Anyone using Kodu?

[crc-ict]

Is anyone using Kodu in their schools?

 

Our ICT Department has started teaching it this half term, and we are finding it to be very crashy and having quite a lot of glitches.

 

I was wondering if anyone else has found the same, and if anyone has found a solution to improve it?

 

Cheers all.

[mats]

Looked at it and decided it was definitely not for KS1 or KS2.

[Guest Guest]

It's perfect for KS2. and I have been using it for 2 years now And I'm going to give it a go with KS1

[andyturpie]

We have just a few months ago created the network package for kodu, however not had any feedback good or bad as yet.

[sonofsanta]

Been playing with it a bit here (XP atm) and not had any problems - pushed the XNA framework out then the Kodu MSI and they've both been fine. Have to turn off the depth of field effects when running on the Intel graphics but not had any crashes.

 

Current plan is to get Year 7 started with it and lead into Scratch, the latter integrated with some funky Arduino board stuff (and probably Makey Makey when it's available)

[titch]

TBH I thought it was a no go for KS2 when I first fired it up but after 10 mins you realise that actually its dead easy to get into and has a lot you can extend it with. I find it a bit buggy also but if you go into the settings, turn down the resolution then unchecked most of the effects its runs pretty flawlessly on our netbooks with 1gb ram. I also make sure the kids dont add unneeded gumf to the worlds they create as this makes their game a bit laggy.

[Oaktech]

Is anyone using Kodu in their schools?

 

Our ICT Department has started teaching it this half term, and we are finding it to be very crashy and having quite a lot of glitches.

 

I was wondering if anyone else has found the same, and if anyone has found a solution to improve it?

 

Cheers all.

 

yes... we use it.

 

yes... it is buggy and crashy as.

 

yes... we've found it is markedly improved by running it on windows 7, i7 with 8gb ram (not practical, but it seems to fix most problems)

[AngryTechnician]

We run an after-school club here that is attended mostly by Year 5, and they are getting on great with it. We have found a few bugs, but usually they are triggered by specific things that we warn the pupils abut once we've figured it out.

[witch]

We have just started using it for year 4 - I installed it locally on each machine in the IT suite as I was warned that sometimes the remote install is a pain. The teacher loves it and so far we havent had any crashes or any issues at all.

The children find it really easy to use too.

[jago2k]

I have it in a few schools and the kids really enjoy using it a few have downloaded for the Xbox too

[garethEds]

If anyone feels they can contribute to a Kodu magazine in the style of MagPi (an amateur magazine for the Raspberry Pi) then please do get in touch either through twitter - @kodumag or by mailing [email protected]

 

The website isn't there yet but it will be www.kodumag.net

 

If you want to write an article or setup some problem solving tasks that would be great.

 

Gareth

[IrritableTech]

We've used it a bit on XP and the kids seem to like it.

 

The tip I was given to keep it running well was not to include any water. It kills anything but the best machines.

[jimmy_2k]

kudo deploys fine for me as long as the XNA Framework goes first. Also if your using Netsupport 9 or 10 ensure that this hasn't turned the 3D settings off (there is a registry fix for this)

[ricki]

HI

 

We use it and deploy it thought gpo but you have to deploy the prerepesites first. It does crash but the teachers love it and you have to deploy it to decent hardware otherwise the graphics card will not cope.

 

Richard

[JJonas]

Is anyone using Kodu in their schools?

 

Our ICT Department has started teaching it this half term, and we are finding it to be very crashy and having quite a lot of glitches.

 

I was wondering if anyone else has found the same, and if anyone has found a solution to improve it?

 

Cheers all.

 

Stable on the Xbox 360

 

Buy a class set of Xbox 360's?

[sonofsanta]

HI

 

We use it and deploy it thought gpo but you have to deploy the prerepesites first. It does crash but the teachers love it and you have to deploy it to decent hardware otherwise the graphics card will not cope.

 

Richard

 

If you turn off all the fancy guff - depth of field and bloom and what have you - it runs much better. 1st gen Core i3-550s will run it at 30fps at 1920x1080 once the fancy settings are off.

 

Settings stick to the computer not the user, iirc; the "configure" link is installed in the Start Menu and you can just copy that to your redirected start menu.

[zx2012]

We've been doing a KoduClub after school with Y4-Y6. They love it. We've even bought 8 XBox contollors for Windows too.

[MikeAtTrs]

hello - we have tried to deploy Kodu but have not been successful - even creating 2 group policies, one for the framework and a second for Kodu, but nothing, not even a failure is reported....is there a catch of some sort...or is there a particular way to package it or is there a proper downloadable msi? Thanks for any input

[Steve21]

hello - we have tried to deploy Kodu but have not been successful - even creating 2 group policies, one for the framework and a second for Kodu, but nothing, not even a failure is reported....is there a catch of some sort...or is there a particular way to package it or is there a proper downloadable msi? Thanks for any input

 

There's an msi for it.

 

Working fine with both XNA and Kodu using normal silent install through MSI here.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=10056 (Is the main Kodu one)

 

Steve

[TheScarfedOne]

Pushing it via sccm over the half term... as other say...msi, gotcha make sure framework deployed first

[MikeAtTrs]

Thanks 'steve21' and 'TheScarfedOne' for your quick responses, it has however worked on our desktops (wired), but not on our laptop trolley - it looks like I may have to start each laptop on the wire for this to work....:-(

[TheBinMan]

We've deployed Kodu and the pre-requisites and its working fine for the majority of pupils/staff. However, for some pupils it will hang at the starting up screen.

It is not the machine, as other pupils can log on and use it fine. So I am thinking there is something odd with certain pupils profiles. Anyone else had this problem or any ideas of where to start tracking down the problem?

[Steve21]

We had this similar before, and it was due to the shortcuts.

 

If the "Start In" location wasn't somewhere they could write back to it'd break.

 

May be different for you, but worth a check as that took us ages to fix

 

Steve

[TheBinMan]

Thanks Steve21, that seems to be the problem. Some machines have C:windows\TEMP as the Start In folder, others have the C:\users\*username*\appdata\local\temp as the start in location - but this seems to vary and I can't figure out why.

To get round it I'll ask the IT teacher to email pupils with the "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Research\Kodu Game Lab\Boku.exe" and get pupils to make a new shortcut on their desktop, this seems to work ok then. Though its a bit of a bodge at best!

[Steve21]

Thanks Steve21, that seems to be the problem. Some machines have C:windows\TEMP as the Start In folder, others have the C:\users\*username*\appdata\local\temp as the start in location - but this seems to vary and I can't figure out why.

To get round it I'll ask the IT teacher to email pupils with the "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Research\Kodu Game Lab\Boku.exe" and get pupils to make a new shortcut on their desktop, this seems to work ok then. Though its a bit of a bodge at best!

 

Just remember to point it somewhere like their homedrive, as that's the location it picks to save settings/games etc if it's saving to temp you might have a problem!

 

Steve