revenge of the kittens

here's a little bit of the damage that my kittens have inflicted lately. one of them isn't put off at all by the "bitter apple" sort of sprays that are meant to protect cords.

the funniest one was the power cord for the vonage modem. she chewed through that and when I replaced it, she chewed through the phone cord -- effectively killing the phone twice in one week.

Xbox 360: red light green light

sadly, I've run into a major issue with my beloved Xbox 360. I have been afflicted by the deadly "three red lights" error (read: must send machine to MS). no bejeweled 2 for 4-6 weeks .

although the support person was helpful, they have a computerized voice response layer at the front end. it was pretty frustrating to try and get an actual person... even with them trying to make the computer voice sound hip and using surfer band hold music.

this problem has affected a lot of people. of course, there's no telling who's to blame. it could be a third-party component failure. but it's a black eye for the green box.


- three red flashing lights is the worst-case scenario

the XNA book is here

FedEx brought me a box of the XNA game studio creators guide today. I think that McGraw-Hill did a great job on the presentation.

it should be in stores, and available on Amazon, any time now.

Goblin XNA Augmented Reality

Goblin XNA is a project at Columbia University that aims to create a platform for developing Augmented Reality (AR), or Virtual Reality, applications with Microsoft's new XNA game development platform.

this project is particularly interesting to me because I've just finished books on XNA (XNA Game Studio Creators Guide) and AR. Goblin XNA uses the ARTag marker system, which was developed by my AR co-author Dr. Mark Fiala.

XNA book about to be released

I just received this timely question from Ziggy...

"Do you know if your [XNA] book is still set to be released on the first? I know that in the past Amazon has incorrect dates posted and I do not want to misinform the community."

Thanks,Ziggy
Ziggyware XNA News and Tutorials

I've been meaning to post a message about this, and it seems that this is the perfect time. although I can't promise that the book will be out on a specific day, it is complete and printed. It should be out any day now :)

Frogger HD update

thank goodness! I discovered yesterday that there has been an update to the Xbox 360's version of Frogger.

when I first tried the game, it was virutally unplayable because the screen was squished on a high definition TV.

now I can happily enjoy the acrade classic -- and I'll even pay the two or three bucks for the full version.



- classic Frogger

favourite SCUBA dives

here is a list of my favourite diving experiences. this is a comparison, and obviously, it is subjective. I really haven't done that many dives (~50), so I'm sure that lost of people would disagree with this list. if you disagree, please feel free to post a comment. also, if there is a dive that you think should be in the list, you should definitely post a comment -- I'm always looking for new ones to try.


1. Belize, Tobacco Caye, 2004

the diversity of marine life, the clear water, the lack of crowds... what an amazing place to dive. as you can see in the picture below, you can walk right off the tiny island of Tobacco Caye and onto the Belize barrier reef.

- Tobacco Caye is tiny and beautiful

2. Egypt, Red Sea, Sharm El Sheikh, 1994

I did my Open Water dive course in the Red Sea, so I'm a little biased towards these dives, but having said that I still believe that they are incredible. I should mention that this was many years ago -- when I arrived in Dahab, they had only had electricity for six months. I'm sure a lot has changed since then.

3. Australia's Great Barrier Reef (outer reef), 1999 and 2003

I've actually done more dives on the reef than anywhere else (about 25). while widely considered to be the best diving in the world, I found that the dives were too overused and crowded to be considered the best in the world. however, having said that I absolutely love Australia and I would strongly recommend the Great Barrier Reef to any diver. if you are going to dive the reef, get as far out as your schedule allows. if you can, hop on a multi-day SCUBA/sailing trip headed to the outer reef. you can pack a lot of dives in and you have the option of doing night dives which can be great.

note: I expected to take some heat about ranking the reef third, but I just spoke to another diver who also believes that Belize is more impressive.

4. Malaysia, Grand Perhentian, 2004

Perhentian Island is actually two islands -- don't ask me how that happened. the islands are about half and hour off the Malaysian coast (by bumpy wooden speed boat). the islands themselves were worth the trip, but the great diving didn't hurt either.

I went on a number of different types of dives, including my first wreck dive and another into a cave that sharks sleep in.

5. USA, Catalina Island, 2004

this dive was interesting because it was completely different from the other dives that I've done. the water was much cooler and instead of coral, kelp is the main marine life.

- a Catalina fish

6. Dominican Republic, Punta Cana, 2007

I can't give the Dominican a proper review because I didn't dive on the Carribean Sea side. rather than take a day trip, we took advantage of a dive on the Atlantic side which came free with our package. it was worth doing, but not particularly awe inspiring. if you are serious about your diving, dive on the warm side.

7. Cook Islands, Rarotonga, 1999

the water was warm, there was a decent amount of coral, but there really wasn't much to see. despite this, I did see a few black tip reef sharks -- my first shark sitings.

Halo 3 pwnage

I just got completely pwned playing my first game on the Halo 3 Beta.

I guess not knowing the controls, not knowing the map, not knowing the weapons and not playing in months is a bad thing. it also didn't help that the rest of my team only scored 10 points.

there seems to be some issue with the FOV. after just one game I found that I had a headache. I'll have to check the settings to see if there is anything available for HDTVs. it might have something to do with the fact that I'm using the default settings on a widescreen HD.

no beta for you

so I threw in my Crackdown disk today and tried to download the Halo 3 Beta. sadly, there is a technical issue and it's still not up yet. all I can do at this point is read about it.

why we mod video

thanks to halomods, I found this great video: Why We Mod.

from the halomods description:

"Modding has long been associated with cheating. Although people do use mods to cheat, a large group of people actually use it as a means to get a little more out of the game. Still, modding for fun is misunderstood on a daily basis, and people cannot seem to figure out why we mod. Thanks to ExileLord though, a video has been created to demonstrate how modding is used for recreation and not for cheating."

way to go ExileLord! I'm thrilled to see modders lobbying for their due credit. I have been trying for years to get people to differentiate between legit modders and cheaters -- I even wrote an article about it for o'reilly called "modding Halo 2 considered harmful?"

video games are evil again

after another disturbed person was able to purchase multiple firearms and dozens of rounds of ammunition, voices in the U.S. once again rise up to blame the real enemy: the video game industry.

as mentioned in an article from the San Francisco post, ignorant individuals have tried to shift the focus off of what really matters and on to an argument that has no basis in reality. school shootings happened a long time before violent video games -- there were two here in Canada in 1975 -- but I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that school shootings didn't happen before guns were accessible to kids (or young adults, as in the Virginia Tech case).

my favourite example of the media irresponsibly trying to bring video games into the story (I'm paraphrasing from memory):

reporter: "we have been told that [the killer] played lots of violent video games."
killer's roommate: "I've never seen him play video games."

it's about time that the media catches up with today's multimedia. video games are bigger than movies. still some people love to dismiss gaming as an anti-social nerdy past-time. gaming has clearly surpassed those early stereotypes, and it's about time that there is mainstream acceptance for something that is well... mainstream.

BTW - best paragraph from the article: "According to a TheStreet.com story last week, Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive settled a lawsuit against Thompson with an agreement from the activist to stop suing the company and contacting retailers to ban the company's games -- the equivalent to getting a signed statement from Don Quixote to stop harassing windmills. "

best name for a grappling video

"The Turtle and Octopus Guard" by Eduardo Telles



from the product description: "His Turtle guard fight game enables him to sweep, reverse and even submit from the turtle, once considered to be a defensive position only."

AR has arrived

according to a recent article on technologyreview.com, mobile Augmented Reality (AR) might be just around the corner. in fact, Technology Review (published by MIT review) has rated AR as one of the top ten emerging technologies of 2007.

the article highlights an effort from the Nokia Research Center in Helsinki, Finland. they are working on mobile software that will help users download information about the buildings and businesses around them. for example, after recognizing the Empire State building in the phone's camera, the user can be provided with information about tours.

AR technology is certainly mature enough to support numerous applications. the real question is whether there will be enough public demand to support AR businesses. I believe that this will happen, it's just a question of when.



- this image from the article shows the Empire State building recognized by the Nokia system

I am currently working a book about AR for Pragmatic Publishing. my co-author, Dr. Mark Fiala, has ported some of his AR demos to a mobile phone.


- this figure from my upcoming AR book shows cell phone software recognizing ARTag markers

XNA Game Studio Creators Guide

I'm happy to say that my latest book project is an XNA development guide that I'm co-authoring with Pat McGee from BCIT college. the book covers game development on the exciting new XNA platform.

not only is XNA an amazing new platform, but it also allows anyone to develop games for the Xbox 360. all that is required is an Xbox 360, a PC, and a $99/yr subscription to the Xbox 360 Creator's Club.

the book is called XNA Game Studio Creators Guide and it will be published by McGraw-Hill.

update: the sample code and other files that go along with Microsoft® XNA Game Studio Creators Guide can be found at: http://www.mhprofessional.com/product.php?isbn=007149071x (look for the "code" link on the left side, just under the cover image)

thanks to Pat, the forum for the book is here: http://www.gamedeveloperonline.com/


- working cover for the XNA Game Studio Creators Guide

XNA project names

if you've been playing around with XNA projects, you may have found that it can be surprisingly tricky to change the name that is displayed in the "My XNA Games" screen.

the trick is that the name is stored in the Assembly Information of the project. to change the name, go to the Project Properties screen and the click the "Assembly Information" button. this will open the Assembly Information window.


- Assembly Information window

youtube loses value under google

when Wired magazine recently highlighted Google's acquisition of YouTube, they made an admirable effort to try and explain the 1.65 billion dollar beating that Google accepted for the deal. the article YouTube vs. Boob Tube effectively mentioned a number of YouTube's hits. for example, the evolution of dance, and Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years.

undoubtedly, these videos are great, but there's a problem. of the best videos that Wired could find a few of them are already gone.

even Wired's links to the afformentioned value-add videos are not immune; the first embedded video in the article has been removed "due to terms of use violation." I'm not even sure what they were trying to show me.

XNA beta code migration

these are some quick and dirty notes on migrating XNA GSE beta code to GSE V 1.0.

when you are migrating, refer to the XNA GSE documentation (in the Programs folder for GSE). the migration information is under Getting Started with XNA Game Studio Express -> Migrating from Beta 1 to Beta 2 (see below). this information also applies to the release version.

-------------------
GameTime
-------------------
double dblMS = (double)this.GameTime.Milliseconds;

becomes:

GameTime gameTime = new GameTime();
double dblMS = (double)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.Milliseconds;

-------------------
loading Texture2D
-------------------
mTex2DSprite = Texture2D.FromFile(this.gfx.GraphicsDevice, @"..\..\light.dds");

becomes:

mTex2DSprite = content.Load(@"..\..\light") as Texture2D;

-------------------
VertexPositionColorTexture
-------------------
VertexPositionColorTexture parameters are in a different order

mVertSprite[0] = new VertexPositionColorTexture(pos, uv, Color.White);

becomes:

mVertSprite[0] = new VertexPositionColorTexture(pos, Color.White, uv);

-------------------
DrawUserPrimitives
-------------------
gfx.GraphicsDevice.DrawUserPrimitives
(PrimitiveType.TriangleStrip, // triangle strips
2, // two primitive objects
mVertSprite); // use sprite vertex

becomes:

gfx.GraphicsDevice.DrawUserPrimitives
(PrimitiveType.TriangleStrip, // triangle strips
mVertSprite, // use sprite vertex
0, // vertex offset
2); // two primitive objects

-------------------
EffectStateOptions
-------------------
EffectStateOptions is gone

mfxTex.Begin(EffectStateOptions.Default);

becomes:

mfxTex.Begin();
-------------------

from the documentation:

Migrating a Beta 1 project to Beta 2
"Create a new project by selecting New Project... from the File menu. Select Windows Game, name your new project, and click OK.

Add classes from your old project to your new project by selecting Add Existing Item... from the Project menu. Navigate to your Beta 1 project, select the class or classes to import, and click OK.
Add resources from your old project to your new project also by selecting Add Existing Item... and choosing Content Pipeline Files from the Files of type: drop-down box. You can select models, textures, effects and sounds to add to your project. See "Importing a resource into the Content Pipeline" below for more information.

Migrate code from your old project's Game1 class to your new project's Game1 class, including your Update and Draw methods. Use LoadGraphicsContent to load automatic and manual resources (note: "automatic" was called "managed" in Beta 1).

The Game Designer from Beta 1 does not exist in Beta 2. Use the Game constructor to set properties on the GraphicsDeviceManager (formerly GraphicsComponent).

Some code changes will be required before your Beta 1 code will compile properly in Beta 2. See "Framework Changes" below for a list of some of those changes. "

other resources:

Migrating an XNA Application from Beta 1 to Beta 2

pimps at sea invite

one of my oh-so-hilarious former microsoft colleagues just sent me an Xbox 360 invite to play Pimps at Sea (Alpha) - which, of course, is Halo 3.

and, of course, I don't have a copy of the Halo 3 Alpha DVD.


jerk!

microsoft bob lives

thanks to the miracle of Virtual PC, I am able to run the Microsoft Bob operating system. here are some screenshots (click images for full-size versions).

this UI was meant to revolutionize the OS business, but it fell flat on its cute puppy face. you may notice though, that the dog survived. you can find him in Windows XP.


- the Microsoft Bob OS sign in screen

the idea for Microsoft Bob was that you click on the picture that represents that task that you want to do. want to call someone? click on the phone.


- the main room in the OS

there is even a Microsoft Bob box in the company museum. within Microsoft culture, the project has become the archetype of failure.


- how deep was this mouse hole?

my kittens hate nazis

lucky guy that I am, santa brought me a copy of call of duty 3 this Christmas. here's my sob story for the day.

being a fan of the xbox 360 achievements, I've been working through some of them. today I was trying for the close combatant award which requires that you finish a mission without firing a shot - only melee attacks and grenades are allowed. I was on the last checkpoint and about to launch into the final assault when one of my cats nuzzled up to the controller and managed to press the trigger. my rifle fired and that was it for my hard work; I had to start again from the beginning. :(

I guess she was just too eager to get into the fight.