The short version is that Microsoft seems to have taken the DirectX SDK off its regular release schedule, and is instead rolling it into the Windows API. And that XNA is not a first-class citizen in Windows 8 (not supported by Metro or the Windows app store).

Promit’s conclusion is that this spells the end for XNA. In fact, ever since the //build/ conference, there has been a lot of doubt floating around about the future of XNA.

Based on what I know about the technology, I am a little more optimistic about XNA’s future.

XNA is based on DirectX 9. DirectX 9 doesn’t work on Metro (Microsoft’s new touch-friendly interface for Windows 8). It will still work on Windows 8, but will switch the interface to “classic mode” (aka: “the Desktop”). XNA would need to target a newer version of DirectX in order to work with Metro.

In XNA 4.0 (the current version) they dropped all of the DirectX 9-only features in anticipation of a future move to DirectX 10/11. But they’re still using DirectX 9, for two very good reasons:

One: DirectX 9 is the last version of DirectX that works on Windows XP (DirectX 10 and newer require Windows Vista and newer).

Two: Xbox 360 games are programmed using an API that is similar to DirectX 9.

XNA is, in essence, a wrapper around DirectX. There is nothing in XNA itself that requires any special “platform stuff”. There is absolutely no reason XNA should be on the critical path of Windows 8. Why should the already-risky Windows 8 risk waiting around for a DirectX 11-based XNA 5.0? XNA can easily be added later (along with app store support).

And this is exactly how XNA has worked in the past: XNA is an installable library, completely decoupled from DirectX and the core operating system.

It makes perfect sense that XNA is not a part of the initial launch of Windows 8.

My suspicion is that XNA 5.0 will be released with the new Xbox console, rumoured to be coming soon. I’m sure Microsoft is hoping that Windows XP will have finally gone away by then.

It is worth pointing out that Microsoft already has a partial version of XNA that runs on DirectX 11. It’s the Windows Phone 7 version, apparently. (It only supports the “Reach” profile, without custom shaders.)

Based on all these factors, it is my hope and prediction that XNA is simply in “stealth” mode ahead of a new, DirectX 11-based release. I recall a similar silence in the lead-up to XNA 4.0.

(And, failing all of that, I know someone who’s very good at porting XNA to unsupported platforms.)

The bug affected SpriteFont rendering on iOS devices with retina displays. If you have released a game using SpriteFont and this code (including if you are in the pre-release program), please be sure to update your game in the App Store.

Sorry about that Remember that ExEn is not yet officially released. You could say that it’s in “beta”. So these things will crop up occasionally. To get bug fixes as soon as they’re available, consider joining the pre-release program.

And I’m also wearing my gamedev.stackexchange.com shirt, which I received as a top user on that site.

Fun fact: I’m the top answerer of XNA questions on both Stack Overflow and Game Development SE.

ExEn is a port of Microsoft’s XNA API to iOS, Android and Silverlight. It is licensed under an open-source licence (MS-PL), so you can start using it to port your games right now, for free!

This version introduces support for Android. There are a few rough edges with Android support that I should mention: First of all the Android documentation isn’t done yet. The process for setting up a project for Android is similar to the process for iOS. Please take note that content for the Android platform needs to be set as “AndroidAsset” (and not “Content” as on other platforms).

And secondly: The code has not been tested on a wide variety of Android devices. Unlike iOS, Android suffers from fairly serious platform fragmentation and numerous weird device bugs. And I simply don’t have the resources to test it on enough devices. So please take note that ExEn for Android will not insulate you completely from the Android platform. It is up to you to test your game before releasing it – just as you would have to before releasing a normal Android game.

If you are using ExEn for Android, please send me an email and let me know how it goes. If you run into any device-related issues in ExEn, I’d be happy to work with you to try and fix them.

ExEn for Android requires a minimum of Android 2.1. However it should not be too difficult to modify it to target a 1.6 minimum if your project requires it.

And ExEn of course still supports iOS and Silverlight. This latest Public Preview version includes a number of improvements and bug fixes on those platforms. Most notably, ExEn now supports multi-touch (although not gesture recognition yet) on both iOS and Android.

If you would like to receive updates to ExEn as they are made, and to support the continued development of ExEn, please consider joining the ExEn Pre-release Program.

Jake writes:

It’s a port from a Windows Phone 7 XNA game Didn’t take long thanks to ExEn!

Congratulations on an excellent port, Jake!

You can play the Silverlight version of TriPeaks Solitaire here.

Previously in the “Made with ExEn” series, we’ve seen Meteor Mania and Volcano Island. Will your game be next?

~

Volcano Island was originally made for WP7, it was then ported to iPhone and iPad using ExEn.

Congratulations to Bilgin Esme for getting his game ported!

You can get Volcano Island on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

I’m going to go ahead and blame Android for this. It is a truly horrible platform. The emulator sucks and is essentially unusable for game development. The Android APIs are simplistic, badly designed, and reminiscent of programming in plain ol’ C.

But worst of all are the device-specific bugs, where I have no idea if I can even use any given API as-documented, and what obscure work-arounds I have to employ, because I keep finding cases where apparantly it will cause the app or even the operating system (!) to crash or hang on certain phones. [*]

Neither Windows Phone 7 or iOS have these problems.

And just to be extra controversial for any fan-boys watching: the Android UI and overall experience is a clunky and pale imitation of Apple’s.

Android is a terrible platform and I’d dearly love to see it go and die in a fire.

But, because I’m such a good person, I’m going to continue to persevere with it and get a release out to you soon. The good news is that I’ve got a reasonable idea of how to do what is still left to be done (bunch of OpenGL context management stuff), in such a way that it should mostly insulate you from Android stupidities. So stay tuned.

If you’d like to keep hearing me rant about how bad the Android situation is, subscribe to my Twitter. I’ll no doubt be venting there while I get this done.