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[kitling]

Okay, this is a big one. I'd like to see Shadow Wolf on Mac and Linux.

Seeing how you use XNA and Visual Studio 2010 for development, I think it pretty likely that you're using C#. Luckilly, there's Mono, a cross-platform version of C#, and MonoGame, a cross-platform version of XNA 4.0. I reccomend that you possibly take a look?

The other option, I suppose, would be to rewrite everything in something like C++. *cringes* I get the feeling that that's not going to happen...

Here come the rushing waters of the flodgates opening. I hope I don't drown.

[Felblood]

I'd love to see this happen, but it's a tall order to be sure.

You're talking about a massive investment in training for a team that already doesn't have time to get any (well much. The point is that this project is set to take several more years.) actual work done.

Plus, we have a major communications issue, which bottlenecks a lot of our production, which has effectively led to a feature freeze.

DW has to get his netcode up to a marginally functional level, before any of the stuff I'm working on can even be used, etc.

EDIT: I know WE talked about this artier in chat, but it's important to bring the lurkers up to speed.

[kitling]

I'd love to see this happen, but it's a tall order to be sure.

You're talking about a massive investment in training for a team that already doesn't have time to get any (well much. The point is that this project is set to take several more years.) actual work done.

Plus, we have a major communications issue, which bottlenecks a lot of our production, which has effectively led to a feature freeze.

DW has to get his netcode up to a marginally functional level, before any of the stuff I'm working on can even be used, etc.

EDIT: I know WE talked about this artier in chat, but it's important to bring the lurkers up to speed.

Indeed. Could be quite difficult.

Hopefully, required training would be very little, since MonoGame should be a drop in replacement for XNA. In practice, who knows. The only way for me to tell is to write a (simplistic) C# application using XNA, and then port it to C#. I may try this at some point. If I do, then I can tell you how smooth or difficult it was. 'Til then...

As for everything else, yeah. That's understandable. A fictional priority for this could be 'Very Very Low' or 'End of Development'.

Let's see what happens...

[Felblood]

Actually, this really is something we've talked about  doing after the PC version is ready to roll.

If you do those experiments, I would be very interested to hear the results.

[kitling]

Actually, this really is something we've talked about  doing after the PC version is ready to roll.

If you do those experiments, I would be very interested to hear the results.

I am installing Windows 7 in a VM now, and I found a game based on XNA that had the source code released. I will post my results if/when I get to it.

EDIT: Installing VS Express 2013. Wondering if it'll ever finish. Thinking of trying to install 2010, instead...
EDIT 2: Just noticed some progress! Still taking a looong time, though.

[Felblood]

Cool.

Monogame has truly noble goals and everything, it's just that I've used enough open source stuff to wonder if it works.

[kitling]

Cool.

Monogame has truly noble goals and everything, it's just that I've used enough open source stuff to wonder if it works.

I don't know whether it works or not, all I know is there seem to be a lot of tutorials recently on switching from XNA to MonoGame to make applications work with Windows 8 Metro... Slightly related to what I'd like to see work... Hopefully, this means that it works! Right? 

[Felblood]

This means that people have managed to make it work, in some cases.

Can I get a link to some of those tutorials?

With MS dropping XNA support, I'd be nice to know they'll still make computers that run this game when we are done making it.

[kitling]

This means that people have managed to make it work, in some cases.

Can I get a link to some of those tutorials?

With MS dropping XNA support, I'd be nice to know they'll still make computers that run this game when we are done making it.

Heh. I suppose that would be nice to know. Alright, I'll go dig up links.

Interestingly enough, there is another reimplementation of XNA called ANX. (Seriously? Who came up with that name?)
http://anxframework.codeplex.com/
However, it is Windows only.

There are enough tutorials/articles that I don't care to list them all, but here are a few I have stumbled upon:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bobfamiliar/archive/2012/08/02/windows-8-xna-and-monogame-part-2-getting-started.aspx
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/192209/from_xna_to_monogame.php
http://ballerindustries.com/2012/11/using-monogame-to-port-an-xna-game-to-windows-metro/

I also ran across this stack overflow question:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21658493/is-monogame-just-xna

If you want to find more, here is a link to the search where I found all of these... 

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Switching+from+XNA+to+MonoGame

So, have fun with links!

[Felblood]

Thanks!

I found the Stack Overflow's brevity valuable, and now I'm working through the Gamasutra article, for a deeper look.

I'm in my manic phase today, and I'm seriously tempted to download some libs and grind out some test code, but I should definitely not do that.

MY second kid is due any day now, and I need to channel these manic energies to good use.

[kitling]

Thanks!

I found the Stack Overflow's brevity valuable, and now I'm working through the Gamasutra article, for a deeper look.

I'm in my manic phase today, and I'm seriously tempted to download some libs and grind out some test code, but I should definitely not do that.

MY second kid is due any day now, and I need to channel these manic energies to good use.

Yeah, that would probably not be a good idea. Anyway, that's what I'm trying to do for you, that is, if VS 2013 Express ever finishes installing.

Hmm. Perhaps I should've given the VM more RAM then the default. But... I don't want to restart the installation...

Also, it would help if my computer is on, which it isn't, at the moment...

Soo... should I switch to VS 2010 Express, if I can find it?

[Felblood]

Good question.

I use VS2010 express, because that's what I got free in school and I have no money, and I've never needed to upgrade to 2014.

[kitling]

Never mind, I'll just install MonoDevelop. I was thinking of XNA 4.0 that I had to install...
EDIT: I still have to install VS 2010, for XNA4.0 for content pipeline... xD

[kitling]

I'm glad I stopped installation of VS 2013. I raised the ram from 1/2 GB to about 3 GB, gave it another core, and installed VS 2010, XNA Game Studio, any dependencies needed, and MonoDevelop.

Now I just need to preform the actual experiment.

MonoDevelop is probably not necessary, but I got it, just in case I end up using it on my actual machine, which runs Ubuntu. (I can get used to MonoDevelop as opposed to VS.) Anyway...

Oh, I suppose I need to get MonoGame, for the purpose of porting. That shall have to happen. Hmm. Anyone playing the ported game afterwards will likely need to install MonoGame, but that shouldn't be that big of a problem for some people. I suppose it would be nice for people on Linux/Mac if they didn't have to install the whole Mono runtime + MonoGame to play ShadowWolf...

Heh, I wonder if we could bundle a runtime with the ported game? Another experiment, after I finish this one?

[Felblood]

Maybe on Mac.

Linux people are used to having to keep track of which dependencies they need for a particular application. No sense burdening people who already have it installed, or need to install some weird fork version because their rig is made of two laptops with no hard drive.