I am just finished reading Professional XNA Game Programming by Benjamin Nitschke (in the last 3 weeks). While other programmer would have start programming XNA immediately after they read this book, I found that maybe XNA is not the right thing for me. Originally, I plan to make another game demo for my job application and I though that it’s nice to use XNA. But in the end, I still prefer Irrlicht to XNA. Let me tell you why.
Rendering 3D in XNA requires too much work. You have to use shader for everything 🙁 and there is no support for loading animation file yet. Of course, you can program it or find the tutorial on the Internet, but I don’t want to waste my time just to shown my 3D animation on the screen. I don’t have much time just to do simple stuff like that and I’d prefer spending more time designing the game characters, focusing on the gameplay or game mechanic. XNA is not worth it for prototyping or making simple game demo, except for 2D or sprite-based game.
It’s not coded in C++. The reason why I want to make a game demo is for my job application. Unfortunately, almost 90% of the job in the industry require code in C++ so I don’t think programming in XNA will attract my potential employer 🙁
I don’t have XBOX360 :p Less motivation to use XNA 😛
It requires VGA card with Shader Model 2.0. This one really annoys me since I only have a laptop. Of course, XNA supports Shader Model 1.1 (which is supported by most of the ‘older’ VGA cards) but most of the examples and source code out there requires Shader Model 2.0 in order to run the game. Sometimes I just wonder, why does the game industry narrow their own market? While the game development budget is getting bigger, the game price stays around 40-50 Euro. Now they’re making the hardware requirement even higher (which means less people can play and buy the game).
The last reason is more personal. I think that game development is getting geekier and less creative. Game developers are more focusing on making their game look more realistic and forget about more important things like gameplay, better game story (other than spaceship, war, gangster, or war between man and alien), character design (other than man in war or space suit), or even marketing. The XNA book that I’ve read is more focusing on Shader and Normal Mapping. Maybe it’s just me, that I am not a fan of realistic game. I prefer game with unique visual style and fun gameplay, like Katamari for example. Games like Gears of War or Halo 3 never impress me. It doesn’t have to be 3D to make the game beautiful. Take Yoshi Island for DS for example. Maybe I should build game for Wii or DS instead for XBOX360.
But I haven’t drop XNA yet. Maybe I have to wait a little bit longer before I get more stabile XNA (better model and animation import).
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Hi! I like you blog! But if you like to make some 3D programing I recommend Ogre3D. Irrlich is nice but it has a lot of hidden bugs and limitation. The bad new is that you discover that after you learn it.
Thanks, Redmonk 🙂 I am glad that you like it 😉
Ogre3D is really famous and powerful graphics engine, but it is just not for me. It’s more complex to use than Irrlicht. I did a ‘test-drive’ on both Irrlicht & OGRE eight months ago (before making my first 3D game, Tokusatsu Agent) and in the end, I love Irrlicht for its light and simple engine. Yes, Irrlicht is not that good in 3D graphics and has a lots of limitations (compare to Ogre), but my games won’t require much graphic power (well, at least for now 🙂 ).
But thanks anyway for the suggestion 🙂 Maybe I’ll try Ogre if I already have a development team 😉
I try myself Irrlicht for a project and also modify some core thinks and it was not so fun. For example no VBO (Vertex Buffer Objects) in Irrlicht and also no multi-textures for shaders development. But it’s a decent framework for playing with it. Now I’m working with Ogre on some research project for a couple of months and I’m happy. Drop me a mail if you like to talk more.
Best wishes!