My Experience Converting from XNA Game Studio 3.1 to 4.0

Microsoft released a big update to XNA Game Studio with version 4.0. The main improvement is Windows Phone 7 support. I will probably not develop for WP7 (see reasons below) but I still need to upgrade my current Xbox 360 project from XNA 3.1 to 4.0. The process was not as smooth as I though… Continue reading My Experience Converting from XNA Game Studio 3.1 to 4.0

3 Simple Tips to Avoid Memory Allocations with XNA/C#

Long time without posting. I’ve spent a lot of time working on the game, contracting art, buying sound effect and music assets, designing the levels… New screenshots/video should come very soon. Anyway, back on topic: when developing from C++ to C#, I found out very strange that you can allocate memory but you cannot free… Continue reading 3 Simple Tips to Avoid Memory Allocations with XNA/C#

Yes, multi-threading in XNA/C# can be that simple!

Multi-threading is often causing problems for multiple reasons: synchronization, deadlocks, concurrent access to memory… But with my recent experience with multi-threading in XNA/C#, you can really do simple and efficient optimizations. While looking for possible performance improvements in Spring Up Harmony for Xbox 360 (PC), I have seen a simple situation really suited for multi-threading.… Continue reading Yes, multi-threading in XNA/C# can be that simple!

On-screen profiling for XNA

A few days ago, I read an article called Among Friends: How Naughty Dog Built Uncharted 2. The interesting screenshots on the third page gave me the urge to create what I call an “on-screen profiling” tool for Spring Up XNA. I talked before about profilers and how to use them to find which sections… Continue reading On-screen profiling for XNA

First Run on Xbox 360 : Problems and Solutions

I decided about a month ago to start working on the Xbox 360 version of Spring Up in April. I think it can be interesting to share my experience about that. Part 1 : XNA Creator Membership Basically, you just need to pay creator membership (99 € for one year in Europe), launch XNA Game… Continue reading First Run on Xbox 360 : Problems and Solutions

Measuring game performance : framerate is not everything

I am currently having a few problems with performance in Spring Up XNA. I have two features that are too expensive in processing power : the background effect and the computation of the preview trajectory of the ball. I know these features are not usable at this cost because as soon as I activate one… Continue reading Measuring game performance : framerate is not everything

Video : Dynamic level demo and background effect update

The development of Spring Up XNA has been going pretty well last week. Here is a new video, please note that it is still not the final art, just placeholders for now : You can see the following: New ways of using the physics engine in the levels (joints, gravity…) Small improvements on the background… Continue reading Video : Dynamic level demo and background effect update

Box2D.XNA : a great 2D physics engine

Box2D is a 2D physics engine created by Erin Catto. On Win/Mac, I used a very early version of Box2D (it was released nearly two years ago!). I just made a few specific changes for the game. Of course, as I told in a previous article, XNA games must be made in C# and Box2D… Continue reading Box2D.XNA : a great 2D physics engine

Spring Up! XNA : first try at background effects

I spend some time trying to create an interesting visual effect in the background of Spring Up! XNA. The backgrounds of the PC/Mac versions are not really nice. I tried to do something more abstract and animated depending on the flow of the game. Geometry Wars 1 and 2 did a very good job at… Continue reading Spring Up! XNA : first try at background effects

Win/Mac and X360 differences (3) : XNA Content Pipeline

In this post, I’ll talk about the XNA Content Pipeline. When I first tried to load a resource in the XNA game, I was trying to do as usual : opening a file and reading it using standard file reading functions. However, on XNA you have to use the Content Pipeline provided and to be… Continue reading Win/Mac and X360 differences (3) : XNA Content Pipeline