I'm starting with MDX 1.1, the "managed" version of Direct X, albeit not the latest stuff. The reason I'm using this is that I don't need DirectX 10 features, and MDX 1.1 is probably fairly stable. Probably. As others have mentioned, though XNA is the new hotness.

• Use MDX 1.1? Well, not anymore. You can ignore this stuff...
• Use Irrlicht?

After looking at XNA Game Studio 2.0 (released December 14, 2007), it is pretty apparent that this is what I should go with.

• Use XNA, definitely!
• XNA Framework Notes

XNA Links

• Dave's GameDev Study Forum
• XNA Programming Guide
• XNA Framework Class Reference
• Shawn Hargrave's Blog ... insightful!
• A convenient FAQ that answers a lot of basic questions "how to do something"

Asset Creation

• I'm wondering if SoftImage ModTool will actually work for us.

Deploying XNA Games

This isn't your daddy's EXE file no more! C# and .NET use these things called "assemblies" and, uh, well...I have to figure out how this works.

• Deploying XNA Games

Physics Links

• Box2D Flash
• Andre Michelle
• C# Port of Box2D
• Bullet is an open source 3D physics engine with XNA support
• 2D Farseer Physics for XNA... this looks like it is the easiest to use.

So according to Sharing and Distributing Your Game on the XNA Developer Center website, you need to use something called XNA Game Studio Package Utility (xnapack.exe) for both Windows and Xbox 360. However, this usable only by other XNA Game Studio users.

If it's a Windows-only game, you have more options by distributing the game files with the "redistributables". We're directed to the Distributing Your Finished Game article. From the article:

Approach 1: Compile Game Binaries for Distribution

1. In XNA Game Studio, Build Solution
2. Package all the files from the output directory using an "installation package tool" of your choice.

In practical terms, you go to the "Release" directory for your game, and copy both the Content directory and the executable. The next trick is to make sure you have all those darn prerequisites installed. You can see a list of prerequisite components and their installer locations. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't make it particularly EASY to automatically run and install these things. There are a bunch of installer options available...I'm looking at Windows Installer, WiX 3.0 and Votive (a VisStudio add-on that allows you to create Wix projects), Inno Setup, and Nullsoft Installer System (NSIS).

Here's what you need to ensure is installed:

• .NET Framework 2.0 Redistributable
• XNA Framework Redistributable
• Several files form the DirectX 9.0c Redistributable:
  • OCT2006_d3dx9_31_x86.cab
  • APR2007_d3dx9_33_x86.cab
  • aug2007_xact_x86.cab
  • APR2007_xinput_x86.cab
  • DSETUP.dll
  • dsetup32.dll
  • DXSETUP.exe
  • dxupdate.cab

This doesn't seem particularly elegant, or complete. We have also been getting this complaints about manifest files, so we need to know a bit more about what constitutes a "output" from the solution.

This article Build a setup project for your XNA Game has some background information about the overall process. From what I gather, you can create a "Setup Project" in Visual Studio 2005 (it's in the "other" project types). By choosing "Project Properties" for the Setup project in the Solution Explorer (right click for the menu), you can create a "Dependencies" list.

The Stubbs article describes how to create the "XNA Framework Prequisites" files you need. They are two XML files called product.xml and package.xml. This is a one-time thing. These files are [described here][manifest]. There's also some general background in this article series about the installer architecture.

• First, in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\BootStrapper\Packages I'm creating an XNAFrameworks2 folder. Then, create an en (English) language folder. We'll create our localized package.xml and product.xml files in there. I copied them from the stubbs article.

• However, I'm using XNA 2.0, so I want to update the various product codes. I'm not sure it's strictly necessary, but I'd rather be sure while learning how these manifest things work.

ALternatively, this thread by pelleator describes using Inno to create an installer. I'll look at the stubbs approach first, which using Microsoft Windows Installer.

Product.XML

• Change Product:ProductCode to anything you want...I think it just has to be unique within Vis Studio. I used Microsoft.XNARuntime.2.0. Seems logical.
• The list of distributable files is in the ` tag. The attributeNamerefers to the name of the installer file. TheHomeSitevalue refers to a String entry in thePackage.XMLfile.PublicKey` can be retrieved by looking at the Properties->Digital Signatures->Public Key field, copying the values out of that, and removing all the spaces. It seems to match.
• The next set of tags, <InstallChecks>, sets Properties if it can find that these specific Products are installed. These are used in the next set of tags. The pertinent redistributable product codes can be found in the Distributing Your Finished Game page at Microsoft.
• The part of the file that actually says what to do is in <Commands>, which contains individual command nuggets. Each command tag specifies what to do, and when to bypass.

...

Hmm, taking a quick look at other approaches.

Other Approaches

• Using NSIS to create setups for XNA Games - NSIS is the Nullsoft Installer. Promising.
• The DotNET module for downloading and installing the .NET framework...worked with NSIS.
• Using WIX for XNA-based games - This apparently requires something called SharpDevelop, which is an open-source IDE for .NET or something. This Wix 2.0 Tutorial is pretty informative and well done. More on wix from astebner as why GS2 switched to beta version 3.
• this page allegedly has code to check for requirements but is down. From this post
• Looking at Votive, which apparently allows you to load wix projects into Visual Studio Standard or higher.

The suggestion whiteboard is covered with indecipherable and probably crazy ideas. "Sarah", however, has left one of the few legible suggestions:

On "Language Concepts, Linguistics, and Psychology of Communication" ...I did a tiny exhibit a couple of years ago - had a friend write a text in German, which was then translated forth and back between German and Japanese ten times - the text morphed until it was something completely different - in the end, they were three instead of two main characters, people’s names had changed and even the location of the short story had changed. It was really interesting. I’ve long wanted to do something different also involving English - would this fit your concept?

You'll have to register on the Museum Wiki to leave a note.

• Head back to The Great Foyer

The Curator, a balding heavyset Asian man, is sitting behind an enormous desk covered with piles of books and paper that almost, but not quite, hides the giant LCD screen mounted on the wall behind it. He swivels to face you, a slightly harried smile flickering across his sleep deprived face as he carefully checks you out.

"I'll be with you in just a minute," he says, "If you can't wait, you might want to leave a suggestion outside in on Suggestion Board."

• Check out the Suggestion Board

The Museum is quite empty today, despite the obvious remaining work to be done.

The Great Foyer, as it's called, is about 50 feet wide and extends 100 feet into the distance. The ceiling is low at the entrance where you are standing, but rises up into an open space brightened by an impressive array of skylights placed strategically overhead. Two distinct exhibit halls open to the east and west: the translation wing and the transformation wing.

The unfinished admission desk, a long and low-slung bank of terminal windows resembling something you might see in a futuristic airport ticketing station, is nestled between each wing's entrance against the rear wall. A suggestion board is propped up against the admission desk, covered with ideas from a recent brainstorming session, and a Post-It note on it reads, "Please add your own suggestions before our next meeting. We need them!"

A small door behind the admissions desk is labeled "Staff Only", but it is ajar and another hand-lettered sign reads:

The Curator's office is inside. Exhibitor designers, please come in.

• Go to The Currator's Office
• Scribble on The Suggestion Board
• Go to The Translation Wing (Under Construction)
• Go to The Transformation Wing (Under Construction)

It's a warm day, so you take off your jacket as you trudge up the grassy hill. Bumblebees buzz around the healthy outcroppings of clover and dandelions. You hum a little ditty to yourself, thinking that visiting The MOTT wasn't such a bad idea because it's such a beautiful day. It's with great surprise that you find yourself looking onto a group of construction workers wearing expensive suits and hard hats, lowering what appears to be a trussed-up but still-squirming body into a dark hole in the ground. They all look up at you at once, and you feel both ridiculous and underdressed with your tan sports coat and complete lack of body armor as you survey the array of guns now pointing your way...

YOU HAVE DIED

Apparently, the delays that the Museum is facing are of a more serious nature than the usual budgeting issues.

• Go back to The Museum Start Page

Mmm...fried dough, slurpees, and hot dogs! Though The MOTT is closed, at least you can kill some time by ingesting of trans fats, corn syrup, and nitrates. That is, if they don't kill you first.

• Back to The North Entrance

The entrance, which resembles a low and wide hanger deck in its proportion, is blocked off by several black plastic cones and a free-standing sign that reads:

The Museum of Transformation and Translation is scheduled to open in late 2008. We apologize for the convenience.

Despite the sign and obvious construction, the entrance is actually open, and a hand-lettered notice scrawled on a scrap of photocopy paper, duct-taped off to the side:

Exhibit designers please check in at the Curator's office.

There is also an Outdoor Food Court featuring a Hot Dog Stand, a Fried Dough Vendor, and a Slurpee Machine. And surprisingly, the Golf Course appears to be open; you think you can some people milling around in the far distance through the trees. There is another sign though, which looks recently placed:

The Golf Course is OFF LIMITS to non-members

• Enter The MOTT
• Go to The Food Court
• Go to The Golf Course That Seems Open
• Go back to The Parking Lot

This wiki is intended to capture our thoughts on what such a museum might be like, so if you'd like to help build the Museum, please feel free to create your own exhibit. I'm going to make this experience like an old-style text adventure game like Zork; that way, I don't actually have to draw anything.

SELECT DESTINATION FROM MENU:

• TheMOTT

The MOTT, as it's known colloquially, is located in an unassuming small city on the East Coast. The building has a surprisingly low profile, resembling a slab of dark concrete that had flown head-first into a nice golf course. One end is noticeably elevated, so the building looks like it had embedded itself into earth. The parking lot is located opposite the higher end, and is designed so that if you were to look at the landscape from above, they resemble the skid marks of a crashed spaceship. This is where you have parked.

As you walk toward The North Entrance, you noticed that the smaller outlying buildings are arranged to resemble chunks of spaceship that had broken off from the main superstructure that is the Museum. It doesn't look that big from where you are, but the majority of the museum is located underground. The idea, explains the brochure you are glancing through, is that Transformation and Translation are a large part of our existence, yet we aren't even aware of it; the small surface footprint of The MOTT is intended to convey this. But mostly, admits the brochure, the Founders of the Museum wanted to make it look like a crashed monolithic spaceship--it reminds you of the U.S.S. Cygnus from Disney's 1979 space flick The Black Hole--laden with golf course-destroying technical insights. Such is the altered perspective that the Founders possessed.

Ahead of you, from the parking lot to the south, you see the North Entrance, which is the main entrance to the Museum. There is also a small Gateway that stradles a winding path to the outlying buildings shaped like chunks of broken-off spaceship.

• Go to The North Entrance
• Go to Gateway to Outlying Buildings