Today I went up to Belfast with Vincent Vergonjeanne and Liam Cronin to present at QuMIX '07. Mike McMeekin, who is a Microsoft Student Partner at Queen's University Belfast did a fabulous job setting up the afternoon, so special thanks go to him and all of his hard work.
The afternoon included a session on Imagine Cup by Liam. This included all of the information needed to get started for students interested in participating in the Imagine Cup for this year as well as lots of super giveaways! There were games, software DVDs and all kinds of betas for people.
Next, Vincent talked about Silverlight and showed how to use Expression to create some Silverlight content with vectors and animations. He did a great job covering Silverlight 1.0 and 1.1 and showing off the various capabilities of Expression. Vincent is especially qualified to showcase all of these features as he is the creator of Bubble Factory! BubbleFactory is proudly displayed in the Silverlight Gallery on the Silverlight.net site, and is one of two representations of Silverlight Ireland (the other one being the Animated 3D Polyhedra)!
Lastly I talked about XNA and how to get started developing games for Windows and the XBox 360 with XNA. We went through the XNA framework, creating and using assets, the Content Pipeline, assets for your game and debugging an XNA game. We also took a look at a very basic 3D game. I had an XBox controller with me to help me play Spacewar and control some of the games. Afterwards, as usual, I got some really good questions that I'm posting here because I think they could be useful for others:
Can I use the XNA Framework for Games for Windows - LIVE?
Yes, the 2.0 release of the XNA framework incorporates Games for Windows - LIVE. You can use it to incorporate gamer profiles, guide functionality, and networking into your games.
Are there any good 3D physics engines for XNA yet?
There are a couple with which people have reported good experiences. For example, the New Zealand Imagine Cup team built their physic simulators with XNA and the AGEIA physics engine, which seemed to work quite well. If you're using PC only, you could try the C# physX wrapper written by the guys who did the BulletX port (won't work on XBox 360 because it pinvokes to the unmanaged library, though). There are a few more on www.codeplex.com, search for physics and you'll find some others to try. If you're interested in 2D, try the Farseer Physics Engine for XNA and Silverlight, located here.
There are a couple with which people have reported good experiences. For example, the New Zealand Imagine Cup team built their physic simulators with XNA and the AGEIA physics engine, which seemed to work quite well. If you're using PC only, you could try the C# physX wrapper written by the guys who did the BulletX port (won't work on XBox 360 because it pinvokes to the unmanaged library, though).
There are a few more on www.codeplex.com, search for physics and you'll find some others to try.
If you're interested in 2D, try the Farseer Physics Engine for XNA and Silverlight, located here.
Are there any changes to XNA with .Net 3.0?
Actually the 2.0 release still targets the .Net Framework 2.0, so you won't see any changes there, at least definitely not from the PC side. The XBox piece of XNA Game Studio 2.0 is not yet released, so not sure if anything's changed with that implementation.
I was intending to do the session as a two-part talk on both XNA and Robotics Studio, but we ended up only having time for XNA. It's not hard to believe with all the new stuff going on in XNA Game Studio 2.0. So I am planning on coming back in the Spring and doing a more Robotics-oriented session for those interested. Mike mentioned in his blog that my robot is the source of my power, which could very well be true - don't be fooled by his seemingly innocent demeanor! ;-)
I wasn't kidding about all of the cool stuff happening as soon as I'm gone! On Monday afternoon an updated version of the Silverlight 1.1 Tools Alpha was released. This version will work with the RTM version of Visual Studio 2008.
This means that all the great features you know and love from Silverlight Tools will work in the released version of Orcas, including Xaml intellisense, debugging support, compatibility with Expression Blend, code-behind intellisense and support for Silverlight 1.1 projects.
All of this can be downloaded here for free. If you're looking for tutorials, the Silverlight.net site has some great ones here.
Give it a try, and let me know what you think - I'm interested in early feedback on people's experiences with Silverlight, especially 1.1 apps. Have fun!
Yesterday in Trinity College something landed. Something big. Something new and fun. Something that might keep me up late at night...
The XNA European Tour began right here in Dublin, filling two 150-person lecture halls for the entire day with 300+ students and game developers. In fact we had been expecting half of that, but as registrations came pouring in, Steve Collins, a lecturer at Trinity, was able to put together an additional room and have the speakers do morning and afternoon sessions!
I arrived a bit later as I flew in that morning from the US, but was still able to catch three sessions: Dr. Joaquin Quiñonero-Candela on "Learning to Race by Model-Based Reinforcement Learning", Charles Cox on "Diving in to XNA Game Studio 2.0 and the XNA Framework" and Rob Miles on "Building a Game in 60 Minutes with XNA Game Studio 2.0." I heard the talks were recorded and expected to be available in the next couple of weeks, so I'll send a pointer when they're ready. Joaquin showed a great demo where a racing game "learns" an algorithm by the user driving a car once around a track and can then drive itself around the track based on what it's learned. He also talked a bit about what it is like to work on his research team, which is the Applied Games Group at Microsoft Research Cambridge - seems like a pretty fun team. Charles Cox showed off some of the newer features in GS 2.0 like the networking capabilities and the VS integration. One of the coolest things he demo-ed was playing a game on the XBox 360 while debugging it on his laptop. Very nice! Rob Hull was one of the best, most engaging presenters I've ever seen. He pointed out that he could have actually built the game in ten minutes and told bad jokes for the rest of the hour. To top off his bad jokes, he also had games which involved batting cheese wedges with baguettes, which is pretty fun it turns out. He also proved that some games don't really need the screen, such as his game "Hide the gamepad." His website http://verysillygames.com has information on his book and some silly games.
I was really hoping to make it to see Dave Mitchell, Director of XNA, speak, and so I'm definitely looking forward to the videos. I was able to meet and chat with Dave a bit in between the sessions, and I have to say I don't envy the tour's travel schedule. They're basically flying every evening out of one country and into another for the rest of the week, and then going home on 4/12, hitting Austria, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Whoa. Dave did say that the final version of XNA Game Studio would be out by the end of the year, so that's good news for all of us.
Phil Bourke from Tipperary Institute has put together not just an XNA User Group, but also an XNA Challenge for students starting now and ending with a Challenge Final in March 2008!
Special thanks to Liam Cronin, Microsoft Ireland's Academic Engagement Manager and everyone else who helped put together a great event.
OBACentral may be of interest to those of you in Ireland who are developing OBAs - i.e. line-of-business (LOB) applications that leverage the Microsoft Office 2007 system via add-ins / extensions to apps such as Word, Excel, Outlook and of course Sharepoint to help solve business problems.
As an ISV you can use OBA Central to get the word out about your solution or services to a broad (read worldwide)audience. Here are some benefits of being on OBA Central:
Solutions featured on OBA Central
Opportunity to participate in OBA Central interviews about your OBA solution
Opportunity to create and show interactive demos of your OBA solution
Ability to publicize your upcoming events, make announcements and take polls
If you're an ISV in Ireland and would like to find out about getting your OBA showcased on OBACentral drop me an email.
If you're a developer, check out the MSDN OBA Developer Portal
All you ever wanted to know about Visual Studio 2008, in a box :-). Well, downloadable anyway.
The technologies covered in the kit include: LINQ, C# 3.0, Visual Basic 9, WCF, WF, WPF, ASP.NET AJAX, VSTO, CardSpace, SilverLight, Mobile and Application Lifecycle Management.
You can download the entire training kit from here.
It includes demos, presentations, hands-on-labs and videos, and end-to-end contains about 5 days of training if you were to do it all. I've had a preview of it for the last couple of months and there's a wealth of useful knowledge in there - just wish I had the opportunity to spend 5 solid days at it! Cross posted from ronan's blog
So Visual Studio 2008 has tons of new features which can let you be more productive, produce quality products, target new platforms - but don't take my word for it...Check out what these 3 participants in the VS 2008 TAP have done already with Visual Studio 2008:
I like self-training, and a it doesn't get much easier than watching a video! The below videos are from day 1 of a 5 day workshop on Visual Studio 2008
As I mentioned this is just from day 1, so expect recordings from the other days to be put up over the coming weeks, so be sure and check back!
Want to see some of the new features for Web Development in VS 2008? Here's an easy way : The “Building Web Applications with Visual Studio 2008” lab from the VS 2008 training kit is available on MSDN Virtual Labs here.
Couldn 't be easier!
SQL Server 2008 November CTP is now available here.
This CTP introduces new functionality across all of the core themes of SQL Server – Trusted, Beyond Relational, Dynamic Development, and Pervasive Insight. For example, it helps manage a mission critical and productive data platform with key features such as compatibility with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 as well as Resource Governor, Declarative Management Framework and Transparent Data Encryption.
The CTP is also the first to help customers store and consume any type of data including new FILESTREAM data types and to provide support for spatial data. New business intelligence enhancements include improved performance, usability, and data visualization.
You can also read the first 3 customer case studies on SQL Server 2008:
You can find lots more info on http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2008
Finally, if you're in Ireland are want to try out SQL Server 2008, are interested in joining the list of case studies, or simply want development resources for BI or info on Application Compatability with SQL Server 2008 do contact me.
Man, I disappear for a few days and all the excitement happens! Not only did Microsoft ship Visual Studio 2008 and .Net 3.5 Monday, but the XNA team also released the Game Studio 2.0 Beta!!
If you want to try it out, you can download it here and see the cool new integration with Visual Studio 2005 - now you don't have to have Visual C# Express. All versions of VS 2005 (standard, professional, etc.) are supported. But don't worry about uninstalling your existing version of Game Studio Express, the two can exist side-by-side.
There are a lot of new features in Game Studio 2.0 and the XNA framework including new networking APIs, new XACT audio editor, hosting inside of Windows Form (although this did not make it in to the Beta), virtualized GraphicsDevice, and more. There are also some interface changes, project templates for content importers and processors, and lots of enhancements and tweaks.
The blog entry notes that the time between this release and the final release will be quite short, so stay tuned for the release version.
It's done, officially announced today, so if you have an MSDN subscription you can download the English version of the product immediately. Still reading? Well then in case you need some reasons, try
Overall, Visual Studio 2008 provides more than 200 new features, aimed at
Still reading? When you could be writing a Silverlight application, or a workflow for Sharepoint 2007, or JSON-enabling your service so you can talk to it from your ASP.NET AJAX client, or writing a custom Windows Mobile app?
Expect trials to be available from Visual Studio Developer Center or if you're in Ireland then check out http://www.microsoft.com/ireland/vs2008/Default.html
Registration is open for Mix 2008 in Las Vegas from March 5th - March 7th at the Venetian: http://visitmix.com/2008
If you register by January 15th, you can get an early bird discounted price of $1095, saving $200 of the regular price. Mix sold out early for 2007, so don't hesitate to sign up for this year!
Keynote speakers are already listed and include Steve Ballmer, Scott Guthrie and Guy Kawasaki!
To stay up-to-date on Mix announcements and developments, subscribe to the RSS feeds here: Subscribe via RSS. On the new visitmix site there is also a link to the new weekly podcast called The Signal, which will give information on behind-the-scenes activity and excitement.
On Monday I went to Cork to visit students at UCC. Despite some technical difficulties involving scheduling and room changes, Microsoft Student Partners Nathan Forde and Sarah Fitzgerald managed to get together a great crowd! We spent about a half hour talking about Silverlight and its framework and then another half hour playing Pong and discussing building an XNA game.
I had a couple of questions I promised I would post on my blog, so here they are:
1) What does the networking support look like for XNA Game Studio Express 2?
With GSE 2, there are new networking APIs. These allow you to be able to create rich multiplayer games over XBox Live. The networking support is based on XBox Live and will not provide general network access which would be required for things like SOAP/HTTP.
2) Can you do any kind of direct integration into DirectX with XNA?
There is no managed wrapper to access DX10 features. If you really want to do this, you could try something like SlimDX, which is a community-based OpenSource Managed wrapper for DX9 and DX10.
3) Is anyone building professional games with XNA?
Yes! The world's first commercial XNA game was released earlier this year; it's called Blobbit Push. The XNA Creators Club website is a good resource for information about upcoming commercial XNA games. Another great resource is the Microsoft XNA Developer Presentations. If you scroll down to the Gamefest 2007 slides/presentations, you'll see a video of a talk with Torpex Games talking about their game and their experience with XNA Game Studio Express.
I was disappointed I didn't get to stay longer, as they also put together a Halo 3 Tournament on Wednesday night! With 40 competitors, I don't think I would have stood much chance, but it sounds like it was a good time!
For those of you who don't read the XNA Team Blog, you'll be happy to know that yesterday they announced that the beta of GSE 2 will be available for download soon!
See you all at the XNA Tour on Monday, November 26th in Trinity College!
One of the coolest new features released with the latest Windows Live Services is the Windows Live Messenger IM control. What this provides is a way for people to reach you when they don't have either a Windows Live ID or Messenger installed or something like that.
I installed it on to my blog this morning, but what I mean by installed it is that I 1) added some html to a section of my blog and 2) verified that it was okay with me for my online status to be made available as a web service. Now by going to my blog, individuals can see if I'm online or not based on the icon. If someone IMs me via my blog, they can either log in with their Windows Live ID or use the "Visitor" tag and fill out the captcha (which is, unfortunately, not the hotornot captcha we know and love). Then a Messenger toast pops up on my desktop letting me know.
This is a great example of how Windows Live Services can be incorporated into your existing site / application quite easily. This literally took me about three minutes to set up. And I was on a train this morning using my trusty USB modem with intermittent connections (or as Conor calls them, "The Midlands"). The captcha is admittedly a bit long for its purpose, but I suppose the reality of SPIM (spam over IM) makes it a necessary evil. The only other issue I noticed with it is that it doesn't seem to be supported on Safari, so I'm trying to find out why.
There is a lot more information on how to set this up on your blog here. Check it out and let me know what you think. I talked about this a tiny bit this weekend at Mashup Camp, but more on Mashup Camp shortly...
Technorati Tags: Microsoft , Windows Live Messenger , Windows Live Services , Windows Live ID , web development
Cross posted from Martha's Blog
Application testing to achieve Certified for Windows Server 2008 or Works with Windows Server 2008 begins November 1. Among the benefits for ISVs are:
· Major certification program improvements for Windows Server 2008: Estimated 50% less test fee and shorter duration.
You can also gain access to marketing opportunities with the Windows Server 2008 Software Certification Program prior to and during Windows Server 2008 launch wave.
If you're an ISV on the island of Ireland and are interested in getting your product certified for Windows Server 2008, then do contact me for more information on how testing is performed and what the next steps are.