Framework, Version Control and standards

Framework, Version Control and standards

Brett208 22 Oct 2015 12:04

Everyone, I was thinking we should lay out what frameworks and standards we want to use. Below are my thoughts.

Game Framework
XNA or MonoGame? I would be happy to learn MonoGame, but since we doing our first 3D project, I would prefer to keep working with XNA for now.

Version Control and Online Repository
I have been really happy with Mercurial and Bitbucket.

3D Models
I was thinking of working with Blender since it is the best free 3D modelling software available (and I have experience using it outside of making models for games). Do we need to chose to work with one file type (.X or .FBX) or does it not matter?

Brett

Re: Framework, Version Control and standards

PiscesMike 22 Oct 2015 21:44

I think that all sounds good! Although if called upon to do so with 3D, I would probably be using Maya 6.0… the file format may cause some issues though. If I remember correctly, I do have a *.X exporter even though I may have to reinstall it. I know I can do *.FBX, but since I'm using an older version of Maya, the file specs may be a little out of date. Should be able to work around that though. -PiscesMike

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Re: Framework, Version Control and standards

Marcus42 23 Oct 2015 01:00

XNA, Mercurial, and Bitbucket all sound good to me! (And I tend to lean more towards Blender myself, although that may just be because I don't have Maya, haha!)

Re: Framework, Version Control and standards

rbwhitaker 23 Oct 2015 02:42

XNA, Mercurial, and BitBucket all sound good to me.

Time to bring up another question: Can we use VS 2015 and the new C#6 features? I don't want to spend the first couple of hours sorting through issues of getting everybody set up with XNA in VS 2015, so if we just use 2013 instead, I'm OK with that. Just wanted to bring it up for discussion.

So far, we've got 4 people, so I think we should be OK with just a single team on BitBucket. If more people join us (5 is the limit for a free repo on BitBucket) we can talk about if/how to split up.

As far as 3D modeling goes, I always use Wings 3D, but the reality is, as long as we use a format that is a common format we'll be fine. I think fewer things support FBX because of licensing issues, so maybe .X? Between the two, it doesn't matter a ton because XNA supports both just fine. (In other words, for the sake of this collab, let's use .X or .FBX as the "official" version, not a .blend, or .wings file.)

Re: Framework, Version Control and standards

Brett208 23 Oct 2015 09:16

I would like to start using Visual Studio 2015 for XNA but would rather not sacrifice part of the competition to deal with the admin of setting it up. I haven't started using C#6.0, so not sure what features any of us would be using for game development. If there is a lot of interest, perhaps we could try installing it today (Friday) in advance and have it running beforehand? I won't be able to log onto chat today though.

Does someone have a link to good instructions on how to get VS2015 and XNA integrated?

Trello
I forgot to mention Trello. I thought Trello worked great for the last competition keeping people in the loop on what parts
others were working on.

Re: Framework, Version Control and standards

rbwhitaker 23 Oct 2015 14:24

My installer script should do this. The version in source has been able to do this for probably about a year, but I didn't have an official download for it until this morning.

Here's the link: https://bitbucket.org/rbwhitaker/xna-beyond-vs-2010/downloads

Use one of the 2015 ones. 32-bit if you've got 32-bit, and the other if you have 64-bit. (I really should just make that installer smart enough to figure out if you've got 32- or 64-bit Windows and just do it right.)

I agree with Trello as well. We can make a board and start adding things we want to see and things that have to get implemented to it at any point in time. Maybe I'll go do that right now…

Re: Framework, Version Control and standards

rbwhitaker 23 Oct 2015 14:35

Here's the link to the Trello board: https://trello.com/b/DnbdowMV/asteroids-3d

Re: Framework, Version Control and standards

rbwhitaker 23 Oct 2015 14:37

Oops. Forgot to mention… add anything you want to the list. I'm sure before long, we'll have a long enough list we'll be sure we can't finish it all.

But as long as we've got our ideas written down, then we can make better design decisions up front, and then people can choose to work on whatever they want to work on, so there's some flexibility built in, as far as what to do during the day.

Re: Framework, Version Control and standards

Marcus42 23 Oct 2015 22:55

I currently have Visual Studio 2013, and don't really want to update to VS 2015 today, so I'd rather stick with the older version.

Re: Framework, Version Control and standards

Brett208 24 Oct 2015 04:00

RB,

I believe I only have read access on the Trello board. I can subscribe to posts, but not change or add any posts right now.

-Brett