XNA UK User Group

Hi all,

  I'm not quite ready to invest in an XBox 360 yet ( long story involving arguments with spouses ) so was hoping that someone who has a Creator's Club membership would be able test something for me on their XBox and possible take a photo of it. Apart from coding in C# I've also created a camera tutorial using Chrome ( an Object Pascal compiler for .NET ). As the final test to prove that you can use non-C# compiled code on an XBox360 I would just like to see if this demo also works on an XBox 360.

I've created a C# wrapper around a Chrome assembly and have then linked it all to the Xbox360 assemblies and created a 360 game package.

The game package ( ~1MB ) is  available from

http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/files/CamerasTutorial360-Xbox360.ccgame 

and assuming you have a Creator's Club membership and have downloaded the above package, double-clicking the .ccgame file should unpack and transfer the demo to one's 360. If all goes well, it should just work and you should be able to switch between 6 camera types.

Here's hoping.

I'll have a go at this, but I hope you don't need it before the competition deadline, I'm going to be a bit busy...

Thanks Jonathan,

  No I don't need it for the comp. This is purely a just to prove it can be done.

Thanks.



 

Regarding using non C# code on the Xbox 360, it's certainly possible. After all, all .Net languages ultimately compile to IL that runs on all .Net platforms.

The only difficulty* is does the language/program use types/assemblies that aren't part of the Xbox 360 version of the framework. IronPython, for example, uses dynamic code generation types and they aren't available at all. I've used F# on the Xbox 360 and Dean Calver's XNUA project compiles Lua scripts to IL that run on the Xbox 360.

I'll try your package today, if I get a chance.

Cheers,
Leaf.

* There are actually a couple of IL instructions that aren't available on the Xbox 360 .Net platform also. This can cause problems for languages that sometimes use them, such as CLI/C++.

Thanks Leaf, that would be great if you get the chance. I am in contact with the Chrome developers, and they seem quite open to making any necessary changes to get things working with XNA. So any errors I find that are compiler related will be filtered back to the lead developers. 

Um, just tried this and nothing happens, I see a blank screen then it returns to the main XNA Game Launcher window.

Wow that's disappointing, No error messages or anything?  I was hoping that it would look similar to this...

But on an Xbox obviously. 

No, error, it is as though the application crashed. I have not seen any error messages on the XBox when crashes occur. I have had similar results when developing code. All errors can be reported through the IDE when running in DEBUG. This is how I have tracked them down. Without an XBox it would be fairly difficult to determine the problem. My guess is that you have forgotten to add a resource to the XBox project and therefore you have an access violation problem. Compare the 2 projects and ensure you have added all resources to the XBox version.

Thanks Antony for taking the time to look at this.  

Would you get more meaningful information if I uploaded a zip file that contained the C# project and the associated assembly instead of the .ccgame package?

 
I will double check this evening to make sure that all the files that should be in the package are there, but I may also create another downloadable file that has C# project, all the resources and the assembly in question.

I have uploaded a new version at the same location and this time I added the resources to the C# project instead of the Chrome project.

So now the download is about 1.5MB.

If it does not work this time, I think there may be something more fundamental going wrong than just the C# + Chrome marriage.
 

Hi Somersault that has sorted the problem. It runs just fine. Thrust makes a sound and the controller vibrates when you accelerate (I assume this is intentional). Reset also makes a sound. Anything particular that you want as a screen shot? I run my Xbox through a standard 19" monitor and so it may look a little stretched (vertically).

If you still want a screenshot I'll take a pic with my phone and upload it. Just let me know.

Somersault:

Would you get more meaningful information if I uploaded a zip file that contained the C# project and the associated assembly instead of the .ccgame package?

Just a note on this if you experience any future problems. Yes, if you run debug on the XBox any errors are reported through the IDE and therefore a lot easier to track. It is the same as debugging on the PC in fact.

So if you decide to go the XBox route you will:

1) Need to join the XNA creators club at approx £50 GBP per annum it is $99 USD IIRC.

2) Need an XBox too, but I guess this goes without saying

But if it isn't too frequent I'm willing to help out ;)

Hi Antony,

  This is great news that it now works. Thanks for trying it out and for your offer of helping. I've found someone in the office who has an XBox and I have given him £25 to sign up for a  4 month Creators Club subscription and he is willing to try stuff out on his XBox for me. So hopefully I won't need to bother you or anyone else here anymore, unless he lets me down.
 

Any sort of screen shot would be great. I just need to send it back to the Chrome developers. Btw, were you able to switch cameras in the demo?

Thanks again. 

Yes, the cameras worked fine here are a couple of screen shots, hope they are adequate

That's great! Thanks Antony, for your time and patience.