To complete the assignments in this course, you will need to use the computers in JB 360 or setup a similar development environment on your laptop or other personal computer.
The assignments require that you use the XNA framework,
which only runs under the Windows operating system.
Additionally, your graphics hardware must support shader model 2.0 or higher.
(Run dxdiag to display information about your system.)
Many of the XNA tutorials we will look at require an XBox 360 controller, although it is possible to provide keyboard and mouse alternatives to all controller input. XBox 360 controllers with USB cables can be plugged directly into a PC, which is the most convenient way to test how your code runs with controller input.
To setup your personal computer for this course, you should do the following.
The lab for week 1 is to complete the XNA 2D Tutorial. This tutorial is in the form of a video that walks you through the creation of a 2D game.
The tutorial in this assignment -- and most other tutorials we will use in this course -- are based on XNA Game Studio 2.0 running under Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition. However, we will be using XNA Game Studio 3.0 running under Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition. For this reason, you may need to adjust tutorial instructions to account for differences.
Microsoft provides Visual Studio Express Edition as a free alternative to Visual Studio Professional Edition for educational purposes. However, in our case, Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition is available to us free of charge for educational purposes because the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at CSUSB subcribes to the MSDNAA.
XNA Game Studio 3.0 -- currently the most recent version of XNA framework -- runs only under Visual Studion 2008. Similarly, XNA verison 2.0 only runs under Visual Studion 2005. The two systems can be installed on the same system and run without conflict. However, there are some restrictions on the order in which you either install or uninstall these components. To keep it simple, I recommend that you only install XNA 3.0.
Submit a hard copy lab report in the next lecture class meeting. The lab report must contain the following elements:
All lab reports will follow this format and will be due the lecture meeting following the lab. Refer to this page in the future for the lab reporting requirements.
Use Gimp or other 2D graphics program to create a new enemy. Add this enemy to the game. Note: the enemy can be something trivial, such as a circle.
Demonstrate your solution to an instructor in a lab session. (Due end of week 2)