General

How old are you, and when did you begin programming?

Bapa — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:51:01 GMT

The premise of this thread is simple:

How old were you when you began. How old are you now. What language did you start with, and what language(s) are you using now?

I began when I was 15, I'm 17 now. I started with C++, and today, I pretty much only use C++/C#, but I only know how to use those two very fluently.

I'm just curious =P

Dont know how to get a premium membership

icatcreate1 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:59:06 GMT

I registered with
XNA creator club and now when i click on premium membership i get only a reedeem code option

i have a xbox silver account and xna free account. But i have connected the xbox console with the internet and checked in all games and i cant find XNA studio connect to download in my xbox

i finally found this link saying i need a xbox live gold account but steps says i dont need it. i only need a silver account. so i m confused plz help me out.
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802584e07d1/

Game Design Course in High School

jandrews — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:49:50 GMT

Greetings all!

I'm a high school teacher in Canada, and I'm looking to create a game design course. I'm not a programmer (although I know some basics). I'm trained in Fine Art, and have been teaching Computer Animation with Lightwave, Photoshop, and Graphic Design for 10 years now. Students have expressed interest in game design, and I consider myself a gamer. About two weeks ago I heard mention of XNA on G4/Tech TV's X-Play show, and realized it was probably time I put some thought into creating this course.

I have a few questions for teachers/students:

To Teachers:
Are there other teachers out there with game design courses (and could I get an outline?)
Is XNA a good choice to teach game design on?
Is there any other program you'd suggest to start with? SCRATCH?
How much could I expect them to produce in a semester, once they learn basics?
My math skills after so many years are...weak. What areas should I be re-learning?
Is there an online community for teachers? Am I even posting in the right area?
Can Lightwave models be used in XNA's 3D games? Is there software to convert the file, if not?
When registering C#, I have to do so for each computer. Is there a way I can get a site license?
If I was to offer a Game Design Course, what additional software/hardware would I need? Is C# and XNA free? or is it free for one year? Does Microsoft have an educational liscence for this material?
Do my students become members of the community? Should I be signing up?

Here are my thoughts for the course - I doubt I'd be able to fit it all into one semester, AND create a game, so maybe have seperate Game Design 11 & 12:

Hisory of Gaming - from ON Networks video series "Play Value"
Elements of a good game
Styles of games
Drawing Skills - figure drawing, landscape, sets
Planning/Research - time periods - buildings/items/costumes
writing a game proposal
Game Industry - Business of Making Games
College/University Options & Career possiblilities
Programming for games:
*note: these were my ideas before I found out about XNA
*Beginner puzzle games- SCRATCH
*Adventure RPG - Neverwinter Nights
*FPS - UT engine

To Students:
What would you expect/hope to learn about in a game design course? Was there something missing from the list above?

Where are you based?

The Riddler 24 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:07:16 GMT

Hello all. I was sat wonder a few days ago, I wonder where most of xna creates are based?

So my question is where do you live.

Ill start Rotherham / England. :)

Sorry if someones asked this before. :(

Postgraduate study in Games Development

mpof7 — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:32:36 GMT

Hi all,

I'm from Greece and i just finished my undergraduate studies at my university. Now i'm looking to find a postgraduate study and specifically a MSc in Games Development. For that reason i decided to post here in creators club, looking for any suggestions and help. I also have a friend who wants a MA (or MSc) in 3D Graphics ( or animation) in UK too ( as you understand we are planning to go and continue our studies together). So far i've searched and found some courses in UK ( which is the place i want to continue my studies), in University of Teesside ( "MSc Computer Games Programming" and "MA Digital Character Animation" ), in Kingston University ( "MSc Games Development" and "MA 3D Computer Generated Imagery" ) and in Abertay University ( "MSc Computer Games Technology" and "MA Game Art & Animation" ). We are planning to start post graduate study in 2010. Any suggestions would be very appreciated and thanks in advance.

Java vs C#? What to do?

Austin Burke — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:35:16 GMT

Ok i just got into school 4 days ago and got into xna like 2 weeks. (great timing :P) I made my first simple 2d game in xna and i want to make a big jump into a platformer (i dont have c# knowlage, well not alot, but some basic programing knowlage.) game but im taking ap computer science at school. at school we are learning java and my question is should i focus on java then come to c# or are they not related alot as i would be better off learning both at the same time? (java at school c# on free time) \

ps: also anyone know were i could find some platformer tutorials for xna? cant seem to find any.

Aussie students - XNA Game Dev Camp - December 18-20

MrAndyPuppy — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:16:07 GMT

Just a heads up for any Aussie students keen on being part of an XNA Game Dev Camp...

December 18-20, at University of Wollongong and for the first 50 students to register we've secured accommodation as well, so even for interstaters it should be a fairly cheap opportunity to get into XNA and find other people interested in game dev too.

Check out the Facebook group here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198990192353&ref=mf#/event.php?eid=198990192353&ref=mf

And the official registration site here:
http://www.microsoft.com.au/events/register/home.aspx?levent=374345

If you don't know XNA - you're welcome. If you DO know XNA - you're welcome. It's all about community and collaboration and helping each other.

I do not know how to program!

Rabidious — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:21:18 GMT

I know that I may get insults or arrogance from this but really its cool. Alright - when I was approximately 15 years old I began trying to learn computer programing. I either bought or my dad bought a book on C++. I believe it was titled "Sam's teach your self to program in 24 hours". Well I did try it and in the first chapter it occurred to me that I was really reading a book that had been sliced to peaces with information from a much larger more thorough book scattered around. So as I'm reading this first chapter and really reading chapter 5, then chapter 18, and then chapter 27 more or less in this order I realized I was going to need the real book that all this came from. So when I was this young I started to search for this real programing book. Since that time I've visited many book stores that had books on C++ that all read the same way. I've looked at college book stores (although not recently) and the books they carried seemed to start you off on chapter 45 of some larger more real programming book. This real book which in order teaches you from chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapter 3... I have never been able to find. So I believed maybe it came from math books or something. Well although I've heard about 7 year old and 15 year old learning programming which would not know very much math at 7 and only a slim chance in heaven that they could have learn up to something above trigonometry by 15 years old. Well it occurs that they wouldn't know very much math and even if they did then I still can't find any thing about programming in any of the books I've read. But still if thats the answer then I failed algebra 3 in high school but still did most of the work and can't remember it now but I've read the first half of a pre-calculus book and grasped most of it since the first half is still pretty much algebra 3.

So I've broken down why I cannot program and yet 7-15 year olds seem to be able to.
-I have a lower education than a 7 year old
-Every one is hiding the real book from me
-Programming cannot be learned from a book but can only be learned from copied notes taken off a board in a class room from a teacher

Can some one please tell me the real school book - like a computer science or math book that teaches the word sprite. Sprite and collision detection are the closest words I know to the real programming book. Where ever or what ever the name is. Or if the name is common like Computer Science 3 then please link to an address where I can either see the book or preferably buy the book online. Because if it really takes 4 years of college to learn to program I don't care. I just want to make sure before I shell out for school that they are not going to start me out on chapter 27 also.

You know what I really don't know if I'm even educated enough to ask this question so instead I think that I'm going to explain what I see when I read a small amount of code from something.

#include <iostream>
int Main ()
(

)

Ok here is a good example. I have no idea what iostream is or why it needs to be there. I just see it at the top of a lot of programming tutorials and thats it. I don't know why there has to be a pound sign in front of the word include which I also don't know why it needs to be there. I just see a word that I've seen so much on these tutorials that I still know nothing about. In fact the only real thing I understand from this whole amount of code are the parenthesis. I understand that the operations inside them occur first. The brackets and angle brackets I'm not sure about because they might just be parenthesis or they could mean something else.

Any way... If any one can help that would be great. So I'm asking how did you learn how to program. Because if you figured it out short of a college degree and I mean any one. I want to know exactly where I can buy that book at. Or web page or what ever. I'm positive that this can happen but I don't know how. So any way just tell me the book I need to read. Thanks.

-Ian

where can I find a C# workbook/problem sheets?

Moose0487 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:30:34 GMT

Hey Guys,

I recently began trying to learn C# and bought Rob Mill's book Learn programming now, and i'm consulting various online sources for additional content. The one thing I am having trouble finding though are problem sheets or a workbook of some sort (preferably with solutions and explanations) so I can get some practice in writing my own code rather than following book examples. Anyone here know of any resources for this? perhaps a book I could buy or a site I should go to? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Noob question about 3D ViewingFrustum

Toine db — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:12:25 GMT

I’m an experienced c#/WPF programmer but totally new with XNA.

I started with the beginners guides, that was easy to do and good to understand. Now I
want to go and build something by adding some stuff to the 3D tutorial game/code http://creators.xna.com/en-US/education/gettingstarted/bg3d/chapter10 .

I noticed that the viewing looks like you are watching trough a big hallway, without the walls. Because you don’t see any 3d objects running/starting at the far sides of the screen. I want to create a world that looks like Space, and not that only 3d objects (in this case ships) will appear from the center. Like the image on http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb975157(XNAGameStudio.30).aspx I can adjust the dept (Z) easily, but not the width and height of the “Viewing Frustum”.

So I just want to make the Space as wide and high as possible.

I test with setting the ship startpositions wider as normal:
Vector3 shipMinPosition = new Vector3(-2000.0f, 300.0f, -6000.0f);

Vector3 shipMaxPosition = new Vector3(2000.0f, 800.0f, -4000.0f);

Changed to:

Vector3 shipMinPosition = new Vector3(-9000.0f, 300.0f, -6000.0f);

Vector3 shipMaxPosition = new Vector3(9000.0f, 800.0f, -4000.0f);

Then the most ships are NOT visible on the screen.

I tried to modify the following with much different values, but without success.

cameraViewMatrix = Matrix.CreateLookAt(

cameraPosition,

cameraLookAt,

Vector3.Up);

cameraProjectionMatrix = Matrix.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView(

MathHelper.ToRadians(45.0f),

graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.AspectRatio,

1.0f,

10000.0f);

Does anybody know what to change or to look to get a wider space.

PS: it is easier to test without drawing the terrain and to center the camera:
Vector3 cameraPosition = new Vector3(0.0f, 0.0f, 160.0f);
Vector3 cameraLookAt = new Vector3(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f);

I Hope someone can help me.

How do you guys share your code with the rest of your team?

MrSoundless — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:42:58 GMT

Hi guys, I was wondering how everyone is sharing his/her code with the rest of his/her team.

We aren't using any smart way to share code right now. We're simply rarring and sending them on msn/mail (how suckish is that :P )

sooo don't be shy, shoot :)

I'm probably missing something basic.

Modeltrainman — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:16:32 GMT

I have my background loading, but how do I load my player character? I'm on chapter 7 in Build a Program Now XNA Game Studio 3.0 by Rob Miles. I decieded to make a small game for practice.

Got a code for dreamspark and How do I...

Big picture Student — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:21:13 GMT

I recieved a code for my school, how can I get a trial membership with said code?

Sprites and WinForms

A30A — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:42:06 GMT

What is the easiest way to put a Sprite in a picturebox using C# in winforms? I just want to click and have a predefined sprite be placed a the click location.

I got an Academic Trial Membership for a year, but can't run XNA on Xbox 360

Scott Griffin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:04:45 GMT

Am I supposed to be able to run XNA Game Studios on Xbox 360 with this membership, or do I NEED platinum?

What good will this do me if I can't run it?

Thanks.

Jump pad Implementation

FuriousProgrammer — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:14:33 GMT

I need help ASAP, I have program where I have to use a jumping pad for a sprite. Can somebody help me on how should I use rectangles or bounding boxes for this. I know the jumping pad shoudn't make the sprite jump on the sides but only on top. Any advice, code will be greatly appreciated.

Thanking you in advance

French translation of Payment form

g012 — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:39:39 GMT

Hey there,

I'm trying to fill up the form in creators / my profile. When I'm sent to the partner website to fill up the personal and banking informations, it "attempts" to show a translated version into French. But either it's automatically translated by a very cheap automatic translator, either it's translated by a person who just started learning French. It would be great if it could just NOT try translating and just display English.

Point is, there's so many spelling and grammar mistakes that I can't even go through the first page, especially regarding the box to tick on the bottom. I give you what it says, translated back into English (by me):

"I'm ok for a 30% reduction to the".

Yeah that's right. It's not even a finished sentence. By ticking the box, does that mean 30% of the income will be deduced, or the opposite ?

And besides, why should we even have to say anything about the withholding ? If we provide an EIN, there's no withholding, otherwise there is, isn't it ?

Thanks for your help.

Trying to teach it

Teachit — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:44:24 GMT

Hello programmers and gamers,
    I am teaching game programming in High School. I was a programmer in buisness application and belive it or not used COBOL. Yes COBOL, you spell that COBOL. I am currently trying to convert my skillset to C#. To keep the kids interested it was suggested that we teach a few classes in game programming. I became a member of the creators club and have gone through the basic tutorials. As you might guess a million questions have come up.
    With a little help I think I can turn a large number of kids on to XNA programming in C#. What I am looking for are a few contacts just to feild a question or two. If I had an e-mail list and got a little help I would be up and running in no time. I could also use some training although our budget is tight. If you know of any training in Arizona or Ca I would really appreciate some info.
    Thanks for your time and happy gaming!!

Arnie Edwards
San Tan Foothills High School
Queen Creek, Arizona
arnie.edwards@cusd.k12.az.us
(480) 474-6886

Alpha Values for Images Guidance

CreatorEn5 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 03:33:23 GMT

I completed the particle system tutorial on this website :)

http://creators.xna.com/en-US/education/gettingstarted/bg2d/ExtraCredit

I want to work towards making my own images to use as textures to become cool particle effects. I want to confirm an idea I have and then ask for guidance.

1: The "transparency" of an image loaded as a texture in XNA is determined by its alpha values. (Correct/Incorrect?)
2: Is there another way to define alpha transparency?
3: What is a good program (one that is free please!) that will let me label that alpha/transparency of an image file.

Thank you.

I found a possible solution for inputting text from keyboard in XNA.

Bulbz — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:40:04 GMT

I was looking around the XNA Creators & some other forums for a simple way of getting text straight from the keyboard, but after looking around for ages, I had no luck.

After a lot of study, I came up with a possible solution that returns the name of the key that's being pressed. So now I have lost more hair, so you don't have to ;)

I hope someone can find some use for this snippet. I'm going to use it for my 2D map editor project, for inputting file names and stuff.

    
                    private string GetKeyName() 
        
                    { 
        
                        string name = ""; 
        
                        foreach (Keys value in Enum.GetValues(typeof(Keys))) 
        
                        { 
        
                            name = Enum.GetName(typeof(Keys), value); 
        
                            bool keypress = Keyboard.GetState().IsKeyDown(value); 
        
                            if (keypress == true) 
        
                                break; 
        
                        } 
        
                        if (name == "OemClear") 
        
                            name = ""; 
        
                        return name; 
        
                    }

Faculty Training Workshops are a go! Learn XNA Game Studio and Expression Studio!

Glenn Wilson — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:43:58 GMT

Microsoft Australia invites you to attend a Faculty Workshop. This no cost technical training day is jam-packed full of information that will help you understand technologies that are used by a large component of the business world and show how you can help your students come to grips with them and be prepared as they enter the workforce.

The morning session introduces you to Expression Studio, including Expression Web, Encoder, Design and Blend. These four key design tools are being used by professionals in all sorts of technical areas such as web designers, programmers, graphic designers and more. But perhaps more importantly, these tools can be easy to learn and can give you and your students some exciting opportunities to work with.

Expression Web is Microsoft’s premiere, standards-based web site creation tool and can be used to teach basics such as HTML and web page structure and layout all the way through to advanced web site layouts.

Expression Encoder allows you to quickly and easily capture video from multiple sources, allowing you to either record a class, or record a lesson for one. It can also be used to repurpose existing video into a small but high quality format utilising Silverlight so you can get your important messages to your students no matter where they are, or even teach them how to use quality video tools themselves.

Expression Design and Blend give the ability to create rich user interfaces and designs that can be used on their own or in the place of standard programming interfaces.

This three hour session will also show you other utilities you can use in the classroom that are based on Expression and associated technologies such as Deep Zoom and PhotoSynth.

The afternoon session will cover XNA Game Studio with a brief introduction into the world of game development and how you can use it to excite students of many age groups with technology. XNA Game Studio is a game focussed add-in for the professional level Visual Studio development environment that is now available to students and faculty at no charge through DreamSpark and Faculty Connection initiatives, allowing the programmer to get up and running with creating games for Windows, Xbox 360 and other platforms.

In addition to these two technical training sessions, Microsoft will also highlight the various programs that are in place to provide you and your students no cost software and curriculum resources so that you're best armed to gear up to teach programming with Microsoft technologies, and give you some ideas on how to integrate social awareness into the curriculum to inspire and encourage technical innovation in your class attendees.

There will also be an opportunity to see Windows 7 in action and a chance to play with it yourself so you can see what all the excitement is about.

Places are limited - don't miss out on this opportunity to skill up on Expression Studio and XNA Game Studio and be prepared to teach these crucially important business development technologies to your students.

Places truly are limited in some locations, don’t let someone else get your spot. :) Register here: http://www.microsoft.com.au/events/register/home.aspx?levent=986897&linvitation

There are training days being held at the following venues:

Microsoft Auditorium, Adelaide – SA - 21 Oct 2009
Canberra University – ACT - 23 Oct 2009
University of Western Australia – WA - 27 Oct 2009
Deakin University – VIC - 30 Oct 2009
Bond University – QLD - 2 Nov 2009
Queensland University of Technology – QLD - 4 Nov 2009
University of Technology, Sydney – NSW - 12 Nov 2009

DrawableGameComponent Compiler Error

CreatorEn5 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:06:37 GMT

Hi everyone. Before I made this post, I tried google, searching the forums, and all other methods which you are supposed to do before asking for help.

I am currently going through a tutorial on particle systems.
Adding 2D Particles and Explosions
http://creators.xna.com/en-US/education/gettingstarted/bg2d/ExtraCredit

I am getting a compiler error I cannot figure out how to fix. I can't just open his source code project since it uses an older version of gamestudio, AND, his posted source code consists of the completed version. I am trying to follow his videos and build it a one step at a time so I understand the nuts and bolts.

Here is the compiler errror I am getting:

Error 1 'Microsoft.Xna.Framework.DrawableGameComponent' does not contain a constructor that takes '0' arguments

The line in question looks like this:

public abstract class ParticleSystem: DrawableGameComponent

Does anyone know what could be causing this? I did find a post elsewhere that mentioned this kind of error but did not say clearly how to fix it. I will post my code below.

I am not new to programming but I am new to XNA. I am trying to learn through tutorials but I have become stuck and can't unstick myself.

Thank you.

________________________________________

ParticleSystem.cs

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics;

namespace WindowsGame1

{

    namespace Particles

    {

        public abstract class ParticleSystem: DrawableGameComponent

        {

            private Game1 game;  // A Game1 called game.  Gives us access the stuff to load and draw particles without having to do so within Game1.cs

            private Texture2D texture; // Stores texture for particle effect.

            private Vector2 origin; // centerpoint of texture I think.

            private static Random random = new Random();

            public static Random Random

            {

                get { return random; } // grants read only access outside the class.

            }

            private int howManyEffects;

            Particle[] particles;

            Queue<Particle> freeParticles;

            public int freeParticleCount;

            public const int AlphaBlendDrawOrder = 100;

            public const int AdditiveDrawOrder = 200;

            protected SpriteBlendMode spriteBlendMode;

            protected int minNumParticles;

            protected int maxNumParticles;



            protected string textureFilename;



            protected float minInitialSpeed;

            protected float maxInitialSpeed;

            protected float minAcceleration;

            protected float maxAcceleration;

            protected float minRotationSpeed;

            protected float maxRotationSpeed;

            protected float minLifetime;

            protected float maxLifetime;

            protected float minScale;

            protected float maxScale;

        }

    }

}

Particle.cs

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics;

namespace WindowsGame1

{

    namespace Particles

    {

        public class Particle

        {

            public Vector2 position;

            public Vector2 velocity;

            public Vector2 acceleration;

            public float lifeTime;

            public float timeSinceStart;

            public float scale;

            public float rotation;

            public float rotationSpeed;

            public bool Active

            {

                 // get gives us a read only copy of a variable.

                get { return timeSinceStart < lifeTime; }

            }

            public void Initialize(Vector2 position,

                Vector2 velocity, Vector2 acceleration,

                float lifeTime, float scale, float rotationSpeed)

            {

                this.position = position;

                this.velocity = velocity;

                this.acceleration = acceleration;

                this.lifeTime = lifeTime;

                this.scale = scale;

                this.rotationSpeed = rotationSpeed;

                this.timeSinceStart = 0.0f;

                this.rotation = 0.0f;

            }

            public void Update(float dt)

            {

                velocity += acceleration * dt;

                position += velocity * dt;

                rotation += rotationSpeed * dt;

                timeSinceStart += dt;

            }

        }

    }

}

GameObject.cs

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServices;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Net;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Storage;

namespace WindowsGame1

{

    class GameObject

    {

        public Texture2D sprite;

        public Vector2 position;

        public float rotation;

        public Vector2 center;

        public Vector2 velocity;

        public bool alive;

        public GameObject(Texture2D loadedTexture)

        {

            rotation = 0.0f;

            position = Vector2.Zero;

            sprite = loadedTexture;

            center = new Vector2(sprite.Width / 2, sprite.Height / 2);

            velocity = Vector2.Zero;

            alive = false;

        }

    }

}

My only other file of interest is Game1.cs and it has the following at the top of it:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServices;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Net;

using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Storage;

XNA Creators Club Online Academic Subscription

Ciaran Gallagher2 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:51:24 GMT

Okay, so I downloaded the access code for the XNA Creators Club Online Academic Subscription, then I turned on my Xbox 360 then redeemed the code to give me access to the year subscription to the XNA creators club... then I logged on-line and signed up, linking my account with the same Xbox 360 account that I redeemed the code with. It didn't seem to do anything or give me access to anything though (even after I signed out and signed back in again). I downloaded the XNA game studio and all that, and I read somewhere on this website that the XNA subscription is the "crown jewel" of everything, then I was prompted to enter the code online instead, which I did, and I was told that I had that the code had already been used (by me earlier)...

Would I be right in saying that the subscription should allow me to download full copies of indie games without having to pay for them, or did I read that wrong?
Have I done anything wrong? Where do I go from here?

And just for context, I'm a student studying Computer Science tasked with developing a game within 12 weeks using either XNA or Java (I'll most likely choose XNA).

Prototyping in Console Apps with custom classes

AnkleSpankle — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:16:27 GMT

Hey all, i'm testing a few theories in a console app with some custom classes and i've run into a problem.

Currently i have 4 classes: 1 holds 3 ints to store a date, another class holds 2 string to store a name, the third holds an int for an id number and uses the date and name class to hold a persons name and birth date and a final class that just performs the testing.

Name:

    
            class Name 
        
                { 
        
                    //Fields used to hold name data 
        
                    private string _forename; 
        
                    private string _surname; 
        
                    //Default constructor 
        
                    public Name() 
        
                    { 
        
                        _forename = ""; 
        
                        _surname = ""; 
        
                    } 
        
                    //Overloaded contructor 
        
                    public Name(string firstname, string surname) 
        
                    { 
        
                        _forename = firstname; 
        
                        _surname = surname; 
        
                    } 
        
                    #region Name Properties 
        
                    public string Forename 
        
                    { 
        
                        get 
        
                        { 
        
                            return _forename; 
        
                        } 
        
                        set 
        
                        { 
        
                            _forename = value; 
        
                        } 
        
                    } 
        
                    public string Surname 
        
                    { 
        
                        get 
        
                        { 
        
                            return _surname; 
        
                        } 
        
                        set 
        
                        { 
        
                            _surname = value; 
        
                        } 
        
                    } 
        
                    #endregion 
        
                    //Prints firstname and surname to Console 
        
                    public void PerformNameTest() 
        
                    { 
        
                        Console.WriteLine("Forename: {0}" + " Surname: {1}", _forename, _surname); 
        
                    } 
        
                }

Date:

    
            class Date 
        
                { 
        
                    private int day; 
        
                    private int month; 
        
                    private int year; 
        
                    public Date() 
        
                    { 
        
                        day = 0; 
        
                        month = 0; 
        
                        year = 0; 
        
                    } 
        
                    public Date(int d, int m, int y) 
        
                    { 
        
                        day = d; 
        
                        month = m; 
        
                        year = y; 
        
                    } 
        
                    public void PerformDateTest() 
        
                    { 
        
                        Console.WriteLine("Day: {0} " + "Month: {1} " + "Year: {2} ", day, month, year);  
        
                    } 
        
                    public int Day 
        
                    { 
        
                        get 
        
                        { 
        
                            return day; 
        
                        } 
        
                        set 
        
                        {  
        
                            day = value; 
        
                        } 
        
                    } 
        
                    public int Month 
        
                    { 
        
                        get 
        
                        { 
        
                            return month; 
        
                        } 
        
                        set 
        
                        { 
        
                            month = value; 
        
                        } 
        
                    } 
        
                    public int Year 
        
                    { 
        
                        get 
        
                        { 
        
                            return year; 
        
                        } 
        
                        set 
        
                        { 
        
                            year = value; 
        
                        } 
        
                    } 
        
                }

Student:

    
            class Student 
        
                { 
        
                    private Name _studentName; 
        
                    private Date _birthDate; 
        
                    private int _studentNumber; 
        
                    public Student() 
        
                    { 
        
                        _studentNumber = 0; 
        
                    } 
        
                    //public Student(Name name, Date dob, int id) 
        
                    //{ 
        
                    //    //_studentName = name; 
        
                    //    //_birthDate = dob; 
        
                    //    //_studentNumber = id; 
        
                    //} 
        
                    public void PerformStudentDate() 
        
                    { 
        
                        Console.WriteLine("Name: {0} " + "DoB: {1} " + "ID: {2} ", _studentName, _birthDate, _studentNumber); 
        
                    } 
        
                    public Date BirthDate 
        
                    { 
        
                        get 
        
                        { 
        
                            return _birthDate; 
        
                        } 
        
                        set 
        
                        { 
        
                            _birthDate = value; 
        
                        } 
        
                    } 
        
                    public Name StudentName 
        
                    { 
        
                        get 
        
                        { 
        
                            return _studentName; 
        
                        } 
        
                        set 
        
                        { 
        
                            _studentName = value; 
        
                        } 
        
                    } 
        
                    public int StudentNumber 
        
                    { 
        
                        get 
        
                        { 
        
                            return _studentNumber; 
        
                        } 
        
                        set 
        
                        { 
        
                            _studentNumber = value; 
        
                        } 
        
                    } 
        
                }

Program:

    
            class Program 
        
                { 
        
                    static void Main() 
        
                    {    
        
                        Console.WriteLine("======================="); 
        
                        Console.WriteLine("|       Tests         |"); 
        
                        Console.WriteLine("=======================\n"); 
        
                        Name testName = new Name("Jamie","Keeling"); 
        
                        Date testDate = new Date(25, 11, 1988); 
        
                        Student testStudent = new Student(); 
        
                        testName.PerformNameTest(); 
        
                        testDate.PerformDateTest(); 
        
                        testStudent.PerformStudentDate(); 
        
                        Console.Write("Enter day: "); 
        
                        testDate.Day = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine()); 
        
                        Console.Write("Enter month: "); 
        
                        testDate.Month = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine()); 
        
                        Console.Write("Enter year (in full): "); 
        
                        testDate.Year = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine()); 
        
                        Console.Write("Enter the students forename: "); 
        
                        testName.Forename = Console.ReadLine(); 
        
                        Console.WriteLine("Enter the students surname: "); 
        
                        testName.Surname = Console.ReadLine(); 
        
                        Console.Write("Enter the students name: "); 
        
                        testStudent.StudentName = Console.ReadLine(); 
        
                        Console.Write("Enter the students DoB: "); 
        
                        testStudent.BirthDate = Console.ReadLine(); 
        
                        Console.Write("Enter the students ID (number): "); 
        
                        testStudent.StudentNumber = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine()); 
        
                        testDate.PerformDateTest(); 
        
                        testName.PerformNameTest(); 
        
                        testStudent.PerformStudentDate(); 
        
                    } 
        
                }

The problem i am having is that when i create a new instance of Student and try to set a students name i have no idea how to set the first and last name (As it uses the Name class), same thing goes for the Date.

It's probably something simple enough but i can't seem to get my hear around how to do it, hopefully i've given enough detail (It's 11:15pm).

Thanks for the help =]

Game creation tutorial site

Heelys — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:39:32 GMT

Hi all,
I'm starting a site to show people how to create a game for xbox360 using XNA in C#. The site will contains 2 sections; first section is a step by step game creation discussion and the second section will be a bunch of very useful algorithm for game with sample code in C#. The site just get created and the content will be add each days. I'm open to the suggestion on the site content and organization.

The game is create in same time as the site content get write, we are doing a 2D tower defence game and I hope you will learn good game programming skill by following the development of this game.

The link is

http://sites.google.com/site/heelys/

So I hope the site will help some of you in creating your 360/pc game.

Cheers,

Heelys