SilverlightShow: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care? Comments

Re: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

Singles55 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:21:47 GMT

awesome, keep posting

RE: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

MisterGoodcat — Sat, 28 May 2011 03:06:22 GMT

Hi. I'll update the article series for Mango in the near future where it's necessary and also dedicate a separate article to the new features which are relevant for game programmers.

RE: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

avrashow — Sat, 28 May 2011 02:41:05 GMT

... couldn't "edit" previous comment, so I'd forgotten WP not based on latest Silverlight, so my examples are not relevant... But when "Mango" is out, I wonder if anything in the article changes?

RE: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

avrashow — Sat, 28 May 2011 02:38:42 GMT

Wondering if Silverlight 5 modifies any of your points? Examples: 3D now in SL, SL out-of-browser new features, and of course, some XNA built-in, such as low-latency sound effects.

RE: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

Peter Kuhn — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:38:44 GMT

> Now that SL5 was announced

This series is about XNA and Silverlight on Windows Phone 7. The release and feature set of Silverlight 5 has no effect on this platform. But make sure to check out the news here on Silverlight Show - I'm sure links to and articles about SL5 will emerge soon.

RE: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

avrashow — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 03:51:33 GMT

Now that SL5 was announced (at MIX 2011), how has the line further blurred between XNA & Silverlight. I heard soundeffects are now simpler in SL5, not requiring a MediaElement to play them. What other new capabilities are there--especially for general Silverlight development?

RE: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

Peter Kuhn — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 08:51:12 GMT

Hi Martin.

What I wanted to say is that you will not get a "copy some files to a desktop project and it works" experience. If your games only use elements that are also available on the desktop (e.g. canvas, image controls etc.) you might be able to reuse parts of your UI. But Silverlight on the phone comes with its own set of controls which is not available on the desktop (think phone application pages, pivot, panorama etc.) - obviously you cannot use any of those. In addition there are a lot of smaller issues that may or may not become an issue. For example, a game on the phone obviously will be optimized for a small resolution, maybe even for portrait mode. It's doubtable an 800x480 pixel game will look good on a 1920x1080 desktop resolution in full screen. Even if you put effort in it and create a dynamic layout that works on arbitrary resolutions, all your bitmap graphics probably need to be replaced by higher quality/resolution versions for the desktop. Another example is that the application flow through a game, although much less dictated by the certification requirements, still will make use phone specific features like the hardware back button. So you would at least need to rework your menus etc. to accommodate for the missing features on the desktop. A screen layout optimized for touch input might look and feel clumsy in a desktop application where you have a filigree mouse device, styles applied to controls that make a good match for the elegant Metro design on the phone may look cheap or inappropriate on the desktop and so on. I can think of a lot of reasons why you cannot and maybe don't want to reuse a Silverlight UI from the phone on the desktop.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the rest of the series. Good luck with your next game, and feel free to provide more feedback and comments or contact me.

RE: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

Martin L. Shoemaker — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 02:43:48 GMT

"It is unlikely that you can reuse your UI for a desktop Silverlight application."

I don't quite follow this one line. While I admit I haven't tried yet, I thought Out Of Browser Silverlight would let me do this, or something close to it.

I hope so! I'm planning on it as my desktop porting strategy for three of my games. (The fourth game needs powerful collision detection, which is why a friend recommended this series to me.)

Thanks!

RE: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

Vinod Rowmuria — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 07:23:33 GMT

Why they unnecessarily created two different options when both have their limitations. Why there is no common platform with rich functionality. Why should I care whether I use Silverlight or XNA. Just rubbish. This is why Windows Mobile flopped. Windows Mobiles are too uncomfortable in its usage. Their basic architecture is faulty.

RE: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

Fredrik_ — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 21:07:34 GMT

I really enjoyed this article series and even though I used XNA before its nice too see the comparison between Silverlight and XNA.

It helped me to in my decision to use XNA for game development on WP7.

RE: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

Jesse — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 23:54:17 GMT

Great stuff, please more!

RE: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

Ryan — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:41:45 GMT

Nice intro - definately highlights the differences and similarities. Please keep going - would like to see more...

RE: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

ppopadiyn — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:45:00 GMT

Great stuff, looking forward for more articles :)

RE: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 - Why should I care?

kunal2383 — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:46:52 GMT

Good one. Keep posting the other parts. Can't wait to read the rest of the parts.