Browse by Tags

Towers of Hanoi–WPF Style (Part 2)
13 February 12 10:45 PM | pavely | with no comments

In the first part , we saw how to recursively solve the Towers of Hanoi problem in C#. In this post I want to show a graphic view of the solution. This is a starting position with 7 discs: This is how it looks when the problem is solved: In between, the discs move with animation from pole to pole, as the solution dictates. Options include speeding up the process (with the slider, very useful), pausing the animation and resetting to the initial state. Here’s something in the middle: The Poles The...

תגים:.NET, C#, DEV, XAML, Fun, WPF, Graphics, Algorithms

WPF Tip: Displaying Images in different Pixel formats
30 January 12 12:25 AM | pavely | 3 comment(s)

If we want to show an image in WPF, we typically use an Image element and connect its Source property to some image resource within our project: < Image Source ="Penguins.jpg" /> The Source property is not a string, it’s an ImageSource – an abstract type with several concrete implementations that provide a “real” image source. The above markup works thanks to the help of a type converter, that makes the source a BitmapImage – one of the simplest sources, that presents the image as...

תגים:.NET, XNA, C#, Silverlight, DEV, XAML, WPF, Graphics, DirectX, Shaders

Using the Async CTP With Windows Phone
07 January 12 12:05 PM | pavely | with no comments

The Async CTP that exposes C# 5.0 features to be used with asynchronous programming is not just for the full .NET Framework. There are versions for Silverlight (4 and 5) and even Windows Phone (which can be viewed as Silverlight 4, but has a separate supporting assembly). To demonstrate, I’ve adapted my sample of the Mandelbrot set to Windows Phone, while taking advantage of the async features to keep the UI responsive. After creating the initial Silverlight for Windows Phone project, I’ve added...

תגים:.NET, DEV, Graphics, Numerics, C# 5.0, Windows Phone

WPF For WinForms (and MFC) Developers, Part 1
11 January 11 04:00 PM | pavely | 3 comment(s)

WPF has been around for more than 4 years now (since the release of Windows Vista), but only in the last couple of years there is increased move from Windows Forms to WPF. However, the transition is anything but easy. This is not just because WPF is relatively new, or because people are people, and as such don’t like change for the sake of change. I mean, WinForms is ok, isn’t it? MFC may be old, but it works, doesn’t it? The term User Interface (UI) has served us for years. In recent years, this...

תגים:MFC, .NET, Interop, DEV, WPF, Graphics

XNA 2D Game Tutorial (Part 11)
17 November 10 07:25 PM | pavely | 6 comment(s)

Previous posts in this series: Part 1 : Getting started Part 2 : Drawing something Part 3 : Input handling Part 4 : Game Components Part 5 : Animation and Sprites Part 6 : Handling Projectiles Part 7 : Sound Effects Part 8 : Setting Up Data Part 9 : Creating Aliens Part 10 : Collision Detection In the previous part we did some collision detection between the player’s missiles and the aliens. If hit, the alien disappeared gradually (as opposed to a big explosion). Let’s add some more collision detection...

תגים:.NET, XNA, C#, DEV, Fun, Graphics, Games

XNA 2D Game Tutorial (Part 9)
14 November 10 10:20 PM | pavely | 3 comment(s)

Previous posts in this series: Part 1 : Getting started Part 2 : Drawing something Part 3 : Input handling Part 4 : Game Components Part 5 : Animation and Sprites Part 6 : Handling Projectiles Part 7 : Sound Effects Part 8 : Setting Up Data In the previous post we prepared the data for the aliens and for the game levels. In this post, we’ll put that data to action. The first thing we’ll do is create a custom Alien class, that extends the Sprite class and adds some specific alien attributes. This...

תגים:.NET, XNA, C#, DEV, Fun, Graphics

XNA 2D Game Tutorial (Part 6)
09 November 10 01:20 PM | pavely | 10 comment(s)

Previous parts in this series: Part 1 : Getting started Part 2 : Drawing something Part 3 : Input handling Part 4 : Game Components Part 5 : Animation and Sprites In the previous part, we added animation capabilities to a general Sprite class. Our next step is to add firing capabilities to the player. The first thing we’ll do is move the player logic to its own component. This would make it flexible (allowing us to disable it in a title screen, for example) and easier to maintain. Add a new Game...

תגים:.NET, XNA, C#, DEV, Fun, Graphics

XNA 2D Game Tutorial (Part 5)
07 November 10 10:17 PM | pavely | 15 comment(s)

Previous parts in this series: Part 1 (Getting Started), Part 2 (Showing Something), Part 3 (Input Handling), Part 4 (Game Components). What do we have at the moment? A ship we can control with keyboard and stars flying by, implemented as a DrawableGameComponent for flexibility and modularity. Although the ship seems to move, it’s still too static. Its engines are not changing. What we want is some animation. Perhaps toggling between two images such that the engine would seem to fluctuate? Animation...

תגים:.NET, XNA, C#, DEV, Fun, Graphics

XNA 2D Game Tutorial (Part 4)
06 November 10 12:06 AM | pavely | 10 comment(s)

Previous posts in this series: Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 . Our sprite ship is moving with the help of the arrow keys. But it doesn’t seem to be travelling through space. Perhaps we should add some starts going by, as the ship travels forward at incredible speeds… We could continue with the same basic idea we use with the player’s ship: Add appropriate variables, update stars position in the Update method and draw them all in the Draw method. This will cause some bloating of Update and Draw , not to...

תגים:.NET, XNA, C#, DEV, Fun, Graphics

XNA 2D Game Tutorial (Part 2)
02 November 10 12:18 PM | pavely | 14 comment(s)

In the first part we just created a black window. It’s time to see something more interesting. The first thing we’ll do is change the window size. The window size is important for practical purposes – all our sprites (soon to be drawn) need to be with a good relative size, the space for movement must be sufficient, etc. The other thing is full screen mode. In a typical game, immersion is the keyword. To immerse the player inside the game, she should not see the taskbar, messenger popping up, etc...

תגים:.NET, XNA, C#, DEV, Fun, Graphics

XNA 2D Game Tutorial (Part 1)
01 November 10 10:30 AM | pavely | 15 comment(s)

I like creating games. In fact, that’s what drew me into the computer world back in 1983. It’s amazingly satisfying seeing one of your creations looking like it’s alive, making decisions and reacting to the player’s actions. Back then I used to create games for the legendary Commodore 64 , with it’s 64KB of RAM (of which about 39K was free for the programmer), 1MHz 6510 CPU (yes, 1 mega-hertz!), its video chip (VIC) that supported 8 hardware sprites (more on that in a bit) and its sound chip (SID...

תגים:.NET, XNA, DEV, Fun, Graphics, VS 2010, .NET 4, Tutorial

Frame Based Animations in Silverlight
11 August 10 12:30 PM | pavely | 1 comment(s)

One way to do animations in Silverlight is to make gradual changes to dependency properties. Although this is powerful and convenient, it lacks in control. For example, developing a game with Silverlight may require complex movements of “bad guys” and other background elements that are not well suited for the property-based animation. The alternative is frame-based animation. That is, every frame some change is applied to an element (such as the attached Canvas.Left and Canvas.Top properties, effectively...

תגים:.NET, Silverlight, DEV, Graphics