Windstorm 360

As of Wednesday, February 20th, I had a successful port of my team's Foundations of 3D project running on an XBOX 360.  As you can see by these comparative screenshots, there were a number of improvements made, as well as a number of cutbacks:

Windstorm (C++, DirectX 9, Wiimote control)


Windstorm (C#, XNA, XBOX control)


The original Windstorm supported up to four players, ran at 800x600 resolution, and had an spotty framerate. Windstorm 360 supports four players in full 720p at 60fps (on 360 hardware). Some of the concessions made in the interest of time included abandoning the particle system, reducing landscape detail to one texture (removing blend map), and abandoning our sound system. However, the porting process had other benefits, including decreased load times and improved visuals.

The main focus of this project for me was not a perfect port of my application, but an excuse to teach myself the ins and outs of the XNA environment, and do so in a realistic manner. Few developers have the luxury of creating new games from scratch on a familiar toolset, and through this project, I learned a great deal about XNA, console development, and effective porting techniques. Even with some concessions, I would label it a complete success.