The Importance of Security in Games (26th May 2007)

Expressions Web Lab Session (12 May 2007)

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Voice Access

One really cool feature i Exchange 2007 is definitely the Exchange Unified Messaging. Just this morning, I got an email from our IT department, allowing me to make use of my mobile phone to access my outlook, and I thought that was really cool!

Welcome to Exchange Unified Messaging

To use your telephone to access your e-mail, calendar and contacts, call your access number and enter your PIN at the prompt. 

Vectors in XNA

There are 3 main Vectors in XNA, namely, Vector2, Vector3 & Vector4. (Don't ask me what happened to Vector1. I ate it up! )

The most feature rich, being Vector 4, which is a homogeneous coordinates representation, which is really makes calculation possible in projective space, just as Cartesian coordinates, do, in Eclidean space.

The main difference betwen the different Vectors in XNA is their number of representation,

• Vector2
• X-component
• Y-component
• Vector3
  • X-component
  • Y-component
  • Z-component
• Vector4
  • X-component
  • Y-component
  • Z-component
  • W-component

Homogenous coordinates is a common fixture in computer graphics as they do a really good job with rpresenting a translation as a matrix operation. However, do not use Vector4 just because it's powerful. Although it's powerful, it does take up resources as well. Remember, in games, performance is once of the key factors!

If you're thinking of what to use to represent the direction in which an object is going to in a 3D-Game, Vector3 would be able to do the job. If you're working on just a 2D game, Vector2 would do the job.

An example of Vector3 in usage is: Vector3 rotation = new Vector3(MathHelper.ToRadians(90), 0, 0);

XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 Released

XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 have been released! This version now allows you to run XNA Game Studio Express on Windows Vista.

You could download it here at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=12ADCD12-7A7B-4413-A0AF-FF87242A78DE&displaylang=en

However, there might be serveral issues that you might be facing that's stopping you from installing it. Here's something that might be of some help. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/xna/aa937796

Some exciting new features such as Bitmap Based Fonts, 3D Audio, Windows Vista support, Game Packaging and more!!!

Mapping the Keys in XNA Spacewar StarterKit

If you were wondering if the Spacewar StarterKit in XNA Game Studio Express only supports the XBOX 360 USB Controller (since I've been using it to demo all the time), it's NOT TRUE!

Guess what, you can actually make use of the PC keyboard to control the starterkit too! Infact, you can even map the Keys of the player one and two to whatever you want!

If you actually look into the solution exlorer, you'd notice that there's this file "settings.xml". All you need to do is to open that configuration file and lookout for the "<Player1Start>" tag and that's where all the keyboard mappings are.

Following's my config that I've set for my XNA Game.

<Player1Start>LeftControl</Player1Start>
<Player1Back>LeftShift</Player1Back>
<Player1A>V</Player1A>
<Player1B>G</Player1B>
<Player1X>F</Player1X>
<Player1Y>T</Player1Y>
<Player1ThumbstickLeftXmin>J</Player1ThumbstickLeftXmin>
<Player1ThumbstickLeftXmax>D</Player1ThumbstickLeftXmax>
<Player1ThumbstickLeftYmin>S</Player1ThumbstickLeftYmin>
<Player1ThumbstickLeftYmax>W</Player1ThumbstickLeftYmax>
<Player1Left>J</Player1Left>
<Player1Right>D</Player1Right>
<Player1Down>S</Player1Down>
<Player1Up>W</Player1Up>
<Player1LeftTrigger>Q</Player1LeftTrigger>
<Player1RightTrigger>E</Player1RightTrigger>

<Player2Start>RightControl</Player2Start>
<Player2Back>RightShift</Player2Back>
<Player2A>A</Player2A>
<Player2B>B</Player2B>
<Player2X>X</Player2X>
<Player2Y>Y</Player2Y>
<Player2ThumbstickLeftXmin>Left</Player2ThumbstickLeftXmin>
<Player2ThumbstickLeftXmax>Right</Player2ThumbstickLeftXmax>
<Player2ThumbstickLeftYmin>Down</Player2ThumbstickLeftYmin>
<Player2ThumbstickLeftYmax>Up</Player2ThumbstickLeftYmax>
<Player2Left>Left</Player2Left>
<Player2Right>Right</Player2Right>
<Player2Down>Down</Player2Down>
<Player2Up>Up</Player2Up>
<Player2LeftTrigger>Home</Player2LeftTrigger>
<Player2RightTrigger>End</Player2RightTrigger>

Well, of course, in the starter kit, there's no config menu option. So if someone might want to develop that, it'd be really awesome!

I might develop that and paste the code here. So stay tunned! [:0]

PC potentially overtaking Consoles (XBOX,PlayStation,WII)

As many of you might have known now, Microsoft is going big into the digital media industry with Expressions, XNA, Silverlight and the list just goes on.

Recently, with the release of DirectX 10 and Windows Vista, trends have indicated that improved visuals are simply romancing developers as well as gamers! As we know today, game story & game play is important, however, user experience is going to be one of the factors that gamers look out for too!

Figure1: The lastest version of flight simulator leaveraging on DirectX 10

Improvements could pass consoles
The latest improvements, many believe, far surpass even the very best of what the consoles are capable of. Case in point: the upcoming PC shooter "Crysis," where players take the role of a battle-savvy soldier who has to uncover the secrets behind an asteroid that has smashed into Earth.

Beams of light glimmer through a jungle overgrown with swaying palm trees, and the thick underbrush gets more detailed with a closer look. Gaze into the distance and you can see aquamarine waves crashing on a white sand beach. Zoom in on a soldier to see an emotive face with stubble, freckles and other subtle individual details.

Game developers excited at prospects
Many game developers are excited at the technology's prospects.

"Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures," due in October, will put players into a persistent online fantasy world of barbarians and mythical monsters.

"What we tried to achieve with the graphics is something that we called 'magical realism,'" said Jorgen Tharaldsen, product director for Funcom, which is developing the game in Oslo, Norway. "With DX10 we can just add a lot more bells and whistles. We can start pushing graphics to the stage where it almost looks realistic."

Read more...

Why is Interactive Digital Media a big thing in Singapore?

Well, of course, the first reason is bcos the Singapore government says so. Singapore is a place really, that if the government sets a vision, they'd really put in money and resources to get it done.

There's an exceeding high demand of media personels today, which of course, supply is low in. Microsoft for example, is going very much into the media space too, with the launch of the Expressions Product line, Silverlight, XNA, Ajax and many more upcoming.

Singapore's very good with IP and really goes all the way to protect it, making development of games here, safer. In a game, the critical winning factor is really the game idea and game play. Technology is really, just a tool to support all these.

DigiPen is coming to Singapore, exactly for this same reason. Asia is place with many talents, and defnitely a lower cost economy then the US or some parts of europe. However, it's also the place where many tech companies are afraid to do research in, as IP protection is not that strong.

http://www.animationschoolreview.com/sketches/2006/01/singapores-digital-media-industry-attracts-animation-school.html

Lighting the Silverlight

Microsoft have just launched a new product, Silverlight (formerly known as "WPF/E"). Really cool stuff!

Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web. Silverlight integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight media capabilities include fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality audio and video to all major browsers including Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer running on the Mac or on Windows. By using Expression Studio and Visual Studio, designers and developers can collaborate more effectively using the skills they have today to light up the Web of tomorrow.

Go to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/bb187358.aspx to learn more!

XNA Architecture in Summary

I just did an overview of the XNA framework together with its existing tools. So if you want a really overview of the technology, here's the deal.

Do note that Network support is NOT available for the XBOX 360 from the XNA Framework at this point in time. However, for Windows, you could create networking features via the System.NET Namespace. The .NET Compact Framework in the XBOX is not the same as the one on your mobile phone. =)

Team Communication of the Future

Microsoft's Vision of 2010.

You've got to see this one! Don't hesitate! Click on the link to watch the video!

MEDC 2007 @ Singapore

MEDC 2007 would be held in Singapore this year round, amoung other parts of the world. I'd be speaking on the Windows Mobile Application Security track. I would be posting out more info about this as I get them.

So you might be guess, so what on earth is my technical focus now? Well, anything? Haha... Ok.. To be real serious, I'd be focusing more on

• XNA
• Microsoft Ajax
• Expressions Suite
• Media Center Development
• Visual Studio Team System
• Information System Security
• Software Application Architecture

Sounds like quite a lot of stuff... Well, lets see if I can cope with that mountain. Haha!

The Difference in the XNA Line of Products

XNA Framework is a set of managed code development libraries that make it more possible for game developers to be more productive when creating games for Windows and XBOX360. It also includes the Content Pipeline allowing developers to more easliy incorporate 3D content into their games.

XNA Game Studio Express contains a full set of

• documentations
• how-tos
• starter kits

demonstrating how to use the XNA Framework, as well as acting as an IDE for game development on the XNA Framework for enthusiasts and academic. Microsoft would be releasing the XNA Studio for professional game development at a later date.

XNA is completely different from Managed DirectX (MDX), specially targeted at Game Developers. It shares similar technologies to MDX, since it's both based on DirectX. XNA includes other technologies such as XACT & X/Input which MDX does not. MDX 2.0 has been deprecated as of April 2006.

Microsoft into the Business of Barcoding?

Microsoft is going some really interesting stuff with barcoding? Ever saw a color barcode?

Read here for more! http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/311712_software16.html?source=mypi

I shall let the secret out now

Ok! I shall let the secret out.. hehe.. I've "secretly joined Microsoft". That's wad Yasmeen said! haha... When Yas got the email from my boss, she called me and asked me "since when did you secretly joined Microsoft". haha...

As of Today, Monday 16th Aprill 2007, I'd be taking on the role as Developer Evangelist at Microsoft Singapore. I'd be responsible for Multimedia Related Technologies. So do not hesitate to ping me at darren@darrensim.com anytime. Replies might be slow, but I promise I'd reply!

This would be my official technical blog where I would post events updates, technology updates and more! so Stay tunned!. TEll me what kind of information you would like to know and I'd try to post stuff that's close to that too!

This post was posted at Monday 1:19 am, set to only show up at 1:19pm on my blog! =X