\Managed DirectX and XNA Framework news
Added more speculation
In his latest blog entry Dave Weller says (at 11:47pm on Monday):
P.S. -- If you've read this far, you're probably thinking, "So when will beta 2 be available?" The answer is...look for my next post that will come within the next 24 or so hours
So does that mean the beta will happen in 24 hours, or does that mean he will announce when the beta will be availalbe in the next 24 hours? Damn, its like Christmas...
I've been told by someone who knows someone who was at code camp day 2 that one of the MS presenters may have said that "beta 2 should be shipped by the end of the week"
You can imagine how reliable such a rumor is, especially as I wasn't at code camp day 2 myself, and I don't know the person who *was* there. But what kind of blog would this be if I didn't have some rampant speculation! I'm sure that the smart folk amongst you also spotted that 'by the end of the week' gives them 5 whole days which could arguably be longer then the 'Really, Really, Really Soon.' that Dave said.
Added pictures of the demo and demo code
Those of us lucky enough to be local to Seattle code camp got a sneak peak at some of the beta 2 features today. (Sessions repeated tomorrow if you want to see for yourself).
I've written up my notes from the presentation which David Weller assure me is fair game to write about since its was demonstrated in public. Check out Early details of XNA beta 2 from Code Camp Seattle
In addition here are some photographs from the demonstrations - you can see a lot of the code and new APIs:
**CHANGE OF LOCATION** Now at Digipen in Redmond
Code Camp Seattle at Digipen in Redmond is on October 28/29th. Since its so close to Microsoft there is usually a very good turn out of MS guys redoing their TechEd talks etc. for free. Looks like several of the XNA team will be there doing some XNA sessions - sounds like we will get information on changes since the beta and who knows maybe we will get to see some code run on xboxes!!! So block out that weekend if you are local to Seattle it should be a good one for XNA people.
- Bouncing balls from Jason Mauer.
- Exploring the XNA Framework from Mitch Walker (XNA team PM)
- Introduction to the Programmable Pipeline in XNA from Rick Hoskinson (XNA team dev)
- Making an XNA Game for the Xbox 360 from Charles Cox (XNA Documentation Writer)
Michel Klucher posted an announcement on the XNA team blog:
One of the most popular requests has been for a second beta and on behalf of the XNA Game Studio team, I’m pleased to announce that we will indeed be releasing another beta of XNA Game Studio Express and that it will be available in a couple weeks.
Great that the world will get to see the content pipeline and get feedback before final release.
Quest for the bedroom programmers - some nice words by Peter Molyneux
(thanks Phil for the link)
If you are attending TechEd Europe in Barcelona 7th-10th November 2006 then then check out the following session about XNA GSE.
I can't link directly to the session (great website guys!). To find it you need to use the session search page and search for XNA. The speaker, Rob Miles, is a lecturer from University of Hull who has been on Coding4Fun and spoke at GDC and has somehow never managed to bump into The ZMan (next year I'll buy you a beer!)
Here's the abstract:
DEV302 Microsoft XNA and the Future of Game Development
Rob Miles
Fri Nov 10 10:45 - 12:00
XNA represents a major milestone in the field of game development, bringing game creators a unified platform and the safety of managed code. It also greatly reduces the difficulties faced when starting out in game development, closing the gap between idea and working implementation. The recent release of XNA Express gives programmers a chance to get to grips with the XNA framework and use it to create content for both the PC and the XBOX 360.Beginning with an overview of the XNA platform and the XNA Express development tools, this demo packed presentation then moves into the ‘nitty gritty’ of game development using XNA, leading to a fully realised casual game running on an XBOX 360. Whether you are a seasoned games coder, or a programmer thinking of moving into game development this session will give you plenty of food for thought and information to get you started.
Saq has converted his 2d tile based engine to the XNA framework. Source code and demo apps are provided.
Download DirectX October 2006 SDK
It took a few days to ripple through the MSDN download servers but now its here:
- HLSL Shader debugging in PIX
- Xinput now has a GetKeyStroke API - wonder what that does?
- Managed DirectX 2.0 beta removed - no surprise there!
- DirectX control panel is now an app rather than inside the windows control panel
- ... and much much more
Note that Dave says its not officially supported with XNA - so you have been warned. Personally I will be going for it so I'll let you know how it worked for me! I will be keeping the August SDK for XACT since I know that one works with XNA. Note: multiple SDK installs is also not something that is supported but I've never had a problem.
Yes I know I'm slacking on XNA links - but since this one has both a deadline and some exciting news it needs to be posted today!
xbox360homebrew is having a game programming competition and today they announced that they have 3 TorqueX licenses to give away as part of the prize pool. You have to not only produce a game but you have to blog about its creation too. Check out all the rules and sign up here.
Deadline to sign up is TODAY October 9th so get your requests in as soon as you can, and if its past the 9th maybe you can email them and beg to be allowed in :-)
Happy Managed DirectX Expiration Day!
Today is the day, and as expected the there was no patch released. However, in the MSDN forums Microsoft said:
As noted by a poster on the MSDN forums and confirmed by DirectX community Manager Dave Weller - Managed DirectX 2.0 beta expires on October 5th 2006. I guess this answers the question of whether the beta will be included in the upcoming October DirectX SDK!
And if you don't like the decision - don't email The Zman... Dave's blog has a space for comments, the MDSN forums could do with a few more off topic posts :-) and gamedev also now has a post on the subject. To be honest it looks like this is a done deal so follow Dave's advice and move back to MDX 1.1 or forward to the XNA framework. If you take the latter approach I'll see you in the XNA forums.
Richard Thomson is giving a talk on XNA at the Utah Code Camp on October 21st at the Neumont University in South Jordan, Utah. Rich has been a DirectX MVP since 2002 and is currently writing a DirectX book which he generously allows you to read for free on his website. He is also doing a talk on how to redistribute DirectX with your game which is something that always shows up in the newsgroups and forums.
If you have never heard of code camps they are totally free conferences where local experts give their time to speak. You really can't complain about the price and its a great way to meet the local geeks.
