This entry is more a rant on how much I enjoy programming and learning new techniques. Recently I have been working on an API-independent cross-platform solution to create 2D tiled maps(more info here). One of the problems I have been working on is the cross-platform part. Right now the output and use of it, from the map editor tool is pretty dependent on .NET and its serialization classes. This is fine for games written using XNA, or .NET languages but I don’t want just that. My goal with the project of course is to have a single solution that is graphics API independent while being able to also use it for multiple platforms. I am thinking about solving this through rewriting(and improving) the current library in native C++, and creating a manged C++ wrapper so that I can use the tool with .NET languages such as VB or C# and XNA, as well as being able to use the same map class in C++ OpenGL/DirectX/whatever projects. Another solution I have thought of was writing a completely different library in native C++ that will use the same formats/classes as the .NET version. Either way the challenge is going to be the serialization code and writing a format that is efficient to use, and that has good compression. I love these types of problems and can’t wait to begin programming a solution :).

Also I have been reading more about the XNA content pipeline, and writing custom extensions to this. With my library, and editor application I also think I am going to include a Content Extension to the XNA pipeline to support my map format. This will of course make handling these map objects in an XNA project much easier, and is not much work to write. I just find it very interesting how it all works.

I swear I can sit and read msdn articles, articles from other sources all day about different technologies, and implementations etc. and never get bored. I love programming <3 :)!