Heroes of Hat Development Blog

So since we are scrapping Nick H's Dragon level entirely and having Nick R. create a newer and hopefully better one, he wants me to see if I can add the dragon flying in the background of our main menu scene.

I get to work and its surprisingly easy to do.

So in the BackgroundScene.cs i create the Dragon and give the right position and rotations:

Dragon dragon = new Dragon(this.contentManager.Load<SkinnedModel>("Models/Enemy_Dragon"), Vector3.Zero, Quaternion.Identity, Vector3.Zero, null, this.contentManager);

            dragonController = new DragonAnimationController(dragon, this.contentManager.Load<SkinnedModel>("Models/Enemy_Dragon"), this.contentManager);

dragonController.crossFadeToClip(DragonAnimationState.Fly);

            dragonController.enemy.Position = dragonTransform;

            dragonController.enemy.Rotation = Quaternion.CreateFromAxisAngle(Vector3.Up, (float)(Math.PI / 2));

And then I move him around the background so he flys back and forth:

dragonController.enemy.Position += Vector3.UnitX * (dragonSpeed * dir);

                         if (dragonController.enemy.Position.X <= -105)

            {

                dir = 1;

                dragonController.enemy.Rotation = Quaternion.CreateFromAxisAngle(Vector3.Up, (float)(3 * (Math.PI) / 2));

            }

            if (dragonController.enemy.Position.X >= 110)

            {

                dir = -1;

                dragonController.enemy.Rotation = Quaternion.CreateFromAxisAngle(Vector3.Up, (float)(Math.PI / 2));

            }

            dragonController.Update(gameTime);

It adds some really nice polish to already amazing menu scene.

I also redid the entire backgroundScene to add in the new 3d trees that do not have the white lines. I also added in clouds and filled the area with more trees to hide the line between the sky and ground.

I joined Nick, and Chris in dealing with the evil list.

I made sure that users had to log in correctly with an account (Gold or otherwise) before they had to play the game. Guest accounts were also eligible to play the game though they had to switch to a gold account if they wish to buy the game.

I also had to put in a BuyMeNow button that would replace the Extras button when the user was in trial mode when testing our game. When the user buys our game the BuyMeNow button would dissappear and the Extras Button would replace it.

The only thing that really mattered in the BuyNowMenuScene.cs was:

void huzzah_Selected(object sender, PlayerEventArgs e)

        {

            bool isSigned = false;

            foreach (SignedInGamer gamer in Gamer.SignedInGamers)

            {

                if (gamer.IsSignedInToLive && !gamer.IsGuest)

                {

                    if (gamer.PlayerIndex == e.Player.playerIndex)

                    {

                        isSigned = true;

                        Guide.ShowMarketplace(e.Player.playerIndex);

                        break;

                    }

                }

            }

            if (!isSigned)

            {

                try

                {

                    Guide.ShowSignIn(1, true);

                }

                catch (GuideAlreadyVisibleException) // I'm just swallowing the exception, because I don't know what to do if it fails.

                {

                }

            }

            BackgroundScene backgroundScene = new BackgroundScene(this.sceneManager);

            backgroundScene.camera.initStartScreenCurve();

            LoadingScene.Load(this.sceneManager, false, true, backgroundScene, new MainMenuScene(this.sceneManager));

        }

With that only gold members could buy our game. All others had to log in to an appropriate gold account before buying our game.

Now to get it to actually work in the Main Menu scene was i had to do this:

public override void AnimateMenuEntry(String entry)

        {

            //retarded shit to get the extras button animating after we

            // have bought the game.

            if (!HoHConstants.GameConstants.TRIAL_MODE)

            {

                this.RemoveEntry(BuyNowMenuEntry);

                this.RemoveEntry(creditsMenuEntry);

                this.AddEntry(extrasMenuEntry);

                this.AddEntry(creditsMenuEntry);

            }

            .......

So that when TRIAL_MODE is set to false is when we take out the BuyNow button and replace it with the Extras button. This is a little hacky but it gets the job done.

TRIAL_MODE Is set when the game starts in Game1.cs:  

        protected override void OnActivated(object sender, EventArgs args)

        {

            HoHConstants.GameConstants.TRIAL_MODE = Guide.IsTrialMode;

            base.OnActivated(sender, args);

        }

Worked on getting the ExtrasScene.cs Working. 

Damean gave me screen shots of what our little guy looked like throughout the process of development.

My task was to add them in the extras button and add some paragraphs on what everything looked like and the process we went through in iterating at each development hump.

Nothing too hard since most of the functionality could be taken from other scenes that I have created earlier like the LevelSelectScene.

Here is a little snippet of the stuff i wrote for each of the pictures:

this.message.Add(

                "Here was an offshoot to make\n" +

                "our little cuter. He's a\n" +

                "lot pudgier this time around\n" +

                "and the eyes are significantly\n" +

                "enlarged. Short stubby legs\n" +

                "is always cute in my book.\n" +

                "Oh, he also has a belly\n" +

                "button for this revision.\n" +

                "We never did see this guy\n" +

                "animated though because,\n" +

                "well, his head wasnt\n" +

                "big enough.");

this.message.Add(

                "Now here are the concepts\n" +

                "for our other versions\n" +

                "of Zugg the Goblin. He's\n" +

                "a lot more lankier \n" +

                "but still sort of retains\n" +

                "that cute color\n" +

                "and posture of the earlier\n" +

                "Hero.Of all those\n" +

                "hats, you'll notice that we\n" +

                "have the jester and\n" +

                "dragon hat in the\n" +

                "actual game.\n");

Added in IntroMovie.cs where it would show us the beginning video of the Utah Game forge logo. But for right now it is going to show a sample of this:

20th Century Fox Flute Edition

http://youtu.be/NGwwJEE7k48

Code:

namespace HeroesOfHat.Scenes.Menu

{

    sealed class IntroMovieScene : MenuScene

    {

        private Video video;

        private VideoPlayer player;

        private Texture2D videoTexture;

        SpriteBatch spriteBatch;

        BackgroundScene backGroundScene;

        public IntroMovieScene(SceneManager sceneManager)

            : base(sceneManager, null)

        {

            spriteBatch = this.sceneManager.SpriteBatch;

            backGroundScene = new BackgroundScene(this.sceneManager);

            this.video = this.sceneManager.video;

                         this.player = new VideoPlayer();

            player.IsLooped = true;

        }

        public override void HandleInput(GameTime gameTime)

        {

            skipToSplashScreen();

        }

                 public override void HandleUpdate(GameTime gameTime)

        {

            if (player.IsLooped)

            {

                player.IsLooped = false;

                player.Play(video);

            }

            if (player.State == MediaState.Stopped)

            {

                backGroundScene.camera.initStartScreenCurve();

                LoadingScene.Load(this.sceneManager, false, true, backGroundScene, new MainMenuScene(this.sceneManager));

            }

                     }

        public override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)

        {

            // Only call GetTexture if a video is playing or paused

            if (player.State != MediaState.Stopped)

                videoTexture = player.GetTexture();

                         // Drawing to the rectangle will stretch the 

            // video to fill the screen

            Rectangle screen = new Rectangle(this.sceneManager.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.X, this.sceneManager.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Y, HoHConstants.DisplayConstants.SCREEN_WIDTH, HoHConstants.DisplayConstants.SCREEN_HEIGHT);

                         // Draw the video, if we have a texture to draw.

            if (videoTexture != null)

            {

                BlendState oldBlendState = spriteBatch.GraphicsDevice.BlendState;

                DepthStencilState oldStencilState = spriteBatch.GraphicsDevice.DepthStencilState;

                spriteBatch.GraphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.NonPremultiplied;

                spriteBatch.Begin();

                spriteBatch.Draw(videoTexture, screen, Color.White);

                spriteBatch.End();

                spriteBatch.GraphicsDevice.DepthStencilState = oldStencilState;

                spriteBatch.GraphicsDevice.BlendState = oldBlendState;

            }

                         base.Draw(gameTime);

        }

        private void skipToSplashScreen()

        {

            for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i)

            {

                if (UserInput.IsPressed(Buttons.A, i) || UserInput.IsPressed(Buttons.Start, i))

                {

                    backGroundScene.camera.initStartScreenCurve();

                    LoadingScene.Load(this.sceneManager, false, true, backGroundScene, new MainMenuScene(this.sceneManager));

                    break;

                }

            }

        }

    }

}

Nothing new really. I used some sample code from the apphub that dealt with displaying video on the Xbox and for specs on what the video format has to be is:

ProfileLevelMaximum bit rateRepresentative resolutions by frame rateMainLow2 Mbps320 × 240 @ 24 Hz (QVGA) Medium10 Mbps

720 × 480 @ 30 Hz (480p)

720 × 576 @ 25 Hz (576p)

 High20 Mbps1280 × 720 @ 30 Hz (720p)

and some considerations:

Video enabled with Digital Rights Management cannot be used.

Video must be encoded to the Windows Media Video 9 "Main" profile by using the VC-1 standard.

Video must be encoded with a constant bit rate (CBR).

Video must include an audio track.

Audio accompanying the video must be Windows Media Audio (.wma) encoded, with a single-pass CBR format.

The only hard part was that i was running into a problem where it was giving me a crossthreadexception error when i was trying to play videos. Problem was strangely fixed when i cleaned and rebuild :\

So now instead of playing the splashscreen, it now plays the IntroMovie first:

LoadingScene.Load(this, false, false, new IntroMovieScene(this));

And then in the introMovieScene is where we can skip it entirely and load the splash screen:

private void skipToSplashScreen()

        {

            for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i)

            {

                if (UserInput.IsPressed(Buttons.A, i) || UserInput.IsPressed(Buttons.Start, i))

                {

                    backGroundScene.camera.initStartScreenCurve();

                    LoadingScene.Load(this.sceneManager, false, true, backGroundScene, new MainMenuScene(this.sceneManager));

                    break;

                }

            }

Got a splash screen up and running that appears before we get into the Main Menu scene to hide our ridiculous loading times.

I have emailed Bob and Roger for higher res versions of the EAE logo and Utah logo. I have also commissioned one of our hired artists to create our gameforge logo.

To get the splashscreen working right i had to do this was:

        /// <summary>

        /// Flag it indicate that we should display the splash scene.

        /// </summary>

        private bool SplashScreen;

First to create flag in our loadingscene.cs so that were displaying splash screen stuff instead of Loading level stuff.

I then changed the constructor in the LevelLoadingScene.cs to take those arguments: 

/// <summary>

        /// Creates a loading scene.

        /// </summary>

        /// <param name="sceneManager">The scene manager.</param>

        /// <param name="longLoadingTime">Flag to indicate that a long loading time.</param>

        /// <param name="scenesToLoad">A variable number of scenes to load.</param>

        public static void Load(SceneManager sceneManager, bool longLoadingTime, bool splashScreen, Texture2D levelText, params Scene[] scenesToLoad)

        {

            //Tell all the scenes in the scene manager to transition out.

            sceneManager.ClearScenes();

                         //Show the loading scene.

            LoadingScene loadingScene = new LoadingScene(sceneManager, scenesToLoad, longLoadingTime, splashScreen, levelText);

            //Add the loading scene to the scene manager.

            sceneManager.AddScene(loadingScene);

        }

        /// <summary>

        /// Loading scenes are created using the static method.

        /// </summary>

        /// <param name="sceneManager">The scene manager to load scenes into.</param>

        /// <param name="player">The controlling player for the loading scene.</param>

        /// <param name="scenesToLoad">An array of scenes to load.</param>

        /// <param name="longLoadingTime">Flag to indicate that a long loading time.</param>

        private LoadingScene(SceneManager sceneManager, Scene[] scenesToLoad, bool longLoadingTime, bool splashScreen)

            : base(sceneManager, null)

        {

            this.scenesToLoad = scenesToLoad;

            this.longLoadingTime = longLoadingTime;

            this.otherScenesDead = false;

            this.SplashScreen = splashScreen;

            this.transitionUpTime = HoHConstants.SceneConstants.DEFAULT_TRANSITION_TIME;

            //If the loading time is long, spawn a worker thread to handle screen animation.

            if (longLoadingTime)

            {

                this.waitTime = this.sceneManager.Game.TargetElapsedTime;

                this.graphicsDevice = this.sceneManager.GraphicsDevice;

                this.backgroundThread = new Thread(backgroundWorkerThread);

                this.backgroundThreadExit = new ManualResetEvent(false);

                Rectangle titleSafeArea = new Rectangle(this.sceneManager.TitleSafeArea.X, this.sceneManager.TitleSafeArea.Y, this.sceneManager.TitleSafeArea.Width, this.sceneManager.TitleSafeArea.Height);//this.sceneManager.TitleSafeArea;

                titlePosition = new Vector2(titleSafeArea.Center.X + 50, titleSafeArea.Height * 0.1f);

            }

            if (this.SplashScreen)

            {

                this.waitTime = this.sceneManager.Game.TargetElapsedTime;

                this.graphicsDevice = this.sceneManager.GraphicsDevice;

                this.backgroundThread = new Thread(backgroundWorkerThread);

                this.backgroundThreadExit = new ManualResetEvent(false);

                Rectangle titleSafeArea = new Rectangle(this.sceneManager.TitleSafeArea.X, this.sceneManager.TitleSafeArea.Y, this.sceneManager.TitleSafeArea.Width, this.sceneManager.TitleSafeArea.Height);//this.sceneManager.TitleSafeArea;

                titlePosition = new Vector2(titleSafeArea.Center.X + 50, titleSafeArea.Height * 0.1f);

            }

        }

And then in SceneManager.cs constructor call set the flag to true and it would play the splash screen first instead of the loading scene:

Credits completed.

Made a class called Textblock.cs that would contain the display where my text would be shown in and textline.cs that would contain a string of text.

The CreditsScene.cs contains the majority  of the code. 

To be able to scroll the text of information I do this: 

foreach (TextLine theTextLine in this.textBlock.getTexLines)

            {

                theTextLine.Position.Y -= this.textScrollSpeed; //55

                if (theTextLine.Position.Y <= 10.0f)

                {

                    theTextLine.Position.Y = 10.0f;

                }

            }

            this.textBlock.Draw(spriteBatch);

I am able to vary the speed of the scrolling text as needed.

Getting everyones titles was a little hard though.

I was going to initially try and get individual titles for everyone but then our credits would last for several minutes. Like something like 10 minutes of the minutia of what everyone did.

Corrected the level images in the level select scene because they were going out of screen space and we could not see them correctly.

Tom did an excellent job in creating them btw. But we are still missing about two. They are the boss level and the castle level.

There was also a bug where the backgroundscene would not be present so things such as the level select scene and the options scene would fail so we had to put most of those assets in the scenemanager class since it would exist for the life of those scenes.

Im not sure why i put them in the backgroundScene to begin with because when the pause menu appears in game, there is no backgroundscene.

Example:

        /// <summary>

        /// pre-loaded textures for menu scenes

        /// </summary>

        public List<Texture2D> textureList;

So we just have a list of preloaded textures that we use and just call from the scenemanager. 

Got the pause menu working correctly.

It now pauses and shows the Options menu correctly as well.

Added in the art work that Tom made for what the buttons on the controller did so the user knows what everything is.

Whats selected in the options are relegated to a per person save data so each player can have his own settings specific to him.

Due to user feed back, the Start Menu scene has been removed and all of that functionality has been moved over to the Main Menu Scene. This was done to reduce the number of times that a user had to start our game.

Problems arose in dealing with who would be the controlling player when the game or options were selected or played.

Having to deal with that was not the funnest thing to do so late in the game.

Fixed some bugs where the camera was not properly moving between the scenes correctly.

All menu assets are now in the game.  It goes from Start to Main menu to the four buttons: Start, Options, Extras, and Credits. 

Mostly done with 3d menu system but none of the functionality is there for the buttons such as the Extras and Credits buttons.

Chuck has worked on getting a camera working where we can zoom into and out of the house where well will have our level select scene.

Fleshed out the Start menu scene and the Main menu scene.

Created new scrum sheet.

Was sick for most the week so did not get much done.

Create new scrum sheet.

Also worked out little bugs with our GIT system and figuring out how to properly use it.

Worked with Nick R, Chris, and Chuff in getting our game working on the Xbox.

I then tested it on my own Xbox at home after Jon made a couple of performance tweaks.

Created scrum sheet and added to the back log and bug lists.

Cleaned up the way that animations were being played in the project by making an enum with the various animations as values.

Used the triggers created by Harrison to create spawning triggers so when the player dies in anyway he is respawned at one of the triggers.

Created a spawning enemy trigger that triggers once and releases a number of enemies that attack the players.

Fixed bug where the player would not be facing the right direction when you moved to right first.

Created the scrum sheet for this week.

Merged the new animation branch again. First time was not enough.