Using XNA Game Studio 3.0, any programmer can master the art of game development and begin selling games to millions of Xbox 360 users worldwide. Now, there’s a practical, comprehensive guide to game development with Microsoft’s powerful new XNA Game Studio 3.0 and the entire XNA Framework. In Microsoft® XNA® Game Studio 3.0 Unleashed, XNA expert Chad Carter covers the entire XNA platform, presents extensive sample code, and explains that code line by line. Carter walks you through the entire process of game development, including installing XNA, creating objects, handling input, managing and extending the content pipeline, optimizing game performance, and creating both 3D and 2D games. Carter presents sophisticated coverage of using XNA’s high level shader language; creating physical effects; and endowing characters with realistic artificial intelligence. A case study section walks through the entire process of planning and coding a game, improving it, and putting on the finishing touches that make it marketable. This edition contains nine new chapters, including all-new sections on creating networked games, programming games for the Zune handheld, and preparing and submitting games to Xbox LIVE, where accepted titles will reach gamers worldwide. Plan your games to deliver solid performance on the platforms you’ve targeted Understand essential XNA Framework concepts, including object creation, cameras, input handling, libraries, game services, and managing and extending the content pipeline Create a 2D game that will run across 3 platforms (Windows, Xbox 360, and Zune) with a single code base Create a Visualizer media player for the Microsoft Zune Use the High Level Shader Language (HLSL) to communicate directly with graphics hardware Bring realistic physics to your game action and realistic artificial intelligence to your characters Create sophisticated 3D effects that use advanced texturing and a particle system Build networked games, including multiplayer demos, turn-based games, and real-time network games Create 4 full games–2D parallax side scroller, 3D shooter, multiplayer turn-based 2D card game, and a multiplayer real-time 3D game Discover best practices for creating Xbox LIVE Community Games Sell your finished game on Xbox LIVE Marketplace CD-ROM includes: All C# examples and source code presented in this book.

Provides information on using Microsoft XNA to create games for the Xbox 360 and for Microsoft Windows.

Want to develop games for Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7? This hands-on book will get you started with Microsoft's XNA 4.0 development framework right away -- even if you have no experience developing games. Although XNA includes several key concepts that can be difficult for beginning web developers to grasp, Learning XNA 4.0 shortens the learning curve by walking you through the framework in a clear and understandable step-by-step format. Each chapter offers a self-contained lesson with illustrations and annotated examples, along with exercises and review questions to help you test your understanding and practice new skills as you go. Once you've finished this book, you'll know how to develop your own sophisticated games from start to finish. Learn game development from 2D animation to 3D cameras and effects Delve into high-level shader language (HLSL) and introductory artificial intelligence concepts Build three complete, exciting games using 2D, 3D, and multiplayer techniques Develop for and deploy your games to the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7

This end-to-end deep dive into Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional will help working developers squeeze maximum productivity out of Visual Studio 2010’s extraordinarily rich toolbox, whether they are writing code for the Web, Windows, Silverlight, or Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing environment. The authors combine authoritative and detailed information about Microsoft’s latest IDE, with extensive insights and best practices drawn from decades of development experience. Developers will learn how to use Visual Studio 2010 Professional to take full advantage of the entire .NET platform, including Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) for rich client development, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) for building dynamic service-oriented solutions, and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) for structured programming around business processes. The authors also present extensive new coverage of Microsoft’s powerful new tools for unit testing, application instrumentation, and code analysis. By focusing entirely on Visual Studio 2010 Professional, the authors have gone deeper into Microsoft’s core product than ever before. Throughout, their focus is relentlessly practical: how to apply Microsoft’s tools to build better software, faster. Detailed information on how to... Work with solutions, projects, browsers, explorers, editors, and designers Write better macros, add-ins, and wizards Save more time with Visual Studio 2010’s updated productivity tools Instrument, analyze, and test your software Refactor code for greater robustness, maintainability, and performance Share code with team members and the larger community Write powerful ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, and Silverlight web applications Implement robust service oriented architecture (SOA)–based applications Efficiently consume services with WCF Write advanced Windows applications with Windows Forms and WPF Construct data-centric applications with LINQ and Entity Framework Create and host workflow-based applications with WF Write applications for the Azure cloud Extend Visual Studio with the new Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) and the Automation Object Model Build better object-oriented VB or C# software, and use new dynamic language features

Building XNA 2.0 Games: A Practical Guide for Independent Game Development is written by James Silva, who recently won the prestigious Microsoft Dream Build Play game competition with his award–winning game, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. Building XNA 2.0 Games: A Practical Guide for Independent Game Development is an in–depth and exclusive look into the entire XNA game development process and includes the creation of a software game masterpiece. James Silva guides you through the process he took to build his award–winning title, from concept to reality. He reveals tips and techniques for creating a polished, high–quality game with very few resources, while bridging the gap between coding and art. This title shows software developers the following: The creation of a polished game from start to finish Design philosophies Next–gen 2D graphics, including shaders Techniques for fast, fluid game play XACT Audio and XInput Eye–catching particle effects for visual stimulation The book is packed full of code, pictures, and valuable insights into XNA game development.

This book is a guide to the expanding world of indie gaming. It helps readers to understand why indie games are so important to so many people in the entertainment industry. The book covers puzzlers, platformers, beat 'em ups, shoot 'em ups, role-playing, and strategy.

The computer and particularly the Internet have been represented as enabling technologies, turning consumers into users and users into producers. The unfolding online cultural production by users has been framed enthusiastically as participatory culture. But while many studies of user activities and the use of the Internet tend to romanticize emerging media practices, this book steps beyond the usual framework and analyzes user participation in the context of accompanying popular and scholarly discourse, as well as the material aspects of design, and their relation to the practices of design and appropriation.

Why learn F#? With this guide, you’ll learn how this multi-paradigm language not only offers you an enormous productivity boost through functional programming, but also lets you develop applications using your existing object-oriented and imperative programming skills. You’ll quickly discover the many advantages of the language, including access to all the great tools and libraries of the .NET platform. Reap the benefits of functional programming for your next project, whether you’re writing concurrent code, or building data- or math-intensive applications. With this comprehensive book, former F# team member Chris Smith gives you a head start on the fundamentals and walks you through advanced concepts of the F# language. Learn F#’s unique characteristics for building applications Gain a solid understanding of F#’s core syntax, including object-oriented and imperative styles Make your object-oriented code better by applying functional programming patterns Use advanced functional techniques, such as tail-recursion and computation expressions Take advantage of multi-core processors with asynchronous workflows and parallel programming Use new type providers for interacting with web services and information-rich environments Learn how well F# works as a scripting language

Currently, there aren't any good books on Windows graphics programming. Programmers looking for help are left to muddle their way through online documentation and API books that don't focus on this topic. This book paves new ground, covering actual graphics implementation, hidden restrictions, and performance issues programmers need to know about.

Original title: Computer graphics in mathematical approaches