Book Image

Windows Phone 7 XNA Cookbook

By : Zheng Yang
Book Image

Windows Phone 7 XNA Cookbook

By: Zheng Yang

Overview of this book

Developing games for Windows Phone 7, a new mobile platform, is your big chance to impact the world of mobile games. The XNA 4.0 for Windows Phone 7 integrates a lot of capabilities from software and hardware for you to create incredible games. The next generation of mobile games will be built by you. Windows Phone 7 XNA Cookbook is the best choice for you to make a game on Windows Phone 7. The book helps you to master the indispensable techniques to create your games using XNA 4.0. From the basics such as animating a 2D sprite and interacting with the customized graphical user interface to the more challenging such as 3D graphic rendering and collision detection. This comprehensive cookbook covers all the essential areas of XNA game development for Windows Phone 7, such as approaches to control the sensors, gestures and typical kinds of cameras. We also have recipes for sprite animation, texture rendering, and graphical user interface development that will give you a powerful tool to work with 2D effects. After this we move onto the more juicy stuff with recipes covering 3D graphic rendering and collision detection, and major ways to improve your loading efficiency. You will also work with Xbox live so you can take your game global. Finally, no mobile game development book would be complete without a look at performance optimization to make your games run faster. Windows Phone 7 XNA Cookbook will equip you with the firepower to rock the game world.

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Windows Phone 7 XNA Cookbook
Zheng Yang
Feb, 2012 | 450 pages
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Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Windows Phone 7 XNA Cookbook
Windows Phone 7 XNA Cookbook
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Jump into Windows Phone Developer Tools and XNA Game Studio 4.0
Jump into Windows Phone Developer Tools and XNA Game Studio 4.0
Introduction
Installing Windows Phone Developer Tools
Creating your first Windows Phone XNA application
Deploying your game on an emulator or device
Getting familiar with orientation
Using DrawableComponent and GameServices
2
Playing with Windows Phone Touch and Sensors
Playing with Windows Phone Touch and Sensors
Introduction
Creating your first touch application/game
Taking your touch application to the next level
Creating a Touch Directional Pad (D-pad)
Dragging and swiping objects
Controlling images with Multi-Touch control
Using accelerometer to make a ball move on your phone
3
Coordinates and View Your First Step into XNA Game Development on Windows Phone 7
Coordinates and View Your First Step into XNA Game Development on Windows Phone 7
Introduction
Drawing the axes for a 2D game
Setting up the position, direction, and field of view of a fixed camera
Drawing the axes for a 3D game
Implementing a first-person shooter (FPS) camera in your game
Implementing a round rotating camera in a 3D game
Implementing a chase camera
Using culling to remove the unseen parts and texture mapping
4
Heads Up Display (HUD) Your Phone Game User Interface
Heads Up Display (HUD) Your Phone Game User Interface
Introduction
Scaling an image
Creating a Simple Sprite Sheet animation in a 2D game
Creating a Complex Sprite Sheet animation in a 2D game
Creating a text animation in Adventure Genre (AVG) game
Creating a text-based menu the easiest menu to create
Creating an image-based menu
Creating a 3D model-based menu
Creating a progress bar for game content loading and value status
Creating buttons in your game
Creating a listbox to speed up your information management in a game
Creating a text input control to communicate with others in a game
5
Content Processing
Content Processing
Introduction
The architecture and flow of content processing
Creating a custom importer and processor for your text
Processing XML files
Manipulating the extracted information from an image in the content pipeline
Extracting BoundingSphere and BoundingBox information from models
6
Entering the Exciting World of 3D Models
Entering the Exciting World of 3D Models
Introduction
Controlling a model with the help of trackball rotation
Translating the model in world coordinates
Scaling a model
Viewing the model hierarchy information
Highlighting individual meshes of a model
Implementing a rigid model animation
Creating a terrain with texture mapping
Customizing vertex formats
Calculating the normal vectors from a model vertex
Simulating an ocean on your CPU
7
Collision Detection
Collision Detection
Introduction
Detecting the intersection of line segments
Implementing per pixel collision detection in a 2D game
Implementing BoundingBox collision detection in a 3D game
Implementing BoundingSphere collision detection in a 3D game
Implementing ray-triangle collision detection
Mapping a tapped location to 3D
Implementing sphere-triangle collision detection
Making a 3D ball move along a curved surface
8
Embedding Audio in your Game
Embedding Audio in your Game
Introduction
Controlling an audio file
Adding sound effects to your game
Adding stereo sounds to your game
9
Special Effects
Special Effects
Introduction
Using dual texture effects
Using environment map effects
Rendering different parts of a character into textures using RenderTarget2D
Creating a screen transition effect using RenderTarget2D
10
Performance Optimization Fast! Faster!
Performance Optimization Fast! Faster!
Introduction
Optimizing your game's performance
Using the EQATEC Profiler to profile your game's running time
Reducing the game contents' loading time
Improving game performance with garbage collection
Preferring struct rather than class when just an instance is needed
11
Launching to the Marketplace
Launching to the Marketplace
Introduction
Preparing to submit your application to the Marketplace
Application submission checklist
Submitting your application to the Marketplace

Deploying your game on an emulator or device

In the previous recipe, you completed your first XNA Windows Phone Game. In this recipe, you will learn more details on how you can deploy your Windows Phone application on the emulator or device.

Getting ready

When you build the Windows Phone 7 project, in the Output window, you will see the building messages similar to the following screenshot:

Here, you may be curious about Xap packaging. A .xap is a simple file similar to a .zip file, renamed to .xap. It contains the app and all relevant dependencies. There are a number of possible .xml files that could be included inside .xap, such as required security access level.

For better understanding, you could change the extension from .xap to .zip and use WinZip to extract the .zip file. Several necessary information will be presented such as the content directory with .xnbl binary files, dependency files with .dll extension, configuration xml files, an xml file named AppManifest, and so on. The xaml file is very important for Windows Phone 7 applications. This file provides the emulator or device with the application start-up information, the entry point, and the dependency.

How to do it...

After project building, the next step is to deploy your Windows Phone 7 XNA application to the device or emulator. The direct method is by using Visual Studio Deploy Options, as shown in the following screenshot:

In the drop-down list, you could choose Windows Phone 7 Emulator or Windows Phone 7 Device. If you are a member of App Hub, which is free for students and is charged at $99 for regular users, you can successfully deploy to the real device or the emulator. Otherwise, you can choose the emulator as the test platform.

If using an emulator, Visual Studio 2010 will boot the emulator first, and then initialize (this may take a long time if the user's PC does not have hardware virtualization enabled.) The next step is to copy the .xap file to the emulator and execute it.

If using the device for the first time, the preparation work is a little complex (I promise this is only once), as follows:

  1. 1. The first step is to check if the Zune software is installed on your computer. (If the Zune software has not been installed, you can download it from http://www.zune.net/en-US/products/software/download/default.htm).

    Besides this, you need to make sure that your phone has loaded the proper device drivers. At this point, you are now ready to start publishing your custom app to the phone.

  2. 2. Next, you will need to click Start | All Programs | Windows Phone Developer Tools | Windows Phone Developer Registration. You will see a screen as shown in the following screenshot. You can use the Windows Live ID that you linked to. You can also unregister the device.

    • Wow! All the preparation work is over now. It is now time for the final step, that is deploy. Open Visual Studio 2010 and choose Windows Phone 7 Device in the drop-down list.

    Note

    If you deploy the application to your phone device and not the emulator, the phone must be turned on and unlocked (displaying the start/home tiles screen). To debug on the phone you just need to hit Run (F5).

  3. 3. Run the application.

  4. 4. When you have done this, on your Windows Phone, you will need to slide over to the Application list page with a right direction button at the top-right, and search for the application you named before. Touch it and run the application.

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