• Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is supported, but is not required, for XNA Game Studio.
• Windows XP requires Service Pack 2 or later.
• Although XNA Game Studio itself is available only in English, it is supported under any of the available language settings on Windows.
• Administrator permissions are not required to run XNA Game Studio. However, Administrator permissions (administrative elevation on Windows Vista) are required to install XNA Game Studio.
• Although the setup program for XNA Game Studio will complete on the Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 operating systems, XNA Game Studio is not officially supported on these operating systems, and the XNA Game Studio software may not work as expected.

To run XNA Framework games on Windows, you need a graphics card that supports Shader Model 1.1 or greater and DirectX 9.0c. We recommend that you use a graphics card that supports Shader Model 2.0 because some samples and starter kits may require it.

Make sure that your graphics card is using the most recent drivers. You can do this by checking with your hardware vendor and by accessing Microsoft Update.

Other hardware requirements for XNA Game Studio are identical to those for Visual Studio 2008. For more information, see the Visual Studio documentation.

XNA Game Studio 3.0 requires that you install the .NET Framework 3.5.

The Setup program for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 installs the .NET Framework 3.5 if it is not already installed on your computer. You can also install the .NET Framework from the Microsoft .NET Framework Developer Center.

XNA Game Studio 3.0 Setup installs the DirectX runtime, which is required to use the XNA Framework game API.

XNA Game Studio 3.0 Setup installs the Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT) from the August 2007 DirectX Software Development Kit (SDK). XACT enables you to author audio content for your game. XNA Game Studio 3.0 Setup installs a version of XACT that is compatible with the XNA Game Studio 3.0 product. XNA Game Studio 3.0 may not work with content authored using other versions of XACT.

XNA Game Studio 3.0 Setup installs Microsoft Games for Windows – LIVE Redistributable, version 1.2.0241. This software provides support for various gamer services such as retrieving player preferences for local accounts as well as programmatically displaying various LIVE Guide user interface screens.

Before installing XNA Game Studio, close any running instances of Visual C# 2008 Express Edition or other supported Visual Studio 2008 products such as Visual Studio 2008 Professional.

You must uninstall any pre-release version of XNA Game Studio 3.0 before installing the final release of XNA Game Studio 3.0.

If you choose to uninstall Visual Studio 2008, you must first uninstall XNA Game Studio. XNA Game Studio will not uninstall properly if Visual Studio 2008 is not currently installed.

Uninstalling XNA Game Studio does not uninstall the XNA Framework. This is because the XNA Framework is required for playing an XNA Framework game. You must manually uninstall the XNA Framework to remove it from your machine.

Do not uninstall the XNA Framework or XNA Game Studio Platform Tools unless you are also uninstalling all versions of XNA Game Studio from your machine. Although the XNA Framework and XNA Game Studio Platform Tools are separate components from XNA Game Studio itself, XNA Game Studio versions rely on these components and will not function correctly if they are uninstalled.

Setup may return one of the following error codes if an issue occurs during installation. If you are using a script to install XNA Game Studio, you should check for these error codes.

After upgrading an existing XNA Game Studio project to XNA Game Studio 3.0, you must completely rebuild the project. If you use the Deploy Solution or Start Debugging commands to build the project, existing incremental files could cause errors. For example, the following errors have been encountered when deploying an upgraded Xbox 360 project that was not completely rebuilt:

• String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.
• String reference was not set to an instance of a String.

To resolve these errors, delete all bin and obj directories of the upgraded project (including those found in the Content directory). After you remove the specified directories, right-click the upgraded project (using Solution Explorer), and click Rebuild.

Use one of the following procedures to upgrade a game project from XNA Game Studio Express to XNA Game Studio 3.0.

• Create a new XNA Game Studio 3.0 project, and then add the code and content from the XNA Game Studio Express project to the new XNA Game Studio project.

• Use the standalone upgrade wizard for XNA Game Studio 2.0 to upgrade the project from XNA Game Studio Express to XNA Game Studio 2.0, and then use the built-in upgrade wizard for XNA Game Studio to upgrade the project to XNA Game Studio 3.0. You will need XNA Game Studio 2.0 in order to use the standalone upgrade wizard. You can obtain the XNA Game Studio 2.0 and the standalone upgrade wizard at the following URLs.

  Download	Location
  XNA Game Studio 2.0	http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=127875&clcid=0x409
  Standalone Upgrade Wizard	http://creators.xna.com/en-us/utilities/project_upgrade_wizard

Note that the XNA Framework evolved between XNA Game Studio Express and XNA Game Studio 2.0. Therefore, you probably will need to update your code to account for these changes. Please see the XNA Game Studio 2.0 Upgrade Guide for more information.

You will need to manually upgrade projects that were created with XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP in order to use them with XNA Game Studio. The upgrade wizard for XNA Game Studio upgrades only XNA Game Studio 2.0 projects. To manually upgrade a project created in XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP, use the following procedure.

1. Open the <projectname>.csproj file in a text editor, such as Notepad.

2. Scroll down to the bottom of the .csproj file, and locate the following three <Import.../> elements.

                 <Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
                 <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\XNA Game Studio\v3.0\Microsoft.Xna.GameStudio.Common.targets" />
                 <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\XNA Game Studio\v3.0\Microsoft.Xna.GameStudio.NestedContent.targets" />
               

   Replace these with the following two <Import.../> elements. Note that the first element is the same.

                 <Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
                 <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\XNA Game Studio\Microsoft.Xna.GameStudio.targets" />
               

3. Save the .csproj file.

4. Open <projectname>.csproj in Visual C# 2008 Express Edition or Visual Studio 2008 to use it with XNA Game Studio 3.0.

Game projects that were created using the XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Beta) may produce the following error when built using XNA Game Studio. Specifically, this occurs if you used the XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Beta) to create the original project, used XNA Game Studio 3.0 to convert it, and then created a copy of the existing project for the Zune platform.

The error is caused by a subtle configuration issue in the .contentproj file created by XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Beta). To correct this issue, use the following procedure.

1. Modify the .contentproj file to delete all instances of the OutputPath element. This element usually is within a PropertyGroup element that has Condition attributes. For example:

                   <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|Xbox 360' ">
                   ...
                   <OutputPath>bin\Xbox 360\Debug</OutputPath>
                   </PropertyGroup>
                 

2. Add the following as a child element in the same PropertyGroup that includes the XnaFrameworkVersion element:

                   <OutputPath>bin\$(Platform)\$(Configuration)</OutputPath>
                 

If you install XNA Game Studio with the English version of Visual Studio 2008 on a non-English version of Windows, you may experience the following issues:

• The standard templates are not visible in the integrated development environment (IDE).
• The IDE uses a mix of English and non-English text.

To resolve these issues, click Options on the Tools menu, expand the Environment node, and ensure that International Settings is set to English instead of Same as Microsoft Windows. If you change this setting, you must restart Visual Studio 2008 for the change to take effect.

If the executable for a Zune game contains extended ASCII characters (for example, accented characters), the game will fail to run on the Zune device. The game will appear to exit immediately. You will not see any diagnostic messages in the Visual Studio IDE when this issue occurs. Also, if the game attempts to load a file with a name that contains extended ASCII characters, a run-time exception will occur that indicates that the file could not be found. Examples of such files would be content files and files in the title storage area. To work around these issues, rename the files so that they do not contain any extended ASCII characters.

If you have installed the 2.0 version of XNA Game Studio Connect on your Xbox 360, you'll need to manually upgrade XNA Game Studio Connect to deploy games built with XNA Game Studio 3.0. The following instructions are for the existing Xbox Dashboard, and not the New Xbox Experience. However, the differences are slight.

1. On your Xbox 360 console, navigate to the Games area, select Games Library, and then My Games.

2. From the list of games, select XNA Game Studio Connect and then select Delete.

   Note
   You do not need to delete any of your games.

3. Navigate to Xbox LIVE Marketplace, select Game Store, and then click All Games.
4. Select XNA Creators Club, and then XNA Game Studio Connect. Select the Download Again option, and wait for the download to complete.

For those consoles with the New Xbox Experience, selecting Play Now from within Game Marketplace, for the XNA Creators Club content, causes an error.

To resolve this, select All Downloads to download or start XNA Game Studio Connect, or go to Game Library and start it from there.

If your Xbox 360 game fails to deploy with an error code of 2300, this could indicate that the storage for the game is corrupted on the target console. In these cases, the deployed game does not appear in the Game Library and subsequent deployment attempts also fail with the same error.

To fix this error, look in the System Settings, Memory area of the Xbox 360 console, within the category XNA Game Studio Connect. Delete any game whose title is "Corrupted," and then attempt a redeployment.

You can deploy XNA Framework 1.0 games that have been packaged using the XNA Game Studio Package Utility (XnaPack.exe) to XNA Game Studio Connect on the Xbox 360 console. However, these games will not appear in the My Games area of the Xbox 360 Games Library. In order to view and run these games, you need to use the XNA Game Launcher that was released with XNA Game Studio Express 1.0. If you do not already have the XNA Game Launcher, you can download it from Xbox LIVE Marketplace. The My Games option in the XNA Game Launcher enables you to view and run your XNA Framework 1.0 Games.

The software components in XNA Game Studio 3.0 that enable interaction between the development PC and the Xbox 360 console do not interoperate with similar components released with XNA Game Studio Express 1.0. For example, XNA Game Studio Device Center does not support the XNA Game Launcher. Similarly, XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 cannot communicate with XNA Game Studio Connect. The only case in which interoperability is supported is the deployment to XNA Game Studio Connect of XNA Framework 1.0 games that have been packaged using XnaPack.exe.

Network games designed with XNA Game Studio 3.0 can only find, and connect with, other XNA Game Studio 3.0 network games. In addition, games built with XNA Game Studio 2.0 cannot find and connect with XNA Game Studio 3.0 network games.

Joining an existing creator title session from the console dashboard will fail. You will get an error message.

Failure can occur in the following cases:

• Accessing a friend's profile (who is hosting a creator title multiplayer session), and selecting Join Session in Progress.
• Using the New Xbox Experience, selecting Friends, choosing the friend hosting the game, and selecting Join Game.

To avoid this failure, either have the friend creating the creator title multiplayer session send you an invite, or start the same creator title or any other title yourself and then use the console guide to join your friend's creator title session.

If you are running XNA Game Studio Connect and you attempt to join an XNA Creators Club game session (by accepting an invite or joining a session through the console guide) and nothing happens, ensure that XNA Game Studio Connect is on your console's hard drive. To resolve this, look for XNA Game Studio Connect in the Game Library or System Settings, Memory of the dashboard, and then verify that a hard drive symbol is present when you select that item. If you do not see XNA Game Studio Connect, download it to your hard drive from Game Marketplace. If you find XNA Game Studio Connect, but not on the hard drive, move it to the hard drive using the options found in System Settings.

Unexpected behavior could also occur if you installed an older version of XNA Game Studio Connect, such as the XNA Game Launcher that was released with XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 or the 2.0 version of XNA Game Studio Connect. To resolve this, delete any existing version of the XNA game launcher, and then install the latest XNA Game Studio Connect title from the Game Marketplace. If you still require the XNA Game Launcher, you can download it again, after the latest XNA Game Studio Connect version has been downloaded.

If you are running an XNA Framework Game on a machine with a dual-core AMD processor, which is running Windows XP, and the game contacts the Xbox LIVE servers, you may experience unpredictable behavior such as a hanging of the game process. To work around this issue, you should install the AMD Dual-Core Optimizer from AMD on the computer on which you are running the game. Currently, the optimizer is available at the following location.

For Windows XP, the XnaPack tool extracts games to the following location on your local hard drive.

For Windows Vista, the XnaPack tool extracts games to the following location.

The value of the %USERPROFILE% environment variable changes depending on the login ID of the currently logged-in user. It also depends on the drive letter of the partition on which Windows was installed, and whether you are running Windows XP or Windows Vista. For example, for Windows XP installed on drive C:, XnaPack would extract packaged games to the following location.

where "<user>" represents the login ID of the currently logged-in user. For Windows Vista installed on drive D:, XnaPack would extract packaged games to the following location.

where, again, "<user>" represents the login ID of the currently logged-in user.

You may want to create a Windows shortcut to this location so that you can access it more easily.

If an assembly reference in your Zune game has the Copy Local property set to true, an error could occur when unpacking the Zune game.

Before packing your game with the XNA Game Studio Package utility (xnapack.exe), verify that the following assemblies have Copy Local set to false:

• .NET Framework assembly: mscorlib, System, System.Core, System.XML, System.Xml.Linq
• XNA Framework assembly: Microsoft.Xna.Framework, Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game

The Visual C++ 2005 SP1 runtime files are required by games based on XNA Framework 3.0, the version of the XNA Framework used by XNA Game Studio. These files are installed by .NET Framework 3.5 or you can install them using the standalone Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable. You can obtain the redistributable at the following URL.

• Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable

If an XNA Framework game throws NoSuitableGraphicsDeviceException, inspect the text in the unhandled exception dialog box to determine whether the cause is an unsupported video card.

To run XNA Framework games on Windows, you need a graphics card that supports Shader Model 1.1 or greater and DirectX 9.0c. We recommend that you use a graphics card that supports Shader Model 2.0 because some samples and starter kits may require it.

Make sure that your graphics card is using the most recent drivers. You can do this by checking with your hardware vendor and by accessing Microsoft Update.

Items in content projects must have their build action set to Compile in order to be built by the XNA Framework Content Pipeline. If the build action is set to Content, the item will not be built. By default, items in content projects have their build action set to Compile.

The setup program for XNA Game Studio installs the August 2007 version of the Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT). You must use this version of XACT when developing with XNA Game Studio.

Windows projects containing audio content with an 8 KHz sample rate and the Compression Quality property, of the game asset processor, set to Low can cause XNA Game Studio to hang or crash during compilation.

To avoid this issue, either use a different quality setting (for example, High or Medium) for the processor or increase the sample rate of the source content above 8 KHz.

When using the Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT) with XNA Game Studio, you are limited to importing no more than 200 wave banks.