Game Programming With Silverlight

by Snow, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781598639063
• ISBN10: 1598639064
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-06-24
• Publisher: Cengage Learning PTR

Summary

This book is a comprehensive guide that will walk readers through every feature needed to create a web based game using Silverlight, a new, free rendering tool that supports a variety of programming languages and fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers. Each chapter in the book builds upon the previous and by the end of the book the user will have completed the creation of a multi-player online adventure game for the web using Silverlight. There are no other books on the market that teach game programming using Silverlight, and its web-based platform makes game development fun and easy.

Author Biography

Mike Snow is a Senior Lead Software Design Engineer in Test at Microsoft. He has more than two decades of experience as a hobbyist game developer. He is the creator of one of the original multiplayer text-based LP MUDs (see http://en.wikipendia.org/wiki/LPMud) called Tsunami Realms. Currently he is a strong advocate for game programming with Silverligth and owns a game-centric Silverlight Tips of the Day belong that can be found at http://www.silverlight.net/blogs/msnow. When he is not focused on Silverlight, he enjoys the outdoors, especially participating in Adventure Racing. Mike Snow lives in Sammamish, Washington, with his wife and four kids.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
Silverlight 101	p. 1
All About Silverlight	p. 1
Silverlight's Tools	p. 2
All About XAML	p. 2
Attribute Syntax	p. 3
Property Element Syntax	p. 4
Content Element Syntax	p. 4
Collection Syntax	p. 5
Events	p. 5
Final Notes	p. 7
An Overview of Silverlight Controls	p. 7
AutocompleteBox	p. 9
DockPanel	p. 10
HeaderedContentControl	p. 12
Expander	p. 12
HeaderedItemsControl	p. 13
Label	p. 14
TreeView	p. 14
ViewBox	p. 16
WrapPanel	p. 16
NumericUpDown	p. 17
Chart	p. 18
DatePicker	p. 19
Using Themes	p. 20
Third-Party Controls	p. 22
Summary	p. 23
Getting Started	p. 25
Gathering the Tools You Need	p. 25
Visual Studio 2008 with Service Pack 1	p. 25
Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1	p. 26
Expression Blend 2 SPI	p. 26
Creating a Silverlight Application Project	p. 26
Exploring the Silverlight Application Project	p. 28
The Designer Preview	p. 29
The XAML Code Editor	p. 30
Solution Explorer	p. 30
Properties Window	p. 31
Exploring Your Project Files	p. 32
Website Project	p. 32
Silverlight Application Project	p. 34
Taking a Peek at Visual Studio 2010	p. 36
Using Common Silverlight Utility Functions	p. 38
Summary	p. 41
What's New with Silverlight 3	p. 43
Perspective Transforms	p. 44
Pixel Effects	p. 46
Navigation Template	p. 49
SaveFileDialog	p. 52
CaretBrush	p. 53
Bypassing the Image Cache	p. 54
ImageOpened Event	p. 55
Multi-Selection List Box	p. 55
Pixel APIs	p. 56
System Colors	p. 58
Text Rendering for Animation	p. 59
GPU/Hardware Acceleration	p. 59
Media Support for H.264/AAC Media Playback	p. 61
Local Connection	p. 62
Animation Easing	p. 62
Out-of-Browser Applications	p. 65
Data Validation	p. 68
Network Change Detection	p. 72
Binary XML	p. 72
Merged Resource Dictionary	p. 73
Summary	p. 74
Silverlight Game Tips and Tricks	p. 75
Creating the Main Game Loop	p. 76
Putting Your Game in Full-Screen Mode	p. 77
Accessing the HTML DOM from Your Game	p. 78
Centering Your Game Window in the Browser	p. 79
Setting Browser Cookies from Your Game	p. 80
Communicating with JavaScript	p. 81
Capturing Browser Resizes	p. 82
Communicating Between the Application and MainPage Classes	p. 83
Enabling and Disabling Your Game Controls	p. 84
Making a Browser Window Pop Up	p. 84
Dynamically Loading and Displaying Your Game	p. 85
Making Your Silverlight Control Transparent	p. 86
Scaling Your Game Controls in Your Browser	p. 87
Image Loading	p. 88
Obtaining Image Dimensions	p. 90
Monitoring for Mouse and Keyboard Events	p. 92
Cropping Objects in Your Game	p. 93
Loading a Silverlight Control Within Another Silverlight Control	p. 93
Adding Tooltips to Buttons and Objects	p. 95
Leveraging Isolated Storage for Game Purposes	p. 96
Working with Image Source Filenames	p. 98
Working with Strokes and Shapes	p. 99
Loading Images from Streams	p. 101
Loading and Managing Images in Your Game	p. 102
Setting the Default Browser from Within VS	p. 103
Detecting Mouse Double Clicks	p. 104
Summary	p. 105
Creating the World	p. 107
The Game	p. 107
Artwork	p. 108
Converting 3d Models to Sprites	p. 109
Coordinate System	p. 112
The Map Editor	p. 114
Object Templates	p. 115
Opacity Masks	p. 117
Preview Window	p. 121
Object Placement	p. 122
Object Editing	p. 122
Collision Detection	p. 122
Triggers	p. 123
Save and Load	p. 124
Creating Transparent Images	p. 125
Summary	p. 127
Object Management	p. 129
Web Services	p. 129
Loading Object Templates	p. 136
ObjectBase Class	p. 138
Terrian Objects	p. 140
Creature Objects	p. 144
Map Objects	p. 153
Game Objects	p. 156
Summary	p. 159
Animation	p. 161
Dispatcher Timer	p. 161
The Storyboard Timer	p. 162
Doubleanimation	p. 165
PointAnimation	p. 167
ColorAnimation	p. 168
Key Frames	p. 170
CompositionTarget. Rendering	p. 172
Frame-Based Animation	p. 172
Performance Tips	p. 179
FPS	p. 179
EnableRedrawRegions	p. 180
Image Size	p. 180
Hardware Acceleration	p. 180
Summary	p. 182
The Client UI	p. 183
Using Grid Controls	p. 183
Creating Buttons	p. 187
Creating Dialog Boxes	p. 193
Using Styles	p. 202
Summary	p. 204
Networking Support: Making It Multi-Player!	p. 205
Policy Server	p. 205
The Server	p. 210
The Packet Manager	p. 219
The Client	p. 221
Summary	p. 226
Sound, Music, and Video	p. 227
Using MediaElement	p. 227
Using SoundManager	p. 231
Using Timeline Markers	p. 235
Summary	p. 236
Extras	p. 237
Scrolling a Map Smoothly	p. 237
Fine-Tuning Player Movement	p. 239
Creating a Chat Box	p. 243
Reflections and Shadows	p. 247
Summary	p. 251
Index	p. 253
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