Monday, August 17, 2009

Class preparation

I've been putting all my extra time into a class I will be teaching at Chapman University next semester. We'll be using XNA and C# to build an open source game engine. I have the project all setup, the training and managment of subversion is ready and I have a pretty good outline and a good direction for the engine. I've done a few games using XNA, but for the tool side needed to figure out the WinForms integration and found these microsoft sites on WinForms/XNA to be very helpful.

I'm a blender fan, but I really need to train people on 3dsMax. I purchased an edu copy a year ago (still way to expensive) and I'm finally forcing myself to use it. I've been going through the tutorials and think it will be a good way to learn max. I also need to get through all the skeleton animation stuff so I know how to do it in Max. I've done it with Blender, but for this class I really need to use the tools that we have on the computers in class.

It starts in two weeks. I have a ton of material so far, but there is still a lot to go over.

I also went back and looked at the pinball game in second life and I have been itching to do some more work on it. I finally think I know how to fix the bumper mechanic and add a little skill to the game. Too much going on at this point, but hopefully the idea can slowly rise to the top of the queue and I can do some more work in SL since I enjoy that environment.