Screen-space deformations in XNA for Windows Phone 7
Captain ZSquare shares his technique to do screen-space deformations on Windows Phone 7. Introduces Catalin:
Working on our games, we came across the need to do some screen-space deformations for all sorts of special effects like explosions, ‘drunk filter’, warp effects and other similar stuff. But since we’re targeting Windows Phone 7, we don’t have access to any custom shaders (which is a bummer), so we had to be creative. In the end, the solution turned out to be rather simple, and the performance is good enough (if you don’t go overboard with the effects, of course).
See the post for screen shoots and code!
Lets see if Captain ZSquare reposts this one with a screen shoot, too 
Weekly XNA Notes from George
George W. Clingerman seems to be able to keep up with his weekly XNA Notes with the third installment (also see One and Two). Endorses The Shawn:
Will he keep doing it? Is this something you should bookmark? I hope so, and definitely!
We here in the barracks have nothing to add to that.
XNA 4.0 Light Pre-Pass
Jorge Coluna shares the code and an article of his Light Pre-Pass technique for XNA 4.0. Says the Jorge:
The discussion between pros and cons of different techniques for real-time lighting has been running for years. Forward rendering, deferred shading and light pre-pass are some of the most famous techniques nowadays. Their definitions and variations can be found with a simple search on internet, with all the most complex mathematics, notations and formulas possible. Therefore I will not focus on this.
Xnaml Component
Following Red Badger’s XPF here comes another Silverlight in XNA component to continue the promise of Bronzeglow: Xnaml Component. Valentin – its creator – asks for beta testers in the AppBuh forums, so head over to his contact form and, well, contact him.
XNA 3.1 to 4.0 Cheat Sheet
The cheat sheet can be found here, and it contains a comprehensive guide to converting your 3.1 game to 4.0.
Fonts and Animations
Markus Ewald shows off his custom way of handling fonts in XNA 4.0 with the purpose of increasing quality.
XNA Sprite Font Quality
Alexandru-Cristian Popescu share and Animation Library for XNA 4.0, and also a Library to read DDS files from a file.
Animation Library
Articles: MVC in games
by Roy Triesscheijn
MVC Primer
MVC stands for "Model View Controller" and has been an architectural pattern in software engineering for quite some time now. MVC allows decoupling between what 'the program is supposed to do' and how this is made visible and controlled.
In MVC the three main responsibilities of the application are handled by three separate parts:
- The model houses the actual business logic. The model is totally decoupled from the controller and view.
- The view observes the information from the model, and if needed request an update of the information. Data from the model is lightly massaged, formatted and then presented.
- The controller controls the application by mapping different kinds of input to public methods available on the model. The model itself always has the final responsibility of doing something with the request made by the controller. In many form-based applications the view and controller are hard to distinguish from each other.
Using MVC will allow you to reuse your complex model in different scenarios. Want to prepare your program for a different kind of input? Just write a new controller. Want to visualize your data in another way, just write a new viewer. In a good application controllers and viewers can even be changed while the application is running.
Whoa… long time no see
Sorry for the long absence
Anyway, here's some news:
Miscellany Tips for Working With a WP7 Device for the First Time, by Michael B. McLaughlin
Compressed GPU data formats, by The Shawn
Viewing Windows Phone 7 Marketplace on the simulator, by David Amador
XBLIG.Saved();
Thanks to everyone who voted on the XBLIG placement on the new dash in this post: http://www.sgtconker.com/2010/11/savetehxblig/.
Microsoft listened and Indie Games are now a part of the Games & Demos section again but they are apparently omitted from searches according to this post on the forums: http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/65669.aspx.
Hugs all around fo sho.