Site: http://www.andybeaulieu.com/Home/tabid/67/BlogId/2/Default.aspx Link: http://www.andybeaulieu.com/Home/tabid/67/rssid/2/Default.aspx
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 9/15/2011 11:34:00 AM
At the Build Conference this week, Microsoft handed out 5000 pre-configured Samsung tablets which included Windows 8 Developer Preview plus the development tools for building Metro style apps. They also made available an ISO containing the same bits. I suppose in a pinch you could develop apps on an underpowered tablet, but does anyone really want to write code on a tiny screen with an underpowered CPU? No worries though. We can still use a more powerful dev machine to run Visual Studio 11 and t ...
[ read more ]
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 9/14/2011 11:53:00 AM
Late last year I was given an ExoPC Slate as a development device in order to port some of my Silverlight physics games. I did a little unboxing and hands-on with the device back then, and it was quite easy to port my Silverlight games to their app store. Note that the ExoPC has an Intel Atom 1.66 GHz processor, which makes it a bit short on battery life (less than 4 hours). However, it does support 64-bit Windows and has the minimum 1366x768 resolution to support the new "snap" feature. So giv ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 9/13/2011 6:57:00 PM
Wow, tremendous excitement in the Microsoft dev universe today with the Build conference kicking off! For those who missed the details, we will be able to download the Developer Preview bits for Windows 8 after 11:00pm EST tonight (9/13). Additionally, all of the tech sessions at build are being recorded and will be available on Channel9 within 24 hours after recording. I browsed through the list of great content being provided and put together my own video queue of training - posted below. My ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 6/22/2011 2:50:00 PM
UPDATE 6/28/2011: Bouncy McFuzzin is now available on the Marketplace! [DOWNLOAD McFUZZIN]* *Zune Software Required Here is a sneak peek of another little physics game I'm working on for Windows Phone 7. Help McFuzzin escape from the evil witch's lint jar in this fun physics game. Use your finger to draw trampolines for McFuzzin to bounce on. You'll encounter many strange creatures and obstacles along the way, as well as power-ups to help you along. Wanna Beta Test? Many thanks to everyone who ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 4/12/2011 6:18:00 AM
Silverlight 5 introduces new support for hardware accelerated 3D which makes it possible to create truly unique experiences. Unfortunately, the 3D API provided is very low-level, and probably not easily picked up by the average developer. In this blog post, I’ll show you how to leverage existing libraries and tools to (relatively) easily create a 3D Physics based game or simulation using the new 3D features of Silverlight 5. [DOWNLOAD SOURCE] [VIEW DEMO] * REQUIRES SILVERLIGHT 5 BETA 1 * To acc ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 3/14/2011 1:01:00 PM
If you are interested in creating physics based Games for Windows Phone 7, you might find this useful: Creating an Air Hockey Game for Windows Phone 7 I created this tutorial for the Expression Toolbox Site, using the Physics Helper Library and the Farseer Physics Engine. The design assets for the game were created by Pixel Lab. The tutorial consists of several videos and source download which walk you through creating this fun physics game! There are also some other great Windows Phone ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 2/18/2011 11:27:00 AM
Boss Launch 2: Zombie Attack is now available on the Windows Phone Marketplace. It's the zombie apocalypse, and your only ammunition against the walking dead is an office chair and your fat, lazy boss. Launch your obnoxious leader at waves of oncoming flesh eaters in this fun physics game. Three episodes containing 42 total levels take you through office, city, and country environments. Launch your boss onto vehicles to crush your enemies, and use grenade power-ups for that extra touch of destr ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 2/10/2011 4:31:00 PM
Last night at the CNY .NET Developers Group, I presented a talk titled "Windows Phone 7: Monetize your Apps" where I detailed my WP7 revenue numbers and tips on monetization. Many of my fellow WP7 developers such as Farseer Games, Occasional Gamer, and many others have shared their sales as well. In this blog post, I'll repeat my sales and ad revenue for my apps that I have on the marketplace. You can also download the slide deck for my presentation. TALKING RAGDOLL "Talking Ragdoll" has been in ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 1/3/2011 1:55:00 AM
Today I updated the Physics Helper Library so that it uses the latest release (v3.2) of the Farseer Physics Engine. [DEMO] [SEE A VIDEO WALKTHRU] [INSTALLER] | [SOURCE CODE] Note that if you are alreay using the Physics Helper and upgrading to 4.2, you may encounter a few minor breaking changes in the Farseer Physics Engine. These are outlined on the Farseer download page under the Breaking Changes section. Also check out all of the great New Features that the Farseer team has introduced i ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 10/21/2010 6:16:00 PM
Today I released a new version of the Physics Helper Library, which makes it easier to create Silverlight 4 and Windows Phone 7 games using the Farseer Physics Engine. Here are the highlights for this release: Now supports Version 3 of the Farseer Physics Engine Bullets Continuous Collision Detection Resting Bodies see the Farseer project page for more details on this release of the Farseer Engine! Installer (msi) makes setup easier [DEMO] [SEE A VIDEO WALKTHRU] [INSTALLER] | [SOURCE C ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 9/27/2010 9:24:00 PM
If you're using Silverlight on Windows Phone 7 for casual games development, performing a HitTest to determine if two elements collide is a basic need. I've blogged about how to do this in desktop Silverlight in the past, and for the most part this technique works great in WP7... EXCEPT when your app is running in Landscape orientation. [DOWNLOAD SOURCE] The problem in WP7 is that FindElementsInHostCoordinates will always return elements in portrait orientation, so that they are rotated 90 de ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 4/15/2010 10:39:00 PM
You might be aware that when you publish a Silverlight XAP on the web, your source code is very vulnerable to prying eyes. A XAP file is in a ZIP compressed format, and the contents are .NET Assemblies and resources which can be disassembled easily using a tool like .NET Reflector . Although there is no sure-fire way to stop someone from copying your Silverlight application logic, obfuscation can at least make it a bit more difficult to hack through. Babel Obfuscator for .NET There are a few obf ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 3/28/2010 10:58:00 PM
Thanks to everyone who attended my session at Code Camp 13 in Waltham, "Windows Phone: Silverlight for Casual Games." It's great to see so many people sharing my excitement for Windows Phone 7! In this session, we talked about the new hardware, Silverlight support, the Emulator, GPU Acceleration, monitoring performance, Behaviors, sound support, input, and monetization of your games. As promised, here are my slides and demos from the talk. [DOWNLOAD SLIDES] [DOWNLOAD DEMOS] And here are some ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 3/25/2010 6:48:00 PM
If you’re creating a graphics intensive application (such as a game) for Windows Phone 7 (WP7) using Silverlight, you’re going to want to maximize performance for both the emulator and your Silverlight code. Let’s look at some ways to maximize both of these. WP7/Silverlight Graphics Performance WP7 devices have a separate GPU which is optimized for handling graphics operations such as displaying, scaling, rotating, and 3D. Silverlight on WP7 has the ability to use that GPU, which can greatly inc ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 3/19/2010 2:03:00 AM
The PathListBox control is a cool new addition to the Blend 4 SDK, and allows the elements inside a ListBox to lay out along any Path control shape. You’ll need to install the Blend 4 SDK to get access to the PathListBox control, but note that this is available outside of Expression Blend 4 (you don’t need to purchase or install Blend 4). One of the neat bonus features of the PathListBox is that you can animate the Path that it is bound to, and the items will follow the animation! This gives Si ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 3/18/2010 2:11:00 AM
The Physics Helper Library now supports Windows Phone Development! [DOWNLOAD PHYSICS HELPER] [SEE A TEASER] [DOWNLOAD SAMPLE PHONE PROJECT] * UPDATE 05/17/10: Fixed for April Refresh of WP7 Tools If you want to create some fun physics-based games for this upcoming platform, you’ll first want to first visit the Windows Phone Development site and download the tools you’ll need. The Physics Helper Library is a collection of Behaviors and UserControls that make is easier to create 2D physics g ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 3/15/2010 6:06:00 PM
You’ve probably heard the rumors during the past weeks, but at the Mix10 Keynote this morning, ScottGu and Co. confirmed all of the leaks about Windows Phone 7 Series ! You can download the tools you need now, including Silverlight and XNA development libraries and a Phone Emulator. Microsoft has created a stringent list of requirements for hardware manufacturers, which should keep a consistent experience across devices, while keeping competition high among manufacturers (and therefore pricin ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 3/14/2010 5:17:00 PM
Looking for great free training in Silverlight and Expression Blend? The Expression Blend Evangelism Team at Microsoft has just released .toolbox, an online training source for designers and developers!! One of the unique aspects of the .toolbox training is that it enlisted the talents of real-world design agencies to create the sample applications you use in the training. I think this makes for challenging and realistic training scenarios. I personally created several of the .toolbox training ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 1/7/2010 2:56:00 PM
Many demos of WCF RIA Services show off using the DomainDataSource Class to in a declarative manner to quickly throw together a data-enabled application. And in VS2010, there is added support for using the Data Sources Window to Drag/Drop data entities onto the designer --- this action also adds a DomainDataSource instance into your XAML. For many applications, using a DomainDataSource in XAML is fine and enables RAD development. But some pundits (Hi Shawn!) argue that having direct interaction ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 1/7/2010 1:12:00 PM
Thanks to everyone who attended my WCF RIA Services talk at the CNY .NET Developer Group in Syracuse, NY! In this talk we used Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 and WCF RIA Services Beta to develop a line of business application centered around (what else) Beers! If you are in the Rochester, NY area, I'll be repeating this presentation at the Visual Developers of Upstate NY group on Wednesday, January 27th. Download the Demo * requires SL4/VS2010 Beta 2, WCF RIA Services Beta Download the Slides I ha ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 12/13/2009 1:50:00 PM
If you're a fan of Fiddler, you may have used it with prior versions of RIA Services to capture the traffic between your Silverlight client and your server side. This worked great in the past because RIA Services used a (somewhat bastardized) JSON encoding format. But in the latest release of WCF RIA Services, the default encoding format is binary - which is not supported by Fiddler out of the box. Luckily, Samuel Jack has created a WCF Binary Inspector plug-in for Fiddler, which allows for exam ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 11/30/2009 2:46:00 AM
"Froggy Math" is a little educational Silverlight game that I've been picking at when I had a free hour here and there for the past several weeks. The goal was to create something for my kids to practice their math facts (which I learned are now called "combinations"), and at the same time pique their interest in programming. I think the result was pretty good --- at least the kids seem interested in playing for awhile! In Froggy Math, the player feeds worms to a hungry frog - but the correct w ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 11/18/2009 10:29:00 PM
At the PDC Conference today, The Gu unveiled the first public release of Silverlight 4 (Beta). This release has some really great additions, but I am most excited about the advances in Business Application Development for Silverlight.Why will Silverlight 4 be better for Business App Development? RIA ServicesWCF RIA Services (formerly .NET RIA Services) makes it quick and easy to create a Service layer that wraps your Data Access Layer - whether your DAL uses the Entity Framework, LINQ to SQL, o ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 11/18/2009 10:24:00 PM
The ability to create Implicit Styles has been a sorely missed feature in Silverlight… until Silverlight 4! The concept of an implicit style is very simple – you define how you want ALL instances of a control to look in one place (you can then override those styles if you need to). Setting an implicit style in XAML Let’s say we want all of our TextBox controls in our application to have White text on a Red background. We can step into our App.xaml and add the following XAML: ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 11/18/2009 7:27:00 PM
Silverlight 4 Beta and Visual Studio 2010 add much in the line of Rapid Application Development. Besides adding support for the Cider XAML designer and properties window, we now have Data Sources Window support for RIA Services.In this (quite long) blog post, I’ll walk through the creation a Line of Business-type application using Silverlight 4, RIA Services, and Visual Studio 2010. Contents The Ingredients. 1 Getting Started. 1 Adding a New Page. 2 Adding the Database and Image Assets. 3 Crea ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 11/17/2009 1:21:00 PM
While most Microsoft developers are focused on PDC 2009 this week, my travels took a different direction – visiting our Neighbors to the North to present a session at the Montreal International Game Summit. This conference brings together some of the best game developers in the world, talking about everything from marketing to networked physics. I presented a session on game development with Silverlight , and I was excited to see a great turnout for the talk. My session was titled “Top 10 Reason ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 11/9/2009 12:49:00 PM
Thanks to everyone who attended my sessions at the Tech Valley Code Camp on Saturday 11/7! As promised, here are links to further resources for the sessions: .NET RIA Services .NET RIA Services... and Beer! - If you missed my session, no worries, here is a text walk-through plus demo code. RIA Services Community Site - *NEW* Site aggregating all of the resources for .NET RIA Services! Brad Abrams Intro to RIA Services - Brad starts this series out saying that someone should write a book about R ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 10/19/2009 12:22:00 PM
I was disappointed to get word that the Silverlight Streaming Service is going away, as explained in this announcement. SLS provided an easy, scalable way of delivering Silverlight applications and media. The idea was that Microsoft would handle the delivery of your Silverlight apps using its server infrastructure so that the end-user would have the best experience. I suppose this is why its very important to read any fine print. This is taken from the SLS front page: The service offers we ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 10/9/2009 5:26:00 PM
Thanks to everyone who attended my presentation on Behaviors in Silverlight 3 at the CNY .NET Developer Group! Even if you missed the meeting, no worries - I'll be repeating the talk at Code Camp 12 in Waltham, Mass. And I've included the highlights below! A screencast covering the main demo, project source, and slides: [DEMO CODE] [SLIDES] [VIDEO] The video below is divided into Chapters, so you can skip to the points you need: Adding Properties Propery Tooltips and Categories Property Edit ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 10/6/2009 9:02:00 PM
I'll be out and about talking about Silverlight in the coming weeks. Most of these sessions are free, so if you're in the area come and say "hi." Silverlight 3 Behaviors @ CNY.NET Developer GroupWednesday, October 7th, 2009 6:00pmBehaviors allow you to add interactivity to your Silverlight applications without writing any code. Want to add drag/drop functionality to an element in XAML? Just add in a DragDropBehavior. Want Physics applied to your elements? Just drop in Physics Behaviors! In this ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 9/18/2009 8:38:00 PM
Some weeks ago, Adam Kinney wrote about a nice workaround for creating a Glow Effect in Silverlight using a DropShadowEffect. Since Glow is a common effect, I thought it would be nice to wrap this into a Behavior. Please note, you wouldn’t want to use this behavior in any kind of animation – because the DropShadowEffect is currently rendered in software and will quickly bring a CPU to its knees. DOWNLOAD SOURCECreating the Glow Effect in Code To mimic a Glow effect in XAML, we use a DropShadow E ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 9/12/2009 2:31:00 PM
A new version of the Physics Helper is available for download on Codeplex. This includes a new Fluid Container Behavior to simulate water, as well as a few fixes. The Fluid Container Behavior is based on Jeff Weber's Farseer Water Demo, and allows you to make a fluid simulation by applying a behavior to a XAML element. Video on Fluid Container BehaviorWatch a short video on applying the Fluid Container Behavior in Blend. Fluid Container DemosThese demos show the Fluid Container Behavior in actio ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 8/17/2009 6:34:00 PM
Several people have asked if the Physics Helper Library for Silverlight could also support WPF. While there are lots of similarities between Silverlight and WPF, there are also LOTS of differences, including the way VisualTreeHelper works - which is something the library uses for its boundary detection. While I had it somewhere on my TO DO list to incorporate WPF support, it had always been on the backburner in favor of other tasks. But thanks to a new contributor to the code, Bill Seddon, I'm h ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 7/16/2009 12:21:00 AM
Today I released an initial version of “Physics Helper 3” to Codeplex. This includes a collection of new Behaviors for Expression Blend which makes it very quick to create physics games and simulations in Silverlight using the Farseer Physics Engine. This release requires Silverlight 3 and Expression Blend 3, which you can get here.DOWNLOAD PHYSICS HELPER 3 Demos There are four new demos using Behaviors, plus the original demos depending on the older User Control model. Note that version 3 still ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 7/10/2009 4:08:00 PM
Silverlight 3 and Blend 3 introduce the concept of Behaviors, which make it easy to add common functionality using drag/drop inside Blend.I’ve been working on creating a set of Behaviors for the Physics Helper Library, and have made good progress. Using these behaviors, you can very quickly put together physics-based games and simulations with little or no code. (Ok, I don’t really believe in the no-code scenario … but you can do some pretty neat stuff without code). Another new feature in the l ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 7/10/2009 1:30:00 PM
One of the high-profile missing features in Silverlight has been Printing support. If you have ever tried to print a web page containing Silverlight content, what you saw on the printed page may be skewed or even missing altogether! So, what if you wanted to print a portion of your Silverlight screen, or take a “snapshot” image of the Silverlight UI to include in a report or other printable format? Silverlight 3 can accomplish these scenarios using the WriteableBitmap API. WritableBitmap includ ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 7/10/2009 1:24:00 PM
With the new Silverlight 3 WriteableBitmap class, it’s possible to do pixel-perfect collision detection (a “HitTest”) on bitmap (raster) images. In a previous blog post, I showed how we can do a HitTest on Vector graphics in Silverlight 2. In this blog post, we’ll enhance the collision detection to handle BOTH Vector graphics and Raster graphics in Silverlight 3. VIEW THE DEMO DOWNLOAD THE SOURCE Looking at the demo code, one of the main routines is the CheckCollisionPoint class, which ...
by andy@andybeaulieu.com via Andy's Blog on 6/9/2009 11:21:00 AM
Brian Peek has a new show on Channel9 called Coding4Fun TV. Brian is the author of the famous Wiimote Library as well as the Coding4Fun Book. I had the pleasure of being Brian's guest for the first episode of Coding4Fun TV! We talked about using the Physics Helper Library to code simulations and games in Silverlight. You can view the episode here. ...
The content of the postings is owned by the respective author. Silverlight Feeds is not responsible for the contents of the postings. This site is automatically generated and cannot be reviewed for abusive content. If you find abusive content on Silverlight Feeds, please contact us. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
