Today's hot buzz, IE7 is coming soon!

And in case anybody is curious, IE is NOT my default browser.

But neither is Firefox

I (currently) use Avant Browser.  I used Maxthon for a while too, they're both great replacements for IE6.

I'm usually more prompt with these notices...the latest DirectX SDK (including some small Managed DirectX updates) is available here.

I'm only 6 days late announcing it

To all 50 attendees that came to my talk last night: Thank you!  I got some great questions and I had a blast giving the talk!  I also hoped you enjoyed the first public demonstration of Managed Direct3D for Devices.  I'm really jazzed about the potential THAT has!  I'm going to work with the mobile devices team to get the Space Donuts game ported to it as soon as possible.

And, as promised, here's the slide deck from last night's talk.

Well, it was kinda short notice, but I'll be doing a talk on Game Programming with .NET this Wednesday (Feb 2) at the Microsoft campus (this presentation is for a .NET Users Group, so it's open to the public).  I hope to have a small bit about Avalon game programming as well, but I'm not sure if I will have the time.

I hope to see you there!

Date: Feb 2, 2005
Location: Microsoft Bldg 43/Adams Room
Time: 7:00pm

Advance warning: For those of you expecting some cool geeky detail in this blog entry, I apologize in advance (well, wait, for those of you that want that, a fellow Managed DirectX developer, Jason Olson, has posted an interview with Tom Miller, the brains behind Managed DirectX).

 

I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Santa Barbara right now on the tail end of a business trip, and thought this is a good time to reflect on last year and what is coming in this year.

 

It's safe to say that last year was really good for me, I got two books done on game programming and had a GREAT time at work.

 

This year holds a lot of potential for me as well, except for one little detail: My father is gravely ill from cancer.  Considering how close I have been to my father, this isn't simply one of those trivial "fact of life" things to deal with.  Some days, in fact, I feel as if I will be absolutely crushed by the emotional burden.  I've tried to compensate with it in several ways, mostly by burying my nose in World of Wardcraft at home, which is a great escape, but doesn't solve the emotional turmoil I'm facing.  Even worse, as I try to accomplish writing my new book on Avalon gaming and do my "normal" day job, I find that my ability to focus/concentrate is practically nonexistent.  This means my work moves at a snail's pace and my bookwriting is...well, I have a table of contents and a very bad draft of one chapter, and that's after several weeks.

 

In any case, I'm still trying to learn how to deal with this.  I love my job and I love writing books on gaming (most of the time ), so this all tends to have a spiraling effect (because I not only worry about my dad's failing health, but then I get all messed up because I start worrying about my poor work performance). I'm hoping that by writing about this that I can get myself on some road to emotional recovery. 

 

Anyway, that's the big issue I'm dealing with, but I still have honest "New Year Resolutions" to accomplish.  One bit of good news is that I am NOT doing the traditional resolution of "I'm going to start losing weight", that's because I already have been (35 lbs in the last 10 weeks!).  I'm in the 20/20 program just like Jeff Sandquist and Brian Benincasa were, and it's had a GREAT effect on me physically (And I'm less than 1/2 way done with the complete program!).  So what are my top resolutions this year?

• Get smarter about managing my time and priorities
• Finish my Avalon gaming book in time for PDC 2005
• Publish at least two articles on gaming with Managed DirectX
• Bring my life into better balance (more socializing with real people, more guitar playing, more fun)
• Do at least ONE thing that makes the world a better place for people that are less fortunate than I am
• And, of course, find some way to come to terms with what my dad is facing (I already lost my biological mother to cancer in '94, so on top of all this, I get the added worry that I'm genetically predisposed to cancer)

 

ok, that's enough somber notes for one day from me. 

 

 

I just found out that "Beginning .NET Game Programming in C#" is going into its second printing.  Thanks to all the readers out there and for all the great reviews!!

Next week I begin to write a game programming book for Avalon!

You gotta admire the dedication and hard work these guys have.  To my knowledge, no other team in Microsoft yields SDK updates on a quarterly basis.

You can find it here.

And for you VB people, here's a couple goodies for you:

• The "DrawText" bug (discussed here) is fixed
• There is a VB.NET sample added to the DirextX Browser (Basic HLSL).

The bad news: There's still no "Empty Project" option for you to start with :(

Also, although the release doesn't officially work for Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1, I verified that the C# "Empty Project" sample compiled and ran ok.  That doesn't mean your code will work, I'm just saying that a quick 5-second test worked ok for me.  YMMV.

September 13 – 16, 2005
Pre-conferences September 11 and 12
Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA

Go here for more details.

I'll see you there!!!!

I came across this great article written by Robert Hensig (thanks Craig!) about Why you shouldn't be using passwords of any kind on your Windows networks . . .   This is an EXCELLENT post and is well worth reading for anybody that cares about security.  As of today, I have STOPPED using passwords on my login....you should too!

Big kudos to Andy "ZMan" Dunn who has created a website, The Z Buffer, that's completely dedicated to Managed DirectX goodness.  So, the best thing I can say is, "Stop reading this blog and get over there!"

Tim Preuster asks if Managed DirectX is discriminating against VB developers by concentrating on C# instead of VB in the examples.  In addition, he cites a strange error when you attempt to call DrawText in VB...it turns out that VB cannot properly resolve the difference in two methods between a ByVal and ByRef parameter when all other parameters are the same, so it can't compile what would otherwise be valid VB/MDX code (Yes, it's a known bug that will be fixed in the next release...but at the bottom of this entry is a link to download a temporary fix).

The final answer to the "discrimination" would have to come from Tom Miller, who is almost entirely responsible for Managed DirectX (yes, it's being developed by just one person mostly).  But, having talked to Tom, I can say it boils down to time.  There's only so much that one person can do in a development cycle.  In my opinion, that's just fine.  Further, I think he made the wise choice of selecting C# as that language.

Now, before all you VB diehards start burning me in effigy, let's be a little logical about this.  There's a few reasons why Tom's decision was a good thing:

• You can't possibly master DirectX without knowing C++, and C# is syntactically similar to C++, so picking up on C# shouldn't be difficult.
• Rather than having a few examples in two languages, Tom opted for several examples in one language.  More examples is a good thing.
• Folks, converting from C# to VB really isn't that hard.

But having said all that, it's true that Tom is working on expanding the number of VB examples in the future.  In the meantime, there's nothing stopping you hard-core VB people from posting your own conversions of the Managed DirectX samples.  If you do this, please send me the link and I'll blog about it!  We really DO care about people being able to write cool stuff in VB/MDX, so tell me what you've done and I'll be glad to brag about it!

Oh, and apparently I forgot to add the code to fix DrawText in my book code (oops!).  Just download this code, compile it, then add it as a reference in your VB project.

P.S. Half-Life 2 ROCKS, World of Warcraft rocks but it's addictive (damn you, Brian Benincasa!), and they released Half-Life2 Multiplayer today.  There goes my social life (as if I actually have one 

So I had a chance to play Halo2 this weekend.  It was visually rich, really cool, great music, blah blah blah.  Fun.  I finally jumped back onto XBox Live as well (gamertag is "LetsKillDave") and played for about 10 minutes.  The multiplayer experience was fun as well, but sometimes suffered from lag effects (nothing serious -- all games seem to suffer this when there's a lot of players in a serious furball).  I really need to replace that hand controller with a mouse/keyboard combo...I just can't get comfortable holding a controller...must be an age thing

But what I was really doing was marking time until Half-Life2 releases at midnight tonight.  Sure, it doesn't have the same advertising budget that Halo had, but this is a visually RICH game that will definitely get great buzz (yes, I've played part of it at Valve's office already).  But the really cool thing is...

I can start playing this game exactly at midnight tonight.

Why?  Because Valve has delivered, in little chunks at a time, the entire Half-Life2 game onto my computer (plus a couple of other freebies, like Half-Life redone using the new "Source" engine that powers Half-Life2).  This was made possible by the content delivery service provided by Valve, Steam.  As a benefit to die-hard players of their Counter-Strike game (a mod based on the original Half-Life engine), they've made the Counter-Strike: Source game available as a kind of "early gift" (using the new Half-Life2 engine) over the last several weeks.  This was an incredibly clever approach for Valve -- they gave a good sneak peek into the workings of the new Source engine, let thousands of users beat on the Source engine to help find some bugs, plus opened up their server code for testing on other servers.  Overall, I'm extremely confident that this game will have very few bugs.

"But how is the gameplay?" you ask.

Let me compare to the recent release of Doom3. One thing that clearly differentiates Doom3 from HL2: Light. 

Just like the original Half-Life game, Valve doesn't use nearly perpetual darkness to stimulate the mood or danger.  It's like the difference between a cheap horror movie (the ones that benefit from having monsters pop out of dark rooms and go "boo!") and a quality adventure-thriller (in precisely the same way that "Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace" isn't).  Half-Life2 starts you quite mysteriously in a 1984-esque city called "City 17"...very different from the Mesa Research Facility of the original game.  This disorienting shift helps set the mood...but the mood is only the beginning.  The visual quality is quite fascinating...just look at the water...throw something in it...pick something up...the world _lives_ around you.  Finally, the physics and AI are both impressive.  Things almost behave the way they would in real-life, if only the bad guys would drop dead at the first bullet   This is going to be a fantastic game.

But wait, there's more! The original Half-Life wouldn't have gotten very far without a decent SDK to help other people build mods like the classic Counter-Strike or Day of Defeat.  So effective immediately, you can get the Source SDK through Steam.  If you're looking to stick your toes in game development, this is a GREAT way to do it!

Oh, if you're looking for me playing HL2 online, do a search for ChiliConCarnage.  See ya!

I had a chance to watch The Incredibles yesterday afternoon.  Wil Wheaton is right, this movie is fantastic.  The animation is visually stunning, and the story line is both funny and touching.  Take your family and have a ball

(P.S. -- I particularly found the character of Edna 'E' Mode hilarious.  Even more interesting is that the character is voiced by Brad Bird, the director and writer of "The Incredibles" story.  Good job, Brad!)

Well, I managed to keep my promise this time.  Code is done (hopefully I haven't forgotten anything!)

You can find the source code here.  Yes, it's free to download, but I'd appreciate you buying the book as well

Well, my first venture into poker was successful by my standards.  I managed to make it through the first round, but then in the second round, my money was disappearing faster than several thousand tons of Iraqi explosives.

I had AhJh in the pocket.  Most players bailed, except the Big Blind.  I go all in and we head for showdown.  He turns up a pair of 7's.  Ugh.  The Flop shows 9, K, A rainbow (woohoo!).  The turn brings up a 3.  I'm thinking "Yes, Yes!!".

The river yields a 7.

I'm thinking, "No, No!!"  But I can't hear myself think because everybody else is cheering my opponent.  I shake his hands, push my stack to him, and continue watching while licking my wounds.  Such are the fates of poker.  In any case, I had a great time and learned a LOT in just a few hours.  And in the process, made a nice donation to my local public radio station, KUOW.

In the meantime, some other bloggers had momentous things happen.  Pat Helland, an outstanding .NET architect and all around nice guy, finally took the time to talk about the passing of his wife.  It was absolutely heartbreaking to read, but I still recommend reading it.

But for every door closing, a window opens...Craig Andera blogs about the birth of his new baby.

Truly a day of learning, loss, and life.

(Thanks to Doug Purdy for finding this cool puzzle)

It took me only 30 seconds to spot them.  See if you can beat me!

http://members.home.nl/saen/Special/Zoeken.swf

Hint:  Look at the arrangement of the houses in the lower left, and the water coloration by the boat

Those of you that have read my prior blog posts know that I've glowed about Keyhole before.  I had the great pleasure of working with them on a major demonstration we did a few months ago (you can see the video here).

Well, today, Google announced they acquired Keyhole.  Not only that, but the cost for the personal version of Keyhole has been slashed from $69.95 to $29.95.  It was a great bargain at $69.95, now it's a steal at $29.95!

Anyway, I know how hard-working those guys are, and I'm glad to see they've made it "big time".  Congrats! (Big props to John, Brian, and Francois -- you guys rock!)

I picked up the new Bowling For Soup album a few days ago when I was vacationing in Texas.  This is a great band with some great tunes.

It turns out, however, that I didn't buy a CD, but a CD impostor.

Most of my music collection is from the 60s-90s, so my purchases of modern CDs has been few and far between.  Imagine my annoyance when I find that my BFS CD of “A Hangover You Don't Deserve” wouldn't play in my computer (I know, some of you are laughing at me already).  Seems their new CD has all sorts of nasty copy protection designed to prevent me from copying their songs and uploading it to the world.  This has been noted by other people as well.  ok, I guess I have no choice but to deal with this.

But wait, it gets better: It doesn't play in my car either.

I'm sorry, but this is categorically wrong.  I've been sold something that is shaped like a CD, but isn't a CD.  Why can't they sell these things in triangle-shaped packages that has a clear warning like, “This damn thing won't play in your stupid car's CD player!!”?

Does anybody else have to put up with this crap?

• Microsoft releases new update to the DirectX SDK.  If you're writing Managed DirectX code (perhaps you're following along in a book on game programming in C# or VB?), you'll want to get it!
• Speaking of Managed DirectX, the first retail game based on Managed DirectX (to my knowledge) is now available.  The game is called “Tin Soldiers: Alexander The Great”.  I haven't looked at it yet because it has two tiny flaws:
• There is no demo version available
• It will cost you $49.95 for the privilege of playing it.  Ouch.
• Justin Rogers decides to do a comprehensive review of my new VB.NET Gaming book.
• NASA makes available the “WorldWind“ geographic navigation tool.  This is an amazing tool that's built using Managed DirectX and C#.  You can get the source here, but I haven't tried getting it yet.er trying WorldWind, I would say it's definitely a “must have“ tool, especially to get a good idea of how a simple GIS system can be built.  I don't recommend it for commercial use though.  The tiles load slowly and in an awkward fashion (perhaps this will change over time).  If you want a commercially useful, but inexpensive, GIS tool, you might want to take a look at Keyhole's desktop client. 

I'm always on the lookout for people writing great DirectX material.  Thanks to Jason Olson, I've now discovered Brandon Furtwangler's blog...wow.  Tons of great stuff.  Subscribed!

Just a few miles from my house is a wonferful trail area called Tiger Mountain.  I decided to hike there for my inaugural hike of this year (I've had a busy year). 

It was not the smartest thing I've done.

When you first start out on a hike, you don't think much about the concept of “3 miles long, 1500 feet elevation.”  By the time you get up around, say, 500 ft, you start to wonder why people voluntarily hike.  My pain was further exacerbated by being passed by many other hikers, many were clearly MUCH older than me (Note to self: Start going to gym more often).

All in all though, it was a beautiful trip.  Most of Seattle was socked in fog or low clouds for most of the day.  My hike started in a similar way, as shown by this fog-shrouded image

Click here for 1600x1200 version of this image   (In the interest of avoiding clogging bandwidth, I'm just offering links for the other pics at the bottom of this post.)

I took these pics with my tiny Optio S4i camera, which I have a love-hate relationship with.  It's great for hauling around due to its size, but sometimes the focusing is off for shots that have a large depth of field (see the 1600x1200 image above for an example).  Still, I like the portability, long battery life, and usability.

Anyway, by the time I was 2/3 up the mountain, I was drenched in sweat and trying to convince myself I was having fun.  I took a self pic of me smiling.  I've been told that smiling helps you get in a good mood.  I think it worked, but my body said, “You ain't fooling nobody!”

Anyway, I made it to the top and got a glimpse of what I think was a fog covered Seattle. It was a spectacular view, and I was cooling off and taking it in.  Since it was 2pm, I decided it was time for a meal.

Did you know there's a special verion of Murphy's law that says, “On any important trip, you will forget the SECOND most-important thing.“  Yes, I have a 3100cubic inch backpack with tons of water and NO food.  It was left on top of my kitchen island (which the dogs graciously took down and enjoyed while I was gone).  Needless to say, the hike back down, being both tired and hungry, was an interesting lesson.  To top it off, I took a nasty spill about 1/2 way back down the mountain and thought for a few minutes I had broken my right elbow when I smashed it on a rock.

Anyway...back to “real life“ today.  Preaching the Holy Goodness(tm) of Microsoft, albeit with a VERY sore body.  All in all though, I got some beautiful shots.  In the end, it was worth every moment.

Me all tired and sweaty

Almost above fogline...sun starting to shine through  Larger version

At summit, above the clouds  Larger version

My hat and backpack pose long enough for me to take a picture

My dogs hide under computer desk while I scold them for eating my hiking food

Well, I was going to write up a list of the obvious changes I saw, but I'm not an overly obsessed Star Wars geek (does watching all three of the new DVDs in two nights count as obsession?  I'm still obsessing over that one). For an example of overly obsessed comparisons, look at this article, this one, or the one that captures all my observations in the CNN article here.

One can argue back and forth about this type of "historical jerrymandering" being done with the Star Wars episodes.  I must admit mixed feelings about it myself, but overall I didn't find the changes very distracting, with the exception of tossing in Hayden Christiansen's ghostly visage in the final shot in "Return of the Jedi".  Part of me has always wondered how Lucas would reconcile the obvious time-shift between Episode 3 (when we know that Amidala either gets pregnant or has the twins) and in Episode 6, when (in the 6.0/6.1 versions) you can clearly see that ANakin is a MUCH older person.  Solution?  Erase the old Anakin and pop in younger Anakin.  See? Problem solved. 

Overall though, these DVDs were definitely money well-spent.

P.S. - George, if you're reading this: PLEASE STOP CHANGING THE MOVIES! (Well, you can go back and delete JarJar and those Ewoks if you want)

In my books (C#, VB), I scratch the surface about AI in games, but it's barely a scratch.  O'Reilly now has an "AI For Game Developers" book that's available for purchase.  I haven't reviewed it yet, but I know many of my readers have been asking for a book like this.  Looks like O'Reilly has answered your request (And, frankly, I need to read this one too )

Well, this one has, for good or bad, taken several months of blood, sweat, and tears on my part (mostly blood, it seems). 

I am pleased to announce the public availability of the state and local government Whidbey/Longhorn concept video on MSDN.  You can find the video here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/Longhorn/productinfo/conceptvid/default.aspx#government

In a nutshell, this is an outstanding demonstration (well, I think it's outstanding ) of new smart client and database features coming next year, as well as a good visualization of what users can see in Longhorn.

Enjoy!

One of my colleagues, Joe Stagner, got this when he was registering for Oracle Dev Days today:

Of course, I'm sure there's lots of ones that bash on our “perfect software” as well

Here's one that I never thought I'd get... I would up getting this message a couple of weeks ago while reconfiguring a machine...

Life goes on...

Well, I got the last production chapters of my “Beginning Net Game Programming in VB” book reviewed and posted last night.  That means it should be on bookshelves in about 6 weeks or so.

The book was supposed to be a simple conversion, but work and DirectX SDK changes slowed down my progress significantly (well, mostly work -- I knew about the upcoming SDK changes well in advance, so I can't really blame that).  My biggest fear, however, is that there's still some C# code or C#-oriented text lurking in the book somewhere, in spite of my best efforts to make it have a very distinct VB “look and feel.”  I'm sure I'll find out when people buy the book and read it :-(

If you were a fan of the first Star Wars movies like I was, you were really excited about the upcoming "Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace."  The trailers looked impressive.  You loved the whole light saber thing and the cool "Force" stuff.  You couldn't wait.

Then you saw the movie.

Taxation of trade routes?  Annoying alien characters with ridiculous accents?

You probably walked away simultaneously impressed with the new special effects and saddened by the lack of anything that resembled a good plot.

That's Doom3 for you.

The game is good at conveying a "Things That Go Bump In The Night" effect...dark, cramped corridors... eerie music and lighting to set the mood.  My first hour playing it with all the lights off and the sound cranked up was quite hair raising.

Then by the third or fourth hour I noticed something else: Everything looked the same as the first hour.  Dark, narrow areas with interesting lighting, but it was like a 3D shampoo bottle, "Enter room, shoot bad guys, exit into new room.  Repeat".  And the backstory?  Dull.  Dull.  Dull. 

Reminds me of the manuscript Jack Torrance (the character famously played by Jack Nicholson in "The Shining") wrote: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."  Over and over again.

Ok, so maybe the single person gameplay experience could be made up by the multiplayer experience.

Nope.

This is where Carmack and Co. score a big, fat, "F".

A few things to note about the "out of the box" multiplayer experience:

You are limited to 4 players (although I've heard there are some hacks that get past this, I haven't played in such a game)

The "sort by ping" feature uses the new high speed "Random Sort", whereby it doesn't give a damn what you ask it to do. 

The "Don't show passworded servers" feature also used a variant of the "Random Sort", whereby it also doesn't give a damn what you ask it

Connecting to games, when you can, yields an experience that cannot be forgotten, mostly because the experience is so bad.

So there you have it.  Doom3 ain't worth spit.  Certainly not the $55 retail (in the US) that iD is demanding (I paid $43 at Fry's and I still feel robbed).  It's pretty to look at, and fun for a short while, but I could say the same thing about the Pet Rock.

P.S. -- I've been a playtester for both Halo2 and Half-Life2.  Both of them stomp all over Doom3's butt any day of the week.  My advice is to save your money for those.

Thanks to Scoble for pointing this out.  Go to http://microsoft.com/protect and turn on on Automatic Updates and let everything happen automagically (Automatic Updates only push critical updates to your desktop). The sheer number of improvements and security fixes in this service pack are worth the download (and by using automatic updates, it will download while your computer isn't busy, so it won't affect your Doom3 gameplay )

Now Playing:

• Girls Got Rhythm
• AC/DC
• Highway To Hell, Track 2

Most people would claim that Doom3 is the latest anti-productivity software, to which I'm partially inclined to agree.  The game definitely conveys "presence".  I'm going to reserve my thoughts about this for now, other than to say that the "out of the box" multiplayer experience leaves much to be desired.

But the true anti-productivity software I'm talking about is called Novodex Rocket.  It's not a game.  Rather, it's a software product that demonstrates all the features you can get from using the Novodex Physics SDK.  I found myself toying endlessly with trebuchets, Jenga block stacks, horses careening through brick walls (no horses were injured during the simulation), and rag-doll like monsters and stick-men.

One of the other cool features is that this is the first publicly-available product I've seen that uses the new "Custom UI" feature found in the DirectX SDK. 

Go check Rocket out, but don't blame me if your productivity takes a dive.  I've given you fair warning :)

You gotta love Sun (well, I don't, but I thought it was a good opening line).  In June, they publish a benchmark that shows their web services performance is 300% better than Microsoft's.  Not 3%, not 30%, but 300 whopping percent.  Wow.  Time for me to write my resignation letter, cuz Microsoft is doomed.  We clearly don't have a clue how to write good software.

But wait.  Maybe we just don't know how to do benchmarks.  A little bit of inspection shows the Secret of Sun's Success:  Don't show the benchmark code.  Just write a bunch of gobbledygook about configurations and what your code supposedly did and everybody will believe you.

Wrong.

Microsoft, once again, took the high road.  We submitted a rebuttal to The Middleware Company, which was subsequently published on TheServerSide.Net.  We were very very thorough.  We followed Sun's publication as closely as we could, and implemented both sides openly and fairly, without taking special “shortcuts” on our side to make us look better.  What happened?  By golly, we did better.  Not 300% better, but definitely better overall.  More importantly, as we scaled up the web service messages to “real world payload” size, our performance became much more pronounced.  Then we did something really brave...

We published all the source for everybody to see.

Yesterday, Dennis MacNeil of Sun write up a thorough rebuttal to the work Microsoft did.

But they neglected to back it up with source.  Again.

And then to add fuel to the fire, Dennis challenged Microsoft to participate in the SPEC group's new web service benchmark standard.   Which we had been fully participating in until IBM and Sun demanded that the benchmark leave out price/performance ratios.  Talk about insane.  That's almost like somebody saying that the way to fix a deficit is to give away money (*cough*).  That's not how benchmarks work, just look at the TPC benchmarks.  They're respected, reliable, and give business decision maker's a foundation on which to make a decision when it comes to price as well as performance.  I mean, I don't know about you, but I've NEVER done any consulting for a CxO who says “Who gives a damn about money, just give me something big and powerful!” (which probably explains why I'm not a filthy rich consultant .

Fortunately, sanity has prevailed, and Greg Leake (who manages a lot of benchmark work at Microsoft) politely responded to the rebuttal.  I'll summarize for you here:  “Dude, you are so full of it.”

Dennis: We await your reply.  But even more, we would ALL love to see the source code that proves Sun's point.  We've stepped up to the plate.  Now it's your turn.

I often see Microsoft-centric sites run by Cold Fusion or PHP.  That's not really news.  But when Linux conference sites are run by Microsoft servers...Well, maybe that's not news either, but I'm trying to make it newsworthy in my blog

This is the announcement you've been waiting for.  You've seen me post a “teaser blog” about this before, but I'm delighted to say the real thing is ready for download now.  Look at all the goodies you get:

• HLSL support for Pixel Shader & Vertex Shader 3.0
• Effects Framework performance improvements
• Pre computed Radiance Transfer improvements
• New Sample framework
• New & Updated Samples
• Improved Documentation
• PIX tool for better debugging of Direct3D applications
• Introduction of the Preview Pipeline for easier content creation
• and.. Winforms-like UI features to add extra pizazz to those full-screen DX games!

You can get the SDK here.  Enjoy!

Every year, Microsoft holds a conference for our field people.  It's a great time to show a huge percentage of our field folks (about 12,000 of them) a little love.  I've been busy working on a killer demo that will be available for public viewing sometime in late summer, but the first live demo will be tomorrow in front of 15,000 screaming 'softies.  The keynote stage is, well, freakin' huge.  Below is a picture of ONE HALF of the backstage area, taken up in the mezzanine level of the Georgia Dome with a Pentax Optio S4i in “Night mode”  When the pic was taken, things were pretty quiet, but by tomorrow morning, this area is going to be a swarming mass of people.

This nice thing about this event, for me at least, is that it represents a turning point for me in many ways.  Most importantly to you, my six loyal readers, is that my blogging frequency will increase very soon!  Watch for more posts coming!