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  • Newbie Python programmer tangling with Lists.

    - by Sergio Tapia
    Here's what I've got so far: # A. match_ends # Given a list of strings, return the count of the number of # strings where the string length is 2 or more and the first # and last chars of the string are the same. # Note: python does not have a ++ operator, but += works. def match_ends(words): counter = 0 for word in words: if len(word) >= 2 and word[0] == word[-1]: counter += counter return counter # +++your code here+++ return I'm following the Google Python Class, so this isn't homework, but me just learning and improving myself; so please no negative comments about 'not doing my homework'. :P What do you guys think I'm doing wrong here? Here's the result: match_ends X got: 0 expected: 3 X got: 0 expected: 2 X got: 0 expected: 1 I'm really loving Python, so I just know that I'll get better at it. :)

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  • C++ Newbie: Passing an fstream to a function to read data

    - by vgm64
    I have a text file named num.txt who's only contents is the line 123. Then I have the following: void alt_reader(ifstream &file, char* line){ file.read(line, 3); cout << "First Time: " << line << endl; } int main() { ifstream inFile; int num; inFile.open("num.txt"); alt_reader(inFile, (char*)&num); cout << "Second Time: " << num << endl; } The output is: First Time: 123 Second Time: 3355185 Can you help me figure out how to get an fstream that is read in a function still assign the variable in main? I'm doing this because alt_reader really has a lot more to it, but this is the part I'm stuck on. Thanks a lot for the help.

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  • Error instantiating Texture2D in MonoGame for Windows 8 Metro Apps

    - by JimmyBoh
    I have an game which builds for WindowsGL and Windows8. The WindowsGL works fine, but the Windows8 build throws an error when trying to instantiate a new Texture2D. The Code: var texture = new Texture2D(CurrentGame.SpriteBatch.GraphicsDevice, width, 1); // Error thrown here... texture.setData(FunctionThatReturnsColors()); You can find the rest of the code on Github. The Error: SharpDX.SharpDXException was unhandled by user code HResult=-2147024809 Message=HRESULT: [0x80070057], Module: [Unknown], ApiCode: [Unknown/Unknown], Message: The parameter is incorrect. Source=SharpDX StackTrace: at SharpDX.Result.CheckError() at SharpDX.Direct3D11.Device.CreateTexture2D(Texture2DDescription& descRef, DataBox[] initialDataRef, Texture2D texture2DOut) at SharpDX.Direct3D11.Texture2D..ctor(Device device, Texture2DDescription description) at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.Texture2D..ctor(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice, Int32 width, Int32 height, Boolean mipmap, SurfaceFormat format, Boolean renderTarget) at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.Texture2D..ctor(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice, Int32 width, Int32 height) at BrewmasterEngine.Graphics.Content.Gradient.CreateHorizontal(Int32 width, Color left, Color right) in c:\Projects\Personal\GitHub\BrewmasterEngine\BrewmasterEngine\Graphics\Content\Gradient.cs:line 16 at SampleGame.Menu.Widgets.GradientBackground.UpdateBounds(Object sender, EventArgs args) in c:\Projects\Personal\GitHub\BrewmasterEngine\SampleGame\Menu\Widgets\GradientBackground.cs:line 39 at SampleGame.Menu.Widgets.GradientBackground..ctor(Color start, Color stop, Int32 scrollamount, Single scrollspeed, Boolean horizontal) in c:\Projects\Personal\GitHub\BrewmasterEngine\SampleGame\Menu\Widgets\GradientBackground.cs:line 25 at SampleGame.Scenes.IntroScene.Load(Action done) in c:\Projects\Personal\GitHub\BrewmasterEngine\SampleGame\Scenes\IntroScene.cs:line 23 at BrewmasterEngine.Scenes.Scene.LoadScene(Action`1 callback) in c:\Projects\Personal\GitHub\BrewmasterEngine\BrewmasterEngine\Scenes\Scene.cs:line 89 at BrewmasterEngine.Scenes.SceneManager.Load(String sceneName, Action`1 callback) in c:\Projects\Personal\GitHub\BrewmasterEngine\BrewmasterEngine\Scenes\SceneManager.cs:line 69 at BrewmasterEngine.Scenes.SceneManager.LoadDefaultScene(Action`1 callback) in c:\Projects\Personal\GitHub\BrewmasterEngine\BrewmasterEngine\Scenes\SceneManager.cs:line 83 at BrewmasterEngine.Framework.Game2D.LoadContent() in c:\Projects\Personal\GitHub\BrewmasterEngine\BrewmasterEngine\Framework\Game2D.cs:line 117 at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.Initialize() at BrewmasterEngine.Framework.Game2D.Initialize() in c:\Projects\Personal\GitHub\BrewmasterEngine\BrewmasterEngine\Framework\Game2D.cs:line 105 at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.DoInitialize() at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.Run(GameRunBehavior runBehavior) at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game.Run() at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.MetroFrameworkView`1.Run() InnerException: Is this an error that needs to be solved in MonoGame, or is there something that I need to do differently in my engine and game?

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  • Snake Game Help

    - by MuhammadA
    I am making a snake game and learning XNA at the same time. I have 3 classes : Game.cs, Snake.cs and Apple.cs My problem is more of a conceptual problem, I want to know which class is really responsible for ... detecting collision of snake head on apple/itself/wall? which class should increase the snakes speed, size? It seems to me that however much I try and put the snake stuff into snake.cs that game.cs has to know a lot about the snake, like : -- I want to increase the score depending on size of snake, the score variable is inside game.cs, which means now I have to ask the snake its size on every hit of the apple... seems a bit unclean all this highly coupled code. or -- I DO NOT want to place the apple under the snake... now the apple suddenly has to know about all the snake parts, my head hurts when I think of that. Maybe there should be some sort of AppleLayer.cs class that should know about the snake... Whats the best approach in such a simple scenario? Any tips welcome. Game.cs : using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServices; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Design; namespace Snakez { public enum CurrentGameState { Playing, Paused, NotPlaying } public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game { private GraphicsDeviceManager _graphics; private SpriteBatch _spriteBatch; private readonly Color _niceGreenColour = new Color(167, 255, 124); private KeyboardState _oldKeyboardState; private SpriteFont _scoreFont; private SoundEffect _biteSound, _crashSound; private Vector2 _scoreLocation = new Vector2(10, 10); private Apple _apple; private Snake _snake; private int _score = 0; private int _speed = 1; public Game1() { _graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this); Content.RootDirectory = "Content"; } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to perform any initialization it needs to before starting to run. /// This is where it can query for any required services and load any non-graphic /// related content. Calling base.Initialize will enumerate through any components /// and initialize them as well. /// </summary> protected override void Initialize() { base.Initialize(); } /// <summary> /// LoadContent will be called once per game and is the place to load /// all of your content. /// </summary> protected override void LoadContent() { _spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); _scoreFont = Content.Load<SpriteFont>("Score"); _apple = new Apple(800, 480, Content.Load<Texture2D>("Apple")); _snake = new Snake(Content.Load<Texture2D>("BodyBlock")); _biteSound = Content.Load<SoundEffect>("Bite"); _crashSound = Content.Load<SoundEffect>("Crash"); } /// <summary> /// UnloadContent will be called once per game and is the place to unload /// all content. /// </summary> protected override void UnloadContent() { Content.Unload(); } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to run logic such as updating the world, /// checking for collisions, gathering input, and playing audio. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { KeyboardState newKeyboardState = Keyboard.GetState(); if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Escape)) { this.Exit(); // Allows the game to exit } else if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up) && !_oldKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up)) { _snake.SetDirection(Direction.Up); } else if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Down) && !_oldKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Down)) { _snake.SetDirection(Direction.Down); } else if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left) && !_oldKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left)) { _snake.SetDirection(Direction.Left); } else if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Right) && !_oldKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Right)) { _snake.SetDirection(Direction.Right); } _oldKeyboardState = newKeyboardState; _snake.Update(); if (_snake.IsEating(_apple)) { _biteSound.Play(); _score += 10; _apple.Place(); } base.Update(gameTime); } /// <summary> /// This is called when the game should draw itself. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(_niceGreenColour); float frameRate = 1 / (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; _spriteBatch.Begin(); _spriteBatch.DrawString(_scoreFont, "Score : " + _score, _scoreLocation, Color.Red); _apple.Draw(_spriteBatch); _snake.Draw(_spriteBatch); _spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } } } Snake.cs : using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; namespace Snakez { public enum Direction { Up, Down, Left, Right } public class Snake { private List<Rectangle> _parts; private readonly Texture2D _bodyBlock; private readonly int _startX = 160; private readonly int _startY = 120; private int _moveDelay = 100; private DateTime _lastUpdatedAt; private Direction _direction; private Rectangle _lastTail; public Snake(Texture2D bodyBlock) { _bodyBlock = bodyBlock; _parts = new List<Rectangle>(); _parts.Add(new Rectangle(_startX, _startY, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height)); _parts.Add(new Rectangle(_startX + bodyBlock.Width, _startY, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height)); _parts.Add(new Rectangle(_startX + (bodyBlock.Width) * 2, _startY, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height)); _parts.Add(new Rectangle(_startX + (bodyBlock.Width) * 3, _startY, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height)); _direction = Direction.Right; _lastUpdatedAt = DateTime.Now; } public void Draw(SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { foreach (var p in _parts) { spriteBatch.Draw(_bodyBlock, new Vector2(p.X, p.Y), Color.White); } } public void Update() { if (DateTime.Now.Subtract(_lastUpdatedAt).TotalMilliseconds > _moveDelay) { //DateTime.Now.Ticks _lastTail = _parts.First(); _parts.Remove(_lastTail); /* add new head in right direction */ var lastHead = _parts.Last(); var newHead = new Rectangle(0, 0, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height); switch (_direction) { case Direction.Up: newHead.X = lastHead.X; newHead.Y = lastHead.Y - _bodyBlock.Width; break; case Direction.Down: newHead.X = lastHead.X; newHead.Y = lastHead.Y + _bodyBlock.Width; break; case Direction.Left: newHead.X = lastHead.X - _bodyBlock.Width; newHead.Y = lastHead.Y; break; case Direction.Right: newHead.X = lastHead.X + _bodyBlock.Width; newHead.Y = lastHead.Y; break; } _parts.Add(newHead); _lastUpdatedAt = DateTime.Now; } } public void SetDirection(Direction newDirection) { if (_direction == Direction.Up && newDirection == Direction.Down) { return; } else if (_direction == Direction.Down && newDirection == Direction.Up) { return; } else if (_direction == Direction.Left && newDirection == Direction.Right) { return; } else if (_direction == Direction.Right && newDirection == Direction.Left) { return; } _direction = newDirection; } public bool IsEating(Apple apple) { if (_parts.Last().Intersects(apple.Location)) { GrowBiggerAndFaster(); return true; } return false; } private void GrowBiggerAndFaster() { _parts.Insert(0, _lastTail); _moveDelay -= (_moveDelay / 100)*2; } } } Apple.cs : using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; namespace Snakez { public class Apple { private readonly int _maxWidth, _maxHeight; private readonly Texture2D _texture; private readonly Random random = new Random(); public Rectangle Location { get; private set; } public Apple(int screenWidth, int screenHeight, Texture2D texture) { _maxWidth = (screenWidth + 1) - texture.Width; _maxHeight = (screenHeight + 1) - texture.Height; _texture = texture; Place(); } public void Place() { Location = GetRandomLocation(_maxWidth, _maxHeight); } private Rectangle GetRandomLocation(int maxWidth, int maxHeight) { // x and y -- multiple of 20 int x = random.Next(1, maxWidth); var leftOver = x % 20; x = x - leftOver; int y = random.Next(1, maxHeight); leftOver = y % 20; y = y - leftOver; return new Rectangle(x, y, _texture.Width, _texture.Height); } public void Draw(SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { spriteBatch.Draw(_texture, Location, Color.White); } } }

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  • Whats new in XNA 4.0?

    In this article i will be talking about which features are being added and removed in XNA 4.0 CTP. This version is not the stable, full release of XNA 4.0 so there might be some components can be added/removed in the full release. Just wanted to mention that this article is about XNA 4.0 CTP. Will be upgrading this article when XNA 4.0 Full release is live!

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  • Using HTML/CSS for UI in XNA?

    - by Rosarch
    Is there any way to use HTML/CSS to do the user interface for a XNA game? I would need to programmatically be able to update the HTML, as well as handle events. Or is there another framework I should be using? This thread looks promising: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/909671/ui-library-for-xna Also, whatever I use has to work on the Xbox 360.

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  • XNA MediaPlayer fastforward/rewind

    - by bufferz
    Using XNA 4.0, I am currently playing songs from the user's PC/XBox360 using the following: Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media.MediaPlayer.Play(Song song); I see that MediaPlayer has a static Property PlayPosition that, as I've researched, used to be a get/set property, but it has been updated to get-only. Are there any other methods/tricks I can use to explicitly set the playing position of a currently playing song?

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  • Opening XNA Xbox 360 assemblies in Reflector

    - by David Brown
    I'd like to get a look at the differences between the Xbox 360 and Windows XNA assemblies. I know the 360 runs the .NET Compact Framework and I was under the impression that Reflector could read CF assemblies, but when I open them, all of the methods are blank and no internal classes are shown. Is this done on purpose, or is it a limitation of Reflector? Is there another way to see how the Xbox 360 XNA assemblies work?

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  • game development xna/unity3d

    - by nir143
    hi,i am want to build some games,not something big like mmorpg ,games like snake and similar,maybe in future i would like to make a progress. i built "pong" with xna before 3 month and left it without any progression. now i want program games again and i search on the internet and got to 2 final best options xna/unity3d. which is better if i know c#? tyvm.

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  • ColorMatrix equivalent in XNA

    - by Charles
    In XNA, how can I achieve the same effect of applying a System.Drawing.Imaging.ColorMatrix? The following article shows how I would like to render my sprites, but it uses GDI+: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/mahesh/Transformations0512192005050129AM/Transformations05.aspx How can this be done in XNA? Is there a general purpose shade I can use? Any help would be aprreciated.

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  • ¿How to draw XNA window inside a panel?

    - by leviatan1001
    Hi there, Im developing a 3d Viewer in vb.net and xna. Its working very well. I have now a windows form and a xna render window, but i would like to render it inside a panel in the windows form. I have searching for info, but its so hard to addapt it into my application. How can i do it? Here is the application Thank you. Image: img299.imageshack.us/img299/384/87117064.jpg

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  • When should a bullet texture be loaded in XNA?

    - by Bill
    I'm making a SpaceWar!-esque game using XNA. I want to limit my ships to 5 active bullets at any time. I have a Bullet DrawableGameComponent and a Ship DrawableGameComponent. My Ship has an array of 5 Bullet. What is the best way to manage the Bullet textures? Specifically, when should I be calling LoadTexture? Right now, my solution is to populate the Bullet array in the Ship's constructor, with LoadTexture being called in the Bullet constructor. The Bullet objects will be disabled/not visible except when they are active. Does the texture really need to be loaded once for each individual instance of the bullet object? This seems like a very processor-intensive operation. Note: This is a small-scale project, so I'm OK with not implementing a huge texture-management framework since there won't be more than half a dozen or so in the entire game. I'd still like to hear about scalable solutions for future applications, though.

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  • How do I run my XBOX XNA game without a network connection?

    - by Hugh
    I need to demo my XBOX XNA game in college. The college doesn't allow this type of device to connect to the network. I deployed my game to the Xbox and it is sitting in the games list along with my other games. It runs fine with a network connection but when its offline it comes up with an error message saying its needs a connection to run the game. This makes no sense, the game is deployed on the Xbox memory, it must be some security policy or something! Is there any way around this? The demo is on monday!

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  • Is there a good way to get pixel-perfect collision detection in XNA?

    - by ashes999
    Is there a well-known way (or perhaps reusable bit of code) for pixel-perfect collision detection in XNA? I assume this would also use polygons (boxes/triangles/circles) for a first-pass, quick-test for collisions, and if that test indicated a collision, it would then search for a per-pixel collision. This can be complicated, because we have to account for scale, rotation, and transparency. WARNING: If you're using the sample code from the link from the answer below, be aware that the scaling of the matrix is commented out for good reason. You don't need to uncomment it out to get scaling to work.

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  • how to modify shadow mapping in "3D Graphics with XNA Game Studio 4.0"?

    - by naprox
    So I've been following the tutorials from the book Sean James's "3D Graphics with XNA Game Studio 4.0", and have been doing fine until i reached the shadow mapping part. in this book it creates point lights with a Sphere model. my first Q is how to draw a directional Light with this frame work? secondly it can do shadow mapping just for one light, how can i do shadow mapping for all or parts of the lights in the game? i just want to know how to modify this codes to do the above tasks. I've followed tutorials on MSDN and some other sites and didn't got the answer. please help me, its so urgent. and if any one wants, the complete code is here: http://www.mediafire.com/?6ct11mc1g8f891h

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  • How do I communicate with an IronPython component in a C#/XNA game?

    - by Jonathan Hobbs
    My XNA game is component-oriented, and has various components for position, physics representation, rendering, etc, all of which extend a base Component class. The player and enemies also have controllers which are currently defined in C#. I'd like to turn them into Python scripts, but I'm not sure how to interact with those scripts. The examples in Embedding IronPython in a C# Application suggest I'd have to create a wrapper class (e.g. a Script component) which compiles a Python script, and call the Update methods of the component in the script Is this the most effective way of working with a Python object? I feel that I'm missing something in my research - there must be a way to load up a script, instantiate a Python object and then work directly with it from within C#. Or is the wrapper required?

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  • How do I plot individual pixels using the XNA APIs?

    - by izb
    If I wanted to fill my game screen with individually coloured pixels, how would I do this? For example, if I wanted to write a 'game of life'-type game where each pixel was a cell, how would I achieve this using XNA? I've tried just calling SetData() on a Texture2D object using a screen-sized array of Color values, but it complains with: You may not call SetData on a resource while it is actively set on the GraphicsDevice. Unset it from the device before calling SetData. How do I do as it asks? Or better still... is there an alternative, better, efficient way to fill a screen with arbitrary pixels?

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  • What is a good method for coloring textures based on a palette in XNA?

    - by Bob
    I've been trying to work on a game with the look of an 8-bit game using XNA, specifically using the NES as a guide. The NES has a very specific palette and each sprite can use up to 4 colors from that palette. How could I emulate this? The current way I accomplish this is I have a texture with defined values which act as indexes to an array of colors I pass to the GPU. I imagine there must be a better way than this, but maybe this is the best way? I don't want to simply make sure I draw every sprite with the right colors because I want to be able to dynamically alter the palette. I'd also prefer not to alter the texture directly using the CPU.

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  • How can I get a 2D texture to rotate like a compass in XNA?

    - by IronGiraffe
    I'm working on a small maze puzzle game and I'm trying to add a compass to make it somewhat easier for the player to find their way around the maze. The problem is: I'm using XNA's draw method to rotate the arrow and I don't really know how to get it to rotate properly. What I need it to do is point towards the exit from the player's position, but I'm not sure how I can do that. So does anyone know how I can do this? Is there a better way to do it?

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  • Is it possible to work with a dedicated server in XNA?

    - by Jake
    Hi I want to release my XNA game to the XBOX platform, but I'm worried about the networking limitations. Basically, I want to have a dedicated (authoritative) server, but it sounds like that is not possible. Which is why I'm wondering about: Using port 80 web calls to php-driven database Using an xbox as a master-server (is that possible?) I like the sound of #1, because I could write my own application to run on the xbox, and I would assume other users could connect to it similar to the p2p architecture. Anyone able to expand on theory #2 above? or #1 as worst-case scenario?

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  • How do I add Different Screens to my C#/XNA Game?

    - by Ramses Brown
    I'm working on a Pong clone in XNA. Gameplay-wise, I have it where I want it to be. I want to add a title screen and some other screens to it like a menu, as well as a screen for the Winning/Losing results. I've tried the Game State Management Example on the App Hub site, but It's very complicated and I haven't been able to make sense of it. Is there a simpler way? I'm hoping for a solution that can be used in other projects too. Plus I'd like to know how to actually create menu items (basically, how do I display the different options on it, and highlight them, etc).

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  • Is it safe to run multiple XNA ContentManager instances on multiple threads?

    - by Boinst
    My XNA project currently uses one ContentManager instance, and one dedicated background thread for loading all content. I wonder, would it be safe to have multiple ContentManager instances, each in it's own dedicated thread, loading different content at the same time? I'm prompted to ask this question because this article makes the following statement: If there are two textures created at the same time on different threads, they will clobber the other and you will end up with some garbage in the textures. I think that what the author is saying here, is that if I access one ContentManager simultaneously on two threads, I'll get garbage. But what if I have separate ContentManager instances for each thread? If no-one knows the answer already from experience, I'll go ahead and try it and see what happens.

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  • Fill 2D area bound by vertices in XNA

    - by oakskc
    I'm learning XNA by doing and, as the title states, I'm trying to see if there's a way to fill a 2D area that is defined by a collection of vertices on a plane. I want to fill with a color, not a file-based texture. For an example, take a rounded rectangle whose vertices are defined by four quarter-circle triangle fans. The vertices are defined by building a collection of triangles, but the triangles may not be adjacent. Additionally, I would like to fill it with more than a single color -- i.e. divide the bound area into four vertical bands and have each a different color. You don't have to provide me the code, pointing me towards resources will help a great deal. I can be handy with Google (which I did try first, but have failed miserably). This is as much an exploration into "what's appropriate for XNA" as it is the implementation of it. Being pretty new to XNA, I'm wanting to also learn what should and shouldn't be done on top of what can and can't be done.

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  • List of Commonly Used Value Types in XNA Games

    - by Michael B. McLaughlin
    Most XNA programmers are concerned about generating garbage. More specifically about allocating GC-managed memory (GC stands for “garbage collector” and is both the name of the class that provides access to the garbage collector and an acronym for the garbage collector (as a concept) itself). Two of the major target platforms for XNA (Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360) use variants of the .NET Compact Framework. On both variants, the GC runs under various circumstances (Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360). Of concern to XNA programmers is the fact that it runs automatically after a fixed amount of GC-managed memory has been allocated (currently 1MB on both systems). Many beginning XNA programmers are unaware of what constitutes GC-managed memory, though. So here’s a quick overview. In .NET, there are two different “types” of types: value types and reference types. Only reference types are managed by the garbage collector. Value types are not managed by the garbage collector and are instead managed in other ways that are implementation dependent. For purposes of XNA programming, the important point is that they are not managed by the GC and thus do not, by themselves, increment that internal 1 MB allocation counter. (n.b. Structs are value types. If you have a struct that has a reference type as a member, then that reference type, when instantiated, will still be allocated in the GC-managed memory and will thus count against the 1 MB allocation counter. Putting it in a struct doesn’t change the fact that it gets allocated on the GC heap, but the struct itself is created outside of the GC’s purview). Both value types and reference types use the keyword ‘new’ to allocate a new instance of them. Sometimes this keyword is hidden by a method which creates new instances for you, e.g. XmlReader.Create. But the important thing to determine is whether or not you are dealing with a value types or a reference type. If it’s a value type, you can use the ‘new’ keyword to allocate new instances of that type without incrementing the GC allocation counter (except as above where it’s a struct with a reference type in it that is allocated by the constructor, but there are no .NET Framework or XNA Framework value types that do this so it would have to be a struct you created or that was in some third-party library you were using for that to even become an issue). The following is a list of most all of value types you are likely to use in a generic XNA game: AudioCategory (used with XACT; not available on WP7) AvatarExpression (Xbox 360 only, but exposed on Windows to ease Xbox development) bool BoundingBox BoundingSphere byte char Color DateTime decimal double any enum (System.Enum itself is a class, but all enums are value types such that there are no GC allocations for enums) float GamePadButtons GamePadCapabilities GamePadDPad GamePadState GamePadThumbSticks GamePadTriggers GestureSample int IntPtr (rarely but occasionally used in XNA) KeyboardState long Matrix MouseState nullable structs (anytime you see, e.g. int? something, that ‘?’ denotes a nullable struct, also called a nullable type) Plane Point Quaternion Ray Rectangle RenderTargetBinding sbyte (though I’ve never seen it used since most people would just use a short) short TimeSpan TouchCollection TouchLocation TouchPanelCapabilities uint ulong ushort Vector2 Vector3 Vector4 VertexBufferBinding VertexElement VertexPositionColor VertexPositionColorTexture VertexPositionNormalTexture VertexPositionTexture Viewport So there you have it. That’s not quite a complete list, mind you. For example: There are various structs in the .NET framework you might make use of. I left out everything from the Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.PackedVector namespace, since everything in there ventures into the realm of advanced XNA programming anyway (n.b. every single instantiable thing in that namespace is a struct and thus a value type; there are also two interfaces but interfaces cannot be instantiated at all and thus don’t figure in to this discussion). There are so many enums you’re likely to use (PlayerIndex, SpriteSortMode, SpriteEffects, SurfaceFormat, etc.) that including them would’ve flooded the list and reduced its utility. So I went with “any enum” and trust that you can figure out what the enums are (and it’s rare to use ‘new’ with an enum anyway). That list also doesn’t include any of the pre-defined static instances of some of the classes (e.g. BlendState.AlphaBlend, BlendState.Opaque, etc.) which are already allocated such that using them doesn’t cause any new allocations and therefore doesn’t increase that 1 MB counter. That list also has a few misleading things. VertexElement, VertexPositionColor, and all the other vertex types are structs. But you’re only likely to ever use them as an array (for use with VertexBuffer or DynamicVertexBuffer), and all arrays are reference types (even arrays of value types such as VertexPositionColor[ ] or int[ ]). * So that’s it for now. The note below may be a bit confusing (it deals with how the GC works and how arrays are managed in .NET). If so, you can probably safely ignore it for now but feel free to ask any questions regardless. * Arrays of value types (where the value type doesn’t contain any reference type members) are much faster for the GC to examine than arrays of reference types, so there is a definite benefit to using arrays of value types where it makes sense. But creating arrays of value types does cause the GC’s allocation counter to increase. Indeed, allocating a large array of a value type is one of the quickest ways to increment the allocation counter since a .NET array is a sequential block of memory. An array of reference types is just a sequential block of references (typically 4 bytes each) while an array of value types is a sequential block of instances of that type. So for an array of Vector3s it would be 12 bytes each since each float is 4 bytes and there are 3 in a Vector3; for an array of VertexPositionNormalTexture structs it would typically be 32 bytes each since it has two Vector3s and a Vector2. (Note that there are a few additional bytes taken up in the creation of an array, typically 12 but sometimes 16 or possibly even more, which depend on the implementation details of the array type on the particular platform the code is running on).

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