Just a game developer :D

Playing with Sound on XNA 4 WP7

shieny — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:31:00 GMT

Hi game geeks! :D

Like we've all already know, we can play sound on our XNA games by using Microsoft XACT (Cross-platfom Audio Creation Tool), which will produce an .xap file that we have to add to our game project, and then we can just call the sound by its name and play it :)

I thought that it's the common thing on all XNA games, regardless to the game platform, but several days ago, I've found that AudioEngine class that is needed to play sound "compressed" using XACT, is not supported on Windows Phone 7 platform ><

Luckily XNA has provided another way to play sound on our game without using XACT and AudioEngine class :D

First, we declare the SoundEffect variable:

SoundEffect sfx;

Then we load the SoundEffect using ContentManager:

sfx = Content.Load<SoundEffect>("sfx");

And we have to create instance of SoundEffect using SoundEffect.CreateInstance():

SoundEffectInstance sfxInstance;

sfxInstance = sfx.CreateInstance();

And then we can just play the sound using SoundEffectInstance.Play():

sfxInstance.Play();

Absolutely easy, isn't it? :D

You can get the example project here

Happy game developing! ^^

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XNA 4 on Windows Phone 7: Beware of Memory Leak!

shieny — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:38:00 GMT

Hello all~~~ :D

Lately we've been busy on developing our WP7 games using XNA 4, while researching about that deeper (since there are some differences with using XNA to develop game on PC or Xbox360).

Two days ago we are confused when we got OutOfMemoryException thrown, when we were trying to load a Texture2D. We admitted it that we've been loading many Texture2D before that, so it finally reached the maximum memory available for games on WP7 (our friend once said that most frustrating issues on developing mobile game is memory and processor issues >:) Actually we never unload or dispose the Texture2D (or other class instances) we've been loading to any game we've developed using XNA, because XNA has handled it very well, without the game developers have to actually overriding the UnloadContent method :)

But when this problem appears, we guess it is because we can utilize much more memories when we're developing games on PC or Xbox360 :D

So we have tried to used ContentManager.Dispose() and ContentManager.Unload() in the body of our Game.UnloadContent(), but it's failed :( And then we have tried to used Texture2D.Dispose() and Texture2D.Unload() for each Texture2D we've loaded in our Game.LoadContent(), but it's also failed >

Our actions above actually made the exception didn't appear anymore and we had successfully load all Texture2D we need, but when we called SpriteBatch.End() in the end of our Game.Draw() function, another exception was appearing (_ _"), said that Texture2D had been disposed, so we couldn't use it anymore.

We considered to give up and take the easiest way to deal with this problem, that is reducing the 2D assets of the game and maximize the reusability of the assets >:D Fortunately we don't take that way because the solution to this problem is actually very easy and make us learn to build games with higher quality code :D

These are the steps:

1. Divide the games by stages or scenes that defines which assets that currently being drawn on the game. Simply, if we are currently on stage 1 of the game, assets of stage 2 won't be drawn, right? So we have to make sure that we only load assets that is currently needed and load the rest later, when they are needed. But finally when we reach the final stage where all assets from first to end stage have been drawn, it means that all textures have been loaded and we never unload it, the OutOfMemoryException will still be thrown. So, what the next step to make this isn't happen anymore?

2. We have to unload the assets each time we advance to the next stages or scenes using ContentManager.Unload(). But wait, I did mention that we have tried it and it threw another exception, right? But luckily it only happens when we load the assets using same ContentManager that has been unloaded, it means -> calling ContentManager.Load() after ContentManager.Unload() will throw InvalidOperationException on next SpriteBatch.End() call. So all we have to do is: using a new ContentManager to load assets for each stages or scenes :D And then we can allocate the memory just with the assets we currently need when the game is running, because we immediately unload all assets of a stage when we move to another stage.

We bet some of you are a little bit confused by what we explained above, because of my English XD So we give another form of explanation in more universal language :D

Class Scene

public class Scene()
{
   public Game1 ParentGame;
   public ContentManager Content;
   public Texture2D Bg;

   public Scene(Game1 parentGame)
   {
      ParentGame = parentGame;
   }

   public void LoadContent()
   {
      Content = new ContentManager(this.Services, "Content");
      Bg = Content.Load(“bg”);
   }

   public void UnloadContent()
   {
      Content.Unload();
   }

   public void Update(GameTime gameTime)
   {
   }

   public void Draw(GameTime gameTime)
   {
      parentGame.SpriteBatch.Draw(Bg, Vector2.Zero, Color.White);
   }
}

Enum EGameState

public enum EGameState
{
   Undefined,
   OnScene1,
   OnScene2
}

Class Game1

public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game
{
   public Scene Scene1;
   public Scene Scene2;

   public SpriteBatch SpriteBatch;

   EGameState currentGameState;
   public EGameState CurrentGameState
   {
      get
      {
         return currentGameState;
      }
      set
      {
         switch (currentGameState)
         {
            case OnScene1:
            {
               Scene1.UnloadContent();
            }
            case OnScene2:
            {
               Scene2.UnloadContent();
            }
         }

         switch (value)
         {
            case OnScene1:
            {
               Scene1.LoadContent();
            }
            case OnScene2:
            {
               Scene2.LoadContent();
            }
         }

         currentGameState = value;
      }
   }

   public Game1()
   {
      Scene1 = new Scene();
      Scene2 = new Scene();
   }

   public void LoadContent()
   {
      SpriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice);

      CurrentGameState = OnScene1;
   }

   public void Update(GameTime gameTime)
   {
      switch (currentGameState)
      {
         case OnScene1:
         {
            Scene1.Update(gameTime);
         }
         case OnScene2:
         {
            Scene2.Update(gameTime);
         }
      }
   }

   public void Draw(GameTime gameTime)
   {
      switch (currentGameState)
      {
         case OnScene1:
         {
            Scene1.Draw(gameTime);
         }
         case OnScene2:
         {
            Scene2.Draw(gameTime);
         }
      }
   }
}

We can see on property Game1.CurrentGameState, that each time we change scene of our game, it unloads the previous scene before loads the new scene.

I still don’t know if this is the best solution of memory leak issue on WP7, but until now we haven’t found any new problems arise because of this solution. If you do, please kindly tell me :D

Happy game developing! ^^

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Creating a Game using Silverlight?

shieny — Tue, 04 May 2010 10:21:00 GMT

Hello all! :D

Do you love playing web games on Facebook, MySpace, or games portal?

Have you ever dream to build your own web games and let everybody in the world playing it happily?

Here we are, Agate Studio, with eager to invite more people to become a game developer, presents you a new e-book to guide you start developing web games using a magnificent technology, Microsoft Silverlight 4!

It's FREE!!

You can download it here. And download the source code here.

Happy Silverlighting, everyone!! ^^

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Hot E-book about XNA and Game Development is Here! :D

shieny — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 04:11:00 GMT

Hi there! It's been a long time since my last blog post >_<

But this time I'm not going to share any news on my post. I will give you some good news, instead ;)

My new e-book, a collaboration with my partner, Arief Widhiyasa, has been released, it's about XNA game development and how to make a simple game using XNA.

This book is dedicated to everyone (especially Indonesian people, because the e-book is in Indonesian :) who ever dream to make her/his own game, but don't know where to start!

Feel free to download it here!

And the source code & assets of the game created on the book here! (but it's much much better if you just open the assets, and leave the source code unopened until you finished the steps provided on the book on your own! :)

Thank you very much and... Happy game developing!! \(^o^)/

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XNA Game Studio 2.0 and 3.0 CTP

shieny — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:32:00 GMT

Hello everyone.. Sorry for taking you so long, if you're all waiting for this post, that is the first post actually talking about XNA, since my first post isn't talking about XNA at all, hehe..

Hmmpph.. I think before we go deeper into XNA world, it will be nice if we can know what features that XNA provides, that can make our game-developing activity become easier and more interesting.

Although it's been a while since XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP was released earlier this year, I want to write about the differences between this version and the previous version. I'm sure there are many people out there who still don't know about this, even they don't know about the newest version of XNA. So, here we go...

XNA Game Studio 2.0

If we open our Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 installed with XNA Game Studio 2.0, we will find this dialog box if we go to the menu File > New > Project...

So in the picture above, we can see 7 installed templates that is provided by XNA Game Studio 2.0. Let's take a closer look to each of them..:)

1. Windows Game (2.0)

This is the template that we choose if we want to make a game for Windows (the name has described it clearly, hasn't it?). By using XNA, we don't have to do many things to make plain window pop-up into the screen. We just have to make new project with this template, and without doing anything else (e.g. setting the project properties to set the libraries that we may use to make the game, make a class that handle the window creation, or add some code in the main program, etc.), we can build and run our project by pressing F5, and tadaaa.. the first window of our new game will be showed up in the center of the screen. By doing this, we can conclude that by using XNA, everything become easier for game developer.:)

2. Xbox 360 Game (2.0)

Just like the first one, this project template allow us to create game in Xbox 360, and everything has been made to make the game production in Xbox 360 easier. Let's say you have made your-ready-to-deploy Xbox 360 game in your computer, so it's time to connect your computer with the Xbox 360 console, so that you can see that the game can run perfectly in the machine. First, you need XNA Game Studio Connect installed in your Xbox 360, to make it possible to connect it with your computer. This XNA Game Studio Connect acts like the bluetooth driver in your bluetooth device (let's say, your handphone), if you want to connect your handphone with your computer.

And then, if you have already connect your Xbox with the computer, it's time to initiate the connection, which is done by the computer. All you have to do is, add you Xbox 360 to your computer using XNA Game Studio Device Center. In the bluetooth-connection-story, the XNA Game Studio Device Center acts like bluetooth adapter driver in your computer.

Just like the bluetooth-connection procedure, when you connect your computer with the already-added-device Xbox 360, you have to insert the connection key both in the Xbox 360 and the computer, to make sure that both side want this connection. For complete information about the connection procedure between the windows-based computer and Xbox 360 in the XNA Game Studio 2.0, see this one.

3. Content Pipeline Extension Library (2.0)

Warning : this is for them who still don't know what is Content Pipeline in XNA.

Content Pipeline is feature provided by XNA Game Studio that makes assets in many types of file can be included in the game. Shortly, a modeler doesn't have to take care of what type of file the model should be converted, so do the developer, she/he doesn't have to take care of what type of file the assets should be so that it can be included in the game. XNA has provided standard content importers and processor to import many types of file to become an asset in XNA game.

Everything called standard will never be enough for game developer, isn't it? :D They understand this situation, so XNA has provided installed template project called Content Pipeline Extension Library so that developer can make custom content importers and processors to import new file types that hasn't been supported by standard importers and processors provided by XNA. Not only to make XNA support new file types, developer can make the standard importers and processors behave differently by making new library that is actually customizing the existing one.

4. Spacewar Xbox 360 Starter Kit (2.0)

This installed template allow us to see the fully functional Xbox 360 game complete with the source code, so that the XNA beginner can learn how to make a game using XNA by reading and modifying the Spacewar source code and see the effect of the modification directly.

5. Windows Game Library (2.0)

With this installed template, we can make game library that typically contain functionalities that hasn't been provided by XNA basic library. When the project is finished, we can reference this project from other Windows Game Project, and enjoy the functionality declared here without including the source code into every projects that need the library's functionalities.

6. Xbox 360 Game Library (2.0)

This installed template works like the above, but this is for the Xbox 360 game.

7. Spacewar Windows Starter Kit (2.0)

This installed template works like the one that works for Xbox 360, but this is for the Windows environment.

XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP

Now if we already have our Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 installed with XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP, we can find this dialog box if we go to File > New > Project....

There are 5 installed templates (fewer than the older version, because this CTP version hasn't support the Xbox 360 game development. So, for those who want to develop Xbox 360 game, they can't use XNA Game Studio 3.0. But in the download details of XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP, they said that Xbox 360 game development will be supported in the final release version, so don't worry :D

1. Windows Game (3.0)

2. Content Pipeline Extension Library (3.0)

3. Windows Game Library (3.0)

I won't say too much for the first three installed templates, because it's basically same as the templates in the 2.0 version.

4. Zune Game Library (3.0)

Basically this is for creating game library that can be used in Zune Game projects.

5. Zune Game (3.0)

This installed template allow us to enjoy the new feature that significantly improve the ability of XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP compare with the previous version. The new feature is developing game in Zune environment. For those who still don't know what Zune is, should see this. FYI, I know what Zune is, after I read this.

Although Zune's capability for 3D rendering is still not as good as Xbox 360, they say that Zune game development has good potential in the future, because unlike other games in other media player devices, Zune games is free of charge, so the development will grow bigger as long there are still "freelance" developer who has eager to develop Zune Game.

Hope this article helps you to know what features provided by 2 latest versions of XNA Game Studio..

See ya.. :)

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Hello Everyone... :)

shieny — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:45:00 GMT

Hello .. This morning, finally I've made my blog in geeks .. I've been wondering since long time to start blogging in this blog portal, but I don't know.. maybe this is just the right time to finally start it :)

Okay, to start the blogging activity in geeks, let me introduce myself .. My name is Shieny Aprilia, and people usually call me by my first name, just Shieny .. or you can call it shorter, it doesn't really matter as long I call you back when you call me.. hehe..

I'm informatics student in ITB 2005, so now i'm active as 4th grade student *not really active though, because it's still summer holiday in ITB, and now i'm doing my internship at Mitrais, Kuta, Bali until August*...

About me and Microsoft...

I've been MIC ITB crew since 2007, and thanks to Ronald and the other crews so that I can learn and gain many things *both the abstract or the concrete ones* from the organization..

For your information, this year I join Imagine Cup Competition, Software Design Category.. My team is Screaming Tree.. Although we're in the 3rd place of the competition *hux*, but i still feel very lucky and blessed because from the first time we make our team, i don't even think we can't make it through until the Indonesian Final, even until the top 10, we never imagine it.. haha.. but there's still dissapointment in our heart, because the 3rd place team doesn't go to Paris *huaaa.. huaa..*

Hehe.. okay, enough for the unimportant one, let's move on to the important one :)

Here in geeks, I plan to make posts related to XNA.. why XNA? if you really really want to know, please click this.. if you don't, i recommend you not to do so.. :D

Overall, i've decided to focus on XNA because i have big interest in gamedev, although my skill is still far from this boy, but i hope i can always have big eager to keep learn learn and learn.. And i want my dream since i was a little baby *little bit hyperbolic, i think, :p* to be good game developer will come true *as soon as possible, i hope*.. beside, me and Agate Studio, in few months later will develop game using XNA.. so, i think my motivation on exploring XNA will grow bigger if i can make documentation of my exploration somewhere..

I plan to make posts both in English and Indonesian *but when it's too hectic to do both of them, maybe i'll choose to do it only in Indonesian*, not because i want to be cocky to show off my skill in English *there's nothing i can proud of about my English, though*, but i want all people can't understand what i say *maybe there are people who can only speak Indonesian but can't speak English, or vice versa?*.. and actually i want to improve my English by making posts in English, although it needs twice or more effort to do that than make it in Indonesian..

Before i do many mistakes in English *and/or Indonesian* grammar in my post *or i've made it already in this post, oh no...*, i want to apologize to you first.. hehe.. I always accept any suggestion from you.. :)

Hope we can learn together.. Wish me luuuucckkk.. :)

See ya..

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