I'm writing a game in XNA 4.0 (my first huge computer game for both XNA and C#), and one of the things I wanted to do for the main menu was add a snow effect because the game is called Tundra and a tundra is a cold and snowy place and, well, I think you get the idea. I thought it looked pretty cool when it was done, and figured maybe the function I created could be used for something else by somebody else, so here it is!

First, for ease, what I did was create two public properties to be equal to the width and height of the game window. Basically, it looked like this:
private int w, h;
public int Width { get { return this.w; } }
public int Height { get { return this.h; } }

protected override void Initialize()
{
    this.w = this.Window.ClientBounds.Width;
    this.h = this.Window.ClientBounds.Height;

    //There's more code in here, just not needed for this tutorial
}
Just try to remember to not assign to h or w

After that, I made some variables all dealing with the snow. I made them private because I'm more than likely not going to use them specifically outside of my method to draw the snow, but you can feel free to make them public.
private Point[] snow = new Point[225];  //You can increase/decrease this number depending on the density you want
private bool isSnowing = false;           //I only set this to true (so far) in the main menu
private Texture2D snowTexture;           //Our texture for each snow particle. I'll attach mine, though it's very simple
private Point quitPoint;                       //The point at which we need to recycle the snow particle
private Point startPoint;                     //The point where the snow particle gets recycled to
private Random random;                    //Will be used for generating new random numbers
For quitPoint and startPoint, we'll only be using their Y-coordinate.

Now, go to the LoadContent method. Here we'll load the snow's texture as well as the quit and start points. If you do these points in Initialize, you'll get a NullReference error because XNA calls LoadContent after Initialize (in case you didn't know).
protected override void LoadContent()
{
    //Load our texture. I placed it in a folder called "Textures," if you don't put it in any folder, don't use "Textures\\"
    //or if you use a different folder, replaces Textures with its name.
    this.snowTexture = this.Content.Load<Texture2D>("Textures\\snow");

    //Set the snow's quit point. It's the bottom of the screen plus the texture's height so it looks like the snow goes completely off screen
    this.quitPoint = new Point(0,
        this.Height + this.snowTexture.Height);

    //Set the snow's start point. It's the top of the screen minus the texture's height so it looks like it comes from somewhere, rather than appearing
    this.startPoint = new Point(0,
        0 - this.snowTexture.Height);
}

If you want to be exactly like me, somewhere in your code, make a method called DrawSnow that doesn't take any parameters. We'll come back to that in a second. Head on over to your draw function and call DrawSnow between where you begin and end the sprite batch. Also, change the clear color from CornFlowerBlue to White.

Now for the meat and potatoes of this tutorial!

I'm just going to copy and paste my code, but I'm adding comments that will tell you what's going on.
public void DrawSnow()
{
    //If it's not supposed to be snowing, exit
    if (!isSnowing)
        return;

    //This will be used as the index within our snow array
    int i;

    //NOTE: The following conditional is not exactly the best "initializer."
    //If snow has not been initialized
    if (this.snow[0] == new Point(0, 0))
    {
        //Make the random a new random
        this.random = new Random();

        //For every snow particle within our snow array,
        for (i = 0; i < this.snow.Length; i++)
            //Give it a new, random x and y. This will give the illusion that it was already snowing
            //and won't cluster the particles
            this.snow[i] = new Point(
                (random.Next(0, (this.Width - this.snowTexture.Width))),
                (random.Next(0, (this.Height))));
    }

    //Make the random a new random (again, if just starting)
    this.random = new Random();

    //Go back to the beginning of the snow array
    i = 0;

    //Begin displaying the snow
    foreach (Point snowPnt in this.snow)
    {
        //Get the exact rectangle for the snow particle
        Rectangle snowParticle = new Rectangle(
            snowPnt.X, snowPnt.Y, this.snowTexture.Width, this.snowTexture.Height);

        //Draw the snow particle (change white if you want any kind of tinting)
        this.spriteBatch.Draw(this.snowTexture, snowParticle, Color.White);

        //Make the current particle go down, but randomize it for a staggering snow
        this.snow[i].Y += random.Next(0, 5);

        //Make sure the point's location is not below quit point's
        if (this.snow[i].Y >= this.quitPoint.Y)
            //If it is, give it a random X value, and the starting point variable's Y value
            this.snow[i] = new Point(
                (random.Next(0, (this.Width - this.snowTexture.Width))),
                this.startPoint.Y);

        //Increment our position in the array ("go to the next snow particle")
        i++;
    }
}

Voila! You now have snow in your program! If you need something explained more, feel free to ask. If you have imporvements, say so and I'll add them. If you want to use this somewhere (not necessarily in C#/XNA), feel free to go ahead and do so! In this, I only change the Y position of the snow particles. If you want to do something with the X to make it more realistic, go right ahead.

I've attached a gif of what it looks like in Tundra but thanks for your time

P.S. - If this is in the wrong category, please move it to the appropriate one. I've had problems with that in the past lol

So I'm not really a great fan of the gothic subgenre myself (I'm more into the deathcore/metalcore stuff if you look at my sig), but evidently I felt something click with this band (probably the vocals). I didn't remember I had them until just now whilst cleaning out my 3,000-some songs library.

I've been searching for these two videos for the last two years... Soooo glad I found them again! Take the 14 or so minutes and watch them.

I'm working on an IDE and the first thing I want to tackle/complete is the text editor. Right now I'm working on the syntax highlighting part of it. Strings highlight perfectly, and so do keywords. However, the part where it un-highlights keywords that have been partially deleted seems to not want to cooperate.

Here's my code, for anyone who thinks they can help, or just wants to take a peek at it
(I comment a lot, so it should be fairly easy to understand)

 I just have some questions about web hosting (in case you couldn't tell by the title ).

• If a host supports MySQL, does that necessarily mean they support ASPX as well?
• If the host says "unlimited domains," does that mean one could have hai1.com, hai2.com, etc. and hosting for each domain?
• Who's the best hoster for having both a personal and a semi-public* site? (FatCow, iPage, HostGator,etc.)

*Two sites (at least). The personal would just be for family and friends, and the semi-public would be advertised.

I'm writing my first major Axe program and I noticed that the speed isn't much faster than BASIC. Is this because my TI-84+ is too old?

Hello everyone! Even if you're not reading this, hello!

I'm BlakPilar, in case you didn't know that. However, this little forum post is for you! Yes, you! Not that chick down the hall, or that dude on the other side of the room- you. I'm working on a project called TBEXE (+1 if you can guess what it is without reading on.) It will allow anyone who decides to try it out to take their boring, old, bland .8xp programs and turn them into full-fledged executable programs for use on any Windows machine! With full access to color and processor speed! Yay!

Right now TBEXE is still very much in its infancy, which is the perfect time for me to be doing this kind of poll. I want you to ask yourself and anyone else who you think might download and/or use TBEXE when it is released what you would want in it. I want your ideas because I want to make this a lasting program that many people will use. Heck, if enough people want it, I'll draw a purple dinosaur and throw that in there. TBEXE is a program made by me, for you.

I have some obvious, common features planned, such as syntax highlighting, auto-complete/intellisense, code snippets, a WinForms designer (like the one in Visual Studio), plugin support, and possibly theme support. I have little to no creativity in my mind and I can't really think of any other features besides those aforementioned. Oh, of course you can also import and export as a .8xp, but some command syntax will be changed, not all commands will be supported when exporting to .exe, and some commands/functionality will be added.

So um... Yeah. Gimme suggestions

--EDIT--
If you still don't understand what this is, here's a simple explanation:
I take your calculator-only .8xp programs and turn them into fully-functional .exe programs so you can use your calculator programs on the computer WITHOUT the need of an emulator. With the resulting executable file, you will be able to do everything with a normal computer program that the calculator can do with a calculator program. See EDIT³ if you're still confused.

--EDIT²--
TBEXE will be completely open-source! I'll be hosting it on Codeplex (and maybe here if I get the privilege >.>) as soon as it's ready for Alpha testing.

--EDIT³--
TBEXE will only support BASIC .8XPs. If you try to open an ASM compiled program, you'll get the same result as if you tried editing the same program on-calc after unlocking it using MirageOS or something similar. Because of the plugin support, if someone wants to write a plugin to handle decompiling of those ASM programs, go right ahead.

I probably left some stuff out  (I wrote EDIT³ quickly from my Zune HD), so if I did, just ask me and I'll get to you. Also, don't forget to give me suggestions! Thanks!