Microsoft XNA Unleashed: Graphics and Game Programming for Xbox 360 and Windows [Paperback]

Chad Carter (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0672329646 | ISBN-13: 978-0672329647 | Publication Date: August 5, 2007

Foreword by Tom Miller

Developer, XNA Game Studio Express, Microsoft Corporation

 

Microsoft XNA Unleashed provides comprehensive coverage and solid instruction on how to leverage the XNA Framework to create high quality games for Windows and the Xbox 360. The author shows you how to take full advantage of the many features the XNA Framework provides; you will learn the intricacies of important tasks such as adding sound and music to games, as well as creating, loading, and texturing 3D objects. In addition to providing coverage of 2D programming, the author shows you how to create sophisticated 3D games. All the important topics such as physics, artificial intelligence, and special effects are covered in detail. Chad Carter is the CTO at Robertson Marketing Group. Many Fortune 500 companies use the ecommerce system he architected and developed from the ground up for the promotional business sector. He has been creating DirectX applications since 1996 and has developed games using Managed DirectX. Chad created a 3D locomotive simulator for Norfolk Southern that is used to teach children to obey railroad crossings signals. Chad’s website devoted to the XNA Framework can be found at www.xnaessentials.com.

 

  Learn how to install and use XNA Game Studio Express

  Discover how to build, deploy, and debug games for the Xbox 360 and Windows

  Examine the XNA Framework in depth: 2D, 3D, sound, input, and HLSL

  Learn how to create game components and game services

  Delve into performance tuning techniques

  Discover how to extend the Content Pipeline

  Learn how to use the Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT) to add sound and music to games

  Create a full 2D parallax side-scroller game

  Discover how to use sprite batches

  Learn to make the most of sprite fonts

  Create 2D components such as splash screens and progress bars

  Examine the different sprite batch blending modes

  Discover 2D cel animation

  Examine the High Level Shader Language (HLSL) in detail covering basic HLSL as well as vertex deformations and post-processing effects

  Create a full 3D game that includes a 2D radar in the Heads Up Display (HUD), and much, much more

 

CD-ROM includes

• All C# examples and source code presented in this book.

• Explosion Generator tool for generating explosion animations.

 

Introduction                 

Part I      Get Up and Running with XNA on Your PC and Xbox 360

1              Introducing XNA and XNA Game Studio Express                       

2              XNA and the Xbox 360              

3              Performance Considerations    

Part II     Understanding XNA Basics

4              Creating 3D Objects                      

5              Input Devices and Cameras     

Part III    Content Pipeline

6              Loading and Texturing 3D Objects             

7              Sound and Music     

8              Extending the Content Pipeline                  

Part IV   2D in XNA

9              2D Basics                       

10           2D Effects                     

11           Creating a 2D Game               

Part V    High Level Shader Language

12           HLSL Basics          

13           Advanced HLSL    

Part VI   Physics and Artificial Intelligence

14           Physics Basics 

15           Finite State Machines and Game State Management  

16           AI Algorithms 

Part VII  3D Effects

17           Advanced Texturing Techniques

18           Special Effects 

19           Particle System

Part VIII Putting It Into Practice

20           Creating a 3D Game 

21           Improving the Game

22           Finishing Touches

Index

 

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chad Carter is the CTO at Robertson Marketing Group (RMG). RMG services many Fortune 500 companies that utilize the e-commerce system he architected and developed from the ground up for the promotional business sector. He has been creating DirectX applications since 1996 and has developed games using Managed DirectX. Chad created a 3D locomotive simulator for Norfolk Southern that is used to teach children to obey railroad crossing signals. Chad’s Web site devoted to the XNA Framework can be found online at www.xnaessentials.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 524 pages
• Publisher: Sams (August 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672329646
• ISBN-13: 978-0672329647
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #884,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Very Nice, October 13, 2007

By 

Sarah J. Lockhart "rebbyo" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft XNA Unleashed: Graphics and Game Programming for Xbox 360 and Windows (Paperback)

I own pretty much all of the XNA titles that are currently available and I must say Chad's book is by far the easiest and nicest to read. The author is great at explaining a topic then putting it into source code.. which in my opinion is important with this difficult subject.

Very nice book and I hope the author will write a more advanced follow up :) Perhaps a book on writing a complete game with the XNA Framework 2.0 due to be released in winter?

5/5 from me

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wrote my first game in four days, February 8, 2008

By 

Stacy E. Braxton (San Antonio, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft XNA Unleashed: Graphics and Game Programming for Xbox 360 and Windows (Paperback)

This book was a recommended text for my graduate-level game architecture class. Like all good students, I left my assignment to "write an educational children's game" until the last moment, and found myself with five days to get myself up to speed on XNA -- starting from square one.

Thankfully I'd had some C# experience, but when I sat down on Friday night with only this book and my laptop, I knew nothing about how to install or use XNA. After a solid weekend's work, I had an interactive fish tank simulator (ecosystems are educational, right?) complete with sounds and animation. There were enough examples in the book to get me started in all the directions I need to go: animating and scaling a sprite, collision detection, creating a sound bank... Plugging the appropriate code samples together was quite painless.

I did have some trouble running the example code from the book, probably because I was running the relatively new XNA Game Studio 2.0, while the examples were written under the previous version. Nothing some Googling and debugging couldn't work around, however.

Be sure to explicitly follow the instructions (either in the book or on the XNA download site) for installing Visual Studio, .Net, DirectX, and XNA Game Studio. You need precisely the right versions in precisely the right order or you'll be tearing your hair out. The CD that comes with the book contains only the example code - none of the Microsoft products above are included - so if you're on a slow Internet connection, you'd better start downloading now.

Overall, this book is highly recommended for folks who want (or need) to get rolling with XNA quickly.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent examples, November 17, 2007

By 

Art G (Long Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft XNA Unleashed: Graphics and Game Programming for Xbox 360 and Windows (Paperback)

Each chapter has several code examples illustrating basic concepts and developing simple games. They all work which makes this book a pleasure to use. Code is available on a CD included with the book. The text is clearly written showing how to use XNA(TM) Game Studio to develop either 2D or 3D games. It would be impossible to go into depth on all the background graphics and mathematics that one would need if not using XNA. The book rightly focuses on XNA methods which do most of the work. More information can easily be found online to supplement the text which might be helpful to those new to game programming.

The author starts with performance and integrates performance measuring into the code. He covers both Windows and the Xbox 360 with each project set up for both. The advanced topics are really useful for 3D games. In all it is very enjoyable to use.