Ed Dunhill's Blog : Random Stuff

Getting Started with DeepZoom

edunhill — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:03:16 GMT

I've done a few events recently and showed off a new Microsoft technology called DeepZoom which is powered by Silverlight. DeepZoom allows you to publish incredibly hi-res images online (potentially we're talking terrabytes) allowing users to access them without first having to download the entire image. It does this by creating multiple versions of the image at different resolutions with the hi-res versions chunked up into small bits. When the user first accesses the image they are presented with a low res zoomed out version but as they zoom in and navigate the image only the relevant hi-res chunks are downloaded thus saving bandwidth.

That might all sound fairly complex but the experience it creates is incredibly intuitive, take a look at the Hardrock Memorabilia Site (if you want to be impressed press 'v' and then zoom out!).

The really neat thing about DeepZooms is that they are pretty easy to put together using the free DeepZoom Composer. I've been promising a video showing how to use the composer for a little while now so here it is:

NB: You need .NET 3.5 for the Composer to work

(For some reason its not clear in the video how I stitch the photos - Simply select the photos to stitch, right click and select 'Create panoramic photo...')

In the above example I use another cool feature in the Composer which will automatically stitch together multiple lo(wer)-res images to make a single hi-res image for your DeepZoom. If you want to try it for yourself with my images they can be downloaded here.

Technorati Tags: DeepZoom,Composer,Silverlight,Hardrock,Tutorial

Photosynth goes live!

edunhill — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:29:00 GMT

From today Photosynth is publicly available so you can not only view others 'synths' but create and upload your own using the free Photosynth tools.

Photosynth is a new technology which allows you to stitch a collection of digital photos of a location or object into a 3D, 360 degree experience.

Each synth is created by detecting overlap/similarities in 3-300 photos and then stitching them all together to form a 3D recreation of the subject.

Photosynth is based on Seadragon technology, to find out more and download the tools visit photosynth.net

Technorati Tags: Photosynth,Seadragon,Microsoft Live Labs,Photography

Make a video about S+S and win a trip to Macau

edunhill — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:14:34 GMT

This is a great opportunity for any budding film makers out there...

All you need to do is use information from this page to write a script, film a creative video and submit it online and you could be jetting off to Macau!

To find out more and check out the T&Cs visit bringitalltogether.asia

Thanks to Paolo for spotting this.

Technorati Tags: Software + Services,S+S,Video,Macau

Imagine Cup Games Dev Videos

edunhill — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:04:00 GMT

Now that the deadline for the Games Development invitational of the Imagine Cup has passed I thought I'd share the videos that the UK teams made to promote their games:

These guys pulled out all the stops and produced some awesome games here, now we've just got to wait for the results of the judging to see if any of them are coming with us to the Imagine Cup final in Paris...

Technorati Tags: Imagine Cup,Game Development,XNA

Microsoft UK Studentzine now on Facebook!

edunhill — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:41:11 GMT

Some of you probably already subscribe to our monthly student newsletter focused on technology and how to use it, well now we're making it even easier to access all our great content and share it with your friends on Facebook.

We have a new Facebook Page with all the content from the Studentzine plus discussion boards and the obligatory Wall. So why not become a Fan today and enter our competition for tickets to see the Foo fighters live at Wembley on the 6th June! All you have to do is upload a photo to the page that represents student life for you - the best seven photos get a pair of tickets.

Technorati Tags: Facebook,Studentzine,Microsoft UK

Build your own game with... Popfly!

edunhill — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:19:35 GMT

As if Popfly wasn't cool enough, they've just launched a new service which lets you create your own Silverlight games without having to write code.

There are a bunch of code templates and characters you can use to get started (I particularly like 'Kill the Peas' ;)).

The best way to find out more is go and have a play - log in at popfly.com and click the 'Create Stuff' tab and select 'Game'.

Have fun and let me know if you create anything cool!

Technorati Tags: Popfly,Games Development

Pacman - Powered by XNA (and Silverlight)

edunhill — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:27:46 GMT

Those readers of the Microsoft Studentzine newsletter will have seen Ben Coley's series of articles helping you create your first game using XNA. He's walking readers through the creation of Pacman adding new code and gameplay each month. His first two articles can be found below but if you want want to keep up to date with this and other tech tutorials you should sign up to the Studentzine here.

Dom Green, a MSP at MMU (and soon to be Microsoft employee) has taken Ben's example and ported the code to Silverlight v2. Because Silverlight v2 uses .NET and C# it is very easy to port content from other .NET platforms such as XNA especially if (as in Ben's example) they're not using to many (or any) platform specific libraries. In fact Dom has taken it one step further and implemented functionality which Ben (as yet) has not ;). I think this should be an official race... who'll get a fully fledged version of Pacman live first, Ben on XNA or Dom on Silverlight; only time will tell!

You can check out Dom's articles on porting Ben's code and getting his Silverlight app live here, here and here.

(A word to the wise - If you have the Silverlight v1 runtime installed make sure you manually uninstall it before installing the v2 beta 1 required to view Dom's demo)

Technorati Tags: Silverlight,Pacman,XNA,Studentzine,Microsoft

New XNA Content; Inspiration Tour - Hull University

edunhill — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:38:34 GMT

Yesterday we visited Hull University to deliver the latest Inspiration Tour session. The turn out was great and we were made to feel really welcome so a big thank you to everyone who attended.

While chatting to Rob Miles he mentioned that he is currently putting together a book aimed at getting users started with C# using XNA to teach the language. The book should prove an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn programming on .NET or is just getting started with XNA. Rob has kindly published the draft chapters he's written so far on his blog here so go take a look.

Also keep an eye on our Inspiration Tour Popfly application as we will be updating it with new geotagged photos from the Tour as we go.

We are visiting Essex University today, then we are at GameCity in Nottingham on Thurs and Aberystwyth on Fri/Sat. So all in all a busy week; in fact after a quick tally I reckon I'll travel a total of 1130 miles this week!

Technorati Tags: Inspiration Tour, Microsoft, Students, Hull University, Popfly, Flickr

Mix Messenger

edunhill — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 11:41:00 GMT

Can you imagine a dance tune made from the Windows Live Messenger notification sounds? Well imagine no more!

The guys at MSN France have persuaded David Guetta to produce such a mix to promote Messenger.

If you can bear it for more than a few minutes then you win... my admiration!

However if your looking for a hit of cheesy eurodance and are a big fan of the IM notification sounds then this is probably the best way to get your Friday night started.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Messenger, Dance, David Guetta, Windows Live, Microsoft