XNA Game Studio Express Has Been Released! Options

[WermX]

Damn I guess i might stick with the xbox for media viewing. It would be really nice to finally play h264 and HD files, but oh well. XBMC is awesome how it is anyways.

[Bizquick]

Yeah but with out access to the Ethernet ports this a quite lame. I think we were all expecting a Dog bone but got a Dog Biscutt instead. I think PS3 will have more options. Maybe even some hacks to get full access to the system. I would have loved to seen XBMC ported over to the 360 but it looks like thats a dead end dream. and as for emu's on the 360 I'm not sure on how good that might be. I mean before it was working with a single core like Intel P3. now its this IBM 3 core processor. I'm not a dev but from that I've been told its really hard to take advantage of Multi Processor's. But in any case they said this is a sandbox so you may be working with the same spec's as before like the xbox 1.

[Lamer123]

Ok so it runs in a limited enviroemnt that is secured.


But anything that allows you to run code you wrote on your computer on your xbox is definetly a step in the right direction.

[beowulfx]

I think XNA Game Studio Express has great potential, but most people talk about xbmc, I hope you realise it would mean that you have to pay $100 dollars per year in order to run xbmc on the xbox 360.

[gotu159]

thats true. from what i remember reading up on this (the little that i did) it is based on C# but my best guess is that many commands have been removed. not to mention access to the LAN ports for 360 creations.

yah but i think they said that they may be opened at a later date

[infamous_Q]

i thikn ur right...they did also mention taking polls or at least getting feedback from teh community about what features they'd like to be put in. however there are problems with this:

a) allowing development of a media center in 360 will take away from the windows MCE market, especially with vista's debut just around the corner
b ) some features won't get put in regardless due to security issues
c) everyone still has to pay for this.

they should definitely have developer licenses for $99 and enable us to download finished products for free and send them to the 360, whether through removable media, LAN, or a cd/dvd.

This post has been edited by infamous_Q: Dec 11 2006, 11:09 PM

[[Prophet]]

As far as what I've heard (albeit its been a while since I've read up on XNA), it is possible to play games created with XNA over XBL, and you can download other games created by the community. Personally ignoring all my hopes of a true homebrew community where we can have XBMC and emulators, I think Microsoft have gone about this in a very smart way. To create programs like XBMC you would need to give programmers access a far larger command set and much lower level access to the core of the system, this is opening pandora's box for microsoft. This could open up the softmodding scene, running in a sandbox with a reduced command set gives Microsoft piece of mind, and satisfies developers who wish to create games.

I don't think all the people who say why can't we get XBMC, or give us "real homebrew" realise the risk this entails for Microsoft, afterall legal homebrew is just in its first iteration on consoles, they have to protect their investment. Sony have left themselves wide open to be hacked (with my limited knowledge of their homebrew system).

Just think of it this way people, essentially you pay $100 per year, to get unlimited access to community created xbox live arcade games, and if you want, you can help in the development of some titles. Forget about XBMC, its just a pipedream at the moment.

[Hmerly]

XNA is going to be a fantastic thing for MS and the 360. I see in the future so much potential in terms of user created games, apps, whatever you can imagine. I can't wait to see what some people will cook up in a year's time. MS is genius for deploying this.

Here's a little bit about XNA and what it can do. The video is at the bottom.

http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=261254

[posure]

XBMC won't make it to 360 via XNA unless they add support for C++. That said, I think XNA should be pretty cool and I will probably buy a subscription anyways just to play around with it.

This post has been edited by posure: Dec 12 2006, 12:16 AM

[82_Z28]

lets step back a bit and remember microsoft's stance on homebrew for the xbox 1.
It really didn't seem all that bad. There main concern was the loss on money due to piracy.

Now I can understand not wanting to leave a loophole open for homebrew because they don't want people to create and use backups...
but ummm...

the firmware mods have been around for some time now and don't seem to be leaving any time soon.

So way are they still so scared to let in homebrew?

Does it really all come down to their upcomming vista sales like infamous_Q said?

[Casper1786]

I just can't see myself paying $100 a year to use homebrew i don't do dev, no free time for such a thing i just barly get time to enjoy my gaming as it is. I wish us non devs could enjoy the fruits of these creators at no cost or maybe just a reg XBL Sub but an extra $100 a year, I see a slow pace or lots of ppl pissed off cause they paid out for the sub with no intent to dev and feel ripped off when nothing good is avail for homebrew apps or games, i do see great things coming don't get me wrong but being a non dev i refuse to pay money for homebrew, specially if that money isn't going to the developers, how much of that fee is going back into the XNA studio for Devs?

[[Prophet]]

I just can't see myself paying $100 a year to use homebrew i don't do dev, no free time for such a thing i just barly get time to enjoy my gaming as it is. I wish us non devs could enjoy the fruits of these creators at no cost or maybe just a reg XBL Sub but an extra $100 a year, I see a slow pace or lots of ppl pissed off cause they paid out for the sub with no intent to dev and feel ripped off when nothing good is avail for homebrew apps or games, i do see great things coming don't get me wrong but being a non dev i refuse to pay money for homebrew, specially if that money isn't going to the developers, how much of that fee is going back into the XNA studio for Devs?

I think you've got your mentality around the wrong way...

If anything active developers in the community should be allowed to do it for free, and everyone using it has to pay. If you don't want to use it fine, its not going to appeal to everyone, but paying the equivalent of 1.5 retail games to have access to 100's or possibly 1000's of games in the long run will still appeal to quite a few xbox owners.

[Hmerly]

lets step back a bit and remember microsoft's stance on homebrew for the xbox 1.
It really didn't seem all that bad. There main concern was the loss on money due to piracy.

Now I can understand not wanting to leave a loophole open for homebrew because they don't want people to create and use backups...
but ummm...

the firmware mods have been around for some time now and don't seem to be leaving any time soon.

So way are they still so scared to let in homebrew?

Does it really all come down to their upcomming vista sales like infamous_Q said?

Umm, the whole idea of XNA is homebrew basically.....MS just wants to secure it so they get something out of it.

[infamous_Q]

...i think the whole thing should be free. linux sure is for the ps3. lol

EDIT: to above post, if you ask me XNA is M$'s nice way of keeping people from not wanting to have actual homebrew. in allowing us just a little bit of development ability they're thinking that they will be able to please the public enough so that they won't bother trying to hack open teh 360 enough to allow for full homebrew (and unsigned code and pirated games). if ne thing XNA is M$'s solution to stopping the homebrew scene in its tracks. That's exactly what linux is on the ps3, except ps3 was slightly dumber doing it with an open source OS, microsoft is just keeping tabs on what we can and can't do. so if you think about it...this may appease the general public enough that homebrew is no longer needed; in which case they've succeeded and all software/hardware mods are either for piracy or in hopes of one day having unlimited access to the 360.

if you ask me they'd probably be fine just limiting access to editing the kernel and overall bios, or completely removing it, and opening total access to the system. they just have to make sure that they don't allow xna programs to launch xex (or w/e) files (since this will allow for launchign games from the harddrive). doing that would allow for programs such as xmbc, but no piracy.

thats my opinion.

This post has been edited by infamous_Q: Dec 12 2006, 01:48 AM

[Hmerly]

' date='Dec 11 2006, 06:15 PM' post='3798760']
I think you've got your mentality around the wrong way...

If anything active developers in the community should be allowed to do it for free, and everyone using it has to pay. If you don't want to use it fine, its not going to appeal to everyone, but paying the equivalent of 1.5 retail games to have access to 100's or possibly 1000's of games in the long run will still appeal to quite a few xbox owners.

You can develop for free. The download is available freely and you can develop your homebrews on your pc. It doesn't cost anything to do this. If you want to run your homebrew on the 360 then you have to pay to join the XNA club. The great thing about XNA is that its basically turning your 360 into a limited dev kit. Its also great for crossplatforming between Windows and the 360. However your program runs on your PC, it'll run about the same exact way on the 360.