Garage Games using XNA framework?

#1 Hehe.

managed game code? what for?

managed server applications
managed web applications
managed desktop applications
sure why not?

but why managed game code?
what for?

#2 Based on the GDC pre-release I have yet to see exactly what the usefulness of XNA will be. From what I could tell from the pre-release it was useless if you didn't have the Visual Studio Team Suite.

#3 XNA is many things...

XNA itself is no more than a marketing 'umbrella' for game related things coming out of Microsoft

Released:
PIX, XACT and XINPUT all came from the XBox world and (I think) are considered under the XNA umbrella

Not released/beta/alpha/testing:
XNA Build is a tool for creating build processes for game developers. Not sure what version of Visual Studio is required for this.

Announced:
XNA Studio - some kind of visual studio for game developers. Not very much known.
XNA Framework - a managed platform for creating games with managed code that runs on PC *and* xbox 360. Also very little announced.... until gamefest. There has been no mention of requiring Team Suite.

thezbuffer.com/articles/405.aspx
So the speculation for *this* thread is is all about XNA framework. Would you like to be able to write games in managed code, using some (mythical?) managed version of Torque?

#4 GarageGames does not comment on rumors or speculation!

*happy dance* Woo I got to use a marketing line!

#5 I can see it now - Microsoft Game Engine 07 Standard Edition

#6 Pat, do you realize how much speculation you simply posting in this thread will be triggered by it ? ;)
I prefer the " No comments" PR/marketing line myself, hehehe

#7 Dude, I'm all in favor of speculation. Speculate away...I ain't sayin jack.

I think we need more speculation! So I will introduce a topic for speculation: Pandas. Why is it that pandas are black and white, but they live in the forest?

#8 So they can be hunted more easily so their organs can be harvested to make magical elixirs that will make you DA STUD !!!

#9 Somewhere... Brent Sienna is wondering why the Panda Bear is chomping on his head.

#10 I think Pat is trying to tell us something...



+


=

????


... you clever bastard!

#11 What.. is that panda doing to the other panda?

#12 I like to think it's a back rub.

#13 Guys, dont play jokes with a fact that can bring our (.net programmers) dreams to reallity. :)

#14 Well there's two sessions that GarageGames heading up on the schedule for GameFest...and the text of those sessions is mighty interesting...

#15 Actually, considering pandas and their breeding difficulties, I'm sure it really is just a back rub.

#16 I tried porting TGE to Managed C++ some time ago with limited success. It was an interesting experiment, at least...

Given that managed code eliminates so much of the complexity of native code (not to mention reducing the sheer number of lines of code), I think it would be interesting to see a managed version of Torque. It would also be interesting to see the performance; I know that on average the framerate difference between native and managed examples included in the DX SDK were roughly 3-5% performance different. IMO, that's a fair enough trade off to reduce complexity and development time/cost.

I'm looking forward to seeing the text of those sessions. And of course, seeing SharpTGE. :-)

#17 As an OOP language, I really enjoy working with C#... but I have some concern about sacrificing the cross-platform nature of the engine for working in C#.

On the other hand, if done correctly it would be possible to write a version that would work in mono. That would be pretty cool.

#18 Hmm, that reminds me of this little thread..

#19 Hmm, lots of misinformation in that thread; everything from C# v2 being able to "turn off garbage collection", to C# being interpreted, to C# being inherently slow, to C# being unable to do things like byte aligned optimized data structures. All of those statements are false. :-p

I think Ryan Rogers' post was the only common sense thing said in that entire thread.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what has been produced. If Torque was ported to managed code, I think it would be the first AAA engine to be written in managed code. My bet is the LOC count has gone way down as well as the complexity of the engine as a whole. I'm really looking forward to this.

#20 Pat's perspective on managed code for game development has changed quite a bit since 2005. :)

Judah and Eduardo... we're excited about this stuff too. Not ready to say anything more than that at the moment, but keep your eyes open for more details in the near future. :)