[Kilorn]

Yea, we've already known that XNA would not be supported for the Metro side of Windows 8, but the desktop side of Windows 8 still supports all existing XNA projects.

EDIT: It's still very disappointing and hopefully, as you said, Microsoft is working on XNA 5.0 or something similar to it secretly that will still allow us to use C# for the Metro side.

This post has been edited by Kilorn: 23 October 2012 - 05:38 AM

[modi123_1]

My guess is there's a new console on the way and that'll mean a new framework. Like XXNA (the extra X is for EXXXTREME!).

If anything I think there will be a new wrapper or path for DirectX. I've downloaded a few XNA games off Steam, but I never saw solid traction in the XBOX world.

Quote

Games written using DirectX can make use of the same DX/C++ code to program games that run on Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Xbox.

http://social.msdn.m...c-356893f23eb9/

[BBeck]

Kilorn, on 23 October 2012 - 06:37 AM, said:

Yea, we've already known that XNA would not be supported for the Metro side of Windows 8, but the desktop side of Windows 8 still supports all existing XNA projects.

EDIT: It's still very disappointing and hopefully, as you said, Microsoft is working on XNA 5.0 or something similar to it secretly that will still allow us to use C# for the Metro side.

I know MS has said that XNA 4.0 will only run inside the Desktop app. But I was really hoping that the plan was that they would move DirectX into the OS and that .Net would have direct access to DirectX. But what I'm hearing now is that you can't get to DirectX through .Net, but have to use C++ to do it even though I am hearing that DirectX is tied more closely into the OS. That seems a bit odd to me. I'm guessing there's some sort of work-around to call DirectX from .Net that they don't particualarly want to encourage people to use, much the same way that you can access DirectX from VB or C# in Windows 7.

Even more disappointing is the news that sound will not be supported from C#. That REALLY came as a suprise. That eliminates the posibility of doing 2D games in C# as well. Although, I know that Microsoft has said you can do C# with XAML to produce 2D games. So this seems on the surface to be conflicting information.

I hope you guys are right that Microsoft's got something in mind and is just keeping it ultra secret. It's hard to believe that their plan doesn't include C#. I mean, Microsoft has really pushed Managed code for several reasons including the fact that it increases app security by not allowing things like buffer overflow attacks. So, it's hard to believe that they don't want C# to be THE choice langage for Windows 8 development. And for business apps they seem to still be pushing C#.

Along those lines, it's also hard to believe that they don't see games as a major part of their strategy to capture the mobile market. It would seem to me that games are a huge chunk of the mobile app market. And likewise, it seems to me that a huge chunck of that is independant and small game developers. It's hard for me to believe that C# is not part of that strategy. On the other hand, no one has heard even a rumor of game support in C# for Windows 8 and we're a couple of days away from launch. I'm starting to get the impression that they only want professional (and typically large) game design teams developing in C++ and selling through their app store.

But maybe they're trying to keep their plans under wraps until Windows Phone 8 is released. I "hear" that that's this Friday. So maybe we'll hear something then. Or possibly, they have really put game development in C# on the back burner with the plans of picking it back up once the Windows 8 launch is "off the launch pad". I'm sure the marketing campaign for Windows 8 is a huge undertaking for Microsoft with so many changes all being launched at once and a marketing campaign to re-invent themselves.

Or maybe Modi's on to something and they are putting together a new framework for developing on the new XBox that will be the new XNA and we won't hear about it until the new XBox is released.

Anyway, I hope you guys are right about them having something up their sleeve.

[.Aaron]

Well guys, it's done: http://www.dreaminco...o-more-updates/

[BBeck]

.Aaron, on 01 February 2013 - 08:29 PM, said:

Well guys, it's done: http://www.dreaminco...o-more-updates/

Thanks for posting. I think we pretty much all knew it was dead after Windows 8 came out and made it clear that there was no real path for XNA developers in Win8. But it's good to finally hear it. It's nice to get some closure.

The big question is "What now?"

Personally, I've been busy with other things but hope to get back to the game programming stuff eventually. It's a lot less exciting doing XNA work when you know it's dead and its following will soon drop off and you'll be about the only person left using it. Certainly, few new developers are going to want to spend the time learning it just to have it go nowhere and become completely unsupported.

I mean it still does have a lot of value as a learning tool. I still think it's by far the best environment to learn game programming in. Any other option is likely to have such a steep learning curve that 99% of the would be developers are likely to drop out before they have any real success with 3D. It's not too terribly difficult to learn to do 2D DirectX in C++, but it's exceedingly hard to learn 3D that way.

I guess I'll keep at XNA for awhile since there are still several topics that I need to learn, but its difficult to get motivated on it when you know the community around it is dying out and it's not likely to even work on future operating systems.

This post has been edited by BBeck: 06 February 2013 - 06:50 AM

[Geogaddy]

What's wrong with using MonoGame? It's an open source implementation of XNA 4.0 that works on almost everything (except Xbox, of course). A number of games have already been made in MonoGame and released on multiple platforms.

The only thing it's missing right now is a content pipeline, which they're working on. But once that's done, there's really nothing to worry about.

The worst thing people can do right now is panic. Keep your blogs up, keep your tutorials up, and one day very, very soon, it'll all be relevant again. We don't want the knowledge we've acquired in the process of using XNA to vanish.

MonoGame has had tens of thousands of downloads, by the way. It's definitely worth keeping an eye on.

[BBeck]

There's certainly nothing wrong with working with Mono, if that's what you want to do. The main problem I see though is that XNA has no future. There will be no XNA 5. It won't really be supported going forward. There won't be any new instructional books. Most of the tutorial stuff will be drying up on the web (as in many cases it already has). [I'm letting my domain name XNA3D101.com expire here shortly and I've purchased the name VirtuallyProgramming.com to replace it; I'm looking at trying to go on without XNA and so wanted to shift the focus of the website away from XNA once I get back to working on it.] And most importantly, the community was already dying but now those who are left are certainly going to be on the fringes. I would be surprised if I found 20 people on the entire planet doing XNA a year from now. I know the forum has been nearly dead for months. You just can't get people excited about a dead platform even if there's some work around to keep it half alive.

Actually, you could just stay in Windows 7 forever to keep it alive. But the rest of the world will be moving on.

I'm certainly not happy to see the death of XNA, but sometimes you just have to let go. I've been trying to get Xubuntu Linux working to try and get away from Microsoft. I'm weighing the possibility of going in a Linux direction with maybe OpenGL. I actually stopped by the forum today just to see if maybe there would be a post saying "it was all a bad dream" and Microsoft actually IS going to release XNA 5. :-) As much trouble as I've had with getting Linux fully functional (running Windows software) I'm not seeing a whole lot of future for Linux either unless Microsoft totally cuts off PC users and becomes a mobile device, cloud computer, and business server company only (which it feels like that's exactly what they're trying to do albeit with poor results for them).

Anyway, I'm still trying to weigh my options and figure out where to go next, but I don't feel like Mono is a serious option for me. I would rather just go back to C++ if Mono is the only other option.

This post has been edited by BBeck: 31 March 2013 - 05:17 PM