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  • Book Overview & Buying 3D Game Development with Microsoft Silverlight 3: Beginner's Guide
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3D Game Development with Microsoft Silverlight 3: Beginner's Guide

3D Game Development with Microsoft Silverlight 3: Beginner's Guide

By : Gaston C. Hillar
3 (1)
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3D Game Development with Microsoft Silverlight 3: Beginner's Guide

3D Game Development with Microsoft Silverlight 3: Beginner's Guide

3 (1)
By: Gaston C. Hillar
Buy this Book

Overview of this book

Microsoft Silverlight is a programmable web browser plug-in that enables the animation, vector graphics, and audio-video playback features that characterize Rich Internet Applications. Silverlight is a great (and growing) RIA platform and games are the next level to exploit in it. But it doesn't offer 3D capabilities out of the box and integrating a 3D engine can involve lot of complex mathematics and matrix algebra. This book will help C# developers to get their fingers on the pulse of 3D in Silverlight. This book uses Balder, an open source 3D engine offering 3D capabilities for Silverlight 3. It leaves out boring matrix algebra and complex 3D mathematics. By the end of the book you will have explored the entire engine, and will be able to design and program your own 3D games with ease! The book begins by introducing you to the fundamental concepts of 2D games and then drives you into the 3D world, using easy-to-follow, step-by-step examples. The book employs amazing graphics and impressive performance, and increasingly adds more features to a 3D game giving you a rich interactive experience. By following the practical examples in this book, you will learn the important concepts, from the creation of the initial models, up to the addition of physics and artificial intelligence. The book helps you to provide realistic behaviors for 3D characters by enveloping models with different textures, using lights to create effects, animating multiple 3D characters using a physics engine (Farseer Physics Engine), and simulating real-life physics. Videos, music, and sounds associated with specific events offer the final touches to the 3D game development learning experience.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
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3D Game Development with Microsoft Silverlight 3
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3D Game Development with Microsoft Silverlight 3
Credits
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Credits
About the Author
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About the Author
Acknowledgement
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Acknowledgement
About the Reviewer
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About the Reviewer
Preface
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Preface
Lock Free Chapter
1
Lights, Camera, and Action!
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Lights, Camera, and Action!
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UFOs in the sky!: Invaders
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Time for action—preparing the development environment
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Time for action—recognizing digital art assets
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Time for action—creating the raster digital content
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Time for action—installing tools to manipulate scalable digital content
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Time for action—creating the scalable digital content in XAML
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Time for action—testing the scalable digital content using XamlPad
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Preparing a gaming framework
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Time for action—creating Silverlight applications
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Time for action—building and running Silverlight applications
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Time for action—creating XBAP WPF applications
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Time for action—building and running the XBAP WPF applications
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Summary
2
Working with 2D Characters
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Working with 2D Characters
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Creating an accelerated graphics viewport
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Time for action—enabling hardware acceleration
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Time for action—transforming media using the GPU
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Time for action—shaking many illustrations at the same time
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Time for action—detecting GPU-acceleration problems
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Creating encapsulated object-oriented characters
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Time for action—creating User Control classes to hold images
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Time for action—displaying images and sprites
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Summary
3
Combining Sprites with Backgrounds
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Combining Sprites with Backgrounds
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The first remake assignment
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Time for action—creating sprites based on XAML vector-based graphics
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Time for action—creating a specialized sprite management class
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Time for action—creating a superclass for some characters
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Time for action—creating the subclasses for the characters
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Time for action—creating methods for the game loop
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Time for action—writing the game loop
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Time for action—detecting collisions between 2D characters
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Summary
4
Working with 3D Characters
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Working with 3D Characters
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The second remake assignment
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Time for action—exporting a 3D model without considering textures
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Time for action—from DCC tools to WPF
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Time for action—displaying a 3D model in a 2D screen with WPF
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Time for action—using other XAML exporter for DCC tools
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Time for action—adding 3D elements and interacting with them using Expression Blend
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Silverlight and the 3D world
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Time for action—exporting a 3D model to ASE
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Time for action—installing Balder 3D engine
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Time for action—from DCC tools to Silverlight
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Summary
5
Controlling the Cameras: Giving Life to Lights and Actions
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Controlling the Cameras: Giving Life to Lights and Actions
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Understanding 3D cameras
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Time for action—when seeing is believing
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Time for action—performing transformations
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Time for action—zooming in and out
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Time for action—understanding perspective and orthographic cameras
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Silverlight and the cameras
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Time for action—controlling cameras on the fly
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Summary
6
Controlling Input Devices to Provide Great Feedback
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Controlling Input Devices to Provide Great Feedback
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Giving life to the game!
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Time for action—creating a keyboard manager class
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Time for action—programming the input control in the game loop
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Time for action—mapping a gamepad to the keyboard
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Time for action—using the gamepad
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Time for action—creating a mouse manager class
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Time for action—using the mouse manager in the game loop
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Time for action—using the gamepad as a mouse
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Time for action—rotating cameras using input devices
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Bridging with DirectInput capabilities
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Time for action—installing the necessary SDKs
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Time for action—understanding sticks and buttons
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Time for action—testing the input devices with a DirectInput wrapper
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Time for action—adapting a joystick manager class
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Time for action—using the steering wheel in the game loop
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Summary
7
Using Effects and Textures to Amaze
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Using Effects and Textures to Amaze
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Dressing characters using textures
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Time for action—adding textures in DCC tools
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Time for action—exporting 3D models from DCC tools to Silverlight
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Time for action—enveloping 3D models
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Time for action—replacing textures
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Displaying lights, shadows, materials, and textures
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Time for action—working with lights and understanding shadows
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Summary
8
Animating 3D Characters
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Animating 3D Characters
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Invaders 3D
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Time for action—adding a UFO
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Time for action—creating a new game superclass to generalize time management capabilities
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Time for action—specializing a game superclass
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Time for action—creating a subclass for a 3D character
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Time for action—adding an Actor to the game
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Time for action—rotating 3D characters
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Time for action—scaling 3D characters
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Using bones and skeletons
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Time for action—animating models with skeletons and bones
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Time for action—adding an Actor with skeletons and bones to the game
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Summary
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Adding Realistic Motions Using a Physics Engine
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Adding Realistic Motions Using a Physics Engine
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Using physical principles in games to beat invaders
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Time for action—installing Farseer Physics Engine
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Time for action—adding parallel physics bodies and geometries to 3D characters
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Time for action—working with forces, impulses, acceleration and speed
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Time for action—working with torques and rotations
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Summary
10
Applying Artificial Intelligence
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Applying Artificial Intelligence
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Detecting collisions between 3D characters
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Time for action—adding a second UFO
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Time for action—detecting collisions between 3D characters
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Using artificial intelligence in games to control 3D characters
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Time for action—using chasing algorithms
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Time for action—using evasion algorithms
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Summary
11
Applying Special Effects
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Applying Special Effects
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Working with 3D characters in the background
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Time for action—adding a transition to start the game
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Time for action—creating a low polygon count meteor model
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Time for action—from 3D Studio Max to Silverlight
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Time for action—creating a subclass for a 3D meteor
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Time for action—creating and controlling a meteor rain
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Time for action—simulating fluids with movement
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Time for action—creating a subclass for a complex asteroid belt
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Time for action—adding an asteroid belt background to the game
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Summary
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Controlling Statistics and Scoring
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Controlling Statistics and Scoring
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Showing gauges and scorecards
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Time for action—using special fonts
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Time for action—creating a score gauge showing text
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Time for action—showing a score gauge
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Time for action—creating a bonus gauge showing text
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Time for action—creating a fuel gauge
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Time for action—creating a remaining lives gauge
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Time for action—showing and updating multiple gauges
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Summary
13
Adding Environments and Scenarios
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Adding Environments and Scenarios
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Working with levels and stages
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Time for action—installing Windows Presentation Foundation Pixel Shader Effects Library
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Time for action—adding screens to organize the game
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Time for action—applying transition effects
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Time for action—changing the transition effect
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Time for action—using skill levels
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Time for action—changing and improving the environments according to the skill level
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Time for action—saving configurations
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Summary
14
Adding Sound, Music, and Video
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Adding Sound, Music, and Video
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Hear the UFOs coming
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Time for action—installing tools to manipulate videos
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Time for action—preparing a video to use it in Silverlight
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Time for action—reproducing videos
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Time for action—applying projections
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Time for action—animating projections
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Time for action—solving navigation problems
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Time for action—reproducing music
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Time for action—preparing audio files to use them in Silverlight
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Time for action—creating a class to handle audio concurrency
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Time for action—generating sounds associated to game events
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Summary
1
Pop quiz—Answers
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Pop quiz—Answers

Chapter 1. Lights, Camera, and Action!

We want to develop 3D games using Silverlight 3. We will need to work hard in order to achieve this exciting goal. First, we must understand some fundamentals related to various tools and 2D graphics, and their relevance to Silverlight 3. In this chapter, we will cover many topics that will help us understand the new tools and techniques involved in preparing 2D graphics to be used in Silverlight games. This chapter is all about graphics.

In this chapter, we will:

  • Prepare a development environment to develop games using Silverlight 3

  • Recognize the digital art assets from an existing game

  • Create and prepare the digital content for a new 2D game

  • Understand the tools involved in a 2D game development process

  • Learn to manipulate, preview, and scale the digital content

  • Build and run our first graphics application using the digital content

UFOs in the sky!: Invaders

You love 3D games. You have always wanted to develop a 3D game with amazing characters, dazzling scenarios, outstanding effects, and many skill levels. And now you have the opportunity. A legendary game developer drives a new game contest. He challenges Silverlight developers to show him some ideas for a modern 2D Invaders game. If he likes a developer's idea, he will contract him to develop 3D games for his well-known gaming web site using Silverlight 3. This web site pays high wages to developers. It is an incredible opportunity and you cannot miss this train. Tickets, please!

Developing 3D games is an exciting process, but it is also difficult. However, working with a 2D game before moving into the 3D world is a nice starting point. That is exactly what we are going to do.

During our journey, we will need to exploit our creativity as much as possible. Game development requires many heterogeneous skills. However, the most important ingredient is creativity.

We already know how to develop some applications using the C# programming language. However, RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) offer an exciting way ahead for game development because they provide a rich experience for users without the need to install software on their computers. Users expect RIAs to be like conventional downloadable games that offer amazing graphics, impressive performance, and a very interactive experience. Silverlight is a great (and growing) RIA platform, and games are the next level to exploit in Silverlight. 3D games represent our challenge in this book and we shall take full advantage of our C# knowledge here.

So, let's take our C#, XAML, and Silverlight development skills to the next level. We want to take full advantage of modern technologies. First of all, we must install the latest tools and begin working on some 2D games' basics. Later, we will use that knowledge in developing 3D games using Silverlight 3, the newest kid on the block from Microsoft.

The only requirements needed to develop 3D games using Silverlight are to understand the basics of the C# programming language, XAML code, and the Visual Studio IDE. We will cover the rest of the requirements in our journey through the 3D game development world!

CONTINUE READING
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