| General |
| Is XNA Game Studio 2.0 fully compatible with Visual Studio? |
Yes. Microsoft® XNA™ Game Studio 2.0 is designed to install custom extensions to supported versions of Microsoft Visual Studio® tools. This includes Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, and Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition.
For a complete list of supported editions, see Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and Microsoft Visual C# Express Edition.
|
| How do I file bugs or make suggestions? |
If you find a bug or have suggestions for XNA Game Studio, be sure to tell us! Click the Feedback link (also available at the bottom of any page), and then choose Microsoft Connect. Sign in with your Windows Live ID, and then click the link marked Feedback. Finally, click Submit Feedback to tell us all about it.
|
| Can I make a game playable over Xbox LIVE? |
Yes. XNA Game Studio 2.0 supports Xbox LIVE networking. However, if you wish to create a game for Community Games on Xbox LIVE, you – and all other players sharing an Xbox LIVE connection – must have an XNA Creators Club Premium membership and an Xbox LIVE Gold membership for the duration of the Community Games Beta on Xbox LIVE. Starting in Holiday ’08, an XNA Creators Club Premium membership will no longer be required to play Community Games.
|
| Can I create a game where Xbox 360 and Windows users can play over LIVE together? |
Yes. XNA Game Studio 2.0 supports cross-platform play between Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows LIVE. However, if you wish to create a game for Community Games on Xbox LIVE, you and all other players sharing the Xbox LIVE connection must have an XNA Creators Club Premium membership in addition to an Xbox LIVE Gold membership for the duration of the Community Games Beta on Xbox LIVE. Starting in Holiday ’08, a player won’t need an XNA Creators Club Premium membership to play Community Games. An XNA Creators Club membership is not required for players sharing a Windows connection.
|
| If I have written a local multiplayer game, must the player with the XNA Creators Club membership sign in first? |
In the event that multiple people want to play a local multiplayer XNA Framework game, it is essential that the player with a valid XNA Creators Club membership sign in first before launching XNA Game Studio Connect. After launch, additional players can then sign in to play. If multiple players on a single Xbox 360 console have a valid XNA Creators Club membership, the connection settings used by XNA Game Studio Connect will always default to the first player.
|
| Graphics |
| What do I do to fix the error message, "NoSuitableGraphicsDeviceException was unhandled"? |
Check the inner exception for more information why the graphics device could not be created. XNA Game Studio thoroughly checks why the graphics device could not be created. It reports these checks in the inner exception.
If NoSuitableGraphicsDeviceException does not have an inner exception, it is likely either that your graphics card does not have a DirectX 9 driver, which means it does not support Shader Model 1.1, or that the hardware acceleration slider is not set to Full in your settings.
To determine the version of DirectX installed on the computer:
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type dxdiag, and then click OK.
The System tab tells you which version of DirectX is installed on the computer.
To set hardware acceleration to Full on Windows XP:
1. Right-click the desktop, and then click Properties on the menu.
2. Click the Settings tab, and then click Advanced.
3. Click the Troubleshoot tab.
4. Set the Hardware Acceleration slider to Full.
5. Click OK, and then click Close.
To set hardware acceleration to Full on Windows Vista:
1. Right-click the desktop, and then click Personalize on the displayed context menu.
2. Click Display Settings
3. Click Advanced Settings...
4. Click the Troubleshoot tab.
5. Click the Change Settings button, and then move the Hardware Acceleration slider until it is set to Full. Note that for display adapters that won’t let you change the hardware acceleration, the Change Settings button may be disabled.
6. Click OK on the three open dialog boxes.
To determine which shader models are supported:
Please see How To: Check for Shader Model 2.0 Support for information about how to programmatically query the shader capabilities of the graphics card.
|
| Can I use the Delay Sign feature for my Xbox 360 game? |
Use of delay signing can prevent the game from running on the Xbox 360 because the console uses strong name verification. Under strong name verification, the assemblies will not load until the signing process is complete.
|
| When debugging, sometimes my full-screen game crashes and I am unable to return to Visual Studio. Other than rebooting my computer, what can I do? |
When a program takes over the graphics device, sometimes it is unable to properly return the graphics device to Windows after a crash. Here are some things you can try:
1. Press the Windows button or CTRL+ESC to bring up the Start menu. Sometimes this will restore the task bar, which enables you to bring up Visual Studio.
2. Press ALT+TAB to return focus to Visual Studio, then press SHIFT+F5 to stop the program you are debugging. Sometimes you may have to press ALT+TAB a few times to return the focus to Visual Studio before pressing SHIFT+F5
3. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to bring up the Windows Security window. If the Windows Security window comes up, you can use Task Manager to end the task running your game. Then you can return to Visual Studio.
If those suggestions do not work, your only option is to reboot the computer.
Another option is to debug in windowed mode. This would eliminate the possibility of the previously-described issue altogether.
|
| What shader models does XNA Game Studio support? |
XNA Game Studio supports all the DirectX 9 shader models (versions 1.x, 2.x, and 3.0) on Windows, along with some variants. For a full list of supported shaders, see the ShaderProfile enumeration. On Xbox 360, XNA Game Studio supports Shader Model 2.0 and an extended variant of 3.0 customized for the Xbox 360. Some starter kits may have more restrictive requirements. For example, the Spacewar Starter Kit requires Shader Model 2.0 or later.
|
| How do I create lighting and material effects in XNA Game Studio? |
Lights and materials are implemented in XNA Game Studio with effects. To implement lighting or material effects, create an effect that contains the desired vertex or pixel color transformation. The actions of a simple effect are encapsulated in the BasicEffect class, which provides functionality for applying lights and materials, and setting world, view, and projection transformations. You may choose to use BasicEffect for simple functionality or to create your own effects using the Effect class.
|
| What is an effect file? |
An effect is a combination of vertex and pixel shader code grouped together to encapsulate a particular rendering technique. Effects can be written in either high-level shader language (HLSL) or assembly code. An effect file contains effect code. You may see effect files with an .fx extension that contain HLSL code. Effects in HLSL or assembly code must be compiled to a binary format before they can be used in an application. For overviews of HLSL and the effect file format, see the HLSL Shaders and Effects DirectX Programming Guides on MSDN. Go to the Direct3D API Reference for complete reference documentation for HLSL, shader ASM, and the effect file format.
|
| After drawing using Graphics.SpriteBatch, why do my 3D objects draw incorrectly? |
By default, SpriteBatch.Begin does not save your current render state. This means it will change certain render state properties, which in turn may cause 3D objects to render incorrectly. You can choose either to reset the render state yourself after the call to SpriteBatch.End or call SpriteBatch.Begin and pass in SaveStateMode.SaveState, which will restore the render state after sprites are drawn.
|
| Why does calling GetCue from SoundBank never return a cue? |
In your XACT project, you may have set a sound bank property called IncludeCueNames to false. For each sound bank in your project, this property must be set to true. Open XACT, load your project, and click each of your sound banks in the project tree view. Check the value of IncludeCueNames in the property pane as you click each sound bank. If any of these values are set to false, set them to true and rebuild your project.
|
| Storage |
| Why do I get an exception when I try to use Storage classes? |
One possible reason is that one of your operating system folders — most likely %_NTDrive%\Documents and Settings\ — is mapped to a network drive. This release does not support storing player data or running titles from a network location.
|
| Starter Kits |
| How do I install the XNA Game Studio starter kits that I downloaded from the XNA Creators Club website? |
The Downloads sections on the starter kit pages feature Microsoft Installer (.msi) files, which contain the starter kit templates. If you have installed Visual Studio, which is required for XNA Game Studio, then the files will be executable. Double-click on the downloaded .msi file, and the installer will launch. Note that the installation requires the version of XNA Game Studio for which the template was created.
|
| After installing the XNA Game Studio starter kits, how do I use them? |
Open the appropriate version of Visual Studio for the XNA Game Studio version of the starter kit you downloaded; for example, if the starter kit is for XNA Game Studio 2.0, open Visual Studio 2005. Click on the File menu, then click on the New Project option. The starter kit will be listed in the XNA Game Studio area on the dialog.
|
| After installing an XNA Game Studio starter kit, I can’t find the starter kit in the New Project dialog in Visual Studio! What do I do? |
|
Note that this question was written for the Visual Studio Installer (.vsi) files. The starter kit pages now feature Microsoft Installer (.msi) files that avoid this problem.
First, make sure that you are using the version of Visual Studio that is appropriate to the version of the starter kit you installed; for example, if the starter kit is for XNA Game Studio 2.0, use Visual Studio 2005. If you do not see it in the default view of the New Project dialog, then select the other Project Types in the New Project dialog and look for the starter kit there. For example, the Visual C# node may contain the starter kits, if the XNA Game Studio 2.0 entry does not.
If you still cannot find the starter kit, then it is possible that it installed into the wrong version of Visual Studio. Due to a known issue, the .vsi installer will install into the latest version of Visual Studio that is available. For example, if you have Visual Studio 2008, then the starter kits for XNA Game Studio 2.0 may install into the Visual Studio 2008 template folder. To check for this, go into your user documents folder, and then enter the Visual Studio 2008\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual C# subdirectory. If this folder contains a .zip file that is named like the .vsi file (e.g., ShipGameWindows.zip), or if any subdirectories of this folder contain these .zip files, then you will need to move the file to the Visual Studio 2005 path in your user documents folder. Move the zip file(s) to the Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual C#\XNA Game Studio 2.0 (note that Visual Studio 2005 is a requirement for XNA Game Studio 2.0 and its related starter kits).
|
| When I try to create a new project from an XNA Game Studio starter kit, Visual Studio reports an error about an “untrusted component”. Why? |
|
Note that this question was written for the Visual Studio Installer (.vsi) files. The starter kit pages now feature Microsoft Installer (.msi) files that avoid this problem.
This error usually indicates a mismatch between the version of Visual Studio and XNA Game Studio and the version of the starter kit. You may only use starter kits that are developed for the particular version of XNA Game Studio that you are using. However, in some cases, the starter kit may show up in the New Project dialog for the latest version of Visual Studio, even if that version is not supported for the starter kit. For example, you may see this error when creating a new project from an XNA Game Studio 2.0 project within Visual Studio 2008 with XNA Game Studio 3.0. If the starter kit does not appear in the New Project dialog in the appropriate version of Visual Studio, then it is likely that the starter kit is in the wrong location. Follow the steps in this entry to fix this problem.
|
|
