2 replies to this topic

[DracheHexe]

I was looking into getting a book or two on XNA Gamestudio Express with C# and noticed that while most use the 2005 edition of C# and the XNA refresh 1.0 that C#xpress 2008 is out and XNA 2.0 beta is out as well.

My question is should I wait for books for XNA2 with C#2008 or will the differences be negligible enough to just go ahead with right now. I figure C# 2008 won't be too far removed from the 2005 edition but I have no clue how different XNA 2.0 will be from the curent version.

Any thoughts?

[GameEngine_Designer]

If you like looking and dealing with bugs go for it, but if not, then stay with C# 2.0 and XNA Refresh 1.0.

[Jare]

XNA 2.0 won't integrate with VS 2008 in the short term, but works fine with VS 2005; no idea about VC# Express 2008.

I've been monkeying around with the 2.0 beta + VS 2005 and it seems fairly stable, so don't be afraid to start straight with it. Existing features don't change much from 1.0, but XNA 1 books won't cover topics like parameterized content processors or the big one, networking.

The XNA API is fairly straightforward, so if you are already familiar with topics like DirectX or HLSL Shaders and Effects, I suggest you pick a book that covers the practical aspects of asset creation and the content pipeline more in depth.