Links with information about the XNA Game Studio 3.0 community technology preview
While I was out on vacation for the past couple of weeks, the XNA Community Gaming Platform (CGP) team released a community technology preview of XNA Game Studio 3.0 (announced in this post on the team blog). I'm sure that most folks are already aware of this but I wanted to link here just in case, and I also wanted to provide some additional links to help getting started using the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP.
The XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP adds the following key features:
- Support for developing games that target Zune devices.
- Integration with Visual C# 2008 Express Edition and Visual Studio 2008 standard edition and higher.
- Enhancements to the XNA Framework API for media support and simple sound effects
Here are some links with information about how to download and get started using the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP:
- Download location - https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DF4AF56A-58A7-474C-BFD0-7CF8ED3036A3
- Readme - https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=115685
- Where to report bugs or feature suggestions - https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=226
Here is some information that can be useful if you encounter errors while installing the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP:
- Setup can fail on some systems that have games installed that use Games for Windows - LIVE (such as Halo 3, Viva Pinata, etc). If you have a game like this installed and see setup fail for the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP, then I suggest trying the workaround in item 1.1.2 in the readme - go to Add/Remove Programs and uninstall Microsoft Games for Windows - LIVE Redistributable, then try to install the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP again.
- If you run into other setup failures that are unrelated to the previous issue, it can help to look at the log files created by XNA Game Studio 3.0 setup. They are located at %temp%\Microsoft XNA\XNA Game Studio\v3.0\Setup\Logs.
Here are some key limitations to keep in mind when getting started installing and using the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP:
- XNA Game Studio 3.0 only supports the VS 2008 product family and will not support VS 2005 or Visual C# 2005 Express Edition like previous versions of XNA Game Studio. You must have a VS 2008 edition installed on your computer before you will be able to install XNA Game Studio 3.0. You can install VS 2005 and VS 2008 side-by-side on the same computer with no problems though, so there is no need to uninstall VS 2005 or any previous versions of XNA Game Studio in order to try out the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP.
- This CTP only supports Windows and Zune game development and deployment. Xbox 360 is not supported in this CTP, but will be in the final release of XNA Game Studio 3.0.
- The CTP does not support installing and running on 64-bit operating systems. Some features will work, but some will not (notably Zune deployment). 64-bit operating systems will be supported in the final release of XNA Game Studio 3.0.
Here are some links with information about getting started creating Zune games using the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP: