Visual Studio Malware???

So, I've been fighting a virus on my computer and I used an anti-malware software to get rid of it. It did a full scan, found a number of things and removed them.

And now....I can't seem to build ANYTHING in Visual Studio Express. Every time I "build" it acts like it does a successful build, even to the point that the UI shifts into "debug" mode but no window with the game actually comes up to display anything.

And it no longer seems to be creating an exe in the debug folder of the project. I've tried this with other "sample" projects and even a "raw" new project where I should have gotten the light blue screen.....but nothin.

I've uninstalled/redownloaded/and reinstalled Visual Studio Express but no change.

So, now what?!

Version Problem Solved...sort of

It took a bit more browsing through the XNA forums to find a 'solution' to my XACT audio problem. Here are a few important things to note.

First, the 'version' of the project is not entirely dictated by the 'version' of Visual Studio that you're currently using. The project is versioned when you start the project. I began "Deep Blue" with Game Studio 2.0 but then upgraded to 3.0 when it was mandated by the rules.

The problem with that is that XACT 3.0 wasn't compatible with Game Studio 3.0...even though they were a part of the same download...mmm...yeah....but anyhow. They fixed the compatibility issue with Game Studio 3.1 so I upgraded my version of Game Studio. But that didn't mean I upgraded the project...which remained at version 3.0, even though I was developing it in 3.1 at the time. So I had to manually 'upgrade' my project to 3.1.

Solved.....right? Not quite.

Even after doing this I got some really odd version errors on the audio so I decided to open XACT 3.0 and rebuild the sound banks again. But that didn't seem to help. I confirmed that the files were being overwritten (updated), but it didn't seem to have any effect.

I had to manually delete the compiled sound bank files and THEN rebuild the sound banks to finally get the project to compile without error. So now it all works, but it still doesn't make much sense.

Version Problems...

See, and I was going to make this post about how cool and awesome the XACT audio tool was for sound engineering. But instead, this post is about how screwy version control and backwards compatibility can be.

I'm having some odd version problems with XACT and Game Studio 2.0 or 3.0 (it's hard to tell which is causing the problems). The XACT audio tool is what enables you to create sound banks for XNA games.

At this point, one solution (sort of) appears to be to make a new sound bank with all the sounds in it. Which believe it or not is a little more complex than simply including a bunch of wav files in one collection. And honestly, that was supposed to be the 'cool' part...unless I have to do the whole thing twice.

Bottom line...or as much as I can tell right now...is that I began this project with Game Studio 2.0, which came with the XACT 2.0 tool. Then I had to upgrade to Game Studio 3.0 (all XNA submissions must be in 3.0 at this time). Well Game Studio 3.0 came with the XACT 3.0 audio tool...HOWEVER...the 3.0 audio tool was not compatible with Game Studio 3.0. (Yeah, I have no idea how THAT passed any kind of QA). This is an error they fixed in Game Studio 3.1. So you'd think everything would be cool (now). But it looks like (judging from the XNA forums), that if you start a project with an older version of Game Studio...it won't accept newer file format of XACT.

Ok, so worst case is that I have to recreate all the audio I just finished in XACT 3.0....back in the 2.0 version since any sound bank created with XACT 2.0 seems to work fine. ACCEPT for the funny thing call the XACT auditioning tool which is another app that runs in the background along with XACT that enables you to listen to the sounds you're creating in XACT. Without the auditioning tool...you can't hear a single thing of what you're creating. The totally cool and awesome part now is...the 3.0 version of the auditioning tool deleted/overwrote the 2.0 version. So now, if I try to use the XACT 2.0 tool to recreate the sounds....I can't listen to a single thing I'm doing.

So....a bit stuck on audio at the moment. Still searching the forums for a better answer than the one I've found so far.

My First Game Component

I'm very pleased to say I've completed my first independent Game Component. I created a messaging system for common message types. So far that includes floating score bubbles and sinking messages that I'll use in "Deep Blue" for things like "Ready, Dive!" or "Level 1".

It's a message system that is complete independent of the rest of the game code. It's easily integrated into any future game with....I think 2 lines of code. It's also something I can easily build new message types into with simple additional classes.

Things are moving along pretty well.

Unity 3d is now FREE

A 3d engine that's caught a lot of attention lately from the likes of EA and myself is Unity 3d. Mr. Chris Griffith at work showed it off a couple of years ago. At that time it was Mac only, which didn't help us out much, but it's come a long way since then.

The MMO "Fusion Fall" was created with it, as is the upcoming Tiger Woods Online among other games. Anyhow...the point to this post...as the title would suggest is that they have opted to drop the $200 license fee for the indy license.

The other cool thing is that they "Unity" has reported that it is...or will soon be...compatible with the 360. Sweet! The only real question is whether or not the 360 export will be included with the indy version.

I'll definitely be playing around with it sometime in the future, and researching it as a possible 3d engine.

Signed In!

Another little victory. I've now programmed in Xbox Live sign in to the beginning of the game, and it's even pulling in the players Xbox Live Gamertag name and displaying it where "Player 1" was being shown.

I know, it's nothing huge...but a nice little step none-the-less.

To Multiplay, Or Not To Multiplay

Currently weighing the value and use of multiplayer in "Deep Blue". Does it make sense? What does it add (if anything)? What does it require? What does it take away? Is there a "gotta have" reason for it?

Ever since early on in the play testing process Connor made the request for multiplayer. However, since this was my first shot into XNA and C# the best I've been shooting for at this point was couch play with two player co-op in two MANTA subs. Couch play seemed only logical since, barring some incredible miracle, I don't see "Deep Blue" having enough concurrent game plays to support a XBox Live multiplayer mode.

But the domino effect of including simple couch play will be felt throughout the game. How do we allow two players in the water and still have a balanced game that isn't twice as easy with two people? Then there's the whole process of registering two controllers and possibly two XBox Live accounts. Some of the UI elements (like showing the current depth) become confusing with two players.

At this point I think I'd rather toss multiplayer this time around and possibly use that time to create an awards/achievement system and more story elements.

I guess I'll run it past the game design boss, Connor, and see if he'll let it go. I just don't want to add multiplayer if it doesn't truely add something to the game play. Having it just to have it, does not increase the fun.