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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Xna Progress Release?


dteviot

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Works fine for me as well. Very nice. Don't worry about the download. As soon as it is ready for public release, drop me a message and I will take care of everything. :)

I thought this was the public release. ^_^

However, I propose the following. We call .1684 the Beta 1 release of the Progress Release.

We give it a week, and if there's no major issues reported, then it gets promoted to official Progress Release.

If there's issues, I fix them and that's the Progress Release.

 

Known issues.

1. Game crashes if you try to build a base in Hawaii. (I'm suspect this is an issue with the regions bitmap, the area of Hawaii is an undefined color.)

2. The terrain and the geoscape texture bitmaps don't quite align. Meaning there are some areas where you can build on water, and can't build on land. Fixing this is out of my hands.

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I'm working on that, been very busy, back to work plus med appts are my full time.

My apologies, I should have added, I don't regard either of those as needing a fix before final release.

I was going to investigate the regions bitmap last night, but got sidetracked by saintD's unit tests.

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Progress:

  • GeoBitmap now checks (when required) that supplied texture has no "undefined" areas.
  • Fixed problem reported by SaintD where GeoBitmap.GetRandomCoord() was not working correctly.

Other notes:

  • New bug found. If start a fight with a Probe (unarmed) UFO, fight halts after one turn, because UFO can't fight.

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progress:

  • replaced some casts with 'as' (in my defense, I only just learned about it.)
  • added readonly to constant static class variables (in my defense, I only just learned about it.)
  • moved GeoBitmap unit tests from GeoPosition to GeoBitmap class
  • decoupled regions, countries and cities
  • fixed not being able to fight unarmed UFOs
  • removed undefined areas from regions.png (game no longer crashes when build on hawaii)
  • removed geoscape and skybox textures from XNA import pipeline

Other notes:

  • The upshot of removing the geoscape and skybox textures from the XNA import pipeline means that if you want to put a different texture on the earth,
    just rename the .jpg to HPC-earth-map.jpg and copy it over the existing texture in the content\textures directory. There's no need to process the file with XNA studio first.
    You can do the same thing with the skybox texture.
    And I'll admit, yes, I'm retarded. I should have realized we can do this, rather than suggest Mad rebuild texture files.

Edited by dteviot
minor correction
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Xenocide XNA 0.1.0.1686

 

changelog since 1684:

  • GeoBitmap now checks (when required) that supplied texture has no "undefined" areas.
  • Fixed problem reported by SaintD where GeoBitmap.GetRandomCoord() was not working correctly.
  • fixed not being able to fight unarmed UFOs
  • game no longer crashes when build on hawaii
  • geoscape and Skybox are now easily replacable by user (have a look at /content/textures)

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I don't know how much work this would be, but could we get a non-transparent background for the messages in the game? Some kind of greyish-blue maybe? Even black would be a great improvement. The way it is now, two boxes at the same time are not readable anymore.
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I can make a gray/blue background but is there code there for it yet? the widgetset doesn't have anything for the background.

 

Edit - also I was looking at the old xml xenocide gui theme would it take alot of work to use that? I wouldn't mind working on this I just don't know what would have to be done programming side, would everything have to be renamed?

Edited by Darkhomb
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I can make a gray/blue background but is there code there for it yet? the widgetset doesn't have anything for the background.

 

Edit - also I was looking at the old xml xenocide gui theme would it take alot of work to use that? I wouldn't mind working on this I just don't know what would have to be done programming side, would everything have to be renamed?

 

 

I looked into changing this in the program, but I don't undertand the GUI system well enough to figure it out. dtevoit expained his plan to me, but I can't quite put the peices together. If I get some time this week I will experiement more with it.

 

-D

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And one more thing - I think I asked this before - would it be very complicated to just add piece of music, so that we have music on the geoscape? Edited by Mad
spelling :)
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I don't notice much with that map, but I have a quick comp.

 

2nd, You added the map but you did not change the regions countries and terrain pngs look at the zip file I included in the regions thread for them.

 

I agree, the planetview.ogg that is in the svn is very nice.

 

 

Edit - Maybe we can make an option? in settings under graphics, we have a geoscape map setting, (super high = 10800x5400 I think only with this option should we have that last zoom level its too much zoom for the rest.) high = 5400x2700 med = 2700x1350 low = 1350x675

It would only eat up 10 meg more hdd space to include all images...

Edited by Darkhomb
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Guest Azrael Strife

Are we going to have a XNA release every three days? :P

 

Good job, it's a pity I can't run it :( Anything new from MS requires Service Pack 2 and that screws up badly my system, so no XNA for me just yet :) keep it up.

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Didn't I try and help you with this awhile ago? there is nothing in sp2 that should mess up your system.. what exactly happens? The best thing to do is to do a clean install with a slipsteam sp2 cd, easy to make quick search on the net shows you how... or i can tell you... this way there are no errors with installing sp2 it will already be done and working.
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actually I added them in. strange.... will modify the package

 

Can you add them to the svn as well? Thanks

thought about it, but didn't want to mess up dteviots "reign" :)

But if dteviot would tell me where to put it, I'll gladly do so. :)

Edited by Mad
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Latest check-in:

  • Added Darkhomb's 1350 x 675 terrain, region and country bitmaps. (from Post 54 in Regions/countries/cities on Geoscape thread)
  • Synthesize a LandedRegions GeoBitmap from the region and terrain bitmaps.
  • Added extra error logging code to GeoBitmap, to give co-ordinates of illegal colors.
  • Added GeoBitmap check that all regions are in bitmap.
  • Added Arctic region to Darkhomb's region bitmap.
  • Can click on an aircraft in the Geoscape and change its orders
  • Can click on an UFO in the Geoscape and get its details (more details shown when in tachyon range)

No need for a new build.

 

Guys,

 

I appreciate your enthusiasm, I really do. But I"d like to inject a little perspective.

Can I make the following comments/suggestions.

  • We use the 1350 x 675 Geoscape texture in the release. It has good performance, and looks OK until go to the highest zoom factor.
  • We provide the other textures in a separate "Bonus pack" that we suggest people with high end machines can try.
  • Yes, I know, ideally we would provide all the textures, and then select the appropriate one, but that's extra programmer work, and I'm already overworked.
  • I really like the idea of having city lights on the world's dark side. I've even got an idea how it could be done efficiently. Basic idea, we use a blending shader where we use the sun's angle to determine the relative weights we assign to the "Geoscape" and "City Glow" textures. The bad news is, this would require writing a shader, and I haven't got around to learning HLSL yet. This is because at the current time, the primary objective of the XNA branch is to build a working engine. That's why the graphics are on the sucky side, and there's no sound.
  • If anyone wants to add sound, it looks like Chapter 9 of "Professional XNA Game Programming" is dedicated to the topic.
  • Unfortunately, XNA won't accept .ogg files, it only accepts .wav files, and it turns them into .xnb

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Latest check-in:
  • Added Darkhomb's 1350 x 675 terrain, region and country bitmaps. (from Post 54 in Regions/countries/cities on Geoscape thread)
  • Synthesize a LandedRegions GeoBitmap from the region and terrain bitmaps.
  • Added extra error logging code to GeoBitmap, to give co-ordinates of illegal colors.
  • Added GeoBitmap check that all regions are in bitmap.
  • Added Arctic region to Darkhomb's region bitmap.
  • Can click on an aircraft in the Geoscape and change its orders
  • Can click on an UFO in the Geoscape and get its details (more details shown when in tachyon range)

No need for a new build.

 

Guys,

 

I appreciate your enthusiasm, I really do. But I"d like to inject a little perspective.

Can I make the following comments/suggestions.

  • We use the 1350 x 675 Geoscape texture in the release. It has good performance, and looks OK until go to the highest zoom factor.
  • We provide the other textures in a separate "Bonus pack" that we suggest people with high end machines can try.
  • Yes, I know, ideally we would provide all the textures, and then select the appropriate one, but that's extra programmer work, and I'm already overworked.
  • I really like the idea of having city lights on the world's dark side. I've even got an idea how it could be done efficiently. Basic idea, we use a blending shader where we use the sun's angle to determine the relative weights we assign to the "Geoscape" and "City Glow" textures. The bad news is, this would require writing a shader, and I haven't got around to learning HLSL yet. This is because at the current time, the primary objective of the XNA branch is to build a working engine. That's why the graphics are on the sucky side, and there's no sound.
  • If anyone wants to add sound, it looks like Chapter 9 of "Professional XNA Game Programming" is dedicated to the topic.
  • Unfortunately, XNA won't accept .ogg files, it only accepts .wav files, and it turns them into .xnb

 

 

Dude, this is fabulous work. And your focus on the real priorities is commendable. I take it you recomend "Professional XNA Programming"?

 

I think the roadmap you laid out recently is perfect. I will see if there are any of the tasks I can help out with. Most of my programming experience is with test automation (can you tell?) so the graphics stuff is all new to me. I wish I could be more helpful there, but I feel like I am just spinning my wheels.

 

We are all very grateful someone is providing the push for this project. I think we are lucky that someone is you. This project really looks great and is heading in the right direction.

 

 

This board seems like a good way to communicate, but I wonder if we should set up a bug tracker of some sort?

 

[*]We use the 1350 x 675 Geoscape texture in the release. It has good performance, and looks OK until go to the highest zoom factor.

 

I have two issues I want to bring up here.

  • The final zoom level seems like it might be too close in anyway. Maybe we should just cut it.
  • When you right click, the globe always spins at the same rate. This is great when you are zoomed all the way out, the globe sticks to the mouse pointer. However, when you zoom in it no longer tracks with the mouse. It goes much faster.

-D

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[*]Unfortunately, XNA won't accept .ogg files, it only accepts .wav files, and it turns them into .xnb

 

This is no good, i converted a 4.5 meg ogg into a 52 meg wav... so either we stick with massive audio files or we program it to play ogg... this guy used c# and .net and is open source so maybe we can use it?

 

http://www.codeproject.com/cs/media/OggPlayer.asp

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[*]Unfortunately, XNA won't accept .ogg files, it only accepts .wav files, and it turns them into .xnb

 

This is no good, i converted a 4.5 meg ogg into a 52 meg wav... so either we stick with massive audio files or we program it to play ogg... this guy used c# and .net and is open source so maybe we can use it?

 

http://www.codeproject.com/cs/media/OggPlayer.asp

Well, it might not be quite that bad.

The way you put sound into XNA, is you take a .wav file, and put it in the XNA content pipeline. This converts it into a .xnb file. (Which you might be able to .zip or .rar compress.) However, I'm not sure if the .xnb will do any compression. It certainly doesn't for bitmaps, it makes them a LOT bigger.

 

When you right click, the globe always spins at the same rate. This is great when you are zoomed all the way out, the globe sticks to the mouse pointer. However, when you zoom in it no longer tracks with the mouse. It goes much faster.

Already on my ToDo list to fix. I'll try and take care of it later today.

 

The final zoom level seems like it might be too close in anyway. Maybe we should just cut it.

Going to leave it in for the time being.

 

Final comment, the 60 fps rate, is because XNA is by default locked to 60 fps (or I think the monitor refresh rate). Thing to look at for performance is %CPU with perfmon. On my PC, last I looked, it was doing 10%.

 

Bug tracking. We have one. I never look at it. Perhaps I should.

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Guest Azrael Strife
Didn't I try and help you with this awhile ago? there is nothing in sp2 that should mess up your system.. what exactly happens? The best thing to do is to do a clean install with a slipsteam sp2 cd, easy to make quick search on the net shows you how... or i can tell you... this way there are no errors with installing sp2 it will already be done and working.

I have:

- Installed everything fresh and install Service Pack 2 immediately, result: badly messed up graphics and greatly slowed down system with severe crashes, only solution was to remove SP2.

- Installed SP2 with my system, result: read above.

- Installed SP2 directly downloaded from Microsoft, result: read above.

 

I would dare say you cannot really know whether there is something or not in SP2 to mess up my system, and for the record, Sporb has had similar difficulties with it, IIRC. This is not a matter of choice, I install it, and everything is screwed up, not really my fault since it's pretty much an install-and-forget app.

 

Edit: sorry for the Offtopic.

Edited by Azrael Strife
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I think the roadmap you laid out recently is perfect. I will see if there are any of the tasks I can help out with. Most of my programming experience is with test automation (can you tell?) so the graphics stuff is all new to me. I wish I could be more helpful there, but I feel like I am just spinning my wheels.

 

OK, first, I'd like to say I appreciate the unit test code you provided. It flushed out 3 bugs in the GeoBitmap class, and allowed me to do the new GeoBitmap work a lot faster. Some more unit tests would be nice. (Say, around craft combat/Aeroscape dialog.)

 

Second, recommended books. I've only got 2 XNA books at the moment, and as I'm focusing on building the basic engine (which doesn't use much XNA) I haven't done much more than leaf through them, and read the first couple of chapters of each. So far, the Professional book is good, provided you've got a good grasp of programming. That said, I suspect the just released "XNA Unleashed" is probably the best XNA book out there are the moment. Note, I haven't seen that yet, I'm going on its description on Amazon, and comments posted in some of the XNA forums.

 

Third, if you're looking for other things to do, could I suggest looking at a Day/Night geoscape shader I previously mentioned? I've invited Red Knight to have a go at it, but he hasn't replied yet. But worst case, your learning HLSL for you might be useful elsewhere.

 

Failing that, you might have a quick look at adding some sound, see if the .xnbs are really as bloated as I fear they might be. And possibly look at the .ogg player previously mentioned.

 

Also, have a look at ToDoList.html in the Xenocide docs directory. Don't do anything in the "Stuff that needs to be done now section." That's what I'm currently working on.

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Progress:

  • When right dragging to rotate the geoscape, keep mouse over same position in geoscape. Well, mostly. There's some quantization effects (making the cursor wobble) and some noticable spherical aberation at the edges, but it's better than it was.
  • Aliens now launch Terror missions against cities roughly once per week. (X-Corp can't visit the terror sites yet!)

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Trying the get the widgets working, this is much harder then I thought it was going to be... heres a SS though...

OK, if you go to the http://www.cegui.org.uk/wiki/index.php/Tutorials and look up the Skins - Tutorial For Artists section, the Falgard tutorials explain how Falgard is supposed to work. Note, this stuff isn't implemented in CeGui#, but it is in the C++ truck, so this should give you an idea how it works.

Edited by dteviot
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thanks I will check that out, curious though how come there are Falgard files in the cegui# build though? just there for later?

Work started on them, but so far as I am aware, it wasn't finished. I did have a bit of a look at it, but trying to figure out what state it was in made my head hurt.

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[*]Unfortunately, XNA won't accept .ogg files, it only accepts .wav files, and it turns them into .xnb

 

This is no good, i converted a 4.5 meg ogg into a 52 meg wav... so either we stick with massive audio files or we program it to play ogg... this guy used c# and .net and is open source so maybe we can use it?

 

http://www.codeproject.com/cs/media/OggPlayer.asp

I doubt it will store the .wav in a compressed form, I will check it I can find a piece of code that I did a couple of years ago when I started a Managed DirectX version of Xenocide that did Ogg Streaming. Hope I didnt lose it from the last crashes.

 

Greetings

Red Knight

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