adventures in xna pt. 2: Shadows, Collisions, and More…
So a few weeks back I gave two presentations at a Microsoft-sponsored event at the University of Waterloo. One of them was a rather impromptu session where I answered various questions on XNA and entrepreneurship, and the second was an indepth look at shadowing techniques including tradeoffs, optimization considerations, and implementation.
It’s really amazing how few resources there are out there for fledgling XNA developers who want to delve into the world of real-time shadowing but don’t really know where to begin. To that end, I present to you my slides from the “Okdevberfest” event. Source code will follow once I’ve had time to clean it up and separate it from our engine code. The demo implements vanilla shadow mapping and percentage-closer filtering combined with a screen-space blur for improving visual quality.
You can find the presentation here: Shadowing in XNA: The “Dark” Side of Game Development
A screenshot from the demo
Now to change gears. Lately I’ve been studying collision detection very formally and have come up with some neat and optimized implementations of various algorithms including OBB tests, the GJK algorithm for convex polyhedra, robust tri-tri collisions and even a foray into GPU-based collision. I’ll be posting some demos and code of my various collision experiments in the next few weeks in hopes that I can help some of you who have gotten fed up with the effective uselessness of XNA’s built-in collision support.
Who knows, I might even get around to compiling it all into a managed library for people to use.
In other news, it looks like I might be keynoting a Purpose Gaming conference being held by Microsoft in Dallas next April, on behalf of Frozen North. I’ll post more details as I get them.
Once again, here’s the link to the presentation: Shadowing in XNA: The “Dark” Side of Game Development
Hey man I was wondering if you were going to post that sample code like you stated in your blog? If you have information or some shadow tips I would love to pick your brain for a little bit! Send me an e-mail!
Hey Shawn,
I’ll be posting it as soon as possible. It’s been nuts around here as we’re all scrambling getting ready for publisher and Microsoft showcasing.
Soon, though!