Social Gaming with Windows Phone and Azure

Presented at TechEd South Africa 2011

Transcript

1. 17-20 OCTOBER 2011
   DURBAN ICC
   

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2. Submit your session
   evaluation for a
   chance to win!
   Sponsored by MVA
   http://microsoftvirtualacademy.com
   

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3. Social Gaming with
   Windows Phone and Azure
   Daron Yondem
   Chief Architect | DEVELOAD Software
   Microsof Regional Director
   Silverlight MVP
   INETA MEA President
   

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4. Daron Yöndem is
   • Silverlight MVP
   • Microsoft Regional Director for MEA
   • INETA MEA President
   • Book Author about HTML5, ASP.NET AJAX,
   Silverlight
   • Architect at DEVELOAD Software
   • Blog at http://daron.yondem.com
   

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5. DEVELOAD is
   • Consulting
   – Software architecture and design
   – Custom software development of Windows, Web
   Windows Phone, Azure and Silverlight applications
   – Mentoring services to get you started and keep you
   going
   • Web site: www.deveload.com
   

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6. You Are...
   • Interested in building WP7 Games
   • Wondering what Cloud computing can offer to
   help your serve millions of gamers?
   

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7. Let’s start with...
   • What Cloud computing can offer?
   • What we have in hand with Windows Azure?
   • What kind of integration scenarios can happen
   between WP7 and Azure.
   • How can Azure help me fascilitade building
   Social Games reacing millions of people?
   

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8. Why Phone + Cloud?
   • The cloud levels the playing
   field
   • The cloud provides a larger
   pool of resources from which
   to pull
   • The cloud provides a way to
   reach across device platforms
   

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9. Why WP7 and Windows Azure?
   • PaaS: you build it, Windows Azure runs it
   • Automatic O/S patching
   • Scalable
   • Utility billing
   • Additional services (e.g. ACS, Traffic
   Manager, Caching, CDN, etc.)
   • Common development tools
   – Visual Studio
   – Languages
   – Emulators for development
   

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10. Identity
    

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11. Identity Options
    • Create your own (e.g. username + password,
    token)
    – Custom model
    – ASP.NET Membership Providers
    • Use a single existing identity system (e.g. Live Id,
    Facebook, etc.)
    • Outsource identity management (e.g. Access
    Control Service)
    

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12. To learn more …
    Authenticating Users in a Windows Phone 7
    App via Access Control Service, OData
    Services and Windows Azure
    http://bit.ly/wp7acs
    

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13. Storage
    

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14. Storage
    • SQL Azure
    – Relational database
    – Highly available
    – Managed for you as a service
    • Windows Azure Tables
    – Non-relational structured storage
    – Massive scale-out
    – OData
    • Windows Azure Blobs
    – Big files
    – REST
    

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15. SQL Azure: OData Service
    • Client sends data to
    web role
    • Web role stores data
    in SQL Azure
    Web
    Role
    (1)
    (2)
    

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16. Windows Azure Blobs: Public Blobs
    • Client sends data to
    web role
    • Web role stores data
    in blobs
    • Client fetches public
    blobs directly
    Web
    Role
    (1)
    (2)
    (3)
    

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17. Windows Azure Blobs: SAS
    • Client gets Shared Access
    Signature from web role
    • Client stores data in
    blobs
    • Client fetches public
    blobs directly
    Web
    Role
    

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18. Windows Azure Tables: Proxy Calls
    • Client sends data to
    web role
    • Web role stores data
    in blobs
    Web
    Role
    

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19. Do not store your secrets on the phone
    

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20. Services
    

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21. Web Role versus Worker Role
    • Web Role has IIS
    • Worker Role does
    not
    – DLL with Main()
    • Both implement
    the
    RoleEntryPoint
    

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22. Scaling Work in Windows Azure
    1. Web role receives
    message
    2. Web role enqueues
    work
    3. Worker role polls
    queue
    4. Worker role sends
    notifications
    MPNS
    Worker
    Role
    Web
    Role
    (1)
    (2)
    (3)
    (4)
    

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23. Multitenancy
    • You can have more than one application
    running in your role instance
    

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24. Content Delivery Network
    CD
    N
    CD
    N
    CD
    N
    CD
    N
    CD
    N
    CD
    N
    

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25. Communications
    

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26. Communications
    • Two communication models
    – Phone-initiated
    – Cloud-initiated
    

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27. Phone-Initiated Communication
    Options
    • HTTP-based, request/response
    • Framework choices (WCF, OData, WebRequest,
    etc.)
    • Wire format choices (SOAP, JSON, POX, etc.)
    

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28. Cloud-Initiated Communication
    • Push Notifications
    – Single connection between phone and Microsoft Push
    Notification Service
    – Bandwidth- and battery-friendly
    – No guarantee of delivery
    • Three kinds of push notifications
    – Raw – send a message to an application
    – Toast – send a message to the user
    – Tile – update an image, title, or count
    

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29. Subscribing to Push Notifications
    • Phone opens a channel
    • Phone sends URL to
    cloud
    • Cloud pushes
    notifications via URL
    • Microsoft Push
    Notification service
    notifies phone
    MPNS
    Web
    Role
    

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30. Let’s go on with...
    • How can we build social games with
    Silverlight?
    • Performance Tips and Tricks
    

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31. First : Performance!
    

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32. Threading
    • UIThread
    – PerFrame Callbacks, Touch, Networking, User
    Code, Layout
    • RenderThread (Composition Thread)
    – Opacity, DoubleAnimations, Perspective
    Transforms, Rectangular Clips, RenderTransforms
    • Worker Threads
    

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33. • Application.Current.Host.Settings.
    • EnableFrameRateCounter = true;
    Fillrate
    

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34. Application.Current.Host.Settings.EnableRedrawRegions = true;
    

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35. Application.Current.Host.Settings.EnableCacheVisualization= true;
    

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36. Performance Strategy
    Minimize UI Thread Work
    Leverage Off-Thread
    Use the GPU
    Less is more!
    

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37. CacheMode = BitmapCache
    

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38. Visibility OR Opacity?
    

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39. JPEG or PNG?
    Faster Decoding
    Opacity
    

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40. XAML or Pictures?
    

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41. App Start-Up
    Delay Loading the Unneeded!
    Include applicationsplashscreen.jpg
    Use a splash screen
    

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42. DON’T!
    Non-rectangular clips Large textures
    ( > 2K pixels either way)
    Complex animations
    (e.g. ColorAnimation)
    Opacity mask
    

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43. Second: How To?
    

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44. Step 1 : Timer
    • CompositionTarget.Rendering
    – Frame Animations
    • DispatchTimer
    – It’s inside the UIThread
    • StoryBoard
    • System.Thread.Timer
    public partial class Page : UserControl
    {
    System.Threading.Timer Sayac;
    public Page()
    {
    InitializeComponent();
    Sayac = new System.Threading.Timer(Tick, TOP, 500, 500);
    }
    public void Tick(object sender)
    {
    ((Ellipse)sender).Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(delegate() { ((Ellipse)sender).Height +=
    1; });
    }
    }
    

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45. Step 2 : Graphics
    • 2D games easy to build inside Silverlight
    • What about 3D?
    – Kit3D - http://www.markdawson.org/kit3d/
    – Balder - http://www.codeplex.com/Balder
    – XNA!
    • You can create a whole new 3D world!
    

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46. Step 3 : Audio
    • Windows Media Audio and MP3 support.
    • XNA Libraries to play effects and wma files.
    • MediaElement can help you for background
    music.
    • You can even have live streams in your game!
    

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47. Final Step: Pyhsics
    • Farseer Pyhsics Engine
    – It’s for both Silverlight and XNA!
    – Includes helpers and behaviors easy to use inside
    Expression Blend!
    

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48. In Conclusion
    • Azure and Cloud
    – Helps us serve millions of gamers with web/worker
    roles, CDN, SQL Azure, Notification Services
    – Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone helps us there.
    • Performanca and tactics for WP7 game
    development
    – Composition Thread, DoubleAnimations, Performance
    Counter and so on.
    – Using Dispatcher and StoryBoards together.
    

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49. THANKS!!!
    daron@yondem.com
    http://daron.yondem.com
    

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50. Submit your session
    evaluation for a
    chance to win!
    Sponsored by MVA
    http://microsoftvirtualacademy.com
    

    View Slide