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I'm not sure If this is the place to ask this but here it goes.
I've been doing game programming in XNA since XNA 2.0, I can also program in C++, C#, Java, and C. I enjoy making games with it and its a great sdk but the problem is the xbox360 is pretty much done.
From what I've read, It seems that XNA is now obsolete and now I'm not sure what sdk to program games in. Now of course I know "you could make your own engine since you know OpenGL/Direct X" yea but that's a shit ton of work.
My Question is what is going to be the next game engine or are there other game engines that you would recommend? I know I used DarkGDK ages ago but I have no idea whats going on with that.
Simply put, for an xna fan, look at MonoGame. It is an open source implementation of xna and is now the recommended, by Microsoft, game engine for the xna community.
This topic seems to be coming up over and over again. XNA is not obsolete, it is no longer being actively developed. XNA will still be used by many developers for at least a couple more years, but it is definitely not 'obsolete' at this point.
XBox360 is not done. There are still over 40 million Live subscribers and even after the next generation systems are launched, there will still be a sizable market. I am still working on games for XBox360, at least for the next 6 months or so.
As far as game engines, there are quite a few options
Monogame
Unity
JMonkey Engine
LibGDX
Just because XNA is effectively at the end of it's life, that doesn't mean you can't use it. You can still make games for all the existing platforms it supported and it will continue to be useful for that purpose for some time. It isn't so highly-specialized a toolchain that your experience will not be useful as education, either.
For an alternative, check out MonoGame. Microsoft recently announced a partnership with Unity3D as well.
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I would like to start learning some game programming, and I don't know if starting with C# and the XNA engine is a good idea. I know that in the industry, C++ is still the main language for progrmaming games. What do you suggest? Thanks!
No. Better learn game programming with C# and Unity.
I remember my XNA days were tackled by unrelated problems. In Unity those are hidden under the cover and you can "do your thing" right off the bat.
Soon (2 years from now), you'll realize the limits of Unity and switch to more serious platforms, but by then you'll have learned a huge amount of stuff.
Along with Unity I'd recommend MonoDevelop (embedded in Unity) instead of Visual Studio, Blender, Audacity and (for much much later in your growth, when you'll realize that your games are not fun at all) some books:
"On the Way to Fun" by Roberto Dillon
"Designing Games" by Tynan Sylvester
I tell you all this because it will be IRRELEVANT to your success. Your success will solely depend on your focus to study, study and study. And sacrifice every minute of your time.
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Does anybody know to give me a comparison of advantages and disadvantages in programming through C# in Xamarin Versus Android java native code?
Is developing through Xamarin is way more limited than native android, or the gap is not that far.
I would like to hear opinion from someone who has experience in developing with both technologies.
Thanks
Update 20160822: This advice still holds true. I continually am asked about this. One company I know of went with Xamarin only to find out that it did not solve their Android problems as they had to learn both languages/implementations to solve most their issues.
Update 20150513: Thus far, this is one of the most asked questions I get from startups. Which way should they go. I inevitably end up pointing them to this post. It is still solid advice.
I've developed with both. You can pretty much do whatever you want in Xamarin. The couple of difficult areas you're going to run into are:
Finding good, working example code. Edge cases are really the bummer here.
You'll find that you end up learning Java through Xamarin because you have to read so much Java code.
Another problem is that while Xamarin is doing well and is gaining traction, the community is still rather small. This poses a problem when you release a Xamarin app. If you need to bring in someone else to maintain it, they have to know .NET, C# and Android. Finding that combo is rather difficult and I've found that all the contractors or consultants that I needed to update my app were VERY expensive.
Thats the hidden gotcha. It will help you get out the door faster, but up keep and new feature development will cost you, IF you're NOT the one doing the updates.
Why do I know this? I've written two apps with Xamarin that I eventually wanted updated. I had to contact a contractor to do it because I simply didnt have the time. It was quite expensive compared to Android or iOS devs that were already out there. I ended up moving those apps from Xamarin to Native Android and iOS.
That aside. Its a freaking awesome platform. If you plan to always work on it, then use it. Being able to use the power of C# is great. After working with C# for many years I've grown to really have a disdain for Java. Thats personal preference, but it is what it is.
Its all about tradeoffs.
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For a small-sized company I'm going over all possible network solutions to see which one would be best for our Unity games to come. So far I've seen come across the following options:
Unity networking
Photon Cloud
TNet
UnityPark Suite (uLink)
SmartFoxServer
I would like to hear everybody's experience with the products above:
Was it easy to implement?
How was the support?
How well is it documented?
How well is it maintained?
Were there any issues with the connectivity?
What are the general pros and cons?
For what kind of games did you use it?
I know the best solution often depends on the concerned project. However as a company, going with one network solution for all games can save a lot of time on the learning of new products.
While I haven't used any networking libraries with unity3d or games, I've used Lidgren for a project, which (from what I've read) is used for game networking, and can be used with unity3d. I found it quite easy to use and customize to suit my needs, and haven't come up with any serious connectivity issues with it. Of course this being an open source library it may not be what you're looking for, but I just thought I'd point it out.
I've used the Photon Cloud and Network Unity ...
Implementation of the two is very similar and easy to use.
Is well documented, the two.
I'm using them, both for FPS style games.
The style of play is heavy, 3D models, many particles.
Photon Cloud: In game FPS style have lag, however, only used the free version, perhaps with the paid version is better.
Link: http://doc.exitgames.com/photon-cloud/PUNOverview/#cat-tutorials
Unity Network: I did not use external servers, and worked well, but with a few players ... with many for quite some lag.
Link: http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/NetworkedMultiplayer.html
I recommend these two, but depending on the complexity of the game may need to invest money on servers or paid plans.
If you have server external, I recommend Network Unity, otherwise I recommend Photon Clound.
But I think for less complex games free version will serve well.
Hope this helps!
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Firstly, I have never worked in XNA. I was learning C# recently but I don't why I liked it over other languages learnt so far. Then I stepped over to Monogame and tried learning it. It is also fun. I even came to know that Monogame is a great choice for XNA developers as XNA is being deprecated. I don't know if I should continue learning Monogame or not as I don't know anything about XNA although I know that most of the things in Monogame are same. So shall I continue with Monogame or first learn XNA and then move on to Monogame or should I leave both and look for something else? And does Monogame have something to do with Xamarin?
Also XNA is not supported on WIndows 8 and Windows Phone 8. So will there be updates in XNA for these platforms or earlier platforms like Windows Phone 7, Xbox etc.?
Monogame and XNA have a great deal in common, because Monogame is essentially an open source version of XNA.
As you hinted, you can use Xamarin to make your games cross-platform quite easily. This means you can reuse loads of your code and have iOS and Android versions of your game. This is a great advantage of Monogame if that's what you want to do.
With XNA there are quite a few libraries built for it which might make building your game easier e.g. Mercury paricle effects engine
In my opinion, it might be easier to get started with XNA. There are loads of great resources out there to get you off the ground. The last thing you want to be doing first off is faffing around with dlls trying to get the damn thing to compile.
Good luck!
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I want to write simple application with some 3D objects for Windows OS.
The application is very simple, like a gallery where we can move and see some pictures. When users go to the some picture and click on it a window will open and show picture with some information.
Which is the best framework for this task WPF, XNA, or something else? Application will be written in C#.
I can not say which is best, but I have done a while ago some things with the WPF 3D API and I liked it.
It was IMO very simple to use and the rendering seemed to be relatively fast. A really nice thing I found, was that it has an object-model that contains high-level-events such as mouse-down and click. Therefore you don't have to do much math. However, maybe provide also other APIs such high-level services, I don't know.
I would not try to create an action-game with it, but for a small app as you have described, I think it is worth a try.
Unity has been used for similar stuff. It can work on browsers (via a plug-in) or as a program, has a lot of documentation and most of the work involved in creating a 3D environment and interface is already done. Code can be written in Mono (open source C# implementation), JavaScript or a Boo, a modified Python scripting language.
It works in Windows, MacOS, iPhone, iPad and Android. And it is free in the standard version, or really cheap.
XNA is a little lower level, so it will require more work to get things started. It supports Windows, WP7 and Xbox 360.
See this discussion : WPF VS XNA