11 games and content session 4.1. session overview show how games are made up of program code and...

11

Games and ContentSession 4.1

Session Overview

Show how games are made up of program code and content

Find out about the content management system in XNA

Discover how content is integrated with XNA Game Studio and an XNA program

Add some content to an XNA Game Studio project

Chapter 4.1: Games and Content 2

Games and Content

The first programs were nothing but code

They simply worked with text and numbers

The increasing power of computers made them capable of manipulating images and sounds

This ability was quickly incorporated into the software development process

Users now expect programs to have graphical icons to describe the way they are used

Such assets form a huge part of the gameplay


Content Management in XNA

Content is such an important part of games that the XNA Framework provides a set of tools to manage it These are often referred to as the “assets” of a game

Resources are managed by the XNA “Content Pipeline”

Raw resources go in at one end and appropriately formatted assets are produced for use by the game program during gameplay

When the game runs the Content Manager component of XNA it fetches content the game needs


Assets and the Content Pipeline

The Content Pipeline is there to process game content:

1. Artists create the raw content

2. This is given an asset identifier and stored in the Content Management framework

3. The game program loads the game asset and the Content Manager provides it during gameplay

4. The assets are encoded for storage as part of the game distributable


XNA Content Manager

All content (sound, images, etc.) is treated the same way

Filters are provided to import the content into the game program

There are also filters to encode the content for storage as part of the game distributable

As an XNA programmer, you don’t have to worry about any of this


Displaying a Picture

We are going to display a picture of Jake

The picture was taken with a digital camera and is in the .jpg format

We will consider other formats later

I adjusted the image size to suit the XNA display (800 x 600 pixels)


Game Content and the Visual Studio Project

Visual Studio organizes all the files that make up a program project

This includes the actual program code and also the files containing any resources that the project needs

When a program is built, content of the project is prepared for use by the program when it runs

Content that is added to an XNA game is held within the Visual Studio Project for that game


1. Investigating an Empty Project


Visual Studio creates and manages a number of folders which all hold parts of the game project

This includes a folder that contains the content for the game

Solutions and Projects

A project is a list of the things that are required to build that project

A solution is a list of projects that are required to build a particular program


The Visual Studio Solution Explorer

Visual Studio provides an explorer interface that lets you see the contents of solutions and projects

The Solution Explorer is normally in the top, right- hand corner of the Visual Studio display

There is an entry here for each of the project items


Adding Resources to an XNA Game Project

Content can be added using the Context Menu in the Solution Explorer

Visual Studio can create new content or add existing content items


Browsing for Content Resources

You can browse for content the same way as for items in other programs

Selected resources are added to the project when you click Add

You can select multiple items by holding down the CTRL key


Sharing a Content Resource

If you want several games to share the same resources you can add a link to a resource

In this case the resource is not copied into the solution, instead the project file contains a link to the resource item


Added Content

When content is added the selected files are copied into the solution and the project is updated to refer to these items

Visual Studio maintains a content folder in the project which holds the content for the project


Content Properties

Visual Studio holds property information about items it is managing

For content items, the property information includes the type of the content and where it is stored


2. Adding an Image Resource


It is easy to add content to a project

The content is transferred to the target system when the game project is built

What Just Happened?

When we built the project, Visual Studio used the Content Manager to fetch the image resources and add them to the files that make up the program

These resources were then sent to the target device so that the XNA game can find them when it runs

At the moment the game does not draw anything however, because we have to add the code to do this


Summary

An application is made up of much more than just a C# program

Visual Studio uses solutions and projects to manage all the items that make up an application

XNA Game Studio provides a Content Manager to import game content and prepare it for use in games

Game content is referred to by a Visual Studio project and can be held inside the project folders or a project can link to an external resource


True/False Revision Quiz

Games are entirely made up of program code.

Visual Studio contains a Content Manager.

Images are processed by the Content Manager when they are added to a game.

Visual Studio projects contain solutions.

Image resources are held inside the project file in a game.

A game can only contain a single image resource.


11 games and content session 4.1. session overview show how games are made up of program code and...

Documents

game content

game needs content

raw content

xna content manager

content session

content sound

game program

content management framework