GameDevKicks.com : Stories kicked by GraphicsRunner

Tools of the Trade - Part Four: PIX « Pandemonium

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:44:55 GMT

bittermanandy has posted his 4th part of his "Tools of the Trade" series of posts, and this time around he discusses one of the greatest GPU tools a programmer can have... PIX.

Tools of the Trade: Part Three - CLRProfiler « Pandemonium

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:16:11 GMT

bittermanandy has posted his 3rd part of his "Tools of the Trade" series of posts, and this time around he discusses another great .NET tools a programmer can have... CLRProfiler.

Aiding pathfinding with cellular automata

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:56:00 GMT

Cellular automata have uses beyond Game of Life. Learn how to use a CA to solve a maze and even to reduce the search space for a pathfinding problem!

Practical Fluid Dynamics: Part 2

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:41:05 GMT

Following up his popular recent article, Neversoft co-founder Mick West explains the technical details - including source code - of creating dynamic fluid systems such as smoke for video games.

Dual-Paraboloid Variance Shadow Maps in XNA

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:36:02 GMT

Expanding upon dual-paraboloid shadow mapping, this tutorial shows the reader how to implement variance shadow mapping in conjunction with dual-paraboloid shadow maps. Variance shadow mapping provides real-time soft shadows that is easy to implement. Combined with dual-paraboloid mapping you can have real-time soft shadows of point lights.

Dual-Paraboloid Shadow Maps in XNA

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:25:47 GMT

This tutorial goes through how to use dual-paraboloid mapping create shadow maps for the entire scene. DPMS allows for real-time dynamic shadows at a lower performance cost than the equivalent with cube mapped shadows.

Dual-Paraboloid Reflections

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:00:20 GMT

Presents a method for view-independent environment mapping. Dual-paraboloid reflections is a technique for generating dynamic real-time reflections. They are faster to update than cube maps, only requiring 2 updates instead of 6, and provide sufficiently detailed reflections.

Postprocess Framework Sample

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:43:35 GMT

A sample/tutorial demonstrating using a post process framework to manage multiple postprocesses. The sample includes 3 postprocess effects to show the framework in action: bloom, depth of field, and a distortion effect.

Generic XNA - Threading for Windows

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:51:29 GMT

Nemo Krad has released a new article focusing on threading techniques for use in your XNA games.

Cut-Scene Animation and Water Rendering, Part II

Mon, 05 May 2008 14:39:13 GMT

Part II builds on the last entry by introducing cubic spline interpolation; Allowing for smooth camera animation. Tutorial shows how to construct a natural cubic spline from key frames to produce a smooth curve for the camera to follow.

Cut-Scene Animation, Part I

Fri, 02 May 2008 02:44:58 GMT

A tutorial on creating camera animations for cut-scenes and water rendering. Deals with saving key frames and generating intermediate cameras to generate a smooth camera path animation.

New Shader Debugger and FX Composer 2.5 Betas Available

Fri, 02 May 2008 02:44:58 GMT

Public betas of FX Composer 2.5 and our brand-new Shader Debugger plug-in are now available, providing: * DirectX 10 support (including geometry shaders and stream out) * Support for debugging of pixel shaders, including run control, variable inspection, and powerful visual debugging functionality * Particle systems * Visual models and styles (the ability to create, define, and export multiple looks for a model) * Improved user interface * Remote control over TCP/IP * And much more...

XNA Wiki

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:12:27 GMT

XNA Wiki is a place for XNA Game Studio users to collaborate and share code, techniques, and tutorials to aid others in the pursuit of game development for all.

Reflections using Impostors Tutorial

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:28:04 GMT

A tutorial on using scene impostors to generate reflections instead of just using environment mapping. Scene impostors provide accurate reflections of nearby objects, alleviating the problem of environment mapping where everything looks far away, even close objects.

RandomChaos Game State Manager Source Release

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:26:20 GMT

NemoKrad has decided to put up the source code for his GSM. To use it in your projects, either add the project to your solution and add the reference from the project tab of the Add Reference window or, build it and brows for it when adding it as a reference. Then you need to make sure the built content folders and there contents are in the build folder of your project or you will get build errors. He is also including a game written using the GSM to show how you can simply inherit from it to build a quick and easy menu system for your game.

Practical Fluid Mechanics

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:47:32 GMT

Fluid effects such as rising smoke and turbulent water flow are everywhere in nature, but are seldom implemented convincingly in computer games. The simulation of fluids (which covers both liquids and gasses) is computationally very expensive. It is also mentally very expensive, with even introductory papers on the subject relying on the reader having math skills at least at the undergraduate calculus level.

Reflections with Depth Impostors

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:21:05 GMT

An example of work using depth impostors for reflections. Similar to parallax occlusion mapping, reflected rays are correctly intersect with the depth impostors to give accurate reflections of diffuse objects. Thus eliminating the infinitely far away effect that we get with environment mapping.

3D Billboard Particles Tutorial VI

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:48:39 GMT

NemoKrad has posted his 6th tutorial on particle systems, this time concentrating on a 3d billboard particle system.

Volumetric Clouds

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 01:17:47 GMT

An article on how to display volumetric clouds using mega particles.