XNA Team Blog

Another New Round of Content On creators.xna.com

Michael Klucher
Program Manager – XNA Community Game Platform

We have another great round of content available for you on http://creators.xna.com for the month of June, including an all new mini game and more. Here is a full list of what's new this month:

Mini Game:

• Pickture
  

The goal in Pickture is to slide the puzzle chips until the picture is complete. However, there is a twist: on the more difficult settings, the board is two sided and puzzle chips can be flipped!

Tutorials:

• Authoring Particle Systems Using XML and the Content Pipeline
  
  This tutorial teaches you how to extend the Particle 3D Sample so the particle systems are defined using XML files loaded with the Content Pipeline.
  
  
• Collision Series 3:  2D Collision with Transformed Objects
  
  This article details how to perform per-pixel collision detection on sprites with linear transformations such as rotation or scale.

Samples:

• Chasing and Evading
  
  Featuring a cat, a mouse, and a tank, this sample demonstrates how to implement several simple behaviors for AI, including chasing, evading, and wandering.
  
  
• Non-Realistic Rendering
  
  This sample shows how to implement stylized, non-photorealistic rendering techniques, such as cartoon shading, edge detection, and a pencil sketch effect.
  
  
  
• Picking with Triangle-Accuracy
  
  This sample extends the Picking sample with a more accurate picking algorithm, which tests against individual triangles that make up a mesh.
  
  
• Shader Series 3:  Per-Pixel Lighting
  
  This sample shows how to use a pixel shader to perform per-pixel lighting with specular highlights that shift depending on the viewer's orientation.

Enjoy the new content! If you have any feedback make sure to leave it for us on the forums (http://forums.xna.com) or this blog entry. We'll see you over at http://creators.xna.com