the new XNA comes out (and once I’ve done any necessary conversions).  The word is April, but when I wonder?  For me it can’t come soon enough. 

I’m wondering if I should just release it now anyway, and follow up with an XNA v.next release when it comes out. I’m open to persuasion…

Anyway, check out some more teaser pics of what’s coming in my next release…

Added a Lobby screen

The title screen no longer doubles as the main menu.  I’ve created this new “Lobby” screen where players can join-in/drop-out and choose their Aircraft, and daylight/dusk environments. 

Added a Help screen

This screen is simply to show you what the controls are. 

Revised Title screen

The title screen is simply a splash screen now, but I’ve tweaked it a bit. 

Yep, you can expect to live out all those BF109 vs Spitfire fantasies just as soon as I do my next release.  Since a new version of XNA is due out any day now, I’m thinking I’ll probably hold off till then. The texturing needs some work anyway, and I’ll need to refine the menus further.

Apologies for the quietness of this blog lately.   Rest assured I’ve been working as hard as ever.

/

So before anyone asks…

Are you playing the latest build of Air Legends and puzzling about the Player 2 keyboard controls?

Here’s the shakedown.  I chose to use the Numeric key Pad so as to avoid any nasty elbow injuries or intimacy issues with a Player 1 also sharing the same keyboard.

Now that’s all well and groovy, but just remember to check NumLock is ON.  Otherwise you’ll probably find you’re actually controlling Player 1.   With numlock off they seem to double as another set of cursor keys.  Now that could come in handy if the dogfight gets dirty.  Not that I’d condone that sort of caper. No, not at all.   

(for some reason Turbo Lax comes to mind)

BTW, the NumLock thing was a late discovery last night actually. But I was determined to get a release out in the wild.  I wonder If I can lock the NumLock ON somehow?

That’s right. 2 player splitscreen multiplayer is here!

Go download it.

Michael Klucher posted the news on the XNA Team Blog.

There is a new XNA community website online now.  Check out Creators Club Online. 

Please note, you don’t seem to need to own an XBOX 360 or have a Creators Club subscription. It’s free!

There you’ll find:

• tutorials
• samples
• a new starter kit.
• new forums.

Oh for more time!

Greetings earthlings. 

I’ve just this minute uploaded a new build of “Air Legends”. It’s late, so I won’t blab on about it right now.

Cutting right to the chase, here’s what’s new…

• Added original music. Created by a great buddy of mine, Martin “NadNailerâ€? Kay.
• Collision detection is now optimized for better performance. As promised in my previous post.
• The Screenshot feature is now fixed. Use the PrintScrn key & Controller “Yâ€? button to save a screenshot (in both Jpg & Bmp formats). The files get put in a “ScreenShots” subdirectory of where you installed the game.
• And last but not least, this is the first release using my new Installer. I built it using Microsoft’s Windows Installer XML (aka. “WiX”). See what the wikipedia has to say about it.

Go grab this new release from the Latest Builds page here.

Your feedback is always welcome – via the usual channels.
i.e. Leave a ”comment”.

ENJOY

I have just updated the source Code with some optimizations. (they’ll be incorporated in my next game release soon too)

I haven’t updated the tutorials to reflect these enhancements yet, but the general concept is still the same.

The main changes are these:

• When constructing a BoundingPart you now additionally pass the original ModelMesh’s original BoundingSphere. This is used as a general proximity test, so the rest of the BoundingSphere’s don’t need to be transformed and tested on every frame.
• This behavior is optional. When calling Transform() there is a bool “optimizeâ€? parameter. Pass false and the behavior is as it was before.
• Re factored a little. The List stuff is now encapsulated into a class.
• When you run the sample, you will notice the BoundingSpheres often don’t move with the model. This is deliberate, and demonstrates the optimizations working. It means they didn’t need to get transformed on each frame because nothing (i.e. the 3D Mouse Cursor) is in the general proximity of their BoundingPart.
• the XBOX 360 controller now rumbles when the 3D Mouse cursor collides.

The old “tutorial” code is still available in the usual place, but you can get the new optimized version here also. (just scroll down the page further to find the updated version)