Smashing Buttons Tool Suite

The Smashing Buttons Tool Suite (SBTS) is a collection of software that every team member is required to have installed on their computer. The purpose of the SBTS is to provide a free (or low cost), standardized set of tools to facilitate the development of Smashing Buttons’ projects. The main components of the SBTS are Visual C# 2005 Express Edition and XNA Game Studio Express. Those two products are for development on Windows and Xbox 360, our targeted platforms. Additional software chosen has been researched and tested to make sure that it fits our development and collaboration needs. The SBTS is comprehensive meaning that once you finish installing all the tools, you will have everything you need to conduct development work, communicate effectively with the team, and connect to all team resources. The SBTS is compromised of the following software:

Installing the software is straightforward for the most part. Please though, take the time to read through the instructions below to make sure that all your software is configured properly and identically to the rest of the team. Ensuring that all team members have identical setups is important to avoid compatibility issues and unnecessary technical problems throughout the course of development.

And be sure to check out the Smashing Buttons Start Menu at the bottom of this page.

Visual C# 2005 Express Edition

Company: Microsoft
Website: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualcsharp/
Version #: 8.0 SP1

Description
This is a description of the software.

Installation Instructions

  1. Download Visual C# Express Edition.
  2. You have the option to install Microsoft MSDN 2005 Express Edition and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition x86 as optional components. Smashing Buttons does not require you to have these products, but it is recommended that you install them anyway.
  3. Choose an installation folder. The default will work for most people.
  4. After installation has been completed, make sure to register your software. Click on the Register Now link and use your Windows Live ID to obtain your registration key. Follow the onscreen instructions to finish registering your software.
  5. Return to the downloads page and click on Download Visual C# 2005 Express SP1 under the Download Additional Components section.
  6. Install Service Pack 1.
  7. You have successfully installed Visual C# 2005 Express Edition.

XNA Game Studio Express

Company: Microsoft
Website: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/directx/aa937791.aspx
Version #: 1.0 Refresh

Description
This is a description of the software.

Installation Instructions

  1. Download XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 Refresh.
  2. You have successfully installed XNA Game Studio Express.

WinCvs

Company: The CvsGui Team
Website: http://www.wincvs.org/
Version #: 2.0.2.4

Description
This is a description of the software.

Installation Instructions

  1. Download WinCvs.
  2. Make sure you download the installer for the latest recommended release.
  3. You will have to unzip the files. After you do that, launch the wincvs_setup.
  4. Choose an installation folder. The default will work for most people.
  5. On the Select Components screen, choose Full Installation. This will install everything except Deprecated, old Macros.
  6. On the Select Additional Tasks screen, leave Create a shell context menu checked. All other options are left to your discretion.
  7. After you complete installing WinCvs, you will be prompted to install CVSNT. Agree to this as it is required to execute CVS commands. This will launch cvsnt_setup.
  8. Choose an installation folder. The default will work for most people.
  9. On the Select Components screen, choose Full Installation. This will install everything.
  10. On the Select Additional Tasks screen, make sure that all three options are checked before continuing.
  11. After completing installation of CVSNT, you will be prompted to restart your computer. Do that now.
  12. We are not quite done yet. If you open WinCvs, you will be prompted to install Python 2.1 (or newer) unless you already happen to have Python. Python is required to use the shell.
  13. We will be installing Python 2.5.1. If you have an older version of Python installed, please upgrade.
  14. Download Python.
  15. Choose an installation folder. The default will work for most people.
  16. The default settings are fine on the Customize Python 2.5.1 screen.
  17. You will be prompted to restart your computer again after the Python installation is complete. Restart now.
  18. Now that Python is installed, open WinCvs again. Select Admin | Preferences. This will bring up the WinCvs Preferences. Select the WinCvs tab and click on the button to the right of the Python DLL prompt. Navigate to where you installed Python and click on the DLLs folder. Select tcl84.dll.
  19. You should see a message confirming that the shell is enabled.
  20. You have successfully installed WinCvs.

PuTTY Tools

Company: Simon Tatham
Website: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
Version #: 0.60

Description
PuTTY is a SSH, Telnet, and Rlogin client. Pageant is a PuTTY SSH authentication agent. PuTTYgen is a PuTTY SSH key generation utility.

Installation Instructions

  1. Download PuTTY (putty.exe).
  2. PuTTY is a non-installing application. It will run from the location that you save it to so be sure to save it somewhere convenient. It is recommended that you create a folder named PuTTY in your Program Files folder and save the application there.
  3. Repeat the above process for Pageant (pageant.exe) and PuTTYgen (puttygen.exe).
  4. You have successfully installed all the PuTTY Tools.

Blender

Company: The Blender Foundation
Website: http://www.blender.org/
Version #: 2.44

Description
Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

Installation Instructions

  1. Download Blender.
  2. Choose an installation folder. The default will work for most people.
  3. You have successfully installed Blender.

Graphics Editor

Company: Various
Website: Various
Version #: Various

Description
A graphics editor is necessary to create textures and other visual assets. Smashing Buttons does not endorse any particular graphics editor so you are free to choose whichever one you prefer. Depending upon your role within the team, you may not even need to have a graphics editor but more often than not, it is a good idea to have one.

The only requirement for image graphics editors used in Smashing Buttons is that it must support the following XNA-compatible image file formats:

  • Microsoft Windows Bitmap (.bmp)
  • Joint Photographic Experts Group (.jpg)
  • Portable Network Graphics (.png)
  • Truevision Targa (.tga)

The following image file formats are supported by the XNA framework, but are not required to be supported by your selected graphics editor:

  • DirectDrawSurface (.dds)
  • Microsoft Windows Bitmap (.dib)
  • High Dynamic-Range (.hdr)
  • Portable Float Map (.pfm)
  • Portable Pixmap (.ppm)

Recommended Graphics Editors
If you do not have prior experience with any graphics editors, do not have a preferred graphics editor, or are just looking for some new options, check out the following popular choices:

Installation Instructions

Not available.

Windows Live Messenger

Company: Microsoft
Website: http://get.live.com/messenger/overview
Version #: 8.1

Description
This is a description of the software.

Installation Instructions

  1. Download Windows Live Messenger.
  2. You will be given the opportunity to install additional features and settings. None of them are required.
  3. You have successfully installed Windows Live Messenger.

TeamSpeak

Company: TeamSpeak Systems
Website: http://www.teamspeak.com/
Version #: 2.0.32.60

Description
TeamSpeak is a quality, scalable application which enables people to speak with one another over the Internet. TeamSpeak consists of both client and server software. The server acts as a host to multiple client connections, capable of handling literally thousands of simultaneous users. This results in an Internet based teleconferencing solution that works in a variety of applications such as team mates speaking with one another while playing their favorite online game, small businesses cutting costs on long distance charges, or for personal communication with friends and family.

Installation Instructions

  1. Download TeamSpeak 2 Client.
  2. Choose an installation folder. The default will work for most people.
  3. Once TeamSpeak 2 Client installation is complete, download TeamSpeak 2 Server.
  4. Choose an installation folder. The default will work for most people.
  5. You have successfully installed TeamSpeak.

Smashing Buttons Start Menu

start_menu_small.png

The Smashing Buttons Tool Suite (SBTS) contains a lot of software that you will be using often. This means that you’ll want easy access to everything you just finished installing and the team’s online resources. Just add a Smashing Buttons folder to your Start Menu (under All Programs) and add shortcuts as modeled in the tree below. Quick access is now available to everything you need when working on a Smashing Buttons project!

  • Smashing Buttons
    • Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
    • WinCvs
    • Blender
    • Graphics Editor
    • Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express (subfolder)
      • Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT)
      • XACT Auditioning Utility
      • XNA Framework Remote Performance Monitor for Xbox 360
      • XNA Game Studio Express Command Prompt
      • XNA Game Studio Express Documentation
    • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (subfolder)
      • Configuration Tools (subfolder)
        • SQL Server Configuration Manager
        • SQL Server Error and Usage Reporting
        • SQL Server Surface Area Configuration
    • PuTTY Tools (subfolder)
      • PuTTY
      • Pageant
      • PuTTYgen
    • Collaboration Tools (subfolder)
      • Windows Live Messenger
      • TeamSpeak 2 Client
      • TeamSpeak 2 Server
    • Web Resources (subfolder)
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License.