XNA/ Managed Directx Video PLZ!!!

I imagine its because of E3 that we are not getting it any time soon. There was some information on it around GDC along with a site update and videos (not channel nine though)and as if it wasn't enough we got treated to an early release of XNA studio and the open source code of mech warrior 2 After all this why am I complaining? well there are still some questiones left unanswered..where are there games being made for XBox360 using managed directx....Opening up Xboxlive to third party servers(what are the requirements?) but the question that has been nagging me the most is about Directx10 and Avalon are we really going to learn 2 APIs to do roughly the same thing (3D interfaces and interaction) or there is an underlining conncetion(excluding Directplay input and stuff)?

I would also like to see a video about XNA.
What i really wanna know about, is the development fase of the game. Not all the compiling stuff. But the code(The framework)

I would like a deeper explanation on this:

"Developers need a better way to make games and manage the production process," said Chris Satchell, general manager of the Game Developer Group at Microsoft. "XNA Studio enables all developers - from major development studios to the two guys moonlighting on a dream project in their garage or dorm room - to create games in new, more efficient ways."

a while back I found some intresting sites/projects written in MDX/Managed DirectX

Great Tutorial (for bare minimum game dev):
http://www.kalme.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=4&id=14&Itemid=26

MDX 3D Tutorials:
http://www.mdxinfo.com/tutorials.php

News and Community Site:
http://www.thezbuffer.com

This won't really help in any asset managment issues in game development but its a start for anyone intrested in MDX.

I made a small post in my Blog for some Quick links for XNA, I know that some of them are old articles but the purpose was to start collecting resources about the XNA Framework and related systems.

Also here are some more Additions,

GDC Presentations on Microsoft Developer Centre
My Blog Category for XNA, with Several Posts.

Posts on XNA and MDX2
http://blogs.msdn.com/al_msft/archive/2006/03/20/555065.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/tmiller/archive/2006/03/20/556105.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/briankel/
http://blogs.msdn.com/mklucher/

Ive been asking for DirectX videos for just about forever now.

DoomBringer wrote:

Ive been asking for DirectX videos for just about forever now.

Semi off-topic, but the new April 2006 DirectX sdk was released today:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7AB978B5-5F1A-4F6A-88EB-FC646138BECA&displaylang=en

andur good to know...been playing around with the Feb release for a while now, I have got an Imate pocket PC lying around and have been wondering about cross platform dev of this system....hmmm a real quick test would be to port the Yaboc game as a smart device solution and try to run it...as I mentioned there is a ch9 video about Managed DirectX running on a pocket PC.

now if only I can find that elusive free time...ahh sleep I shall miss thee

Thanks Charles.

If its possible can you keep these points in mind (unless the interview is already done)

Be blunt, the XNA team claims it can be used to develop for any platform....so what do you need, to use it for PS3/PSP/REV games development

What are the things to keep in mind while developing a cross platform .Net game Vista/XP/360/Tablet etc...

What do you recommend to a dev team working on a shoe-string buget in hopes of releasing an xbox live arcade game?




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ok random tech question for the rest of us c9'ers
in Managed Direct.Input:
DeviceTypeScreenPtr......thats the touch screen enumeration?
I got this kickstart Managed DX book but its got nothing on touch screens from what I can tell....MS is pushing pocket pc game dev and while MDX is still in beta it would be nice to have that around...
It could be something I over looked

When Microsoft says "any platform", ...

Kerberos Mansour wrote:

Be blunt, the XNA team claims it can be used to develop for any platform....so what do you need, to use it for PS3/PSP/REV games development

actually what the said was non-MS platforms so I just wanted to know what they had in mind and how

Too many things to answer in one thread.

1. XNA is the overall strategy.

2. XNA framework is the the managed library that will replace Managed DirectX and will run on the PC and other platforms. Right now the only other platform is an Xbox360 dev kit. Will it run on a normal xbox 360? Its not been announced but since dev kits are pricey and impossible to get hold of unless you are a developer what do you think? I've never seen any other platforms claimed - if you have a reputable source send a link

3. XNA Build is a build tool and was on th GDC download with mech warrior

4. XNA studio is VS Team System with game developer enhancements. Not much public on this that I have seen.

5. Requirements for xbox 360 - nothing public. Watch http://www.thezbuffer.com I will have all the news there when it is announced.

6. What will the code look like? Probably very like managed directx today - though nothing is public there.

7. Videos - http://www.thezbuffer.com/articles/376.aspx has a video, the other XNA framework demos just have screen shots http://xboxyde.com/news_2683_en.html. From what I know the XNA framework team is still a ways from showing anything publically so C9 will proably have to wait a while

8. Direct3D 10 and 9. Yes you have to learn 2 APIs for a period of time. However D3D10 isn't that much of a change. If you can do one you can do the other. XNA framework is D3D9 (since thats what is on the 360 I doubt this will change in the short term)

zman  thanks for your reply, I have looked at the XNA annoucement before this thread (including the 2 videos the XNA studio preview and mechwarrior source though did not go through that),

anyways what I was wanted to know and is still unanswered was how do u develop games using xna studio for none MS platforms (which is stated in the videos)?

also the dreaded performance difference between managed and none managed code or to be more specific the control you have over hardware depending the software enviroment you use.

there are also questions about directx 10 in the sense how much of it is supported in xbox360 already (I know nothing about it) but from the sdks that are comming out it seems like a work in progress so what do we expect if we work on that from now specificly?

ok and lets all forget all that...propritary software..it has been a staple in game development for AGES and I doubt it will change as long as the cutting/bleeding edge exsists I know its part of a previous question but can developers harness the  power of the hardware using XNA as they would on their own using the tried and true c++ (ok not as much but obviously simpler i hope) 

hey! speaking of which has anyone done an actual perfromance test between .net and Java or other managed code paltforms?

I would love to see a perfromance test between these, say c# vs java using roughly the equivilantcy code. (maybe J# is a better example) is there such a thing as a tomssoftware site?

the main advantage java has is it has been embraced over time as a cross platform development enviroment, however even though .net is an open standard and java isn't it has not been that popular on none MS platforms, I understand the lack of trust from the enthusianst community, but for research and business purposes which is more reliable?

Charles wrote:

We'll dig into XNA. Stay tuned.

C

Non MS platforms: I have no idea. Which video do they say that? Do they actually say 'non MS platforms' or do they say 'cross platform'. Right now it seems that 'cross platform' means PC, Xbox & Xbox360

Managed: If you are asking about the 'dreaded performance difference', thenI have to assume you are basing that on heresay and bad forum posts. Yes its slowly, but not by much. I'm not claiming you could write the top 50 AAA titles using it since they are perf tuned beyond what most programmers could do, but the rest of the games out there you probably wouldn't notice other than the fact they took less time to develop and crashed less often.

D3D10: I've seen nothing to say it will be supported on xbox360. Source? Statew of SDK - its called a beta becuase its not finished. There is no hardware yet so anything you do until then is purely investigative and a learning experience.

Proprietry Software: I'm not really sure what you are asking here. XNA framework should be just as good , if not better, than Managed DirectX today. Sure its proprietry but MS have product to sell.

Jave vs C#: I have no idea on the perf.