Thread: Microsoft XNA Game Studio

  1. #1
    l'Anziano DavidP's Avatar
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    Microsoft XNA Game Studio

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/XNA/default.aspx

    My friend just sent me a link to the XNA Game Studio Express, released as a free download by Microsoft, and to be used with C#.

    Has anybody had experience using this? Know its features? What kind of things you are capable of doing with it? Etc?

    Just wondering about it.

    I am actually having a problem with it from the start. I have Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional installed on my machine (which of course includes MS Visual C# 2005), and the XNA Game Studio Express absolutely forces you to have C# 2005 Express!

    I thought to myself...so why can't I use C# 2005 Professional? It's just as good, even better!

    Installation of XNA Game Studio Express will fail and exit if you dont have C# Express on your computer...even if you have another version of C# 2005...

    Oh well...so anyways, discuss and comment if you have the desire of trying out the product or have tried it out.
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  2. #2
    carry on JaWiB's Avatar
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    I messed around with it a little bit...There didn'tseem to be a lot of documentation, and I'm not very familiar with C# (not to mention I got busy with school stuff), so I didn't get too far.
    "Think not but that I know these things; or think
    I know them not: not therefore am I short
    Of knowing what I ought."
    -John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671)

    "Work hard and it might happen."
    -XSquared

  3. #3
    For Narnia! Sentral's Avatar
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    It doesn't do 3D sound, and doesn't have any networking capabilities yet.
    Videogame Memories!
    A site dedicated to keeping videogame memories alive!

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    Share your experiences with us now!

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  4. #4
    Insane Game Developer Nodtveidt's Avatar
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    I can't even figure out how to get started with the thing. I don't even know how to start an application. The documentation SUCKS and there's virtually no decent tutorials or demo code online...I've looked and looked and looked and have come back empty-handed every time. I'd REALLY like to get into it but without knowing what's what, it's next to impossible so my time is better spent elsewhere...
    Code:
    cout << "Language comparisons are dumb";
    echo("Language comparisons are dumb");
    PRINT "Language comparisons are dumb"
    alert ("Language comparisons are dumb")

  5. #5
    l'Anziano DavidP's Avatar
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    Have you tried installing it? I admit that there is not much to be found online, but once installed, the documentation that comes with it is fairly explanatory.

    I am not a big C# user yet...I havent taken the time to get to know the language too well because I havent had the time, so I don't plan on using this tool any time in the immediate future, but once I find the time to learn C# to a greater extent I think I will definitely use this tool to some extent.
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    "Circular logic is good because it is."

  6. #6
    Insane Game Developer Nodtveidt's Avatar
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    Unhappy

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidP
    Have you tried installing it?
    That's gotta be the silliest question I've seen asked on this forum...I've obviously installed it. :P The documentation it comes with won't help much if you can't even get started. I looked through the terribly flaky tutorials and I can't even find a program entry point. When I say "get started", I'm talking about the absolute basics...where's the main() or similar? I saw nothing like that in any of the sample code. I'm not exactly a novice here either so I don't know what I'm missing. So how the *%#@$^ do you know how to even start a program? Once that minor detail is out of the way, the rest should be easy.
    Code:
    cout << "Language comparisons are dumb";
    echo("Language comparisons are dumb");
    PRINT "Language comparisons are dumb"
    alert ("Language comparisons are dumb")

  7. #7
    Registered User marrk's Avatar
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    > The documentation SUCKS
    I have to agree with this
    >there's virtually no decent tutorials or demo code online...
    There is plenty of them, if you check out tomorrow there will be let's say 10 more
    > I'm talking about the absolute basics...where's the main() or similar?
    Just look a little bit closer

  8. #8
    For Narnia! Sentral's Avatar
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    It does come with examples to learn from. They expect you to have atleast SOME knowledge of C#. If you know some, you can figure it out from the examples and various tutorials.
    Videogame Memories!
    A site dedicated to keeping videogame memories alive!

    http://www.videogamememories.com/
    Share your experiences with us now!

    "We will game forever!"

  9. #9
    l'Anziano DavidP's Avatar
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    main() was fairly simple to find for me...and their explanations weren't complicated either
    My Website

    "Circular logic is good because it is."

  10. #10
    Insane Game Developer Nodtveidt's Avatar
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    Warning: Rant ahead.

    Oh I see...it creates a ton of different (and USELESS) files, and main() gets shoved someplace other than where it should be and on top of that, looks completely useless anyways. Oi, what an unnecessarily overcomplicated pile of monkey dung. I think I'll stick with a sane compiler, and an IDE that, first of all, doesn't lag worse than an FPS on dialup and second of all, doesn't try to load a bunch of crappy "news updates" that I don't give a damn about every time it's started up.

    Rant over.
    Code:
    cout << "Language comparisons are dumb";
    echo("Language comparisons are dumb");
    PRINT "Language comparisons are dumb"
    alert ("Language comparisons are dumb")

  11. #11
    For Narnia! Sentral's Avatar
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    This looks kinda cool: http://www.xnamagic.com/
    Videogame Memories!
    A site dedicated to keeping videogame memories alive!

    http://www.videogamememories.com/
    Share your experiences with us now!

    "We will game forever!"

  12. #12
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    It's a sad attempt by Microsoft to make C# do what Java could never do - make modern 3D games. Problem is that C# is really not suited to it either and so this attempt will probably fall flat. C/C++ and assembly along with shaders will probably be the norm for game code for quite some time into the future. I for one see no reason to replace C/C++ b/c it gets the job done and it does it well.

    I don't like where we are going with computers. We have more horsepower than ever before and so we attempt to fix things that simply are not broken. So we have faster computers and slower and slower apps and games. Anyone see a problem?

    Two words. Wasted horsepower. Let's see how much BS we can cram into an OS to simply waste horsepower.

  13. #13
    Insane Game Developer Nodtveidt's Avatar
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    A-freakin-men, Bubba.

    Almost 30 years ago, Bill Gates said "640k ought to be enough for anyone". Now, people are saying "640MB aren't enough for anyone".
    Code:
    cout << "Language comparisons are dumb";
    echo("Language comparisons are dumb");
    PRINT "Language comparisons are dumb"
    alert ("Language comparisons are dumb")

  14. #14
    In the Land of Diddly-Doo g4j31a5's Avatar
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    Can it be used in Linux?
    ERROR: Brain not found. Please insert a new brain!

    “Do nothing which is of no use.” - Miyamoto Musashi.

  15. #15
    Insane Game Developer Nodtveidt's Avatar
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    No. But I'm sure some clever hacker will make a way for it to work in Linux someday anyways.
    Code:
    cout << "Language comparisons are dumb";
    echo("Language comparisons are dumb");
    PRINT "Language comparisons are dumb"
    alert ("Language comparisons are dumb")

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