C# Sidescroller starting advices - c#

since this is my very first time trying to make yet simple but useable sidescroller I'd like to ask some questions and hopefully gather ideas to make a good engine that can change the position of an Image in the form depending on X position of the drawn game character. I'd basically like to recreate just few seconds of a Mario game.
The starting Idea (correct me if it's wrong / poorly performance / whatever) would be to create a picture long in width and whit fixed height and upon the press of, for example, A or D keys, the drawn character moves till a certain X point, after that, character gets locked in place and if the key is still pressed, the background image starts moving.
But the problem there would be the fix for collisions, would be possible to check for the X position of the drawn background picture and set "collisions" accordingly for the character?
Other questions : why picturebox should be avoided at all costs and use the form itself instead ? Placing the greater part of the classes methods inside a timer_tick event is the wrong approach ? I read somewhere that the best way to do games of this kind would be relying on infinite loops in the forms main method, but I simply cannot even think how this could possibly works, taking in count all the times we may need to get out of the loop and do different code in different places.
Any other different ideas/approach and direct links to further explanations would be greatly liked
Edit : yes i'd like to improve with windows forms before moving to xna/unity

Assumption: You want to make a little game and its your first time working with moving graphics and you're working with WindowsForms. Suggestion: try using a more advanced framework such as MonoGame or XNA and working your way through introductory documentation and tutorials. Also WPF has a more advanced graphics platform for doing things like drawing and 3D, you may want to give that a shot.
To expand on my comment a bit.
Windows Forms and GDI (the tech behind drawing) aren't meant for this kind of use. When GDI was created its purpose was essentially drawing lines and fonts on the screen. XNA is a really good framework for learning the basics up to professional design. Unfortunately the XNA framework is no longer supported by Microsoft and as such MonoGame is the recommended development route for managed .NET 3D and 2D game development.
The WPF provides basic access to Direct3D and Direct2D, and has 2D and 3D shapes and animations built into the framework and is what WPF is based on.
But you also have the choice, if need be, to create an XNA component and embed it in a Windows Form as demonstrated in these two tutorials.
XNA in Windows Forms I
XNA in Windows Forms II
Also using a Windows Forms Timer isn't recommended because they are unreliable. The .Net Framework provides a 'Server Timer' and a 'Threading timer' that can be used as well.
If you are really keen on using GDI for a game may I recommend reading about the basics of game programming (I think there are a few XNA docs on the subject) that should guide you on things like the basic run time loop, getting input, and simple physics.

Related

Moving a ball with accelerometer Windows Phone 8

I'm learning for windows phone 8, and i wanted to write an app where i can move an image using the accelerometer, not a level detector, i want it to move just like in labyrinth games. How would i make this happen? Does anyone have any good samples/turials/explainations or similar? I have been searching the web for two days now, trying to be integrating it. It will be used for a very simple learning-game for myself since i learn alot from samples. I have started my project as a normal app, since this is what i absolutely like to develop with, the UI design, etc, i have already created a basic UI, and also things the ball can collide into, things like arcs and stuff(controls). I am writing it in C#, i also got a little knowledge from java game development (not very much).
Thanks alot!
There aren't any samples (AFAIK) that do exactly what you describe.
If you really want an accelerometer/labyrinth game, there's a C++ sample at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/wpapps/Marble-Maze-sample-for-c9f3706b
Alternatively, there a lot of other samples to learn from.
These should keep you busy for a while: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/wpapps/

Building a robot simulator GUI using C#. Need some advice

I'm building a 2D robot simulator GUI for my autonomous robot vehicle.
I plan to keep the GUI simple. It consists of a vehicle (represented by a blue square picture), and some obstacles (cones, wall, etc, represented by yellow circle and red line respectively).
The vehicle must be able to move (as in the blue square must be able to move on the GUI) and be able to show its velocity and steering (float values) and its status (string) on the GUI.
I plan to use C# and Windows Forms to do this task, but I'm not sure if this is the right way to it. I remember using picture box a few years ago and I was not able to change the position of the picture box in real-time, or something weird like that.
Just wondering if you guys know a better way to do this. Is Windows Forms the way to go?
I've just moved from Ubuntu to Windows, so I am quite new at .Net stuff.
Here's what I've got so far http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/708/guilo.png/
Future plans may dictate a change, but for what you describe Windows.Drawing should work fine. The only problem may be if you are using timers for updates, as it may not be fast enough for you.
So, how fast of an update rate do you need?
How much like a game framework will you actually need?
You may want to look at a tutorial like:
http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/67275-the-wonders-of-systemdrawinggraphics/

Is it practical to port code from Flash to C#?

My goal is to gain a better understanding of the characteristics of C#, and become more comfortable creating simple apps. I am fairly competent with Flash (Actionscript 3), and found an old Tic-Tac-Toe game I'd written. I started wondering about porting this code into a C# application. Not knowing much about C#, I'm wondering how difficult the migration would be.
On the one hand, the underlying game logic is syntactically similar, and therefore would be easy to port.
However, as far as the graphics are concerned, I don't even know where to begin. So far, I've only exposed myself to Windows Forms and Console apps in C#.
I'm wondering if these Flash concepts have similar analogs in C#, or if the procedures and syntax are radically different:
Placing graphic elements on a stage
Rendering lines from start/end coordinates
Event listeners on movie clips
Swapping the image inside a graphic element (or, in my Flash version, nextFrame() in a movie clip)
You may want to try developping your little game using Silverlight. Silverlight applications, coded using C# and Xaml, are pretty similar in form with flash applications, and you should find everything you need without trouble.
So I suggest you download the Silverlight SDK (free) and give it a try.
Firstly, Flash is to WPF (close enough) as ActionScript is to C#.
The WPF/Silverlight model is much more similar to Flex that it is to Flash. Everything is added to the UI tree as a object, even lines.
Likewise, adding event handlers to controls (like a button click) can be done in the "code behind" (the code that lives with the view), but the recommendation is to use the MVVM pattern. If you are new to the concepts of separation of concerns and unit testing, feel free to start with the simpler "code behind" method.
While WPF and Silverlight are very similar, I'd recommend starting with Silverlight as the SDK and available samples are richer. You can easily move onto WPF later on (though porting an application from Silverlight to WPF is not automatic).
Swapping images, as you mentioned, would be done via "Visual States" in Silverlight (or possibly changing the image reference, which is more "hacky").
Have a look at the following links to get started:
Learn # Silverlight.net
Silverlight on MSDN
Shapes and Drawing (Silverlight)
If you're looking specifically to do games and the like, you may wish to look into the free XNA framework. However, there will be differences as Flash gives you far more ability to "set up" things beforehand and modify them.
Placing graphic elements on a stage
If you go the XNA route, you will be drawing sprites using the spritebatch, you tell them where and how to draw and that's where they will go
Rendering lines from start/end coordinates
In windows forms you can do this via a simple System.Drawing call, however if you wish to do this in XNA, you will either have to make a 1 pixel square and stretch/rotate it to what you want, or use 3d primitives (Though this will limit you to a 1 pixel line)
Event listeners on movie clips
Look into delegates, but there isn't really an equivalent for movie clips to my knowledge
Swapping the image inside a graphic element (or, in my Flash version, nextFrame() in a movie clip)
This is fairly simple, depending on what you mean. If you want to, say, animate a sprite. You can do this by moving the source rectangle or changing the texture of the spritesheet. If you mean the screen as a whole, this is mostly handled for you provided you use the spritebatch. In windows forms you'll have to do more of it yourself, but the base concepts are the same.
Overall it's not that bad, but if that doesn't sound appealing check out Silverlight. It's basically C# styled flash so you may find the transition easier.
Good luck and hope this helps.

SlimDX viewports in WPF controls

I am transitioning from WinForms/XNA to WPF/SlimDX because:
a) all of the benefits of WPF over
WinForms (but learning curve = ouch!)
b) I would like to have multiple
SlimDX viewports attached to Panels.
XNA has 1 "game" screen.
c, last and least) DirectX 10 support
All of my previous XNA code is in C#. I am having trouble figuring out how to port this over to SlimDX and WPF on a high level. I have searched like crazy. The closest I have found are:
1) http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=507941
Many articles point to this discussion, however it is incomplete and I can't figure out the XAML, and I get device errors after attaching all of the _slimDXDevice and Window1 events that were left out.
2) http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/D3DImage.aspx
This article assumes the user is porting C++. I am porting XNA code which is very close to MDX code.
If I could get to the point where I have a WPF form with a custom SlimDX driven viewport that was just a blue box, I could go from there. In XNA I rendered many separate RenderTargets and placed them all over the screen, now I want to attach them to controls. But first, just 1 blue box! :D
Any ideas? I feel that this is either simple or that there's some "cookie cutter" code that I'm missing. Greatly appreciated!
You can look at the sample now. It's just been checked in to our repository, so you'll need to use SVN to get it (or wait until we ship the Feb 2010 release):
http://code.google.com/p/slimdx/source/detail?r=1356
D3DImage is the class you want to use. Even though the codeproject tutorial is C++, it is very applicable to SlimDX and WPF.
All you have to do with your SlimDX, is run your code normally, but DO NOT run a Present(...) on your device or swap chain. At the point where you would put a Present(...), do a D3DImage.SetBackBuffer(...) and send your SlimDX surface's ComPointer property to it. Then do D3DImage.AddDirect(...) and you now have D3D composited in WPF.
Also, make sure you create a IDirect3DDevice9Ex or else your performance will be terrible in anything but XP!
I recently was messing around with D3DImage and SlimDX and didn't find it too difficult to get it working (with DirextX9). I have some code at my home pc that I'll post later, but it's pretty similar to the code in the links provided.
I was never able to get it working with a higher version of directx though. Jeremiah has a nice blog post about using a directx9 device as a link between directx 10/11/d2d and the D3DImage, but I couldn't get it working with Slimdx. I didn't put a whole lot of effort into though as directx9 did what I needed it to do and I kind of wanted it to work on XP.

C#: Creating a graphical screensaver

I am thinking about creating a screen saver. I have the whole thing, its graphics and the back-end kind of ready in my head. But I am not quite sure how to get the graphics out in code.
What I would like is a slide show of images with a bit of movement (kind of like the slide show in media center) and some floating text and shapes on top. The shapes somehow translucent.
I currently have a very simple static slideshow made in WinForms. Just a simple application that goes fullscreen and displays some images and pretends to fade them in and out in a hackish kind of way. But it is not very well made, and the performance is not very good. For example to prevent lag, I fade in a black square on top of the image, instead of fading in the actual image. Silly perhaps, but it kind of worked :p
Anyways, I would like to do a better job. But not sure where to start. Is WPF a good solution for this? Or should I look into DirectX or OpenGL? Is this something that could be handled well with XNA, or is that too game spesific?
WPF is not a bad idea. It takes advantage of DirectX and hardware acceleration for its animations and effects.
You will get better performance if you write this kind of stuff natively (against directx or opengl), but the cost of writing it will be much higher. It's quite possible you will not need that edge anyway.
Have a look at hanselman's baby smash (which is a full screen wpf app with animations) to get a grasp of what you can do with wpf.
Note: I did write a slide show kind of thingy in WPF way back, the key to getting this to work smoothly is loading up the images in a background thread and freezing it.
I guess XNA works well. There's a sample screensaver in C# Express, by the way.
Actually XNA works pretty well. For example: this is an (advanced) example of what can be made with XNA. The community is quite helpful and XNA has great potential.
A few weeks ago I wrote a two-part article describing how to create a Windows screen saver with GDI+. I am not displaying a slide show in my screen saver, but instead I am randomly drawing shapes. I did however explain the fundamentals of creating a screen saver for Windows which should be of some help if you have never created a screen saver before.
Create a Screen Saver Using C# – Part 1
Create a Screen Saver Using C# – Part 2
If you want to go with just GDI and GDI+, I wrote some info here about how to speed them up when rendering images and drawing them to screen. There is also fully functional screen saver source code at the above link (which I wrote myself after digging for some of the more obscure screen saver details), in case that helps.
Recently I finished with my first WPF (I wanted to see, how it can be done with WPF) screen-saver. You can check-it out on YouTube. Try to see HD-version.
Though I never tried XNA, I'm really pleased with WPF so far. Easy and flexible. But I guess you probably wouldn't get an XNA-performance (or am I wrong here?).
You can google for GDI+ or WPF ScreenSaver-templates to start with.

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