MS announces "XNA"

[Farid]

• CHRIS DONAHUE: What's the real magic David put in?
  
  LAURA FRYER: Well, let's drive and find out.
  
  J ALLARD: That's a cool software/hardware interface.
  
  J ALLARD: So these guys modeled like every part, right?
  
  CHRIS DONAHUE: Come on, David, we've got to work on this demo a little bit more.
  
  LAURA FRYER: All right. (Video effects.) (Cheers, applause.) That was awesome.
  
  CHRIS DONAHUE: So this is my little friend here. This is the guy that didn't use XNA. (Laughter.) Sorry.

On a (light) side note , am i the only one that think this presentation sounded like one of those 15mins commercials (infomercials).

Just like they switched the "classical" fruit juicer by some "revolutionary" middleware software.

The question is : can xna do cocktails?

 

[Megadrive1988]

Yep, but people still make that association because of the keynote today, and because MS did similar demos on the NV20 for the original XBox.

which *would* have been a GeForce 3 and therefore, almost the NV2A.

however, the first realtime demos used to show what was '2 generations' behind Xbox, was actually running on NV15 / GeForce 2 GTS. I am speaking of the butterfly & garden demo, the ping pong & mouse trap demo and the desk with computer (and toys iirc) demo. this was march of 2000, when NV15 / GeForce 2 GTS was brand new, not even on the shelves yet, and NV20 was still in development.

*just to reinforce Wunderchu's reply on this subject*

 

[Evildeus]

The car one had to be real time, I saw aliasing on more than one occasion.

That probably won't be an issue on real Xbox hardware...

I hope so. The XBox2 will be released in 2 years, i hope to see 4-8* AA and 8-32 AF everytime in every game, and no issues. Oherwise, it's lame.

 

[Farid]

...what was '2 generations' behind Xbox, was actually running on NV15 / GeForce 2 GTS

Yes , 1.5 or 2 generation behind.
But we shouldn't extrapolate from the first Xbox because this time , the time frame and the buisness model appears to be slightly different on Xboxnext.

 

[PC-Engine]

Anyone notice in the filmnoir demo, the robot waiter's propulsion glow pops in front of the girl's arm after it passes behind her? :?

 

[cybamerc]

The demos are nothing special. Standard stuff to show off new hardware. Only decent from a technical perspective and weak from an artistical perspective. And that XNA is somehow responsible for the graphics in those demos is nothing but PR babble of course.

 

[Hyp-X]

So XNA is ".NET for games"?

 

[lintec]

If most new games for Windows/Xbox are developed using a unified tool set, what's the reason to buy an Xbox? Odds are that PCs will still be a good bit more powerful when the next console comes out (or will surpass it within a year), and with HDTV out and being able to use the same controllers, it seems to me that Microsoft would need to lock down some really good Xbox-only titles without Windows releases in order for the console to be something worth having.

 

[Dave Glue]

If most new games for Windows/Xbox are developed using a unified tool set, what's the reason to buy an Xbox? Odds are that PCs will still be a good bit more powerful when the next console comes out (or will surpass it within a year), and with HDTV out and being able to use the same controllers, it seems to me that Microsoft would need to lock down some really good Xbox-only titles without Windows releases in order for the console to be something worth having.

In two years, the reasons will likely still be the same:

1) Cost. A single ATI R500-based card will likely cost the same as the Xbox Next. Remember the Geforce4 series came out _after_ the Xbox, PC GPU's were actually a little behind in some aspects at the Xbox launch.

2) Difficulty. Longhorn will probably improve this, but it will likely slip past the launch of Xbox Next. There's still no guarantee that your game will run without incident considering all the possible hardware combinations. You know 100% that an Xbox Next game will run on your console.

3) Portable. Play on your HDTV with friends around you. Smaller PC's are in vogue, but do you really want to lug around your $1000-$1500 Shuttle PC when you can just grab your $200-$300 Xbox Next?

 

[PC-Engine]

Well Xbox 2 will have 3 CPUs so to match that on the PC side it'll cost you an arm and a leg.

 

[NoD_Kane]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't XNA just going to be a sort of generic "latest direct x" engine that supports all the new features of the code in one package. That provides a standard and additional tweaking can go in.

However with these demos, it's just like the demos you get on your new video card, the technology looks great and things look unbelievable but seriously.. nothing looks like that in a real game. And it won't for years. And wtf was gabe newell doing there isn't he supposed to be finishing the dam hl2 engine. And why is he so excited about XNA if he is making his own engine. Since when did MS own him? (It's in the media section on the developer... basically it's a pitch to game developers to buy this Dev. Kit and it will save them time and money blah blah blah)

 

[Bjorn]

And wtf was gabe newell doing there isn't he supposed to be finishing the dam hl2 engine. And why is he so excited about XNA if he is making his own engine. Since when did MS own him? (It's in the media section on the developer... basically it's a pitch to game developers to buy this Dev. Kit and it will save them time and money blah blah blah)

XNA is just tools to develop games, not an engine.

And of course, those games are supposed to run on a Microsoft platform.

Q: What does Microsoft XNA offer gamers?
A: Better games, better experiences, faster. Microsoft XNA lays the groundwork for enhanced, more unified experiences, including a common controller that can be shared between the Windows PC and Xbox.

Q: What tools do developers get with XNA?
A: XNA tools will include DirectX and the High-Level Shader Language (HLSL), XACT, PIX and the Xaudio API, in addition to other development tools such as Visual Studio.

 

[Chris_Donahue]

• CHRIS DONAHUE: What's the real magic David put in?
  
  LAURA FRYER: Well, let's drive and find out.
  
  J ALLARD: That's a cool software/hardware interface.
  
  J ALLARD: So these guys modeled like every part, right?
  
  CHRIS DONAHUE: Come on, David, we've got to work on this demo a little bit more.
  
  LAURA FRYER: All right. (Video effects.) (Cheers, applause.) That was awesome.
  
  CHRIS DONAHUE: So this is my little friend here. This is the guy that didn't use XNA. (Laughter.) Sorry.

On a (light) side note , am i the only one that think this presentation sounded like one of those 15mins commercials (infomercials).

Just like they switched the "classical" fruit juicer by some "revolutionary" middleware software.

The question is : can xna do cocktails?

It slices, it dices, it chops and it grates! Look gents. the thing that most people seemed to have missed is the analogy to Win32 - think about the impact that Win32 has had over the last 10+ years... If we are even partially as effective with XNA as we were with Win32 the process of developing games is going to be changed significantly for the better. I have been in this industry for a long time - if anyone has cause to be cynical about this XNA thing it's me... but I'm not - I think in 5 years we are going to look back at this and see it as something that changed the way people build games... <carefully stepping down off his soapbox>

 

[Chris_Donahue]

The car one had to be real time, I saw aliasing on more than one occasion.

That probably won't be an issue on real Xbox hardware...

I hope so. The XBox2 will be released in 2 years, i hope to see 4-8* AA and 8-32 AF everytime in every game, and no issues. Oherwise, it's lame.

Aw yea it was real time... got the high score on that one too - though I'm not entirely sure how... I have yet to figure out the exact scoring method.

I have become intimately familiar with all of the demos and believe me they are all real time!

 

[Chris_Donahue]

Anyone notice in the filmnoir demo, the robot waiter's propulsion glow pops in front of the girl's arm after it passes behind her? :?

Do you have a day job? I didn't notice that and I know Eva personally...

 

[Chris_Donahue]

The demos are nothing special. Standard stuff to show off new hardware. Only decent from a technical perspective and weak from an artistical perspective. And that XNA is somehow responsible for the graphics in those demos is nothing but PR babble of course.

Ah young cynical padwan... unlearn you must. Not say did I that this was from XNA...

Remember, XNA is new - DirectX and much of the tech used by the guys that built the demos is a core part of what is XNA. Give us a few months to ship the first XNA-enabled SDKs and then let the real geniuses use them to make great games... you should know that all good technology is first ported to PowerPoint!

 

[nelg]

Note to self.....Never except a ride from Chris Donahue.

 

[Chris_Donahue]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't XNA just going to be a sort of generic "latest direct x" engine that supports all the new features of the code in one package. That provides a standard and additional tweaking can go in.

However with these demos, it's just like the demos you get on your new video card, the technology looks great and things look unbelievable but seriously.. nothing looks like that in a real game. And it won't for years. And wtf was gabe newell doing there isn't he supposed to be finishing the dam hl2 engine. And why is he so excited about XNA if he is making his own engine. Since when did MS own him? (It's in the media section on the developer... basically it's a pitch to game developers to buy this Dev. Kit and it will save them time and money blah blah blah)

You need to reread the info on XNA - we are not getting into the middelware business, we are relying on the middleware guys to continue to do the same great job they have always done. The reason Gabe was in the video was because he recognizes the power this can have - if we (meaning the entire games industry) pull this off we are going to revolutionize the process of developing games - that "better games, faster" tagline means great things for the gamer.

 

[Chris_Donahue]

Note to self.....Never except a ride from Chris Donahue.

Wooooohooooooo! Lemme drive!!!! Come on, we'll get there faster!!!


...or not

 

[nelg]

Note to self.....Never except a ride from Chris Donahue.

Wooooohooooooo! Lemme drive!!!! Come on, we'll get there faster!!!


...or not

Truth be told, I would not be scared at all. Did you noticed the Ontario licence plates on the car? We all drive like that here.