AmpedRobot's Forum Posts

  • Shame, Scirra won't comment on this at all.

    What have we gotten ourselves into?

    I say again, what reputable company out there DOES NOT post code examples that are supposed to work?

    And expects someone else to do it via some tutorial or whatever.

    Every reputable company on the planet posts code examples, including Google.

  • Oh, hi there.

    I gave up on this!

    What can I say.

    Been bored, so I revisited this thread.

    I'll take a look.

    Thanks very much for posting.

    Is the exact C2 code you used in any of those links?

    It'll be hard for me to get an actual Xbox One at the moment. Drained myself to the bone believe it or not and I am currently living in limbo (even though my resume technically qualifies me for $150,000/year jobs), so might be a while before I can even try this, but I'll read it.

    As it is, the 2D game could probably use another year of full time work to make it truly what I envisaged, at least for starters, even though it is a fully functional game now.

    Every kid/adult out there expects an $80m production and there's just no market for 2D retro games.

    Lumberyard is the way to go from Amazon (I have all the skills to make it happen, if not the time/money for 1 year of full time work estimated to make the first 3D multiplayer map).

    Anyone wanna team up?

    And then there's the issue of getting the word out without $6k for a booth at PAX, but if I return to my regular profession, maybe not such a big issue (assuming I stick around).

    I've had a breakthrough also, actually designed a 3rd race for the universe (besides the tigers and the eagles), which is unbelievably cool and I never thought I'd be able to do it, so I have like 10 specialties of those guys worked out with weapons.

    If I get this to work (your solution above), might lower the price on Xbox to $0.99.

  • Ashley

    Tom

    After switching back to the retail sandbox, the sign in does work with a test account, but when you click the "let's play" feature from the Microsoft pop-up box, it goes back to "can't sign in" and the same error code.

    Also, the gamertag is NOT displayed in the test capx, even after a successful sign in via the Microsoft pop-up and this is what Microsoft requires.

    And to advance, you seem to have to click the "let's play" button in there.

    What is going on here and when are we going to get some help with this from the creators of the software?

    This should work in the simulator via PC right? I mean there's no way to test on an actual Xbox without publishing first? Not without a development kit? And you obviously don't get one via the Creators Program.

  • studio Mercato

    Studio, do you have a sample sign in capx without obviously the Creators or higher Program info?

    I'm guessing you must have gone through this too with the Microsoft audits.

    Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

    What's supposed to happen when you activate the C2 sign in feature? Is a login box supposed to pop up for putting in the Xbox Live profile sign in info?

    It doesn't with me. It immediately tries an auto sign in? But no idea with what login and password and then states "can't sign in" and there's a "use a different account login" link on bottom.

    Is the sign in supposed to work with test accounts only or non-test accounts?

    I authorized my main publishing account as a test account and added another one.

    But I just noticed from that link you sent, "Test accounts can only sign in to development sandboxes."

    So maybe the sign in feature is supposed to work only with non-test accounts?

    Haven't tested this yet.

    But I'm guessing I might have made a simple mistake somewhere in there in the process, which is why this isn't working.

    Again, this is why step-by-step tutorials are so helpful.

    Also, I was a bit hasty on the Xbox traffic. So far it's been about 800 people, which is still pretty pitiful supposedly considering a 50m audience out there (unless everyone is playing PS4 right now). It was highest on December 23, if anyone is interested, about 112 people.

    Also, Studio, how do I do an at you? You have a space in your name and an never formats properly in the post, plus there seem to be 2 similar lookalike profiles for you out there, one even using the same avatar, but with no space in the name.

    Also, am I supposed to switch my PC to the retail sandbox when testing the sign in feature?

    --

    This is the error code I'm getting, even after switching to the retail sandbox (like a typical user out there?) when trying to sign in with no associated Microsoft articles on it.

    "Sorry! No Support articles were found for "0x80860003"

  • Thank you, Studio.

    That's very helpful.

    And yes, you are absolutely right.

    The interest among the Xbox audience for the Creators' Collection is absolutely dismal.

    What was supposed to be the busiest play Saturday before Christmas generated only 81 page views for my listing.

    The perception must be that these are mostly unfinished "garbage" games, so apparently we are in the garbage pile again.

    In retrospect, it seems obvious, but hindsight is always 20/20.

    So, I did everything right, but still lost.

    1) They tell you the indie game scene is exploding, so you decide to make a game.

    2) They tell you, make a simple 2D game for starters because 3D games are too hard, so you'll never get anywhere. And I did exactly that.

    3) My thinking was that people are always hungry for new games, but that is not the case. People are mostly playing what's "in" right now. And what is in? Star Wars Battlefront. And even super big budget titles with millions in advertising are having trouble competing with that.

    4) Maybe I could push my game on Google Play someday, but I don't have money for AdWords and Google will not give you any visibility. Everybody has to pay for advertising space.

    So? People like you and me are stuck in the water.

    And if you give away the game for free, yeah you might get millions of downloads, but you will not make any money, not significant money, not with adds anyway, and you are severely limited by the 100mb cap with Google Play as there is no way to integrate expansion files with C2 currently. So?

    There we are.

    And then there are the technical issues.

    Thank you for the link, but I alrwady followed that to the T.

    My first 2 submissions to Microsoft went through fine, and, as you said, apparently, that submission is still listed.

    I also figured out why the keyboard controls were slow in simulator: 3 exclusive, but simultaneous control systems, which work fine in the browser, but fail for PC after Xbox translation.

    So for my third submission, I expanded game availability to PC, but only with an Xbox One or an Xbox 360 controller because the game would just be too easy, not as much fun with keyboard controls and then Microsoft started requiring Xbox live authentication and they won't let this submission go through otherwise (I think they were just being kind before to see if the game would sell over Christmas).

    And this is the link they just e-mailed me that I have to follow, which is exactly the link I found and the C++ code I posted before.

    "Hello,

    Thank you for contacting us. For additional assistance with this issue, please refer to the following link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... p-projects

    If you need any additional assistance with Xbox features, please contact Developer Support via your Dev Center or here: http://aka.ms/storesupport.

    Thank you,

    Sarah

    Microsoft Store Team"

    So, the C2 Xbox exporter is now broken.

    So, we now need to integrate C++ authentication code into projects unless our creators from on high come up with an equivalent.

    And the "sign in" feature with C2 is broken.

    I can't even change 2 screenshots because Microsoft won't let it through.

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  • Found this in Xbox live docs:

    "Test accounts have some other benefits also. They can sign into your Development Sandbox, whereas a regular MSA cannot due to security restrictions." So apparently you have to do this with a test account.

    I was misled by this Scirra tutorial:

    https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/9540/u ... n-uwp-apps

    "(Your real account may also work in the Creators Program..."

    But...

    Can't log in with the test account either.

    And the Sign In Xbox Live feature is really buggy. Often you have to press a key twice (if you have it hooked up to a key) for the login window to come up and it immediately goes to can't sign in.

    Also, how would I associate my game with my gamertag/Xbox Live display name/account? Something required by Microsoft.

    Can't even find my game under search even though it has been officially published and it has been more than 3 business days.

    This is really disappointing on the back end of so much work and still no help from Scirra or anybody else.

    There is this code for signing in silently supposedly:

    Windows::Foundation::IAsyncOperation<SignInResult^>^ XboxLiveUser::SignInSilentlyAsync(Platform::Object^ coreDispatcher)

    And this one for creating the XboxLiveUser object:

    XboxLiveUser user = ref new XboxLiveUser(Windows::System::User^ windowsSystemUser);

    Per WinRT (supposedly the Xbox Live package we installed?) and https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... p-projects.

    But no idea how to integrate it with the built VS package/build.

    It only calls the C2runtime.js.

    Where and how would one stick it in?

  • Ashley

    Tom

    studio Mercato

    Alright, I did a sample capx for Xbox Live login testing, and the login window does come up.

    It states "Can't sign you in."

    But if you sign in via "another account" link on the bottom, you can sign in, but the capx/xbox live VS build does not detect sign in success.

    RIght off the bat, even before sign in, there is an error.

    0x80860003

    The link Microsoft has on the error has no info.

    https://support.xbox.com/en-US/error-co ... 0x80860003

    I used the dev account, not some separate test account to test this, but that's not supposed to be an issue.

    What now?

    The code I used was:

    On Start of Layout -> Sign in Silently

    On key pressed -> Xbox Live Sign In

    On Sign In Success-> Request Profile Info

    On Profile Info Success->set a text object and a variable to XboxLive.gamertag

    Am I missing something?

    Can't really provide the capx because it has my Xbox Live Creators Program unique identifiers?

    I'll try a next build without an attempt to sign in silently in the beginning.

  • Ashley

    Tom

    studio Mercato

    Does anybody have sample code, tested and working for testing if Xbox Live is available, logging in, and getting the gamertag to display properly? I'm going to be playing with this today, but I don't know how much is needed and what the procedure is, so if somebody's done it, it would help not to reinvent the wheel.

    Not sure if you have to build in some delay on layout start, then test for Xbox Live presence, then do the login prompt.

    Again, this is very time consuming if you have to do separate capxs just to experiment with code WITHOUT ANY EXAMPLES AT ALL (even Microsoft and Google provide code examples) and keep reinstalling the Xbox Live package in VS and making new builds.

    ??

    Also, the help link on Xbox Live functions in C2 is not working. You have to Google it and go to the C3 page, which is pretty sparse as usual. I know you guys said you would be moving everything to the new web site, but apparently that means help links in C2 will be discontinued, even though there was a promise to maintain?

  • There's also 2 newer Xbox One/Xbox Live Nuget SDK packages, but VS won't let you install them even when you pick 16299 (the newest Windows one) as the sole target SDK.

    What is up with that?

    Are they supposed to be compatible with C2?

  • Ok, then that is really weird.

    Because the C2 exported UWP only opened for me finally with R50 (I have not tested 46 to 49).

    Well, If anyone is interested, here's my simplified Xbox Live publishing list:

    1 EXPORT UWP FROM C2

    2 OPEN SLN FILE IN VISUAL STUDIO

    3 SELECT THE JS FILE RIGHT BELOW IT

    PROJECT PROPERTIES

    TARGET - LATEST SDK

    (install via program/features/modify vs

    individual components)

    MIN LOWEST SDK 10240 for now

    4 RIGHT CLICK SLN FILE ->

    Manage NuGet Packages

    Browse Tab

    Type in search Xbox Live

    select this package

    Microsoft.Xbox.Live.SDK.WinRT.UWP

    install

    5 R CLICK JS FILE

    Store-> Associate App w Store

    change any CPU in VS next to green button

    to x 64

    6 test in simulator

    hit green button

    play on local machine

    you will get an error

    but it will create

    appmanifext.xml file in bin/x64/debug folder

    7 open appmanifext.xml file in bin folder

    w notepad

    add .0 to version

    needs to be x.o.o.o

    exit and restart vs

    8 test in simulator

    hit green button

    play on local machine

    9 when ready

    double click package.appxmanifest

    and fix final details

    10 open appmanifext.xml file in bin folder

    w notepad

    add .0 to version again

    needs to be x.o.o.o

    11 when ready for upload

    R CLICK JS FILE

    Store-> Create app packages

    -------------

    "You can't make games for Xbox 360 anymore, for years now."

    Then why on Earth is C2 advertised as working best with the Xbox 360 controller? For the old Xbox 360 crowd connecting to pcs?

    This is really confusing. I mean Xbox One and Xbox 360 controllers are supposed to be exclusive to the 2 consoles.

    And new Microsoft Xbox One controllers play with C2, at least for me best with a deadzone of 20.

    Used Xbox Live 360 controllers, at least the Elite wireless one I tested, play best with a deadzone of 25, and yes there is a noticeable difference, and while users can sometimes modify these specs on their own with Google code depending on how their controller is performing, I would not gamble on everyone being able or willing to do this.

    Ok, so apparently I missed that the live program is only for Xbox One. ****So the old Xbox 360 crowd has no access to it via their consoles?**** If so, that is crazy. Why would Microsoft cut off such a large part of their audience?

    I'm dealing with something else that is pretty crazy. So far, I've only been able to do one perfect build of the game, with the errant portion of the capx always behaving as expected, but I've had to make a few minor changes to another portion of the capx (completely unrelated).

    Is there a way to splice 2 builds together? Because I don't know why that one is holy.

    I noticed there's a C2runtime.js file in VS. Is that where the event code from C2 resides? **Would any other files need to be copied over?**

    Of course, presumably the holiness would not be gone from them.

    Alternatively, I guess I will have to experiment with some more builds and hope the holiness carries over to one of the new ones, so I finally have a fully stable build for the Xbox 360 controller. (The new things I added were just time delays for clicking [see below]. This was not an issue with the Xbox One controller I tested I recall, so, if these games are only being made pretty much for the Xbox One crowd on their consoles, then I might just go with the holy build and be done with it (but scrap the Xbox 360 controller as being compatible). Of course, I did use a wired brand new Microsoft Xbox One controller connected to a pc, not a wireless one, so I'm hoping there would be no issues there??? But that might not be the safest course of action. Some built in delays (see below) are usually a good idea.

    I've noticed when using input from the Xbox 360 controller to advance layouts (on any button click), it's best to build in a delay, so the input does not advance more than 1 layout in succession. I've used 1 sec so far, but I have not had a chance to experiment with lower times that would work, which would make it look better, not like an input bug. ***Have you had a chance to experiment to see what the lowest delay time would be that would still work?** Basically, I just have a timer and a condition when time> or = 1 sec, that's when button press advances to proper layout on menu press, etc.

  • I can now report the UWP export opens by default in R50 (just released) in VS 2017 (I did the 14 gig install).

    I was using R45 because I found it to be most stable.

    Also, R45 was released way after Visual Studio 2017 came out and the fact that it was incompatible wasn't mentioned anywhere.

    Wouldn't it be nice to have the full release notes so we know exactly what was changed and why?

    On a positive note, I can report a used 360 gamepad from the elite game set handles like a dream in the simulator with the default recommended deadzone of 25, so I think the game is good to go as far as Xbox (not sure about PC).

    It's only the keyboard controls which are sluggish, so maybe another SDK needs to be installed? (I mean the package does have a NuGet Xbox Live package installed, so maybe something else is needed for the keyboard controls like Steam has its own SDK).

    Thank you Studio!

  • AmpedRobot

    No I wasn't talking about the preview browser. When you make an html5 game for UWP for Xbox One or Windows 10, the games are running internally using the Edge engine. So the packaged app will probably run similarly to when you preview the game in Edge, though you should test and make sure.

    By "Xbox Live" did you mean the Creators Program? Those terms are not equivalent, but ok now I know what you're talking about. I think many people here are releasing on Xbox One via the Creators Program, and that's what I did as well.

    Consoles are not way superior to PCs, especially for html5 games. To grossly simplify, html5 tends to be more dependent on the cpu, and cpus on PCs are better than the cpus in consoles.

    There should not be performance differences in the builds C3 and C2 produces.

    Well, first time doing this, but I was told by Xbox people you can't be in both programs at the same time for starters, so you either pick the Creators' program for Xbox Live games or Xbox IDE/Xbox One, which has more stringent certification requirements that I'm totally clueless about, but the same game should work on both as a UWP app, so not sure why they separate this.

    Since you've already gone through this, let me fire a couple questions.

    1) Apparently, you went through the more stringent Xbox One/IDE program. How long did the certification take?

    2) Do you have access to an Xbox Live/360? Just wondering how many games are in the Creators program so far.

    3) Still can't open the project in VS 2017.

    What did you have to install at a minimum to get it to open?

    I did edit the project file to target the installed SDKs.

    First, I installed just the shell editor (like 586 megs), then the oldest SDK 10240 and the newest 16299 for UWP: C#, VB, JS and still can't get it to open.

    With VS 2015, I did like a 15 gig install (everything for the UWP Development, the first full workload on the first screen because I did not know what I'm supposed to be selecting (again it wasn't written up at all, so Ashley seems to be targeting developers rather than the "no programming required" crowd, as so often advertised, and, yes, that gets people without prior experience upset because they don't know what they're supposed to be doing. Are we supposed to guess?) In contrast, all the Microsoft tutorials have easy step-by-step lists for this process, which are fully up to date (hint, hint). Not being an asshole here. This is just the reality and I feel people are to often afraid to throw this stuff at Ashley. I'm not. Because I've already spent thousands of hours on this and my time is valuable.

  • Ashley

    Are there any significant differences in the Xbox One/Xbox Live builds in C3 vs C2?

    Just wondering if there would be any performance issues/improvements in the bottom up engine rebuild.

  • AmpedRobot

    Chrome export does not produce a VS project. If you mean you can open the html and javascript files in VS, then sure, but you can't build a UWP game with that. That's unfortunate you're having music issues with Edge, but you have no way around it for UWP. I and other people are not having audio issues on Edge.

    I didn't notice performance get worse as the SDK got newer, so I don't know what to tell you there. But when you install VS2017, you can chose which SDKs to install, including 10240. I personally install 10240 and whatever the latest is, so currently I have 10240 and 16299, and not the ones in between. I target the latest, and I keep the min target at 10240.

    I agree the tutorial should be updated with the .jsproj editing steps, I added a comment at the bottom of the tutorial suggesting Ashley do so.

    Yes games run slower on Xbox One compared to PC, even PCs with fairly low specs. FYI if you get your game running on Xbox One, once it's on the Xbox run it directly from the Xbox, not from Visual Studio. When running from Visual Studio it is debugging and runs even slower, so run it directly to get the actual performance.

    Finally, what do you mean by "Xbox One as opposed to Xbox Live"? Making a game for Xbox Live usually means making it for Xbox One. Xbox One is 4 years old now, it's not new.

    Do you mean I have to pick Edge as the preview browser? So far I picked Chrome and that's what I tested in simulator. About to try packaging the app. Then VS 2017.

    Well, you can only be in one program at a time for starters, so Xbox Live Creator's Program makes sense to being with? Plus I have different specs for deadzone for Xbox One based on testing, not by much, but the little definitely makes a difference on different controllers.

    And I thought the consoles were way superior to PCs? But no need to get into a discussion on that, but I thought they were configured specifically for gaming with multiple GPUs and what not unless NVIDIA won the war in price and video cards? If so, how are the consoles still alive? Never mind, I guess most people don't know and they love their pads, even though they can be used with PCs.