XNA Game Studio Express compatible with Visual Studio Professional
Can't wait to get home and download XNA GSE but I'm concerned; will I be able to use it on a machine where I already have an installed copy of VS Professional? I have another machine that I can use that doesn't have any developement tools on it but that would be inconvenient. I checked the FAQ and didn't see anything one way or another.
Thanks in advance.
GSE won't install unless c# express is on your machine. However c# express is free and happily lives side by side with VS Pro.
But yes you can use it on that machine. I am doing it just fine.
Will it ever be supported on Visual Studio 2005? Sure be nice to be able to use my productivity tools (RefactorPro, for example) with XNA.
I do have to wonder why it won't install over Vs2005.
I just downloaded it, extracted it manually (as the msi wouldn't unpack itself due to the lack of Express) to the correct places (some guessing involved), and it builds and runs the SpaceWar demo fine (after some project file mangling).
If I was a conspiracy theorist I'd probably guess that this was some kind of ploy to get people to install Express..
Can't really see the point of getting people to install Express, I would be more inclined to think that it's a ploy to get Professional users to pay for the bigger XNA package.
Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
Well you could always just create a windows application project, add the two XNA assemblies references and go on from there (done it with no problems), the installer needing visual c# express thingy was just a wierd mental screw up me thinks :)
so can one uninstall C# express, after we install this Studio.
I really dont want C# express considering I have VSTS :/
If you only want to do Windows games and don't want the starter kits and other features of GSE you don't need C# Express. You can use the XNA Framework with VS Pro.
Just keep in mind that things like deploy and run on the Xbox are the "other features" in GSE
Which is why I said "
If you only want to do Windows games..." 
I hope that requiring VC# Express to be installed is a fluke.
Frankly I use #develop2 for all my .NET development and it works like a charm. I don't plan on switching, and I suspect that all the example projects are just msbuild project files that would open up in #dev2 just fine.
Well, since GSE is an add-on to C# Express I wouldn't say it's a fluke.
Oh.
I thought that XNA was for the .NET platform, not for the Visual Studio platform.
My mistake. ^.^
Don't sweat it, everybody makes mistakes ;-)
I think there's some confusion with XNA Framework vs. Game Studio (Express/Pro).
- XNA Framework is a set of .NET assemblies and you can incorporate them in probably any tool you choose.
- Game Studio is (or will be) an end-to-end suite of tools used for game creation using XNA Framework. In it's current form, it's just a set of plugins/templates on top of C#Express. In the future I imagine it will bear less of a resemblance to the VS2005.
Put another way, you can't open a GSE solution file in VS, but you *can* create a new one and then move the source files from your GSE project to the new one. I'm guessing the reasons MSFT advises against this are one or more of the following:
- it taxes support resources that probably have their hands full already
- they want to limit feedback to specifically GSE in this round
- (note: I'm speculating here) GSE will deviate in form&function as more of the content pipeline tools are added. Sure, the beta version is just C#express with some extra plugins and templates, but the differences will get more pronounced over time. GSE will supposedly encompass other parts of the game createion pipeline, and as such a GSE project file will be a night/day difference from the contents of a typical VS project which mostly contains only code.
That said, I feel that distinction between XNA the framework, and XNA Game Studio are not as clearly defined as they could be. It's lead to misunderstandings such as the ones seen in this thread.
You can make new VS projects and add references to XNA framework, however you are correct that you cannot just load GSE projects into VS/
In addition you can't:
1. Use the GSE templates (without some hacking)
2. Use the future content pipeline
3. Connect and publish to xbox 360 in the future.
