410 windows mobile game development

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BOOKS FOR PROFESSIONALS BY PROFESSIONALS ®

THE EXPERT’S VOICE ® IN .NET
Companion
eBook
Available

Building Games for the Windows Phone
and other Mobile Devices
Dear Reader,
In Windows Mobile Game Development I give you everything you need to allow
yourself to maximize your own creativity and bring both yourself and the world
some fantastic mobile gaming opportunities. Just think about how a gaming
device is always in your pocket, as a phone always is... it’s too good an opportunity to miss, so I’ll show you how to create the games you want to make.
I’ll guide you from your first Windows Mobile development steps, right
through to you working with advanced graphics techniques involving the
OpenGL ES graphics library. Along the way we’ll cover everything you’ll need to
get the best from your games, including:

Adam Dawes

• input and game control mechanisms
• flexible methods for controlling on-screen objects within your game
• consistent timing to ensure that your game runs at the speed you want
• music and sound effects
There are some key differences between the Windows Mobile devices your
gaming audience are using, so in Windows Mobile Game Development I’ll show
you how to overcome compatibility issues so your games can be available to as
many players as possible on their devices.
Along the way I’ll share with you my passion for gaming on mobile devices,

and I’ll show you how huge the possibilities are for you to create games on the
move.
Adam Dawes

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Companion eBook

Windows Mobile Game Development

Windows Mobile Game Development:

SOURCE CODE ONLINE

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User level:
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Dawes

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Windows Mobile
Game Development
Building Games for the Windows Phone
and other Mobile Devices
Discover the world of 2D and 3D game programming
for Windows Mobile devices using C# or VB.NET

Adam Dawes


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Windows Mobile Game
Development
Building Games for the Windows Phone and
Other Mobile Devices

■■■
Adam Dawes

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Windows Mobile Game Development: Building Games for the Windows Phone and Other Mobile
Devices
Copyright © 2010 by Adam Dawes
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval
system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.
ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4302-2928-5
ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4302-2929-2

Printed and bound in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Trademarked names may appear in this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every
occurrence of a trademarked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of
the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.
Publisher and President: Paul Manning
Lead Editor: Jonathan Hassell
Technical Reviewer: Don Sorcinelli
Editorial Board: Clay Andres, Steve Anglin, Mark Beckner, Ewan Buckingham, Gary Cornell,
Jonathan Gennick, Jonathan Hassell, Michelle Lowman, Matthew Moodie, Duncan Parkes,
Jeffrey Pepper, Frank Pohlmann, Douglas Pundick, Ben Renow-Clarke, Dominic Shakeshaft,
Matt Wade, Tom Welsh
Coordinating Editor: Debra Kelly
Copy Editor: Heather Lang
Compositor: MacPS, LLC.
Indexer: BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services
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Cover Designer: Anna Ishchenko
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The source code for this book is available to readers at www.apress.com.

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For Ritu and Kieran

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Contents at a Glance

■Contents at a Glance ............................................................................................iv

■Contents ................................................................................................................v

■About the Author ................................................................................................. xv

■About the Technical Reviewer............................................................................ xvi

■Acknowledgments............................................................................................. xvii

■Introduction ..................................................................................................... xviii
Part 1: Windows Mobile Development......................................................................1
■Chapter 1: Windows Mobile and .NET ...................................................................3
■Chapter 2: Mastering the User Interface .............................................................29
Part 2: Creating Games ..........................................................................................49
■Chapter 3: GDI Graphics ......................................................................................51
■Chapter 4: Taming the Device with the Game Engine .........................................77
■Chapter 5: Timing to Perfection ........................................................................111
■Chapter 6: Exploring User Input ........................................................................129
■Chapter 7: Sounding Out with Game Audio .......................................................157
■Chapter 8: Game in Focus: GemDrops...............................................................179

■Chapter 9: Common Game Components............................................................225
Part 3: OpenGL ES Graphics..................................................................................243
■Chapter 10: A New Window on the World with OpenGL ES ...............................245
■Chapter 11: Creating 2D Games with OpenGL ...................................................289
■Chapter 12: The Ins and Outs of the Third Dimension.......................................311
■Chapter 13: Further OpenGL Features and Techniques .....................................353
Part 4: Distribution ...............................................................................................383
■Chapter 14: Distributing Your Game .................................................................385
■Index .................................................................................................................411


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Contents
■Contents at a Glance ............................................................................................iv

■Contents ................................................................................................................v

■About the Author ................................................................................................. xv

■About the Technical Reviewer............................................................................ xvi

■Acknowledgments............................................................................................. xvii

■Introduction...................................................................................................... xviii
Part 1: Windows Mobile Development......................................................................1

■Chapter 1: Windows Mobile and .NET ...................................................................3

Looking Closely at .NET for Windows Mobile.................................................................. 4

Language Choices..................................................................................................................................4

The .NET Runtime Libraries....................................................................................................................5

IDE Features...........................................................................................................................................5

Preparing for Windows Mobile Development Challenges ............................................... 6

Numerous Windows Mobile Versions and Editions ................................................................................6

Hardware Considerations.......................................................................................................................8

Using Visual Studio for Windows Mobile Development................................................. 10

Installing Visual Studio.........................................................................................................................10

Creating a Windows Mobile Project .....................................................................................................11

Designing a Form .................................................................................................................................14

Running the Application.......................................................................................................................16

Working with the Emulators.................................................................................................................18

Targeting Different Platforms...............................................................................................................19

Running on a Real Device ....................................................................................................................20

Debugging............................................................................................................................................22

Getting Help .........................................................................................................................................24
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Windows Mobile Game Development ........................................................................... 25

Suitable Games ....................................................................................................................................25

Graphics APIs .......................................................................................................................................25

Technologies Used in This book...........................................................................................................27

Welcome to the World of Windows Mobile Development ............................................. 27

■Chapter 2: Mastering the User Interface .............................................................29

Developing for Touch Screen and Smart Phone Devices.............................................. 29

The User Interface Controls .......................................................................................... 31

Forms ...................................................................................................................................................31

Labels...................................................................................................................................................35

Buttons.................................................................................................................................................35

Menu Bars............................................................................................................................................36

Context Menus .....................................................................................................................................39

Timers ..................................................................................................................................................40

File Dialog Controls ..............................................................................................................................42

Input Panels .........................................................................................................................................43

Capturing Camera Images....................................................................................................................45

The “Busy” Cursor ........................................................................................................ 46

On with the Game ......................................................................................................... 47

Part 2: Creating Games...........................................................................................49

■Chapter 3: GDI Graphics ......................................................................................51

All About GDI ................................................................................................................. 51

Let’s Paint ..................................................................................................................... 51

Invalidating a Form ..............................................................................................................................53

The Drawing Coordinate System..........................................................................................................53

Colors ...................................................................................................................................................53

Pens and Brushes ................................................................................................................................55

Drawing Lines ......................................................................................................................................56

Drawing Polygons ................................................................................................................................57

Drawing Rectangles.............................................................................................................................59

Drawing Ellipses ..................................................................................................................................59

Working with Pixels .............................................................................................................................60

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Displaying Text.....................................................................................................................................60

Clearing the Background......................................................................................................................63

Painting in Action .................................................................................................................................63


Bitmaps......................................................................................................................... 64

Creating Bitmaps Using Graphics Primitives........................................................................................64

Creating Bitmaps from Predrawn Graphics..........................................................................................65

Painting Bitmaps to the Screen ...........................................................................................................69

Bitmaps in Action .................................................................................................................................72

Smooth Animation......................................................................................................... 72

Getting the Most From GDI............................................................................................ 76

■Chapter 4: Taming the Device with the Game Engine .........................................77

Designing the Game Engine.......................................................................................... 77

Implementing the Engine .............................................................................................. 79

CGameEngineBase ...............................................................................................................................79

CGameObjectBase................................................................................................................................85

CGameObjectGDIBase ..........................................................................................................................87

CGameEngineGDIBase .........................................................................................................................88

CGameFunctions ..................................................................................................................................90

Using the Game Engine................................................................................................. 91

Creating the Bounce Example Game....................................................................................................91

Optimizing Rendering.................................................................................................... 98

Adding, Updating, and Deleting Objects.............................................................................................102

Forcing a Repaint ...............................................................................................................................102

Performance Impact...........................................................................................................................103

Other Engine Features ................................................................................................ 103

Interacting with the Device ................................................................................................................103

Checking Device Capabilities.............................................................................................................106

Future Enhancements ........................................................................................................................109

Next Steps................................................................................................................... 109

■Chapter 5: Timing to Perfection ........................................................................111

Affirming the Need for Consistent Timing................................................................... 111

Processor Speed ................................................................................................................................111

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Graphics Performance .......................................................................................................................112

Multitasking .......................................................................................................................................112

Processing and Graphical Complexity................................................................................................112

Development Mode vs. Released Code..............................................................................................112


Overcoming Performance Inconsistencies.................................................................. 112

Fixed Interval Updates .......................................................................................................................113

Dynamic Update Intervals ..................................................................................................................113

Interpolated Updates..........................................................................................................................115

Using an External Timer.............................................................................................. 120

DateTime.Now....................................................................................................................................120

Environment.TickCount ......................................................................................................................120

The High-Performance Timer.............................................................................................................120

Timing in the Game Engine ......................................................................................... 121

Initializing and Interrogating the Timer..............................................................................................121

Changes to the Interpolation-Based Functions ..................................................................................124

Changes to the Noninterpolation Functions .......................................................................................128

Using the Game Engine......................................................................................................................128

Let’s Bounce Again ..................................................................................................... 128

■Chapter 6: Exploring User Input ........................................................................129

Touch Screen Input..................................................................................................... 129

Touch Screen Events .........................................................................................................................129

Selecting, Dragging, and Swiping......................................................................................................132

Adding Context Menus .......................................................................................................................144

Using Finger-Friendly Input................................................................................................................146

Using Multitouch Input? .....................................................................................................................147

Using Button and Keyboard Input ............................................................................... 147

Button and Keyboard Events..............................................................................................................147

Reading the Keyboard State ..............................................................................................................149

Input from the SIP ..............................................................................................................................150

Choosing the Keyboard Input Method ................................................................................................150

Reading From an Accelerometer ................................................................................ 151

Initializing the Accelerometer ............................................................................................................151

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Reading Data from the Accelerometer...............................................................................................152

Detecting the Presence of a Supported Accelerometer .....................................................................154

Supporting Devices With No Accelerometer ......................................................................................156


Considering Input Design............................................................................................ 156

■Chapter 7: Sounding Out with Game Audio .......................................................157

Understanding Sound File Types ................................................................................ 157

Exploring the Available Sound APIs ............................................................................ 158

Using the Sound APIs.................................................................................................. 160

PlaySound ..........................................................................................................................................160

System.Media.SoundPlayer ...............................................................................................................164

AygShell Sound Functions .................................................................................................................167

BASS.dll .............................................................................................................................................169

Adding Support for Sounds to the Game Engine......................................................... 176

Choosing a Sound API ................................................................................................. 177

Make Some Noise ....................................................................................................... 177

■Chapter 8: Game in Focus: GemDrops ...............................................................179

Designing the Game.................................................................................................... 179

Creating the GemDrops Design Brief .................................................................................................179

Conceptualizing the Game Controls ...................................................................................................182

Choosing the Sound Effects ...............................................................................................................183

Outlining the Minimum Requirements ...............................................................................................183

Writing the Game ........................................................................................................ 184

Creating the Project ...........................................................................................................................184

Creating the Game Form ....................................................................................................................185

Preparing the Game ...........................................................................................................................186

Creating the Gem Game Object..........................................................................................................188

Resetting the Game............................................................................................................................191

Pausing the Game ..............................................................................................................................194

Displaying the Player Gems ...............................................................................................................194

Updating the Player’s Gems...............................................................................................................200

Adding Player Control.........................................................................................................................208

Removing Gems from the Board ........................................................................................................215

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Creating Score Objects ......................................................................................................................221


Finishing Up ................................................................................................................ 224

■Chapter 9: Common Game Components ............................................................225

Managing Game Settings............................................................................................ 225

Using the Settings Class ....................................................................................................................226

Understanding How the CSettings Class Works.................................................................................228

Replacing the MessageBox......................................................................................... 230

Using the MessageBox Class .............................................................................................................230

Understanding How the CMessageBox Class Works .........................................................................231

Creating a High Score Table ....................................................................................... 232

Using the High Score Class ................................................................................................................232

Understanding How the CHighScores Class Works............................................................................235

Creating an About Box ................................................................................................ 238

Using the About Box Class .................................................................................................................239

Understanding How the CAboutBox Class Works...............................................................................241

Using Common Game Components............................................................................. 241

Part 3: OpenGL ES Graphics..................................................................................243

■Chapter 10: A New Window on the World with OpenGL ES ...............................245

Preparing to Use OpenGL ............................................................................................ 245

Hardware Support..............................................................................................................................245

Language Support..............................................................................................................................246

Understanding the OpenGL Features .................................................................................................246

Rendering in 3D .................................................................................................................................247

Using OpenGL in Visual Studio.NET............................................................................. 248

Calling OpenGL from Managed Languages ........................................................................................248

Understanding OpenGL’s Rendering Approach ..................................................................................249

Considering the Hardware Capabilities and Limitations ....................................................................249

Closing OpenGL Applications .............................................................................................................250

Creating an OpenGL Program...................................................................................... 250

Configuring the Project ......................................................................................................................250

Creating the OpenGL Environment .....................................................................................................252

Initializing OpenGL .............................................................................................................................254

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Rendering Graphics in OpenGL ..........................................................................................................256

Adding Form Functions ......................................................................................................................260

Terminating OpenGL ..........................................................................................................................261

Running the Program .........................................................................................................................262

Adding Some Sparkle.........................................................................................................................263


Using Matrix Transformations..................................................................................... 264

Setting the Identity Matrix..................................................................................................................264

Applying Translation Transformations ...............................................................................................265

Applying Rotation Transformations....................................................................................................265

Applying Scaling Transformations .....................................................................................................266

Applying Multiple Transformations ....................................................................................................267

Specifying Vertex Positions................................................................................................................269

Pushing and Popping the Matrix ........................................................................................................269

Practicing Matrix Transformations with Example Projects ................................................................269

Drawing Functions ...................................................................................................... 274

Drawing Points...................................................................................................................................274

Drawing Lines ....................................................................................................................................274

Drawing Triangles ..............................................................................................................................275

Using Texture Mapping ............................................................................................... 277

Loading Graphics ...............................................................................................................................277

Rendering with Textures....................................................................................................................278

Specifying Texture Coordinates .........................................................................................................280

Cleaning Up........................................................................................................................................282

Using Transparency and Alpha Blending .................................................................... 282

Applying Transparency ......................................................................................................................282

Alpha Blending ...................................................................................................................................283

Alpha Blending with Textures ............................................................................................................284

Knowing the Available Blending Factors............................................................................................285

Understanding Orthographic Coordinate Systems ...................................................... 286

Taking Control of OpenGL ........................................................................................... 288

■Chapter 11: Creating 2D Games with OpenGL ...................................................289

Adding OpenGL to the Game Engine ........................................................................... 289

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Understanding the CGameEngineOpenGLBase Class.........................................................................290

Understanding the CGameObjectOpenGLBase Class .........................................................................292

Performing the Capabilities Check.....................................................................................................294

Creating the Game Form ....................................................................................................................296


Using the OpenGL Game Engine ................................................................................. 298

Preparing the Balloons Game.............................................................................................................298

Setting up the Projection Matrix ........................................................................................................299

Rendering the Balloons......................................................................................................................301

Sorting the Balloons...........................................................................................................................303

Playing the Game ...............................................................................................................................306

2D Possibilities with OpenGL ...................................................................................... 309

■Chapter 12: The Ins and Outs of the Third Dimension.......................................311

Understanding Perspective Projection........................................................................ 311

Understanding the Viewing Frustum..................................................................................................311

Defining the Viewing Frustum in OpenGL ..........................................................................................315

Understanding the Depth Buffer ................................................................................. 316

Enabling the Depth Buffer..................................................................................................................316

Rendering Transparent Objects with the Depth Buffer ......................................................................318

Rendering 3D Objects ................................................................................................. 318

Defining a 3D Object ..........................................................................................................................318

Removing Hidden Surfaces................................................................................................................324

Using Indexed Triangles.....................................................................................................................326

Lighting Your Projects................................................................................................. 329

Introducing the Lights and Materials .................................................................................................329

Exploring the Types of Illumination....................................................................................................329

Using Material Properties...................................................................................................................332

Exploring Light and Material Interaction ............................................................................................333

Using Multiple Lights .........................................................................................................................333

Reusing Lights ...................................................................................................................................334

Exploring the Types of Light Source ..................................................................................................334

Calculating Light Reflections in OpenGL ............................................................................................336

Adding Light to the Game Engine.......................................................................................................340

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Calculating Normals Programmatically..............................................................................................347

Using Normals with Scaled Objects ...................................................................................................351


Mastering the 3D World .............................................................................................. 352

■Chapter 13: Further OpenGL Features and Techniques .....................................353

Importing Geometry .................................................................................................... 353

Introducing SketchUp.........................................................................................................................353

Using the .0bj File Format ..................................................................................................................357

Importing Geometry into the Game Engine ........................................................................................359

Moving the Camera..................................................................................................... 364

Positioning the Camera......................................................................................................................364

Adding Camera Objects to the Game Engine .....................................................................................365

Lights, Camera, Action!......................................................................................................................370

Optimizing the Camera Calculation....................................................................................................371

Cameras and the Projection Matrix....................................................................................................374

Rendering Fog............................................................................................................. 374

Adding Fog Support to the Game Engine ...........................................................................................375

Using Fog ...........................................................................................................................................375

Working with Billboards.............................................................................................. 377

Rendering Billboards..........................................................................................................................377

Adding Billboard Support to the Game Engine...................................................................................379

Learning More about OpenGL ES ................................................................................ 381

Part 4: Distribution ...............................................................................................383

■Chapter 14: Distributing Your Game..................................................................385

Preparing a Game for Distribution .............................................................................. 385

Settings the Assembly Properties ......................................................................................................385

Project Versioning ..............................................................................................................................387

Creating an Icon .................................................................................................................................388

Building Distribution Packages ................................................................................... 391

Switching into Release Mode.............................................................................................................391

Creating the Setup Project .................................................................................................................392

Adding the Setup Project’s Files ........................................................................................................393

Creating a Programs Menu Shortcut..................................................................................................395

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Building the CAB File..........................................................................................................................397

Selling Games ............................................................................................................. 397

Creating Evaluation Applications .......................................................................................................397

Upgrading to Full Versions .................................................................................................................398

Using Windows Marketplace for Mobile ............................................................................................400

Minimizing Piracy...............................................................................................................................401

Implementing Reverse Engineering ............................................................................ 402

Obfuscating with Dotfuscator Community Edition .............................................................................403

Using Advanced Obfuscation .............................................................................................................405

Adding Obfuscated Files to CAB Setup Projects ................................................................................407

Releasing New Versions of Your Game....................................................................... 407

Promoting Your Game ................................................................................................. 409

Go Create! ................................................................................................................... 410

■Index ........................................................................................................................ 411

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About the Author

■ Adam Dawes is a software developer and systems architect working at a cuttingedge online service development company.
He has been a compulsive programmer since the age of four, when he was first
introduced to a monochrome Commodore PET. The love affair has continued
through three subsequent decades, flourishing through the days of the 8-bit
dinosaurs to today’s era of multicore processors and pocket supercomputers.
A constant for all of this time has been Adam’s fondness for computer games.
From the very first time Nightmare Park displayed its devious maze of pathways in
green symbols back in 1980, he has been a game player across a variety of genres

and styles. These days, he spends his spare time playing the latest 3D titles on his
PC or enjoying some of the classics in his stand-up arcade machine or sit-in cockpit driving cabinet.
Creating his own games has always been a hobby, and while he has no intention of becoming part of the
professional games industry, he has a lot of fun developing his own titles nonetheless.
Photograph copyright ©
Dave Parker, 2009

Adam lives with his wife, Ritu, and son, Kieran, in the southeast of England. His web site is at
www.adamdawes.com (and all of his finished projects can be downloaded there), and he can be
e-mailed at He would particularly like to see the results of your own game
development projects.

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About the Technical Reviewer

■ Don Sorcinelli has been involved with planning, developing, and deploying enterprise applications
for more than 15 years. His involvement in these processes expanded to include the PDA platforms
starting in the late 1990s. He is currently a Mobility Consultant for Enterprise Mobile in Watertown, MA,
where he works regularly with large enterprises on all aspects of mobility, including the design and
development of Windows Mobile line of business applications.
Don frequently presents on Windows Mobile topics for users, developers, and IT professionals. As a
result, he was awarded Most Valuable Professional status for Windows Mobile Devices by Microsoft
Corporation in January 2004 for his work with the Windows Mobile community.
Don currently is co-manager of the Boston/New England Windows Mobile User and Developer Group,
and webmaster of BostonPocketPC.com (). He can be contacted at

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Acknowledgments
I must start by thanking my parents for all of the opportunities they gave me when I was growing up and
for encouraging my computer habit from a very young age.
Thank you to everyone at Apress for your assistance in getting this book written and delivered, in
particular to Mark Beckner for allowing me the opportunity in the first place and to Debra Kelly for her
tireless assistance and encouragement.
And finally, of course, huge thanks to my wife, Ritu, and my son, Kieran, for tolerating me shutting
myself in my study and writing every evening and weekend—I'll be spending much more time with you
both now; I promise!

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Introduction
Goal of This Book
Gaming on the move has become very popular over recent years. With the arrival of the Nintendo
Gameboy, people realized that they could take their games with them, and as technology has become more
sophisticated these games have grown too, encompassing complex game mechanics, advanced 2D and 3D
graphics, and engrossing stories and game worlds that the player can literally become lost within.

Alongside these game improvements is the explosion in popularity of mobile communication
devices. Nearly everyone carries a phone with every time they leave the house. These devices have
become much more than just phones however; they provide contact management, e-mail, Web
browsing, satellite navigation, and entertainment.
Writing games for mobile devices allows both of these trends to be brought together into the same
place. It is very easy for people to pick up and play games on mobile devices, as they always have the
devices in their pockets. Whether they are progressing through a sprawling role-playing game on a train
or simply want a few minutes casual diversion waiting for an appointment, mobile gaming can provide.
This book aims to bring you the knowledge and techniques that you will need to create your own
games for Windows Mobile and Windows Phone classic devices. Starting with the basics of the platform
and its development environment and progressing through to advanced topics such as 3D graphics, this
book will guide you step by step toward creating a simple and manageable environment into which you
can write your own mobile games and distribute them to the world for fun or profit. Example projects
are provided to demonstrate all of the techniques discussed, and are ideal as a basis for experimentation.
It can be difficult to cater for the diversity of hardware available running Windows Mobile. This
book will show you how to create games that work on the largest possible array of devices, catering for
different screen resolutions, devices with and without touch screens, and accommodating all sorts of
other hardware capabilities that your games may need to work with.

Who This Book Is For
This book is written for those who are already familiar with programming one of the two main managed
Visual Studio languages, C# or Visual Basic.NET. It is assumed that you already have a grasp of the
fundamentals of programming and are familiar with using the environment for PC-based application
development. This book is not an introduction to programming or to Visual Studio itself.
You will, however, be given a complete guide to setting up the development environment for
Windows Mobile programming, getting your first programs to compile, and interactively debugging your
games as they run either on the Windows Mobile emulators included with Visual Studio or on a real
device.
To develop software for your device, you will need access to either Visual Studio 2005 Standard or
Visual Studio 2008 Professional. While many of the projects in this book can be developed using the

Windows Mobile emulators, I strongly recommended that you do have access to a real device to test
your games.

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For developing games using OpenGL, as discussed toward the end of the book, you will need a
device that has OpenGL hardware acceleration available, as no emulators currently offer this. Most
recent devices do have OpenGL support—check the Internet if you are unsure.
The examples in this book are all written using C#, but the vast majority are capable of being
converted to VB.NET without any problems. Tips and advice for VB.NET programmers are offered within
the text, and workarounds are provided for the few cases where a direct VB.NET conversion is not
available.

Chapter Overview
The following is a brief description of each chapter. The chapters tend to build on one another, so I
recommend that you read them in sequence to avoid knowledge gaps in later chapters.
Chapter 1 introduces Windows Mobile and using the Visual Studio development environment to
create Windows Mobile games applications. It covers some of the different hardware configurations that
you may need to work with and explains how to set up simple .NET Compact Framework projects
running against the emulators and hardware devices.
Chapter 2 explores the user interface, explaining how to use forms and controls, menus, and timers
as well as more specialized subjects such as capturing pictures using the camera.
Chapter 3 introduces the first game development concepts, exploring the Graphics Device Interface
(GDI) graphics system. While the GDI is fairly primitive in its abilities, it is still capable of producing
interesting and playable games and works across all Windows Mobile devices, and the mechanisms for
creating these are investigated.

Chapter 4 starts to build a reusable game engine that will provide simplification for lots of the
features that we need to use to make complex and flexible games. It provides a simple mechanism for
creating lots of independent and interdependent objects within a game environment and optimizes the
GDI rendering process to get games running as fast as possible.
Chapter 5 shows how the timing of games can be made consistent across all devices, regardless of
their speed, graphical capabilities, or processor load from other parts of the system. The speed of
animation is made entirely predictable without any loss of flexibility or fluidity.
Chapter 6 covers the subject of user input. All sorts of input devices are available on Windows
Mobile devices, from touch screens and keyboards through to accelerometers, and all of these are
explored in detail to show how they can be used to allow your games to be controlled.
Chapter 7 turns up the volume and reveals the options for game audio, covering simple sound
effects to MP3 and music playback. Everything you need to know about sound for your games can be
found here.
Chapter 8 combines everything that has been covered so far into a full working game called
GemDrops. Featuring colorful graphics, a variety of control mechanisms for different device capabilities,
screen resolution independence, sound effects and music, the whole game is built step by step to show
how an actual game can be developed.
Chapter 9 provides a series of reusable components that may be used in any game. A simple
mechanism for loading and saving user settings, a message presentation window, a flexible high score
table, and an application information page are all provided to allow you to focus on writing your game
rather than having to reinvent these features yourself.
Chapter 10 opens the door to the world of OpenGL for Embedded Systems (OpenGL ES) graphics
programming. Beginning by exploring the concepts and mechanisms behind OpenGL ES and comparing
and contrasting these to GDI, everything you need to initialize an OpenGL ES environment and present
colorful texture-mapped graphics can be found here.
Chapter 11 integrates the OpenGL ES features from Chapter 10 into the game engine, providing a
series of reusable functions to simplify OpenGL ES game development. The focus of this chapter is using
the game engine for 2D graphics, exploring the features that are opened up in this area by OpenGL ES
beyond those provided by GDI.

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■ CONTENTS

Chapter 12 lifts up the OpenGL ES feature set into the third dimension, explaining how to create 3D
game worlds. Subjects covered include perspective, the depth buffer, and lighting so that your scenes
really come to life.
Chapter 13 continues the exploration of OpenGL ES in the third dimension and introduces a
number of useful new features to the game engine. These include importing 3D objects and third-party
modeling packages, moving and manipulating the cameras within a game world, and applying fog to a
3D scene.
Chapter 14 wraps up everything with tips and techniques for distributing your game to the world,
covering subjects such as version control, creating installation packages, registration code systems,
reverse engineering, and promotion of your game.

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PART 1
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Windows Mobile
Development


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CHAPTER 1
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Windows Mobile and .NET

It is a genuine pleasure to develop software for Windows Mobile devices using Visual Studio .NET.
For a substantial part of its lifetime, programming for Microsoft’s mobile operating system involved
using the suite of eMbedded Visual Tools. These came supporting two different languages: eMbedded
Visual Basic and eMbedded Visual C++.
eMbedded Visual Basic was based on the same technologies as Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
This was similar in a number of ways to Visual Basic 6 (VB6), the desktop version of VB that was current
at the time, but with many shortcomings, such as the lack of strongly typed variables and poor object
orientation features. Programs were written using a stand-alone IDE, which had its own peculiarities
and different ways of working to VB6 itself.
eMbedded Visual C++ presented more of a challenge because of differences not only in the IDE but
in the code too. While established C++ programmers would no doubt have managed to pick up this
language without too many problems, those less-well-versed in the intricacies of C++ would have found
that the amount of new information they needed to learn proved a significant barrier to entry.
All of this changed with the release of Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Compact Framework (.NET CF).
.NET CF provides a set of class libraries that are parallel to the desktop .NET Framework. The
libraries are not identical, as large parts of the full .NET Framework functionality are missing from .NET
CF. However, a substantial set of identical functionality does exist, and any programmer who is
comfortable developing C# or Visual Basic .NET applications for Windows will be instantly at home
developing for Windows Mobile too.

The .NET Framework has met resistance from some quarters in the Windows desktop world. While
various versions of the framework come preinstalled with recent versions of Windows, getting users to
accept .NET as a requirement of an application can still be difficult. Fortunately, there seems to be no
such reluctance to install .NET CF on Windows Mobile devices, perhaps in part due to the huge amount
of software that requires it in order to run.
A major advantage of developing for Windows Mobile using Visual Studio .NET is that the exact
same IDE is used as for Windows desktop development. There no need to learn the details or keyboard
shortcuts of a new IDE: instead, you will be working within the environment you are already used to,
which includes all of your user interface tweaks and preferences changes. Developing an application for
Windows Mobile is simply a question of creating a different project type.
Programming within Visual Studio .NET also means that the Windows Mobile developer is able to
take advantage of the maturity of the Visual Studio.NET development environment. Microsoft has
spent many years improving the user interfaces and functionality of Visual Studio, and countless
versions and releases have cumulated in an extremely powerful and user-friendly studio for
application design, development, and debugging. All of this is at your disposal when developing
Windows Mobile applications.

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