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  • Textured Primitives in XNA with a first person camera

    - by 131nary
    So I have a XNA application set up. The camera is in first person mode, and the user can move around using the keyboard and reposition the camera target with the mouse. I have been able to load 3D models fine, and they appear on screen no problem. Whenever I try to draw any primitive (textured or not), it does not show up anywhere on the screen, no matter how I position the camera. In Initialize(), I have: quad = new Quad(Vector3.Zero, Vector3.UnitZ, Vector3.Up, 2, 2); quadVertexDecl = new VertexDeclaration(this.GraphicsDevice, VertexPositionNormalTexture.VertexElements); In LoadContent(), I have: quadTexture = Content.Load<Texture2D>(@"Textures\brickWall"); quadEffect = new BasicEffect(this.GraphicsDevice, null); quadEffect.AmbientLightColor = new Vector3(0.8f, 0.8f, 0.8f); quadEffect.LightingEnabled = true; quadEffect.World = Matrix.Identity; quadEffect.View = Matrix.CreateLookAt(cameraPosition, cameraTarget, Vector3.Up); quadEffect.Projection = this.Projection; quadEffect.TextureEnabled = true; quadEffect.Texture = quadTexture; And in Draw() I have: this.GraphicsDevice.VertexDeclaration = quadVertexDecl; quadEffect.Begin(); foreach (EffectPass pass in quadEffect.CurrentTechnique.Passes) { pass.Begin(); GraphicsDevice.DrawUserIndexedPrimitives<VertexPositionNormalTexture>( PrimitiveType.TriangleList, quad.Vertices, 0, 4, quad.Indexes, 0, 2); pass.End(); } quadEffect.End(); I think I'm doing something wrong in the quadEffect properties, but I'm not quite sure what.

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  • XNA Vector2 Rotation Question

    - by Tom Allen
    I'm messing about with some stuff in XNA and am trying to move an object around asteroids-style in that you press left and right to rotate and up/down to go forwards and backwards in the direction you are pointing. I've got the rotation of the sprite done, but i can't get the object to move in the direction you've pointed it, it always moves up and down on the x = 0 axis. I'm guessing this is straight forward but I just can't figure it out. My "ship" class has the following properties which are note worthy here: Vector2 Position float Rotation The "ship" class has an update method is where the input is handled and so far I've got the following: public void Update(GameTime gameTime) { KeyboardState keyboard = Keyboard.GetState(); GamePadState gamePad = GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One); float x = Position.X; float y = Position.Y; if (keyboard.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left)) Rotation -= 0.1f; if (keyboard.IsKeyDown(Keys.Right)) Rotation += 0.1f; if (keyboard.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up)) y -= ??; if (keyboard.IsKeyDown(Keys.Down)) y += ??; this.Position = new Vector2(x, y); } Any help would be most appreciated!

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  • XNA 4.0 draw a cube with DrawUserIndexedPrimitives method [on hold]

    - by Leggy7
    EDIT Since I read what Mark H suggested (thanks a lot, I found it very useful) I think my question can become clearer structured this way: Using XNA 4.0, I'm trying to draw a cube. Im using this method: GraphicsDevice.DrawUserIndexedPrimitives<VertexPositionColor>( PrimitiveType.LineList, primitiveList, 0, // vertex buffer offset to add to each element of the index buffer 8, // number of vertices in pointList lineListIndices, // the index buffer 0, // first index element to read 7 // number of primitives to draw ); I got the code sample from this page which simply draw a serie of triangles. I want to modify this code in order to draw a cube. I was able to slitghly move the camera so I can have the perception of solidity, I set the vertex array to contain the 8 points defining a cube. But I can't fully understand how many primitives I have to draw (last parameter) for each of PrimitiveType. So, I wasn't able to draw the cube (just some of the edges in a non-defined order). More in detail: to build the vertex index list, the sample used // Initialize an array of indices of type short. lineListIndices = new short[(points * 2) - 2]; // Populate the array with references to indices in the vertex buffer for (int i = 0; i < points - 1; i++) { lineListIndices[i * 2] = (short)(i); lineListIndices[(i * 2) + 1] = (short)(i + 1); } I'm ashamed to say I cannot do the same in the case of a cube. what has to be the size of the lineListIndices? how should I populate it? In which order? And how do these things change when I use a different PrimitiveType? In the code sample there are also another couple of calls which I cannot fully understand, which are: // Initialize the vertex buffer, allocating memory for each vertex. vertexBuffer = new VertexBuffer(graphics.GraphicsDevice, vertexDeclaration, points, BufferUsage.None); // Set the vertex buffer data to the array of vertices. vertexBuffer.SetData<VertexPositionColor>(pointList); and vertexDeclaration = new VertexDeclaration(new VertexElement[] { new VertexElement(0, VertexElementFormat.Vector3, VertexElementUsage.Position, 0), new VertexElement(12, VertexElementFormat.Color, VertexElementUsage.Color, 0) } ); that is, for VertexBuffer and VertexDeclaration I could not find and significant (monkey-like) guide. I reported them too because I think they could be involded in understanding things. I think I also have to understand something related to the order the vertexes are stored in the array. But actually I have no clue of what I should learn to have this function drawing a cube. So, if anybody could point me to the right direction, it wil be appreciated. Hope to have made myself clear this time

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  • Can't load vector font in Nuclex Framework

    - by ProgrammerAtWork
    I've been trying to get this to work for the last 2 hours and I'm not getting what I'm doing wrong... I've added Nuclex.TrueTypeImporter to my references in my content and I've added Nuclex.Fonts & Nuclex.Graphics in my main project. I've put Arial-24-Vector.spritefont & Lindsey.spritefont in the root of my content directory. _spriteFont = Content.Load<SpriteFont>("Lindsey"); // works _testFont = Content.Load<VectorFont>("Arial-24-Vector"); // crashes I get this error on the _testFont line: File contains Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.SpriteFont but trying to load as Nuclex.Fonts.VectorFont. So I've searched around and by the looks of it it has something to do with the content importer & the content processor. For the content importer I have no new choices, so I leave it as it is, Sprite Font Description - XNA Framework for content processor and I select Vector Font - Nuclex Framework And then I try to run it. _testFont = Content.Load<VectorFont>("Arial-24-Vector"); // crashes again I get the following error Error loading "Arial-24-Vector". It does work if I load a sprite, so it's not a pathing problem. I've checked the samples, they do work, but I think they also use a different version of the XNA framework because in my version the "Content" class starts with a capital letter. I'm at a loss, so I ask here. Edit: Something super weird is going on. I've just added the following two lines to a method inside FreeTypeFontProcessor::FreeTypeFontProcessor( Microsoft::Xna::Framework::Content::Pipeline::Graphics::FontDescription ^fontDescription, FontHinter hinter, just to check if code would even get there: System::Console::WriteLine("I AM HEEREEE"); System::Console::ReadLine(); So, I compile it, put it in my project, I run it and... it works! What the hell?? This is weird because I've downloaded the binaries, they didn't work, I've compiled the binaries myself. didn't work either, but now I make a small change to the code and it works? _. So, now I remove the two lines, compile it again and it works again. Someone care to elaborate what is going on? Probably some weird caching problem!

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  • [C#][XNA] Draw() 20,000 32 by 32 Textures or 1 Large Texture 20,000 Times

    - by Rudi
    The title may be confusing - sorry about that, it's a poor summary. Here's my dilemma. I'm programming in C# using the .NET Framework 4, and aiming to make a tile-based game with XNA. I have one large texture (256 pixels by 4096 pixels). Remember this is a tile-based game, so this texture is so massive only because it contains many tiles, which are each 32 pixels by 32 pixels. I think the experts will definitely know what a tile-based game is like. The orientation is orthogonal (like a chess board), not isometric. In the Game.Draw() method, I have two choices, one of which will be incredibly more efficient than the other. Choice/Method #1: Semi-Pseudocode: public void Draw() { // map tiles are drawn left-to-right, top-to-bottom for (int x = 0; x < mapWidth; x++) { for (int y = 0; y < mapHeight; y++) { SpriteBatch.Draw( MyLargeTexture, // One large 256 x 4096 texture new Rectangle(x, y, 32, 32), // Destination rectangle - ignore this, its ok new Rectangle(x, y, 32, 32), // Notice the source rectangle 'cuts out' 32 by 32 squares from the texture corresponding to the loop Color.White); // No tint - ignore this, its ok } } } Caption: So, effectively, the first method is referencing one large texture many many times, each time using a small rectangle of this large texture to draw the appropriate tile image. Choice/Method #2: Semi-Pseudocode: public void Draw() { // map tiles are drawn left-to-right, top-to-bottom for (int x = 0; x < mapWidth; x++) { for (int y = 0; y < mapHeight; y++) { Texture2D tileTexture = map.GetTileTexture(x, y); // Getting a small 32 by 32 texture (different each iteration of the loop) SpriteBatch.Draw( tileTexture, new Rectangle(x, y, 32, 32), // Destination rectangle - ignore this, its ok new Rectangle(0, 0, tileTexture.Width, tileTexture.Height), // Notice the source rectangle uses the entire texture, because the entire texture IS 32 by 32 Color.White); // No tint - ignore this, its ok } } } Caption: So, effectively, the second method is drawing many small textures many times. The Question: Which method and why? Personally, I would think it would be incredibly more efficient to use the first method. If you think about what that means for the tile array in a map (think of a large map with 2000 by 2000 tiles, let's say), each Tile object would only have to contain 2 integers, for the X and Y positions of the source rectangle in the one large texture - 8 bytes. If you use method #2, however, each Tile object in the tile array of the map would have to store a 32by32 Texture - an image - which has to allocate memory for the R G B A pixels 32 by 32 times - is that 4096 bytes per tile then? So, which method and why? First priority is speed, then memory-load, then efficiency or whatever you experts believe.

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  • Implementing algorithms via compute shaders vs. pipeline shaders

    - by TravisG
    With the availability of compute shaders for both DirectX and OpenGL it's now possible to implement many algorithms without going through the rasterization pipeline and instead use general purpose computing on the GPU to solve the problem. For some algorithms this seems to become the intuitive canonical solution because they're inherently not rasterization based, and rasterization-based shaders seemed to be a workaround to harness GPU power (simple example: creating a noise texture. No quad needs to be rasterized here). Given an algorithm that can be implemented both ways, are there general (potential) performance benefits over using compute shaders vs. going the normal route? Are there drawbacks that we should watch out for (for example, is there some kind of unusual overhead to switching from/to compute shaders at runtime)? Are there perhaps other benefits or drawbacks to consider when choosing between the two?

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  • Connectify Dispatch: Link All Your Network Connections into a Super Pipeline

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Connectify Dispatch is a network management tool that takes all the connections around you–Ethernet, Wi-Fi nodes, even 3G/4G cellular connections–and combines them into one giant data pipeline. At its most simple, Connectify Dispatch takes all the network inputs available to your computer (be those connections hard-line Ethernet, Wi-Fi nodes, or cellular connections) and merges the separate data connections seamlessly into one master connection. If any of the connections should falter (like your 3G reception goes out), Connectify automatically shifts the data to other available networks without any interruption. In addition you can specify which network Connectify should favor with connection prioritization; perfect for using your cellular connection without breaking through your data cap for the month right away. Hit up the link below to read more about Connectify Dispatch and the companion app Connectify Hotspot. Connectify Dispatch Secure Yourself by Using Two-Step Verification on These 16 Web Services How to Fix a Stuck Pixel on an LCD Monitor How to Factory Reset Your Android Phone or Tablet When It Won’t Boot

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  • How to draw texture to screen in Unity?

    - by user1306322
    I'm looking for a way to draw textures to screen in Unity in a similar fashion to XNA's SpriteBatch.Draw method. Ideally, I'd like to write a few helper methods to make all my XNA code work in Unity. This is the first issue I've faced on this seemingly long journey. I guess I could just use quads, but I'm not so sure it's the least expensive way performance-wise. I could do that stuff in XNA anyway, but they made SpriteBatch not without a reason, I believe.

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  • SAB BizTalk Archiving Pipeline Component v0.2

    - by Stuart Brierley
    Just released to Codeplex is an updated version of my archiving pipeline component for BizTalk. The changes in this release are: Addition of FTP adapter macros to the base macros and File adapter macros. Fix for the issue of garbage collection of data streams within pipelines as discussed in this previous blog entry. Now looks for OutboundTransportType in addition to InboundTransportType to pick up send port transport type; Therefore changed %InboundTransportType% macro to %TransportType%. An initial outline of the project can be read here.

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  • How would I handle input with a Game Component?

    - by Aufziehvogel
    I am currently having problems from finding my way into the component-oriented XNA design. I read an overview over the general design pattern and googled a lot of XNA examples. However, they seem to be right on the opposite site. In the general design pattern, an object (my current player) is passed to InputComponent::update(Player). This means the class will know what to do and how this will affect the game (e.g. move person vs. scroll text in a menu). Yet, in XNA GameComponent::update(GameTime) is called automatically without a reference to the current player. The only XNA examples I found built some sort of higher-level Keyboard engine into the game component like this: class InputComponent: GameComponent { public void keyReleased(Keys); public void keyPressed(Keys); public bool keyDown(Keys); public void override update(GameTime gameTime) { // compare previous state with current state and // determine if released, pressed, down or nothing } } Some others went a bit further making it possible to use a Service Locator by a design like this: interface IInputComponent { public void downwardsMovement(Keys); public void upwardsMovement(Keys); public bool pausedGame(Keys); // determine which keys pressed and what that means // can be done for different inputs in different implementations public void override update(GameTime); } Yet, then I am wondering if it is possible to design an input class to resolve all possible situations. Like in a menu a mouse click can mean "click that button", but in game play it can mean "shoot that weapon". So if I am using such a modular design with game components for input, how much logic is to be put into the InputComponent / KeyboardComponent / GamepadComponent and where is the rest handled? What I had in mind, when I heard about Game Components and Service Locator in XNA was something like this: use Game Components to run the InputHandler automatically in the loop use Service Locator to be able to switch input at runtime (i.e. let player choose if he wants to use a gamepad or a keyboard; or which shall be player 1 and which player 2). However, now I cannot see how this can be done. First code example does not seem flexible enough, as on a game pad you could require some combination of buttons for something that is possible on keyboard with only one button or with the mouse) The second code example seems really hard to implement, because the InputComponent has to know in which context we are currently. Moreover, you could imagine your application to be multi-layered and let the key-stroke go through all layers to the bottom-layer which requires a different behaviour than the InputComponent would have guessed from the top-layer. The general design pattern with passing the Player to update() does not have a representation in XNA and I also cannot see how and where to decide which class should be passed to update(). At most time of course the player, but sometimes there could be menu items you have to or can click I see that the question in general is already dealt with here, but probably from a more elobate point-of-view. At least, I am not smart enough in game development to understand it. I am searching for a rather code-based example directly for XNA. And the answer there leaves (a noob like) me still alone in how the object that should receive the detected event is chosen. Like if I have a key-up event, should it go to the text box or to the player?

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  • How to make a player stay within bounds of world with 2D Camera

    - by Craig
    Im creating a simple top down survival game. At the moment, i have the sprite which is a ship and moves by rotating left or right then going forward in that direction. I have implemented a 2D camera, its always centered on the player. However, when i move towards the bounds of the world that the sprite is in it just keeps on going :( How to i sort it that it stops at the edge of the world and cant go beyond it? Cheers :) Below is the main game class 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; namespace GamesCoursework_1 { /// <summary> /// This is the main type for your game /// </summary> public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game { GraphicsDeviceManager graphics; SpriteBatch spriteBatch; // player variables Texture2D Ship; Vector2 Ship_Position; float Ship_Rotation = 0.0f; Vector2 Ship_Origin; Vector2 Ship_Velocity; const float tangentialVelocity = 4f; float friction = 0.05f; static Point CameraViewport = new Point(800, 800); Camera2d cam = new Camera2d((int)CameraViewport.X, (int)CameraViewport.Y); //Size of world static Point worldSize = new Point(1600, 1600); // Screen variables static Point worldCenter = new Point(worldSize.X / 2, worldSize.Y / 2); Rectangle playerBounds = new Rectangle(CameraViewport.X / 2, CameraViewport.Y / 2, worldSize.X - CameraViewport.X, worldSize.Y - CameraViewport.Y); Rectangle worldBounds = new Rectangle(0, 0, worldSize.X, worldSize.Y); Texture2D background; public Game1() { graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this); graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth = CameraViewport.X; graphics.PreferredBackBufferHeight = CameraViewport.Y; 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() { // TODO: Add your initialization logic here 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() { // Create a new SpriteBatch, which can be used to draw textures. spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); // TODO: use this.Content to load your game content here Ship = Content.Load<Texture2D>("Ship"); Ship_Origin.X = Ship.Width / 2; Ship_Origin.Y = Ship.Height / 2; background = Content.Load<Texture2D>("aus"); Ship_Position = new Vector2(worldCenter.X, worldCenter.Y); cam.Pos = Ship_Position; cam.Zoom = 1f; } /// <summary> /// UnloadContent will be called once per game and is the place to unload /// all content. /// </summary> protected override void UnloadContent() { // TODO: Unload any non ContentManager content here } /// <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) { // Allows the game to exit if (GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One).Buttons.Back == ButtonState.Pressed) this.Exit(); // TODO: Add your update logic here Ship_Position = Ship_Velocity + Ship_Position; keyPressed(); 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(Color.CornflowerBlue); // TODO: Add your drawing code here spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Deferred, BlendState.AlphaBlend, null, null, null,null, cam.get_transformation(GraphicsDevice)); spriteBatch.Draw(background, Vector2.Zero, Color.White); spriteBatch.Draw(Ship, Ship_Position, Ship.Bounds, Color.White, Ship_Rotation, Ship_Origin, 1.0f, SpriteEffects.None, 0f); spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } private void Ship_Move(Vector2 move) { Ship_Position += move; } private void keyPressed() { KeyboardState keyState; // Move right keyState = Keyboard.GetState(); if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Right)) { Ship_Rotation = Ship_Rotation + 0.1f; } if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left)) { Ship_Rotation = Ship_Rotation - 0.1f; } if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up)) { Ship_Velocity.X = (float)Math.Cos(Ship_Rotation) * tangentialVelocity; Ship_Velocity.Y = (float)Math.Sin(Ship_Rotation) * tangentialVelocity; if ((int)Ship_Position.Y < playerBounds.Bottom && (int)Ship_Position.Y > playerBounds.Top) cam._pos.Y = Ship_Position.Y; if ((int)Ship_Position.X > playerBounds.Left && (int)Ship_Position.X < playerBounds.Right) cam._pos.X = Ship_Position.X; //tried world bounds here if (!worldBounds.Contains(new Point((int)Ship_Position.X, (int)Ship_Position.Y))) Ship_Position -= new Vector2(0.0f, -tangentialVelocity * 2); if (!worldBounds.Contains(new Point((int)Ship_Position.X, (int)Ship_Position.Y))) Ship_Position -= new Vector2(0.0f, 2 * tangentialVelocity); } else if(Ship_Velocity != Vector2.Zero) { float i = Ship_Velocity.X; float j = Ship_Velocity.Y; Ship_Velocity.X = i -= friction * i; Ship_Velocity.Y = j -= friction * j; if ((int)Ship_Position.Y < playerBounds.Bottom && (int)Ship_Position.Y > playerBounds.Top) cam._pos.Y = Ship_Position.Y; if ((int)Ship_Position.X > playerBounds.Left && (int)Ship_Position.X < playerBounds.Right) cam._pos.X = Ship_Position.X; } if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Q)) { if (cam.Zoom < 2f) cam.Zoom += 0.05f; } if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.A)) { if (cam.Zoom > 0.3f) cam.Zoom -= 0.05f; } } } } my 2d camera class using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; namespace GamesCoursework_1 { public class Camera2d { protected float _zoom; // Camera Zoom public Matrix _transform; // Matrix Transform public Vector2 _pos; // Camera Position protected float _rotation; // Camera Rotation public int _viewportWidth, _viewportHeight; // viewport size public Camera2d(int ViewportWidth, int ViewportHeight) { _zoom = 1.0f; _rotation = 0.0f; _pos = Vector2.Zero; _viewportWidth = ViewportWidth; _viewportHeight = ViewportHeight; } // Sets and gets zoom public float Zoom { get { return _zoom; } set { _zoom = value; if (_zoom < 0.1f) _zoom = 0.1f; } // Negative zoom will flip image } public float Rotation { get { return _rotation; } set { _rotation = value; } } // Auxiliary function to move the camera public void Move(Vector2 amount) { _pos += amount; } // Get set position public Vector2 Pos { get { return _pos; } set { _pos = value; } } public Matrix get_transformation(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice) { _transform = // Thanks to o KB o for this solution Matrix.CreateTranslation(new Vector3(-_pos.X, -_pos.Y, 0)) * Matrix.CreateRotationZ(Rotation) * Matrix.CreateScale(new Vector3(Zoom, Zoom, 1)) * Matrix.CreateTranslation(new Vector3(_viewportWidth * 0.5f, _viewportHeight * 0.5f, 0)); return _transform; } } }

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  • The Minimalist's Approach to Content Governance

    - by Kellsey Ruppel
    This week on the blog, we want to focus on the content lifecylce and how important it is to have the tools in place to be able to properly manage all te phases of the content lifecylce. John Brunswick has some great advice when it comes to this topic, so expect to hear a lot from him this week! Originally posted by John Brunswick. Let's be honest - content governance is far from an exciting topic. BUT the potential of a very small intranet team creating and maintaining a platform that provides an organization with relevant, high value information, helping workers to get their jobs done with greater accuracy and in less time is exciting. It is easy to quickly start producing content, but the challenge is ensuring that the environment is easy to navigate and use on the third week and during the third year.   What can be done to bridge this gap? Over the next few blog entries let's take a pragmatic, minimalistic view of a process that can help any team manage a wealth of unstructured information. Based on an earlier article that I wrote around Portal Governance, I am going to focus on using technology as much as possible to support the governance of content with minimal involvement from users. The only certainty about content production is that business users are not fans of maintaining content. Maintenance is overhead and is a long-term investment thats value will possibly not be realized under the current content creator's watch. To add context to how we will use technical tools in this process, each post will highlight one section of the content lifecycle process as outlined below Content Lifecycle Stages 1. Request - Understand the education, purpose, resource and success criteria for content 2. Create - Determine access and workflow for content 3. Manage - Understand ownership and review cycles 4. Retire - Act on thresholds established during the request stage Within each state we will also elaborate as to 1. Why - why would we entertain doing this? 2. How - the steps that are needed to make it happen 3. Impact - what is the net benefit or loss based on the process Over the course of this week, we will dive deep into the stages and the minimal amount of time, effort and process within each to make some meaningful gains in the improvement of user experience and productivity in their search for information. It might be a stretch to say that we can make content governance exciting, but hopefully it can end up being painless and paying dividends. And if you'd like to hear first hand from a customer that is managing their content lifecycle with Oracle WebCenter, be sure to join us on Wednesday for this webcast "ResCare Solves Content Lifecycle Challenges with Oracle WebCenter"!

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  • Help Convert Your Pipeline Opportunities Into Wins

    - by swalker
    Are you looking for an extra advantage to help convert your pipeline opportunities into wins?  The Buy Now, Pay Less for Oracle Hardware & Software  and the Oracle Database Appliance (ODA) Low Entry Payment offer simplified payment plans, with low promotional rates which represent the most affordable way for your accounts to acquire the systems they need now. With payments you grow your deals by selling into future years' budgets; and you mitigate your credit and collections risk - Oracle pays you on behalf of your customer, while your customer makes payments over time. Payments deliver the following benefits: Uncover hidden obstacles and shorten sales-cycles Access the financial decision maker Offer an alternate line of credit Differentiate or match your competition Offer an alternate line of credit to preserve scarce capital Don't wait for a request for financing from your account. Quote your business with these promotions proactively, before any requests. For more information on Oracle Financing for partners visit us at OPN or email [email protected]

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  • Can I develop a game using C++ and deploy to XBOX 360?

    - by Murphy
    I'm a C# developer and an enthusiast of XNA, but I'm really disappointed with the game engines available for XNA. I was using Torque X, which is really good, but GarageGames no longer supports Torque X for XNA 4.1. I searched for other engines, but only the sunburn was worth it and would have to pay - I already spent money with Torque. Based on this, I'm thinking about starting to develop in C++. Can I develop with some C++ engines and deploy to XBox 360?

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  • BigQuery: Simple example of a data collection and analysis pipeline + Your questions

    BigQuery: Simple example of a data collection and analysis pipeline + Your questions Join Michael Manoochehri and Ryan Boyd live to talk about Google BigQuery. We'll give an overview of how we're using our cars, phones, App Engine and BigQuery to collect and analyze data. We'll be discussing our trusted tester feature which allows analyzing data from the App Engine datastore. We'll also review some of the more interesting questions from Stack Overflow and take questions via Google Moderator. From: GoogleDevelopers Views: 250 16 ratings Time: 26:53 More in Science & Technology

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  • HLSL/XNA Ambient light texture mixed up with multi pass lighting

    - by Manu-EPITA
    I've been having some troubles lately with lighting. I have found a source on google which is working pretty good on the example. However, when I try to implement it to my current project, I am getting some very weird bugs. The main one is that my textures are "mixed up" when I only activate the ambient light, which means that a model gets the texture of another one . I am using the same effect for every meshes of my models. I guess this could be the problem, but I don't really know how to "reset" an effect for a new model. Is it possible? Here is my shader: float4x4 WVP; float4x4 WVP; float3x3 World; float3 Ke; float3 Ka; float3 Kd; float3 Ks; float specularPower; float3 globalAmbient; float3 lightColor; float3 eyePosition; float3 lightDirection; float3 lightPosition; float spotPower; texture2D Texture; sampler2D texSampler = sampler_state { Texture = <Texture>; MinFilter = anisotropic; MagFilter = anisotropic; MipFilter = linear; MaxAnisotropy = 16; }; struct VertexShaderInput { float4 Position : POSITION0; float2 Texture : TEXCOORD0; float3 Normal : NORMAL0; }; struct VertexShaderOutput { float4 Position : POSITION0; float2 Texture : TEXCOORD0; float3 PositionO: TEXCOORD1; float3 Normal : NORMAL0; }; VertexShaderOutput VertexShaderFunction(VertexShaderInput input) { VertexShaderOutput output; output.Position = mul(input.Position, WVP); output.Normal = input.Normal; output.PositionO = input.Position.xyz; output.Texture = input.Texture; return output; } float4 PSAmbient(VertexShaderOutput input) : COLOR0 { return float4(Ka*globalAmbient + Ke,1) * tex2D(texSampler,input.Texture); } float4 PSDirectionalLight(VertexShaderOutput input) : COLOR0 { //Difuze float3 L = normalize(-lightDirection); float diffuseLight = max(dot(input.Normal,L), 0); float3 diffuse = Kd*lightColor*diffuseLight; //Specular float3 V = normalize(eyePosition - input.PositionO); float3 H = normalize(L + V); float specularLight = pow(max(dot(input.Normal,H),0),specularPower); if(diffuseLight<=0) specularLight=0; float3 specular = Ks * lightColor * specularLight; //sum all light components float3 light = diffuse + specular; return float4(light,1) * tex2D(texSampler,input.Texture); } technique MultiPassLight { pass Ambient { VertexShader = compile vs_3_0 VertexShaderFunction(); PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 PSAmbient(); } pass Directional { PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 PSDirectionalLight(); } } And here is how I actually apply my effects: public void ApplyLights(ModelMesh mesh, Matrix world, Texture2D modelTexture, Camera camera, Effect effect, GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice) { graphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.Opaque; effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes["Ambient"].Apply(); foreach (ModelMeshPart part in mesh.MeshParts) { graphicsDevice.SetVertexBuffer(part.VertexBuffer); graphicsDevice.Indices = part.IndexBuffer; // Texturing graphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.AlphaBlend; if (modelTexture != null) { effect.Parameters["Texture"].SetValue( modelTexture ); } graphicsDevice.DrawIndexedPrimitives( PrimitiveType.TriangleList, part.VertexOffset, 0, part.NumVertices, part.StartIndex, part.PrimitiveCount ); // Applying our shader to all the mesh parts effect.Parameters["WVP"].SetValue( world * camera.View * camera.Projection ); effect.Parameters["World"].SetValue(world); effect.Parameters["eyePosition"].SetValue( camera.Position ); graphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.Additive; // Drawing lights foreach (DirectionalLight light in DirectionalLights) { effect.Parameters["lightColor"].SetValue(light.Color.ToVector3()); effect.Parameters["lightDirection"].SetValue(light.Direction); // Applying changes and drawing them effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes["Directional"].Apply(); graphicsDevice.DrawIndexedPrimitives( PrimitiveType.TriangleList, part.VertexOffset, 0, part.NumVertices, part.StartIndex, part.PrimitiveCount ); } } I am also applying this when loading the effect: effect.Parameters["lightColor"].SetValue(Color.White.ToVector3()); effect.Parameters["globalAmbient"].SetValue(Color.White.ToVector3()); effect.Parameters["Ke"].SetValue(0.0f); effect.Parameters["Ka"].SetValue(0.01f); effect.Parameters["Kd"].SetValue(1.0f); effect.Parameters["Ks"].SetValue(0.3f); effect.Parameters["specularPower"].SetValue(100); Thank you very much UPDATE: I tried to load an effect for each model when drawing, but it doesn't seem to have changed anything. I suppose it is because XNA detects that the effect has already been loaded before and doesn't want to load a new one. Any idea why?

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  • How can I make a collection of mini-games in XNA where the user can download packs of minigames and the main .exe can run them without being altered?

    - by Pyroka
    I'm currently making a PC game in XNA. It's actually a collection of mini-games (there's 3 mini-games at the moment) however I plan to make and add more, in downloadable 'packs'. My question is, what's the best way to achieve this? Currently my thoughts are: Create a 'game' interface Build games to this interface but create them as .dlls Have the main .exe file scan a directory and load in the .dlls at runtime. I've not messed around with the idea much, but I know there are applications at-least that use this plug-in approach (Notepad++ seems to), but I'm not sure of any games that do (although I'm sure they must exist). However it seems that this is a problem that has been solved previously, so I'm wondering if there's any form of established best-practice.

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  • Ingame menu is not working correctly

    - by Johnny
    The ingame menu opens when the player presses Escape during the main game. If the player presses Y in the ingame menu, the game switches to the main menu. Up to here, everything works. But: On the other hand, if the player presses N in the ingame menu, the game should switch back to the main game(should resume the main game). But that doesn't work. The game just rests in the ingame menu if the player presses N. I set a breakpoint in this line of the Ingamemenu class: KeyboardState kbState = Keyboard.GetState(); CurrentSate/currentGameState and LastState/lastGameState have the same state: IngamemenuState. But LastState/lastGameState should not have the same state than CurrentSate/currentGameState. What is wrong? Why is the ingame menu not working correctly? public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game { GraphicsDeviceManager graphics; SpriteBatch spriteBatch; IState lastState, currentState; public enum GameStates { IntroState = 0, MenuState = 1, MaingameState = 2, IngamemenuState = 3 } public void ChangeGameState(GameStates newState) { lastGameState = currentGameState; lastState = currentState; switch (newState) { case GameStates.IntroState: currentState = new Intro(this); currentGameState = GameStates.IntroState; break; case GameStates.MenuState: currentState = new Menu(this); currentGameState = GameStates.MenuState; break; case GameStates.MaingameState: currentState = new Maingame(this); currentGameState = GameStates.MaingameState; break; case GameStates.IngamemenuState: currentState = new Ingamemenu(this); currentGameState = GameStates.IngamemenuState; break; } currentState.Load(Content); } public void ChangeCurrentToLastGameState() { currentGameState = lastGameState; currentState = lastState; } public GameStates CurrentState { get { return currentGameState; } set { currentGameState = value; } } public GameStates LastState { get { return lastGameState; } set { lastGameState = value; } } private GameStates currentGameState = GameStates.IntroState; private GameStates lastGameState; public Game1() { graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this); Content.RootDirectory = "Content"; } protected override void Initialize() { ChangeGameState(GameStates.IntroState); base.Initialize(); } protected override void LoadContent() { spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); currentState.Load(Content); } protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { currentState.Update(gameTime); if ((lastGameState == GameStates.MaingameState) && (currentGameState == GameStates.IngamemenuState)) { lastState.Update(gameTime); } base.Update(gameTime); } protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); spriteBatch.Begin(); if ((lastGameState == GameStates.MaingameState) && (currentGameState == GameStates.IngamemenuState)) { lastState.Render(spriteBatch); } currentState.Render(spriteBatch); spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } } public interface IState { void Load(ContentManager content); void Update(GameTime gametime); void Render(SpriteBatch batch); } public class Intro : IState { Texture2D Titelbildschirm; private Game1 game1; public Intro(Game1 game) { game1 = game; } public void Load(ContentManager content) { Titelbildschirm = content.Load<Texture2D>("gruft"); } public void Update(GameTime gametime) { KeyboardState kbState = Keyboard.GetState(); if (kbState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Space)) game1.ChangeGameState(Game1.GameStates.MenuState); } public void Render(SpriteBatch batch) { batch.Draw(Titelbildschirm, new Rectangle(0, 0, 1280, 720), Color.White); } } public class Menu:IState { Texture2D Choosescreen; private Game1 game1; public Menu(Game1 game) { game1 = game; } public void Load(ContentManager content) { Choosescreen = content.Load<Texture2D>("menubild"); } public void Update(GameTime gametime) { KeyboardState kbState = Keyboard.GetState(); if (kbState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Enter)) game1.ChangeGameState(Game1.GameStates.MaingameState); if (kbState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Escape)) game1.Exit(); } public void Render(SpriteBatch batch) { batch.Draw(Choosescreen, new Rectangle(0, 0, 1280, 720), Color.White); } } public class Maingame : IState { Texture2D Spielbildschirm, axe; Vector2 position = new Vector2(100,100); private Game1 game1; public Maingame(Game1 game) { game1 = game; } public void Load(ContentManager content) { Spielbildschirm = content.Load<Texture2D>("hauszombie"); axe = content.Load<Texture2D>("axxx"); } public void Update(GameTime gametime) { KeyboardState keyboardState = Keyboard.GetState(); float delta = (float)gametime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; position.X += 5 * delta; position.Y += 3 * delta; if (keyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Escape)) game1.ChangeGameState(Game1.GameStates.IngamemenuState); } public void Render(SpriteBatch batch) { batch.Draw(Spielbildschirm, new Rectangle(0, 0, 1280, 720), Color.White); batch.Draw(axe, position, Color.White); } } public class Ingamemenu : IState { Texture2D Quitscreen; private Game1 game1; public Ingamemenu(Game1 game) { game1 = game; } public void Load(ContentManager content) { Quitscreen = content.Load<Texture2D>("quit"); } public void Update(GameTime gametime) { KeyboardState kbState = Keyboard.GetState(); if (kbState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Y)) game1.ChangeGameState(Game1.GameStates.MenuState); if (kbState.IsKeyDown(Keys.N)) game1.ChangeCurrentToLastGameState(); } public void Render(SpriteBatch batch) { batch.Draw(Quitscreen, new Rectangle(200, 200, 200, 200), Color.White); } }

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  • Apache/2.2.20 (Ubuntu 11.10) gzip compression won't work on php pages, content is chunked

    - by FamousInteractive
    I'm running into a problem with a new production server whereto I'm transferring projects. The HTML output of the PHP applications isn't compressed by the Apache mod_deflate module. Other resources, as stylesheet and javascript files, even html pages, which are served with the same Content-type (text/html) as the PHP output, are compressed! The projects use the following rules (from HTML5 boilerplate) in the .htaccess: <IfModule mod_deflate.c> # Force deflate for mangled headers developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2010/12/pushing-beyond-gzipping/ <IfModule mod_setenvif.c> <IfModule mod_headers.c> SetEnvIfNoCase ^(Accept-EncodXng|X-cept-Encoding|X{15}|~{15}|-{15})$ ^((gzip|deflate)\s*,?\s*)+|[X~-]{4,13}$ HAVE_Accept-Encoding RequestHeader append Accept-Encoding "gzip,deflate" env=HAVE_Accept-Encoding </IfModule> </IfModule> # HTML, TXT, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, XML, HTC: <IfModule filter_module> FilterDeclare COMPRESS FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/html FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/css FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/plain FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/xml FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/x-component FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/javascript FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/json FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/xml FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/xhtml+xml FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/rss+xml FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/atom+xml FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/vnd.ms-fontobject FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $image/svg+xml FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $image/x-icon FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/x-font-ttf FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $font/opentype FilterChain COMPRESS FilterProtocol COMPRESS DEFLATE change=yes;byteranges=no </IfModule> </IfModule> We have a testing machine that runs the same Apache, OS and PHP version. On that machine the compression works just fine on the PHP output. I've checked and compared Apache and PHP config files, all the same as far as I can tell. I've tried several manners of outputting the content of the PHP, using output buffering or just plain echoing the content. Same thing, no compression. Example response headers of a PHP output: HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:30:59 GMT Server: Apache Accept-Ranges: bytes Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT Cache-Control: public Pragma: no-cache Vary: User-Agent Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=98 Connection: Keep-Alive Transfer-Encoding: chunked Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Example of response headers on a css file: HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:30:59 GMT Server: Apache Last-Modified: Mon, 04 Jul 2011 19:12:36 GMT Vary: Accept-Encoding,User-Agent Content-Encoding: gzip Cache-Control: public Expires: Fri, 25 May 2012 23:30:59 GMT Content-Length: 714 Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=100 Connection: Keep-Alive Content-Type: text/css; charset=utf-8 Does anyone has a clue or experienced the same "problem"? thanks!

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  • Oracle UCM 11g

    - by [email protected]
    Ya se ha lanzado la última versión de Oracle UCM11g. Grandes novedades, sobre todo en la arquitectura del producto, nos hacen ser muy optimistas sobre todo después de ver los resultados de rendimiento y escalabilidad obtenidos.El enlace a toda la información sobre el lanzamiento está aquí:Oracle Enterprise Content Management 11gLas novedades más importantes son:Mejor integración en tu entorno de trabajo: Nueva integración del escritorio: los contenidos se manejan usando herramientas estándares de oficina.Gestión de contenidos web en un clic: que permite a los desarrolladores y editores web acceder y actualizar contenido con un solo clic.Más funcionalidad a través de integraciones con otros productos de Oracle. Unificación del stack tecnológico de gestión de contenidosAhora Oracle ECM Suite 11g unifica todos los repositorios de contenido para facilitar su gestión en una única infraestructura.Infraestructura Oracle Fusion Middleware: Oracle ECM Suite 11g se ha trasladado completamente a la plataforma Oracle Fusion Middleware, con todas las aplicaciones soportadas por Oracle WebLogic Server y gestionado con el cuadro de mando Oracle Enterprise Manager. Rendimiento y escalabilidad ExtremosLos datos de los test de rendimiento son espectaculares corriendo en una máquina Exadata.Podéis ver un vídeo del rendimiento aquí: Bueno... 172 millones de documentos por día!!! y 124 páginas por segundo con 2 cpu's... quien quiere ser el primero en probarlo?

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  • BizTalk HL7 Receive Pipeline Exception

    - by Paul Petrov
    If you experience sequence of errors below with BizTalk HL7 MLLP receive ports you may need to request a hotfix from Microsoft. Knowledge base article number is 2454887 but it’s still not available on the KB site. The hotfix is recently released and you may need to open support ticket to get to it. It requires three other hotfixes installed: ·         970492 (DASM 3.7.502.2) ·         973909 (additional ACK codes) ·         981442 (Microsoft.solutions.btahl7.mllp.dll 3.7.509.2) If the exceptions below repeatedly appear in the event log you most likely would be helped by the hotfix: Fatal error encountered in 2XDasm. Exception information is Cannot access a disposed object. Object name: 'CEventingReadStream'. There was a failure executing the receive pipeline: "BTAHL72XPipelines.BTAHL72XReceivePipeline, BTAHL72XPipelines, Version=1.3.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" Source: "BTAHL7 2.X Disassembler" Receive Port: "ReceivePortName" URI: "IPAddress:portNumber" Reason: Cannot access a disposed object. Object name: 'CEventingReadStream'. The Messaging Engine received an error from transport adapter "MLLP" when notifying the adapter with the BatchComplete event. Reason "Object reference not set to an instance of an object." We’ve been through a lot of troubleshooting with Microsoft Product Support and they did a great job finding an issue and releasing a fix.

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  • Day 3 - XNA: Hacking around with images

    - by dapostolov
    Yay! Today I'm going to get into some code! My mind has been on this all day! I find it amusing how I practice, daily, to be "in the moment" or "present" and the excitement and anticipation of this project seems to snatch it away from me frequently. WELL!!! (Shakes Excitedly) Let's do this =)! Let's code! For these next few days it is my intention to better understand image rendering using XNA; after said prototypes are complete I should (fingers crossed) be able to dive into my game code using the design document I hammered out the other night. On a personal note, I think the toughest thing right now is finding the time to do this project. Each night, after my little ones go to bed I can only really afford a couple hours of work on this project. However, I hope to utilise this time as best as I can because this is the first time in a while I've found a project that I've been passionate about. A friend recently asked me if I intend to go 3D or extend the game design. Yes. For now I'm keeping it simple. Lastly, just as a note, as I was doing some further research into image rendering this morning I came across some other XNA content and lessons learned. I believe this content could have probably been posted in the first couple of posts, however, I will share the new content as I learn it at the end of each day. Maybe I'll take some time later to fix the posts but for now Installation and Deployment - Lessons Learned I had installed the XNA studio  (Day 1) and the site instructions were pretty easy to follow. However, I had a small difficulty with my development environment. You see, I run a virtual desktop development environment. Even though I was able to code and compile all the tutorials the game failed to run...because I lacked a 3D capable card; it was not detected on the virtual box... First Lesson: The XNA runtime needs to "see" the 3D card! No sweat, Il copied the files over to my parent box and executed the program. ERROR. Hmm... Second Lesson (which I should have probably known but I let the excitement get the better of me): you need the XNA runtime on the client PC to run the game, oh, and don't forget the .Net Runtime! Sprite, it ain't just a Soft Drink... With these prototypes I intend to understand and perform the following tasks. learn game development terminology how to place and position (rotate) a static image on the screen how to layer static images on the screen understand image scaling can we reuse images? understand how framerate is handled in XNA how to display text , basic shapes, and colors on the screen how to interact with an image (collision of user input?) how to animate an image and understand basic animation techniques how to detect colliding images or screen edges how to manipulate the image, lets say colors, stretching how to focus on a segment of an image...like only displaying a frame on a film reel what's the best way to manage images (compression, storage, location, prevent artwork theft, etc.) Well, let's start with this "prototype" task list for now...Today, let's get an image on the screen and maybe I can mark a few of the tasks as completed... C# Prototype1 New Visual Studio Project Select the XNA Game Studio 3.1 Project Type Select the Windows Game 3.1 Template Type Prototype1 in the Name textbox provided Press OK. At this point code has auto-magically been created. Feel free to press the F5 key to run your first XNA program. You should have a blue screen infront of you. Without getting into the nitty gritty right, the code that was generated basically creates some basic code to clear the window content with the lovely CornFlowerBlue color. Something to notice, when you move your mouse into the window...nothing. ooooo spoooky. Let's put an image on that screen! Step A - Get an Image into the solution Under "Content" in your Solution Explorer, right click and add a new folder and name it "Sprites". Copy a small image in there; I copied a "Royalty Free" wizard hat from a quick google search and named it wizards_hat.jpg (rightfully so!) Step B - Add the sprite and position fields Now, open/edit  Game1.cs Locate the following line:  SpriteBatch spriteBatch; Under this line type the following:         SpriteBatch spriteBatch; // the line you are looking for...         Texture2D sprite;         Vector2 position; Step C - Load the image asset Locate the "Load Content" Method and duplicate the following:             protected override void LoadContent()         {             spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice);             // your image name goes here...             sprite = Content.Load<Texture2D>("Sprites\\wizards_hat");             position = new Vector2(200, 100);             base.LoadContent();         } Step D - Draw the image Locate the "Draw" Method and duplicate the following:        protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)         {             GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue);             spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteBlendMode.AlphaBlend);             spriteBatch.Draw(sprite, position, Color.White);             spriteBatch.End();             base.Draw(gameTime);         }  Step E - Compile and Run Engage! (F5) - Debug! Your image should now display on a cornflowerblue window about 200 pixels from the left and 100 pixels from the top. Awesome! =) Pretty cool how we only coded a few lines to display an image, but believe me, there is plenty going on behind the scenes. However, for now, I'm going to call it a night here. Blogging all this progress certainly takes time... However, tomorrow night I'm going to detail what we just did, plus start checking off points on that list! I'm wondering right now if I should add pictures / code to this post...let me know if you want them =) Best Regards, D.

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  • Video games, content strategy, and failure - oh my.

    - by Roger Hart
    Last night was the CS London group's event Content Strategy, Manhattan Style. Yes, it's a terrible title, feeling like a self-conscious grasp for chic, sadly commensurate with the venue. Fortunately, this was not commensurate with the event itself, which was lively, relevant, and engaging. Although mostly if you're a consultant. This is a strong strain in current content strategy discourse, and I think we're going to see it remedied quite soon. Not least in Paris on Friday. A lot of the bloggers, speakers, and commentators in the sphere are consultants, or part of agencies and other consulting organisations. A lot of the talk is about how you sell content strategy to your clients. This is completely acceptable. Of course it is. And it's actually useful if that's something you regularly have to do. To an extent, it's even portable to those of us who have to sell content strategy within an organisation. We're still competing for credibility and resource. What we're doing less is living in the beginning of a project. This was touched on by Jeffrey MacIntyre (albeit in a your-clients kind of a way) who described "the day two problem". Companies, he suggested, build websites for launch day, and forget about the need for them to be ongoing entities. Consultants, agencies, or even internal folks on short projects will live through Day Two quite often: the trainwreck moment where somebody realises that even if the content is right (which it often isn't), and on time (which it often isn't), it'll be redundant, outdated, or inaccurate by the end of the week/month/fickle social media attention cycle. The thing about living through a lot of Day Two is that you see a lot of failure. Nothing succeeds like failure? Failure is good. When it's structured right, it's an awesome tool for learning - that's kind of how video games work. I'm chewing over a whole blog post about this, but basically in game-like learning, you try, fail, go round the loop again. Success eventually yields joy. It's a relatively well-known phenomenon. It works best when that failing step is acutely felt, but extremely inexpensive. Dying in Portal is highly frustrating and surprisingly characterful, but the save-points are well designed and the reload unintrusive. The barrier to re-entry into the loop is very low, as is the cost of your failure out in meatspace. So it's easy (and fun) to learn. Yeah, spot the difference with business failure. As an external content strategist, you get to rock up with a big old folder full of other companies' Day Two (and ongoing day two hundred) failures. You can't send the client round the learning loop - although you may well be there because they've been round it once - but you can show other people's round trip. It's not as compelling, but it's not bad. What about internal content strategists? We can still point to things that are wrong, and there are some very compelling tools at our disposal - content inventories, user testing, and analytics, for instance. But if we're picking up big organically sprawling legacy content, Day Two may well be a distant memory, and the felt experience of web content failure is unlikely to be immediate to many people in the organisation. What to do? My hunch here is that the first task is to create something immediate and felt, but that it probably needs to be a success. Something quickly doable and visible - a content problem solved with a measurable business result. Now, that's a tall order; but scrape of the "quickly" and it's the whole reason we're here. At Red Gate, I've started with the text book fear and passion introduction to content strategy. In fact, I just typo'd that as "contempt strategy", and it isn't a bad description. Yelling "look at this, our website is rubbish!" gets you the initial attention, but it doesn't make you many friends. And if you don't produce something pretty sharp-ish, it's easy to lose the momentum you built up for change. The first thing I've done - after the visual content inventory - is to delete a bunch of stuff. About 70% of the SQL Compare web content has gone, in fact. This is a really, really cheap operation. It's visible, and it's powerful. It's cheap because you don't have to create any new content. It's not free, however, because you do have to validate your deletions. This means analytics, actually reading that content, and talking to people whose business purposes that content has to serve. If nobody outside the company uses it, and nobody inside the company thinks they ought to, that's a no-brainer for the delete list. The payoff here is twofold. There's the nebulous hard-to-illustrate "bad content does user experience and brand damage" argument; and there's the "nobody has to spend time (money) maintaining this now" argument. One or both are easily felt, and the second at least should be measurable. But that's just one approach, and I'd be interested to hear from any other internal content strategy folks about how they get buy-in, maintain momentum, and generally get things done.

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  • How to tell the Browser the character encoding of a HTML website regardless of Server Content.-Type Headers?

    - by hakre
    I have a HTML page that correctly (the encoding of the physical on disk matches it) announces it's Content-Type: <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= "text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title> ... Opening the file from disk in browser (Google Chrome, Firefox) works fine. Requesting it via HTTP, the webserver sends a different Content-Type header: $ curl -I http:/example.com/file.html HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:57:13 GMT ... Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 (see last line). The browser then uses ISO-8859-1 to display which is an unwanted result. Is there a common way to override the server headers send to the browser from within the HTML document?

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  • How to correctly calculate FPS in XNA?

    - by Tomek Tarczynski
    I wrote a component to display current FPS. The most important part of it is: public override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { elapseTime += (float)gameTime.ElapsedRealTime.TotalSeconds; frameCounter++; if (elapseTime > 1) { FPS = frameCounter; frameCounter = 0; elapseTime = 0; } base.Update(gameTime); } In most cases it works ok, but recently I had a problem. When I put following code into Update method of game strange thing starts to happen. if (threadPath == null || threadPath.ThreadState != ThreadState.Running) { ThreadStart ts = new ThreadStart(current.PathFinder.FindPaths); threadPath = new Thread(ts); threadPath.Priority = ThreadPriority.Highest; threadPath.Start(); } Main idea of this code is to run pathFinding algorithm in different thread all the time. By strange things I mean that sometimes FPS drasticly decreases, this is obvious, but displayed FPS changes more often than once a second. If I understand this code FPS can't change more often than once a second. Can someone explain me what's going on?

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