BetaSDK

As a creative outlet for some new found inspiration in game development I've embraced the XNA technology provided by Microsoft for several reasons.

One, Microsoft is the number one producer of development products for the personal computer technology field. Obviously that's just my opinion but I'm sure my opinion is shared by at least fifty thousand other developers.  So for those of us that agree with this first statement, please continue.

Secondly, Microsoft knows how to promote a product until it quietly becomes part of the operating system or other devices such as phones, gas pumps, cash registers, PDAs, etc. Given this second point, I have no reason to doubt that they will also succeed in infiltrating every facet of game development with their XBox 360 platform, Xbox Live service, Windows Gaming, Windows Arcade, Zune and Windows Mobile 7.  Pulling all of these together to create a cohesive entertainment experience for the masses is just over the horizon and I believe that the XNA 4.0 Game Studio SDK is just one more step to that end.  Again, this is my opinion and I am in no way affiliated, nor do I speak for Microsoft or any of their associates.

I am an independent software engineer that has been developing software commercially and privately for over 25 years and my opinions have been formed from too many years of trial and error and hard knocks learned on the front lines of those bleeding edge companies that have stepped up to the plate to meet the ever evolving demands of consumers and businesses alike. My experience spans every facet of technology from payment processing to game development and content delivery for entertainment companies which I can not devulge here.

Thirdly, the XBox 360 is a kick ass game system and between the XBox 360 and the PC, I think Microsoft pretty much has all the eggs and I see no real challenge from any other megalith company so, I'll be the first or maybe the 300th to lead the charge into the abyss with the flying window and say, "Give Us Animation!"

Okay, so to that end, I've found the first thing that the XNA 4.0 SDK is still lacking after (4 versions?) is animation. Also, they have very little support for different model formats. They only seem to support their native format (which I've heard is going away) and the Autodesk FBX format. Forgive me, because I am new to 3D game development so that may be an ill conceived observation but I read that somewhere and I've found no evidence to the contrary so we'll go with that for now.

Okay, to the point. My objective first of all is to create a thin layer on top of the existing SDK to integrate freely available tools such as Sketch-Up and DeleD instead of requiring developers to pay through the nose for 3D modeling tools such as Maya or 3D Studio Max.

In the first pre-release version of the BetaSDK (named simply because it is a beta version of my SDK and in no way to imply that the XNA SDK is beta software), I've added a couple of simple stop gap measures to bring these freely available tools into the fold. I've written a Skeleton importer (not finished but functional) to load up a DeleD DXS scene file and extract the bone/joint information as well as the animations associated to the bones. The skeleton processor generates several BetaSDK classes which can be used to utilize the resultant animation data.

The project is very simple right now and is currently in flux so I'm not soliciting a review at this time.  I'm simply providing these tools to those who may have questions about how to actually animate a model in XNA 4.0 Game Studio because I'm wondering the same thing myself. And even though there are a ton of references on the internet they all seem to point to the same three examples created several years ago.  Hopefully this project will serve as a stepping stone to new thought on the subject and hopefully a revival of active XNA game development because although they still have work to do to complete their effort, XNA it's making it's way into the mainstream.

Being an avid Microsoft fan I just want to do my part to help Microsoft bring game development to the masses much like they've brought personal computing to the masses! 

Thanks,

Robert Butler