Microsoft Talks XNA Games for Windows Phone 7

[JMcEntegart]

This week at GDC, Microsoft showed off XNA games running on Windows Phone 7 and the screenshots are pretty darn impressive.

Microsoft Talks XNA Games for Windows Phone 7 : Read more

 

[micr0be]

very impressive, but we still need to c what gpu is being used and the clock speeds of the hardware mobile 7 is running on.

 

[Shadow703793]

If those screen shots are real/accurate this gives the Nintendo DS/ Sony PSP a pretty damn good run for it's money assuming the graphic detail shown in the pics are accurate and game play is easy/fun/good.

 

[micr0be]

jane .... we both know that this article is perfect for a crysis joke ... ur so teasing everyone to say it LOL!!

 

[TheDuke]

that game looks pretty sweet

 

[Ambictus]

[citation][nom]micr0be[/nom]very impressive, but we still need to c what gpu is being used and the clock speeds of the hardware mobile 7 is running on.[/citation]

I read that Microsoft was "suggesting" the use of Snapdragons for their chips. I believe currently the Snapdragon is a Cortex-A8 with a dedicated AMD Z430 GPU. So... pretty decent stuff.

 

[micr0be]

[citation][nom]ambictus[/nom]I read that Microsoft was "suggesting" the use of Snapdragons for their chips. I believe currently the Snapdragon is a Cortex-A8 with a dedicated AMD Z430 GPU. So... pretty decent stuff.[/citation]

really ?, thats actually really good dragon runs at 1Ghz i dont know if ther are variants of the chip though. im still interested in the graphics chip running and resolution supported.

 

[SneakySnake]

yea, I need to see the specs that it's running on, cuz those graphics look better then the PS2/orginal Xbox.

Any phone with those specs is either real big, or has real bad battery life. Or both

 

[Ambictus]

[citation][nom]SneakySnake[/nom]yea, I need to see the specs that it's running on, cuz those graphics look better then the PS2/orginal Xbox. Any phone with those specs is either real big, or has real bad battery life. Or both[/citation]

Well the GPU in the Snapdragon is based on the GPU in the Xbox360. Obviously nowhere near as powerful but supposedly similar architecture.

 

[knownballer]

Its a real shame though because Microsoft should be much further ahead as far as mobile games are concerned but they have yet to get much traction. And we're still waiting for live anywhere and a possible zune phone to come; who knows when we'll see those.... Forget Win7 mobile being a open platform for other parties, if Microsoft cant get a flagship device out that at least competes with Google and Apple then they might as well just leave the mobile scene altogether. I'm thinking nows a good time to start looking towards buying out palm...

 

[matt87_50]

wow... thats great... except what if you want to port to ANOTHER platform??

F U Microsoft! I have never seen a platform that forces you to use the platform's proprietary engine AND language!! this is just a con to buy you exclusives because people will find it too daunting to rewrite their game in a different language for other platforms.

this is great Microsoft, brilliant. but include a c/c++ path too!!!

I mean it's not even about speed any more, sure it's slightly less efficient but I'd say 'meh' to anyone who said 'c# is too high level and slower than c++' (that's assuming that you implement the runtime properly of course, like you DIDN'T on the xbox to begin with...).

and I know c# is 'open' but still, other platform vendors aren't going to change!

 

[dragonsqrrl]

This appears to be VERY bad new for all the Zune HD 'Beta Testers' out there. Read for yourself on the Zune forums, all but the most adamant Microsoft fanboys have denounced this decision as effectively dropping long term support for the Zune HD (and by long term I mean more then 6 to 9 months). So basically what Microsoft is saying: if you want all these new features and extra support that we've been holding back, go purchase a WP7 phone or a ZHD2 on top of your 'less than a year old' ZHD. You can read through one of the main threads here: http://forums.zune.net/584288/ShowPost.aspx

I'm personally, like most owners of the beta program, extremely disappointed in this decision. I was initially happy with the announcement of WP7 and XNA 4.0. Seeing how similar the GUI was to the ZHD, along with the fact that a Zune section would be included in the OS, and all the development they are planning for it, I simply assumed that the Zune HD had a long term future ahead of it. I was almost willing to look past the extreme lack of support the ZHD has received over the past few months. It really was just too good to be true... even if Microsoft continues support of the ZHD, it will be support for an obsolete platform, merely a brief stepping stone to WP7, where there true plans and features wait to be implemented. And to think they had this planned from the start.

All I can say is I really do hope we've all misread these announcements by Microsoft, or they're going to have some serious problems bringing their previous Zune customers back.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

[citation][nom]ambictus[/nom]I read that Microsoft was "suggesting" the use of Snapdragons for their chips. I believe currently the Snapdragon is a Cortex-A8 with a dedicated AMD Z430 GPU. So... pretty decent stuff.[/citation]
I don't think Microsoft was 'suggesting' so much as they were setting a minimum 'standard' for the hardware in their phones. As you can see the requirements are quite high, and are more then capable of competing with other modern smart phones, at least in terms of components. Of course this also means that other SOC's that incorporate faster processors, such as the Cortex A9, are more then welcome.

 

[Guest]

time for Microsoft to step back up to the plate and make all THE GOO-CRAZE peeps have some sense knocked back into them. Android 2.0 2.1 its all the same iphone android looks kid like even compared but hardware wise on these phones iphone lags apple needs to do something iphone will start lagging behind more , microsoft if this win phone series 7 pans out knows how to get the tech makers workin with them, instead of every maker staping google product in there phone

 

[Ambictus]

[citation][nom]dragonsqrrl[/nom]I don't think Microsoft was 'suggesting' so much as they were setting a minimum 'standard' for the hardware in their phones. As you can see the requirements are quite high, and are more then capable of competing with other modern smart phones, at least in terms of components. Of course this also means that other SOC's that incorporate faster processors, such as the Cortex A9, are more then welcome.[/citation]

I have a feeling Microsoft will be a little more strict than that so they can have more driver control this time.

 

[apmyhr]

[citation][nom]matt87_50[/nom]wow... thats great... except what if you want to port to ANOTHER platform??F U Microsoft! I have never seen a platform that forces you to use the platform's proprietary engine AND language!! this is just a con to buy you exclusives because people will find it too daunting to rewrite their game in a different language for other platforms.this is great Microsoft, brilliant. but include a c/c++ path too!!!I mean it's not even about speed any more, sure it's slightly less efficient but I'd say 'meh' to anyone who said 'c# is too high level and slower than c++' (that's assuming that you implement the runtime properly of course, like you DIDN'T on the xbox to begin with...).and I know c# is 'open' but still, other platform vendors aren't going to change![/citation]
Why do people like you hate C# so much? I have been programming in it for a few years now and so far I love it. As far as porting to another platform, the whole point of MS using .NET and XNA is to make it easy for developers to make a game for PC, Xbox, Zune, and Phone. By programing for the .NET environment, your code should be able to run on any platform that can run the environment.

And yes, I'm sure your going to ask about Linux support. I don't know the details but isnt there a Linux port called Mono or something?

"I have never seen a platform that forces you to use the platform's proprietary engine AND language." There is such a platform. I'll give you a hint, it starts with an "i" and ends with a "Phone"

 

[Shadow703793]

[citation][nom]apmyhr[/nom]Why do people like you hate C# so much? I have been programming in it for a few years now and so far I love it. As far as porting to another platform, the whole point of MS using .NET and XNA is to make it easy for developers to make a game for PC, Xbox, Zune, and Phone. By programing for the .NET environment, your code should be able to run on any platform that can run the environment.And yes, I'm sure your going to ask about Linux support. I don't know the details but isnt there a Linux port called Mono or something?"I have never seen a platform that forces you to use the platform's proprietary engine AND language." There is such a platform. I'll give you a hint, it starts with an "i" and ends with a "Phone"[/citation]
The Mono implementation under Linux is still half baked and not quite good. And yes, C# is quite a good language for certain things, such as coding games.

 

[Guest]

I think Windows Phone 7 Series will fail.

The idea of reusing the same game code from console to PC was tried by Microsoft 3 years ago, and was mostly ignored by developers. In fact, only a handful of games ever used it.

Windows Phone 7 Series is simply many years too late to market, and won't be able to compete against the massive app stores of Android and iPhone.

 

[darthvidor]

impressive, hardware requirements must be massive

 

[jfplopes]

Pretty Impressive. The empire fights back.

 

[idisarmu]

WOW, looks very good, 2002/2003-like graphics.... on a MOBILE device

 

[cscott_it]

Using XNA will give the Win phone a jump on other platform developers, seeing as I'm sure Microsoft will help with the baseline optimizations for phone programming.

I've done some XNA programming and some cross-platform stuff, it's rather intuitive, truth be told.

 

[datawrecker]

The only issue I see, and It is a big one, is the discontinued support of the ZuneHD. I love the ZuneHD and seeing how Microsoft is cutting support on this device so quickly does not leave warm and fuzzy feelings about wanting to get the HD2 or the Windows Phone 7.

 

[matt87_50]

[citation][nom]apmyhr[/nom]Why do people like you hate C# so much? I have been programming in it for a few years now and so far I love it. As far as porting to another platform, the whole point of MS using .NET and XNA is to make it easy for developers to make a game for PC, Xbox, Zune, and Phone. By programing for the .NET environment, your code should be able to run on any platform that can run the environment.And yes, I'm sure your going to ask about Linux support. I don't know the details but isnt there a Linux port called Mono or something?"I have never seen a platform that forces you to use the platform's proprietary engine AND language." There is such a platform. I'll give you a hint, it starts with an "i" and ends with a "Phone"[/citation]

you are wrong. the iphone does NOT force you to use objective-c, objective-c is like a super set of c and c++, so you can just as easily use c and c++, even most of their apis have c versions (though you could easily wrap the obj-c ones in your engine anyway)

I don't recall bashing c# as a language, I really don't, and let me say this again, YES it is really great for porting... to platforms that SUPPORT .net... the iphone doesn't, does android? they could have just as easily used c/c++ and then other platforms wouldn't have had to worry about implementing .net frameworks. and then we are at the mercy of those implementations being GOOD, the one on the xbox was NOT to start out with. I don't understand why people hate c++, sure c# is better, and easier to get stuff up and running, but it's not worth these headaches. I use it all the time for tools and utilities on windows, as well as prototyping games, because the windows implementation is GOOD and we don't have to worry about portability

 

[Guest]

I'm no bashing C#, it's great for GUI crap and backend stuff, but for embedded systems is blows. Also, what about all those C/C++ libraries that have been written for previous versions of Windows Mobile? All that is now gone. All that investement is now a right off. Put your business hat on for once and think!

Who cares about running some games on Windows Phone 7? Most businesses that used Mobile platform don't give a rats ass about it.

It's not that C# is bad, it's that they basically screwed the business community, which are the people they need to push the platform (i.e the ones that are actally making money with this stuff)

If MS model is to compete with other gaming plaforms - then that is a non-starter, and quite honesly, who cares.