MODERATOR NOTE: All support for the quickstart engine should be asked in the codeplex forum for the project.

This is the thread for any information pertaining to the XNA QuickStart Engine. It is a free, open-source, engine designed to help XNA users get started on a 3D game with a lot less time and hassle. It is currently in the prototype phase, and as such it isn't a full-fledged engine yet. It is an XNA community project, and the speed as which it advances depends on participation from the community. New members are joining in already, and will all be participating part-time on it to bring new versions whenever possible, but I encourage anyone that wants to contribute to the community with their fair bit of knowledge to feel free to join in the project. Shoot me an email request, with your contribution info (what you've accomplished on the template), and I can add you to the project. If you don't feel like participating you do not need to be a member to download the free template. Have fun, and please feel free to leave ask any questions, and leave comments and/or criticisms, as it can only help us improve the engine.

If you'd like to use the engine, visit the QuickStart Engine project at CodePlex where you can download the newest build.



This page is under construction as of Sept 13th, 2009. New version has been released, details pending...

For anyone (seriously) interested in joining the project:

• Read through the current issues and features to get an idea of the things we will be working on.
• Read through the coding standards document and engine documentation for more info.
• Sign-up for a CodePlex account (completely free), Email me a request and what you plan to contribute and I will add you to the project.
• I've got versioned builds in the source code section at codeplex.
• If you've never used CodePlex Client source control, it took me about 5 minutes to learn, here's the link to download it (only 400kb or so). You can simply download the source, make any changes you'd, and upload a patch which can then be merged with the newest version.
• I've begun adding issues and feature requests if anyone feels like starting on them. Of course, you can always work on mods that aren't on the list, I would recommend issuing a feature request first however.
• I uploaded older versions of the code as well, not sure if I can think of a use for them, but maybe someone else will.

Sounds great! This will be helpful for newbies ...

Thanks for taking the time to do this! Awesome resource for the commuinty. I'm  going to go download and give it a look over to see what kinds of goodies I can learn from it. Thanks again!

It was throw together in only a few hours so it isn't anything spactacular, any feedback would be great.

It isn't a gui or anything, in fact, I'm glad it isn't, it is meant to help programmers get started, if I had made it a gui it would've been more like a level editor / engine than a tutorial / framework.

I'm curious to see if it will really be useful for any new programmers.

I am also updating the physics in my simple physics demo as well. Any changes I make can easily be integrated in to the template. I will update the template as well from time to time as required.

I did release a physics update (v0.11) tonight.
http://www.nfostergames.com/samples.htm (Second sample on the page)

The forums have been the slowest I've seen them lately (labor day weekend probably), so I don't even know if this is something that beginners will be using, or able to use. I'll need some feedback on that end.

I am looking into it.  It has been a LONG time since I did 3D, so I have forgotten a lot.  Anything to help get back into it quicker will be a big help.

I'm not afraid of any criticism either, feel free to tell me if it sucks. I'm looking at this as a learning experience, so even criticism is a good thing if I learn from it.

I've downloaded it but haven't had much time to take a look at it. :( Hopefully tonight.

Just a couple bits of info.

The original direct link I posted was to a physics sample, not the template sample, sorry about that, I was really tired I guess. I did fix the original post to reflect the true link.

Also, I've updated the template to include my latest physics sample. Also I've integrated code for the gamepad and mouse so the user can simply fill in or reference it. Also added comments, and optimized memory usage to use 30% less ram. Decent update if anyone is using this. My code for the quad-trees was highly unoptimized. Using a large terrain 1024x1024 now uses around 100mb less ram. If I'm going to use this template as a sample for beginners, I'd hate to get you guys started off with inefficient, wasteful code.

I'm still in the process of optimizing, as soon as I find out what is taking up so much RAM.

I'm not sure if it's my connection or your site, but neither of those links work. The page doesn't display and the file download just hangs.

I've tested the connection from 3 computers, and 2 ISPs. I'd bet it is your connection. If anyone else is having trouble let me know, if the problem isn't limited to just one person then I will do some investigating.

Tried it again and the download worked. :)

Not sure why, but the first time I tried, I had the same download-hang issue.  I had to wget it from my webhost and ftp it back to my machine.  Next morning, it worked fine though.

Lord Ikon,

thank you for this excellent template. I am trying to entice my teenage children to learning programming through game

development using xna. This template is going to be an important teaching/learning tool.

Hats off to you for your effort!

  

 

I'm glad it could be of some use, I honestly didn't know if the template would be too difficult, or not difficult enough to be of use. Any feedback would be great. I'm sure there are some bugs, inefficiencies, or otherwise. I know a new programmer might not be able to spot these however, but I would also like to know if there are any obvious features that new programmers might want that I may have forgot, things that could've been documented or commented better, or may be too confusing, etc, etc......you get my drift.

Waruwaru:

Not sure why, but the first time I tried, I had the same download-hang issue.  I had to wget it from my webhost and ftp it back to my machine.  Next morning, it worked fine though.

Maybe I will need to contact my webhost. In the mean time I may try and find someone to mirror it. Thanks for the info.

I changed the links in the first post, and have done quite a few updates. So basically this post is a shameless bump. :oP

nice!! i will check this out , immediately!

I'll be releasing a new version with water physics (water viscosity, buoyancy) soon. I believe there are quite a few optimizations I could do. A lot of this stuff is still fairly new to me, so I may be missing optimizations. If anyone would like to give any suggestions as to optimizations I would be grateful. The more I add to this template, the more I realize how difficult it must be to make something like CryEngine2 and keep it around 60fps....

On the topic of optimizations, does anyone know of a good XNA threading sample? I would really like to thread the physics/collision checks in this template. Currently I am CPU bound and using another core would be nice. I've done a tiny bit of multi-threading with C++, but never C#, and it would easier to wrap my head around it if I saw it applied in a game environment.

Not too sure about an all-in-one tutorial, but here's a few resources:

Threading in games/XNA and C# - quite a few links

Pensive gamer diaries: here, here, here and here

May be of some help.

Im programming a small engine and I also have water + terrain + particle engines and have about 150 - 200 FPS with my graphic card. Perhaps you can add geomipmapping or use a profiler to improve the performance...

Are you going to work in full rigid-body dynamics, or are you planning to just stick with sphere physics?  If you're planning on moving beyond spheres, I'd be interested in hearing what you have planned.

I actually looked into a full physics implementation and what it would take. After a few hours of reading I determined that I'm a couple math classes short of being able to fully understand all the physics behind it. I would need to take a "mechanics" class probably for stuff like spring physics, I would need to re-take Calc 2, because I'm rusty, and then Calc 3. There are probably a couple of others as well. Even if I had all of that I believe a that full rigid-body dynamics would be more code than the sum of this project so far.

However, I would be very interested if anyone was willing to setup a physics library/engine with my framework. I don't see that happening, but I would be more than help with the integration if anyone was interested. I am looking to learn more about physics, I find it a fasinating field, but there is just too much I do not comprehend yet.

I'd be willing to integrate something like BulletX if I had the time. It is quite a bit of code, and I'd have to learn the framework of the project and figure out how to integrate it.

Some physics updates I was hoping to still add were stuff like rotational velocity, gravitation pull (like the sun in the space war demo), and possibly water displacement. Cause the water plane to rise when entities entered it. Of course I do not know how to calculate the volume of models (unless I stuck with simple shapes), especially the volume of a body of water (although I could probably estimate). Lastly, I really want to thread my physics calculations.

malignate:

Perhaps you can add geomipmapping or use a profiler to improve the performance...

I've used the profiler, but not in a few versions, I should probably go back through. I don't believe the GC is substancial for a computer, it would probably ruin the 360 version (if I had one). I don't have a 360 yet, not until Christmas. Although if someone wants to port this to the 360 that'd be cool. :oP I'm not sure it is worth it, there are other "engines" out there far more advanced. This project is a learning experience for me mostly, and if it can help anyone else along the way then it's a cool bonus. I really like the XNA community as a whole, they're very open with their code and it is really advanced my pace of learning.

As far as geomipmapping, I will look into it. I'm currently using a quad-tree implementation that I made. I'm sure it could use optimization. Are there any specific reports on any performance boost with geomipmapping? I'm assuming geomipmapping is a LOD algorithm with terrain, which is something I've got on my to do list.

Lord Ikon:

I am looking to learn more about physics, I find it a fasinating field, but there is just too much I do not comprehend yet.

I too find it fascinating, both the physics aspects and the numeric computation aspects (linear algebra, LCP/NCP solvers, etc.).  A good physics simulation implementation for XNA would be great for the community, especially if it was integrated into an overall "game template" like yours.  If nothing else, it'd be a highly educational experience.