Microsoft releases Visual Studio Live and other XNA Tech

[c0_re]

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/10507...Server-Platform-to-Developers-and-Publishers/

here's a smal snippit

"This community technology preview (CTP) represents the first public opportunity for game developers to get their hands on key components of XNA Studio. Included in the CTP is a pre-release version of XNA Build, which delivers mechanisms for orchestrating, debugging and optimizing the game build pipeline. XNA Build also provides studios with a foundation that helps them easily identify game asset relationships and dependency information to unlock a wealth of benefits, ranging from incremental content builds to assistance in identifying orphaned or unused content. Tools such as XNA Build enable game developers to spend less time building and maintaining their internal tools infrastructure, and more time creating great game experiences."

for the rest follow the link above

 

[NavNucST3]

I think the Server release is the most intriguing, maybe devs can now include features that they/gamers want. I have heard often that Live "just doesn't support" xxx, maybe this is what they needed to be able to include certain things, like 64 player multi, or clans or whatever else, gamers are looking forward to.

 

[c0_re]

I think the Server release is the most intriguing, maybe devs can now include features that they/gamers want. I have heard often that Live "just doesn't support" xxx, maybe this is what they needed to be able to include certain things, like 64 player multi, or clans or whatever else, gamers are looking forward to.

Hope so that sure would be nice, I"M pretty confident Live will just keep getting better and better like it has

 

[AlNom]

Why is C# important here (advantages/disadvantages to using it? What does it have or allow that other C languages don't?)

 

[Trawler]

Why is C# important here (advantages/disadvantages to using it? What does it have or allow that other C languages don't?)

C# coders are a dime a dozen. You'll find all the performance related parts of a game will still be coded in either C or C++, but mayhaps developers will get in a few C# monkeys to work at higher level/non performance critical parts of the codebase.

Does the 360 support the .Net framework? Or is this more a PC specific 'feature'?

 

[heliosphere]

It's not C# so much as the .NET runtime. It gives you garbage collection, easy interoperability between languages, reflection, decent performance (for non-native code), good tool support, extensive libraries and overall a productive development environment. C# is the most used language for .NET because it was designed in tandem with the runtime and so arguably offers the easiest / cleanest way to write code for .NET.

 

[ERP]

Why is C# important here (advantages/disadvantages to using it? What does it have or allow that other C languages don't?)

Basically the idea is that it gives you a fast clean environmrnt to iterate in.

A lot of games use purpose built scripting languages and none of them have as nice an environment to work/debug in.

But I'd imagine the primary target of this tech is likely the simple games on Live Arcade, why bother with C++ for Hexus?

 

[Asher]

C# coders are a dime a dozen. You'll find all the performance related parts of a game will still be coded in either C or C++, but mayhaps developers will get in a few C# monkeys to work at higher level/non performance critical parts of the codebase.

As ERP said, I think C# is largely for the benefit of XBLA games which usually aren't performance-sensitive. C# is pretty easy to get simple things up and running with.

 

[Trawler]

As ERP said, I think C# is largely for the benefit of XBLA games which usually aren't performance-sensitive. C# is pretty easy to get simple things up and running with.

So I take it there is a version of the Framework available for the 360 if you can use .Net languages for XBLA games? That's all I wanted to know...

 

[Inane_Dork]

But I'd imagine the primary target of this tech is likely the simple games on Live Arcade, why bother with C++ for Hexus?

Exactly. C# would make XBLA even more attractive. I wonder what kind of optimization MS has put into the .NET framework for the 360.

 

[repi]

Exactly. C# would make XBLA even more attractive. I wonder what kind of optimization MS has put into the .NET framework for the 360.

There is no .NET framework and C# for the 360. XNA tech is offline on the PC where C# makes a lot of sense.

Would be nice tough if they would port C# and the CLR (common language runtime) to 360 as long as it is efficient enough so it can be used for high-level code such as gameplay

 

[Asher]

There is no .NET framework and C# for the 360. XNA tech is offline on the PC where C# makes a lot of sense.

Would be nice tough if they would port C# and the CLR (common language runtime) to 360 as long as it is efficient enough so it can be used for high-level code such as gameplay

The XNA Framework is a custom implementation of the .NET framework.

So yes, the .NET Framework exists now on the Xbox 360 in the form of the XNA Framework. This is how C# is supported on the Xbox 360.

Edit: From the press release:

The XNA Framework contains a custom implementation of the Microsoft. .NET Framework and new game-development-specific libraries designed to help game developers more easily create cross-platform games on Windows and Xbox 360 using the highly productive C# programming language.

 

[pipo]

I've posted related info here: http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showpost.php?p=722745&postcount=4

 

[pipo]

Blim^2 has some demo pics up: http://xboxyde.com/news_2683_en.html

 

[AlNom]

Thanks for the answers, guys.

 

[Inane_Dork]

Would be nice tough if they would port C# and the CLR (common language runtime) to 360 as long as it is efficient enough so it can be used for high-level code such as gameplay

Well then, I guess it's nice.

C# is really handy for some things. I'm quite interested in seeing how it works out.

 

[repi]

The XNA Framework is a custom implementation of the .NET framework.

So yes, the .NET Framework exists now on the Xbox 360 in the form of the XNA Framework. This is how C# is supported on the Xbox 360.

Edit: From the press release:

Excellent, I missed that very important part of the press release

Would love to try to port some of our high-level systems to C# on the 360. But for it to be widely adopted in the games industry a PS3 version would be needed which could be quite complicated because more limited hardware environment (running C# on a SPU, don't think so).

I wonder how efficient and slimmed Mono can be made

 

[Miksu]

It seems that Microsoft also released Mech Commander 2's source code: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=382580