OpenGL in VisualStudio.Net with the TAO Framework

Some who read me on a regular basis might be wondering what ever happened to the RPG I was writing in VisualStudio using Microsoft’s XNA technology. Truth is, it never went anywhere. Like a lot of past projects, I got very psyched about it, wrote a bunch of code, and then school started and I got way too busy to finish it. I haven’t touched the code since I wrote that post, but now I’ve got some new ideas.

Last term in school, I took an excellent course on OpenGL programming with C++. The course covered how to create and render 3D graphics, with study lent to topics such as window management, points, vertices, and polygons, lighting and shading, hidden surface removal, and texturing. My earlier post about the MAX 3D Engine was a byproduct of that course.

Since then, I’ve discovered a managed .NET wrapper around the OpenGL libraries called the Tao Framework that allows you to (in theory) code any graphics application in Visual Basic or C# that you could in C++, with the added bonus of the pretty IDE, code completion, top of the line window handling procedures, and the .NET libraries. Now at this point, if you’re a graphics programmer, you’re laughing aloud at my outrageous claim – managed, run-time interpreted code could never be fast enough to run a video game! You may be correct. Frankly, I have no idea, as I haven’t yet had the time to write a full video game.

What I have come up with however, are two starter projects for anybody wishing to try their hand at OpenGL programming using Tao and Visual Basic.NET. The code in both is well documented, easy to follow (especially if you are familiar with standard OpenGL routines), and seems to run at a reasonable 60fps. Now, I can’t tell until I add a few more polygons to the scene whether this framerate is an artificial limit applied by the environment, or if interpreted code actually has no hope of ever running a game at a reasonable speed. That is an experiment for a later day. For now, I will simply share these starter projects for all to use. If you do something with them, please leave a comment and let me know how it went.

Tao2D Test Harness:

A simple application that spins a tri-coloured, smooth-shaded triangle around the y-axis.

Source Code: Tao2D Source VB.Net.zip

MD5 Hash: 4DA0FC584B1EF8738B3B9CA4C1F55388

Binaries: Tao2D Binary.zip

MD5 Hash: 611382CB00CADD860A81A85573CBA763

Tao3D Test Harness:

A simple application that spins a really crappy looking cone around the x-axis

Source Code: Tao3D Source VB.NET.zip

MD5 Hash: 8D54DB42109F12C745AD14922FF8850E

Binaries: Tao3D Binaries.zip

MD5 Hash: 5D4CD4D02B3EE1194758A543DF36C034

As always, I recommend using Tyler Burton’s Hash Verifier program to verify the integrity of these downloads.

iTunes to Zune Playlist Converter

This handy application converts iTunes playlists to Zune jukebox playlists. I wrote it out of frustration with the Zune jukebox auto-playlist feature, and it has served me well so far. The project is still in development, so if you have any suggestions on how to improve it, please leave a comment.

Download the Program

The program is pretty simple to use. Just follow these handy steps:

1. Download the zip file and unzip it to a directory of your choice
2. Open iTunes and close the Zune jukebox software
3. Right click on the playlist that you wish to export and select ‘Export Song List…’ from the context menu
4. Choose where you’d like to save the playlist, and ensure that ‘Save as Type’ is set to *.xml
5. Launch the ‘iTunes to Zune Playlist Converter.exe’ application from the unzip directory
6. Use the browse button to load the saved *.xml file into the ‘iTunes Playlist File (XML)’ field
7. Use the browse button to choose where you’d like to save the converted Zune Playlist file. Note that for the Zune player to recognize the new playlist, it must be saved to C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Music\Zune\Playlists\ on Windows XP, or C:\Users\UserName\Music\Zune\Playlists on Windows Vista.
8. Click the ‘Convert’ button, and wait for the success message box to pop up.
9. Launch the Zune jukebox software and go into the ‘Playlists’ view. You should see your newly created playlist in the pane to the left. Note that it might take a second to recognize the playlist, and another minute or two after that until the list is playable, depending on the size of the list. This is because the Zune software has to sift through the playlist and link each referenced file to one in its current library before the list can be used.

It is important to remember that this only works if the iTunes library and the Zune library in question are drawing from the same media files. This means that you should have the Zune jukebox software set to monitor the iTunes music folder that you are drawing from, so that the same files are referenced in both programs’ libraries.

Cheers,

Jon

Originally posted at jakebillo.com