G’day all.

Here’s the deal…

• You asked for it. At last there are Sound Effects!
• Also it is all converted for XNA v1.0 that was just released yesterday. No pain at all. Done in 5 minutes.

Go grab the new (& coolest) release from the Latest Builds page here.

My first cut at sound, but I’m actually pretty stoked about how it’s turned out. The crazy perfectionist in me will continue to refine the sounds of course.

I hope you like it. It’s almost feeling like a real game to me (although I have so much more left to do.)

Now remember, your comments, ideas & feedback are always welcome.

Hi there.

With 3 altered lines of code I’ve made the Fireball & Explosion effects look a whole lot better.  The difference between the two effects was really too similar.  They’re more distinct now, and I’m much happier with them.

Get the new release from the Latest Builds page here. 

Enjoy!

Shawn Hargreaves seems to be blogging with a vengeance today.  Possibly going for some kind of record. 

Anyway, among other things, he alerts us to another XNA Team member’s blog:  Eli’s Cornflower Blue blog opens with part 1 of an article explaining Alpha Blending, how it works, and it’s relationship to the Depth Buffer.

I’ve only skim read it so far, but it looks like some very good info.  Exactly what the doctor ordered actually, because when I was converting from XNA Beta 1 to 2 I had all sorts of problems with weird Alpha Blending symptoms.  All fixed now, but I never really understood the problem.

I’m looking forward to studying this one ASAP.

Howdy all.

I’ve released another new build of the game.  You can get it from the Latest Builds page. 

What’s new?

was bored…

So I got bored of completing the “skywriting” (for my kids) feature mentioned earlier.  Bit of a tangent really.  It’s kind of there.  Call me lazy - call me bad daddy, but dedicating a new game mode + menu to it just wasn’t thrilling enough for me right now. (besides, the kids somehow broke one of my 360 controllers, and my son chewed the thumbstick on the remaining working one. grrrrrrr)  Also the fancy new “3D” rendered menu I was working on was a bit more difficult than I’d hoped. ”Skywriting” will still be in the next release, but remains blended with the rest of the gameplay.  Just a differen’t button press to pump out the coloured smoke – if you feel so inclined.

now excited…

Now, what I am enjoying is adding EXPLOSION/Fireball effects!!!!  That will be in the next release in some form or other.

I started off doing a particle system for an explosion, and what eventuated was an awesome effect of the plane engulfed in flames.  I’m extremely happy with it, so if that isn’t motivation then I don’t know what is.

Think I might use the effect shortly before an explosion.  Right now I’m thinking the explosion will be the same effect, but tweaked for more impact, maybe some spinning shrappnel (to replace the plane model)

Might post a screenshot soonish – stay tuned folks.

p.s.  oh, and it’s official, unfortunately Santa isn’t going to be bringing me an XBOX 360 for Christmas this year.  Which means ”Air Legends” will stay PC only for a bit longer than I’d hoped.   :(

Yes, I’m still here.

The relative silence is because lately I’ve been far too busy at both work & play.

I’d like to say the “play” has all been XNA, but I’ve been enjoying Battlefield 2142 a bit too much for that.

What I have done is add the “skywriting” feature (my 6 year old daughters idea) to my “Air Legends” game. Basically the plane puffs out red smoke trails while you press a particular button, so you can do lovely pacifist pictures in the sky.

A very easy feature to do with some tweaks to my existing smoke particle system.  So a nice quick win on the progress front. 

It’s certainly not a historically accurate feature, but that’s why it’ll be presented like a seperate game mode with no enemy aircraft. (actually it should probably be a different themed game altogether).  Anyway, doing the menu for it is taking longer than the feature itself. Go figure.

XNA news

It’s December at last.  So not long to go now for the Full release of XNA.  December 12th, I believe.

David “LetsKillDave” Weller posts some exciting news that the migration of code built on XNA Beta 2 to the Full release, should be relatively painless.

Those of you that are fearing the RTM version of XNA will result in the same kind of pain as the Beta 1 to Beta 2 transition, take heart.  There are VERY few API changes this time around.  All the “beta 2″ code that I’ve tested so far has worked without needing code modification (or very minor modification).  Those of you that have invested time in writing Beta 2 games or tutorials will most likely find your code works perfectly.

He also introduces us to another great XNA resource. Michael Anderson’s blog is putting out some very cool info with source code included. 

Check out “Manders vs. Machine“.  Definately one to follow.

Shawn Hargreaves of the XNA Team, has posted an excellent item explaining XNA’s Model class hierarchy.

If you see one blog post this year,  see “Models, Meshes, parts, and bones”.

Honestly, this is a good read folks, and rather entertaining too. Clearly Shawn was having a great day when he posted it. 

G’day folks.

I’ve just uploaded another release on the Latest Builds page. So go grab it and give it a whirl. I’d love to know what you think.

What’s new?

• I have added a throttle control so now you can vary the speed of the Spitty! To go faster use the XBOX 360 Controller’s RightTrigger. For Keyboard users use any of the following Keys: Left Shift, Left Ctrl, Left Alt or Right Alt. Whichever you prefer but I think Right Alt is the most intuitive.
• Fixed the problem I blogged about earlier. Playing for long periods could result in the background going black and hideous framerates. The code was carelessly consuming too much memory and eventually resulting in the problems. I’m now much more careful about freeing up memory I’ve used, so the memory usage doesn’t climb nearly so high.
• Improved the AI. I had inadvertently ruined it in the previous release. Oops, sorry.
• The Title screen/menu is a little more original than it was before. I’ve been feeling guilty about my use of the well known painting, so I’m gradually making a parody of it instead. It now features my own Spitfire model posed to match the painting. Not as pretty, but at least it’s my own…well mostly – parts of the original painting are still visible.

New title screen: Parody vs Plagiarism? Now and then…

Updated:  my spelling was awful. 

Howdy folks.

You may or may not have noticed already, but my last build (10 November 2006) doesn’t run too well over long periods of time.

I’ve noticed that if I play it for reasonable length of time (at least a couple of minutes perhaps), the sky suddenly goes black, and the framerate gets horrid.  Not really sure of the cause yet. Possibly a memory leak, or maybe not recovering from a DeviceReset cleanly.

Just letting you know that I’m aware of it - looking into it - and hopefully fixing it.  

Well, I guess it’s official.  “Sharky’s Air Legends” is the *working-title* for my game in progress.

As with the game itself, the title just evolved.  It came about when Microsoft needed some kind of title for featuring in their XNA showcase video, and was actually one of their suggestions (the game’s filename was “Legends.exe”).  Has a nice enough ring to it, so I just went with it.

Obviously, if I ever went commercial with the game, I’d have to think up something less “homebrew” feeling.  It’s not like the namesake was ever an Ace fighter pilot, now was I?

Whatever happens, I think the “Legends” part of the title would probably stick.  Part of my motivation to create yet-another-WWII-game is because there really is so much WWII lore left to tell.  The long-term goal of my game would be to let the player easily experience these legendary aircraft in scenarios typical of what they fought in. 

Now for a short history lesson:

• Battle for Britain: Spitfire vs Me-109
• Lancaster Bombers: Dambusters, bombing the Tirpitz.
• Mosquito: high speed, low flying, ground attack! (No defensive armament because it was way faster than any fighter at the time!)
• P-51 Mustang vs Focke Wulf FW 190

So many legendary match-ups, and missions!  (And so little time to make a game from it all.)

Oh, and here’s another scenario to put in the game:  For those that didn’t grow up hearing all this stuff from their Dads like I did,  this’ll make your jaw drop…

“A Spitfire using its wingtip to ‘topple’ a V-1 flying bomb (aka. Doodlebug)”

AWESOME, that’s what I’m talk’n about right there!