XNA Game Engine Update - Multiplayer support!

I finally done working with multiplayer support for my game engine. The really challenge for me is to have a NetLobby class that must be generic across the projects and encapsulates all common functionalities in handling network lobby sessions especially in dealing with UDP or non-reliable connection to make it more reliable.

I've wrote a lot of network code for games for the past years in C++ and I must say that my NetLobby code is really neat, simple but complete. I should have done something like this years ago!

A very productive week..

...for my game engine, that is.

I was recently motivated and able to finish most of the issues and some remaining features that needs to be added. Here's my update so far:

- Persistent data storage for save games
- Trial and Full mode
- Game interruption handling
- Ad banner placement

My Game Dev Experience as a Hobby

I got this blogging idea while reading tipidpc forum about game development as someone shared his experience and updates to the forum. I want to reply and share on his post but decided to blog instead.

Anyway since I saw someone use Irrlicht, I remember back in the days I made an mmorpg engine and use irrlicht3d for my test client apps. I actually use this prototype to apply for Anino Entertainment and Flipside Games. Got no luck as they actually looking for a game / renderer opengl direct3d guy that time.



With the failure of getting a gamedev job and using Irrlicht code design, they inspired me to start studying Direct3d and write my own first engine (which Irrlicht design still adapted in my XNA engine).

Accelerometer with Windows Phone's SDK 7.1 - Mango

I've been trying out Accelerometer in Non-Mango or Nodo sdk version but it's nearly impossible to test it without using your actual device. Now with the release of Mango SDK, they finally added accelerometer in the emulator. I'm quite amaze how easy to code and use it on the emulator... why would Microsoft took so long to develop/release this such useful feature?

Anyway, the moment I test it I immediately integrate the Accelerometer in my engine.

    device.AcceleratorActive = true;
    ..
    foreach (SphereObject obj in listBalls)
    {
        obj.Force += device.AcceleratorReading * 50.0f;
    }

There are so many new features in Mango SDK update that I wanted to try out but I'm more exited with Sockets... here's my rant before: Programming Sockets with Windows Phone 7

Programming Sockets with Windows Phone 7

I've been coding sockets for more than 10 years and it is very important because most of my ideas are all network based or multiplayer based - it's just part of my coding life.

So, I spent hours and hours looking if there's a Socket for WP7 and the only information I got is Windows Communication Foundation using single request/response access to HTTP.

Demo game and updated particle system

This is just a demo game screenshot for my game engine. The game has all features I have in my engine except for Scrolling Background and AI (check my previous post) which I haven't really thought of the right concept to match the actual game.

Art sucks I admit! Every image/texture resource was just a re-use from the old test apps. I wish someone could help me on this department! =)

Anyway here are the screenshots...

XNA Game engine status

What have I done so far...

Device - main game engine / framework
Screen states - small framework to handle screens eg. start menu, ingame, options
Input manager - keyboard, mouse, keypad
FPS utility - simple benchmark monitoring
Font manager - handles all font files
Texture manager - handles all texture files
Sound manager - handles all sound files with XACT

ArithmeticException was handled. Function does not accept floating point Not-a-Number value

After my years of game engine writing this is actually my first time to write a working physics engine with a simple sphere-sphere, sphere-box 2d collision. Though one thing bothers me is that at some point the application crashes randomly.

So I noticed that my application consistently crashing at Math.Sign() with NaN values passing in it. I tried to fix the bug the whole day without luck -- the bug is very trivial what causing it.

Porting my old C++ Templates code to C# Generics

I'm quite pessimistic about using C# Generics and how will affect the design and how it behaves but I have no choice I'm now using C# so I'll give it a try.

Part of c++ template code from my D3D game engine...

   template<class T>
   class TState
   {
   public:
      virtual ~TState() {}
      virtual void Enter(T*) = 0;
      virtual void Execute(T*) = 0;
      virtual void Exit(T*) = 0;
      virtual bool OnMessage(T*, const tTelegram&) = 0;
   };

Migrating to new blogspot?

I've been thinking lately to start blogging again though one thing bothers me is that I'm still using the old blogspot templates. For sure using the new blogspot templates will make my blog full featured like adding of widgets. Honestly I like it this way but the way I want to expand this seems to be a headache if you ask me.

Not another online 2d chat...

It's been a month since my last update from my game project.

Building an Atom 330 Server PC

Here are some of my insights...

I'm building one for my 24/7 server like web, ftp, NAS, my-game-server and torrent of course.

I read somewhere that atom is 200%+ much faster than p4 2.8ghz when doing mysql queries (a big plus for my project)... P4 is what i really plan to build in the first place but i change my mind.

Upcomming project?

I got bored playing WOW and a 'game' concept I came across while surfing. By randomly clicking through websites I happen to read this article "Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix" game -- hehe haba eh noh. It's not new but just a remix and I think just to support HD screens.

Back to gamedev!: AI FSM + Entity Manager + Messaging

I just got myself in condition to write some code again but this time it's more of an strategic and effective approach in coding AI using C++ rather than Game Engine / Graphics / Sound / Network... well i'm somewhat satisfied for now what my 2d engine is capable off... but now i'm better of doing other things to make my game more alive!

Please check Downloads category: AI_FSM_EntityMgr_Msging.zip

I wish next year of Q1-Q2 will be my first casual game release using my game engine. I'm planning at least 3 games before I start working on my 3D engine again.

This should work now...

Cheers and Merry Christmas!

edited: I forgot that this AI includes instant and delayed messaging capabilities! You will notice some 1sec delays before other entity response.

My new graphic 'wrapper'

Presenting my new wrapper! well not engine really, more of like direct3d wrapper :( hehehe!. Anyway this 'wrapper' can do 2D and 3D and mix at the same time - gui 2D using orthographic projection. This is still a prototype, but the 2D side seems to be good enough to create a simple casual game. This is actually a code re-write from my previous game engine. Some of the codes will still be used and planning to recode most of the graphic part for shader aproach. Everything still goes into plan. Here are the pics... :D

2D (shooter demo)
3D (box on grid)

John Carmack's new game engine.

You might want to check this out...
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7649

http://www.destructoid.com/id-software-s-new-engine-premiered-at-apple-worldwide-developers-conference-32813.phtml

This is interesting but what kind of technology did he add to his engine that can bring 'wow' factor to the gamers? I've seen Crytek engine, Unreal Engine and thing is I'm afraid that the output will be the same... but the big question is do I need to upgrade my PC again? =)

I need more news from John so maybe I can get my motivation back to game development.

Cheers!

Any BSG Fans?

Well I am! check out my new prototype 2D game engine "Battlestar Galactica". Most of the resource are not original but anyway this is just for fun not planning for commercial; only to my friends and anyone who wants too :-P

http://rapidshare.com/files/25125720/roogz_bsg_game_proto.mpg.html

I use Direct3d, OpenAL Ogg Vorbis and Lua for this game. Pure arcade game, currently implementing multiplayer support and my bro will be on game design and arts.

cheers!

Back to game engine: rewrite?!

Hehehe... since i'm already bored here at work, i think 'now' is the right time to rewrite my code and redesign as well. This is my chance to use my new d3d shader approach book as my base rendering code and ai book.

Wish me luck!

Game Engine: GUI / New Game AI Books!

I'm quite busy this days and it does really affect my game engine progress. But anyway i'm still aiming to finish my first game engine Q1 of next year.

I just finished my basic GUI engine that is powered by lua scripting. GUI includes Panel/Parent Window, Cursor, Editbox, Button, Label, Checkbox, and Progressbar. Can modify it's color, texture, position, size, border(some) etc...

I think that's enough for now since i already covers most GUI controls that can bee seen in most games. Here are the screenshots:


I might go back to AI for a while... i just bought 2 books from the internet. Programming Game AI by Example by Mat Buckland and AI Game Engine Programming by Brian Schwab. I've already read some parts and i think it will help my engine to become more modular and systematic. I just wonder at first why these 2 books somehow have their own approaches in creating game AI... and just realized AI by Example is more beginner approach and AI Game Engine is for intermediate to advance which is kind of releif. I don't want to waste money for 2 beginner books. Well i can't really decide what book buy at first hehehe... so i bought both! They have really good reviews y'know. Can't wait to try them out.

Cheers all! and Advance Merry Christmas!

game engine: AI Basic FSM (Finite State Machine)

i almost totally forgot, actually this has been updated late last month. monster's AI are now more fun to attack rather than standing and waiting to get killed hehehe. FSM includes IDLE, WANDER, EVADE, DEAD.. that's all, i told you it's basic :D. i'm currently workin on revised code of my engine. anyway you can check the screenshots.

hey, one a time please...

kill kill!