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windows-phone-7xna
Jonathan Allen
Jonathan Allen

Reputation: 70307

What is the relationship between XNA and XNA for Windows Phone?

What is the relationship between XNA and XNA for Windows Phone?

Is that latter a true subset of the former like the .NET Client Profile?

Mostly a subset (like Silverlight vs Silverlight for Windows Phone)?

Or is it simply a similar API like WPF vs Silverlight?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 234

Answers (2)

Conan
Conan

Reputation: 2709

According to the following MSDN page, it's a subset of full XNA:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg490768.aspx

If you're considering writing XNA games for Windows 8, you may want to hold fire, as it's none too clear if XNA is still a long-term strategy for Microsoft (at least, if their comments at the recent BUILD conference are anything to go by):

http://www.rabidlion.com/2011/09/opinion-why-xna-isnt-dead-yet.html

Upvotes: 0

El Zorko
El Zorko

Reputation: 3399

They're identical in terms of the XNA API, and both are developed using the same download, typically XNA + C# + Visual Studio.

There are differences in what each platform supports though. For XNA in general I'd always consult Shawn Hargreaves blog first, and this article is most relevant: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2010/03/10/xna-game-studio-on-windows-phone.aspx

The biggest differences vs Xbox 360/Windows are display resolution, input methods available, and the fact that Windows Phone 7 doesn't support programmable shaders (so you can't write your own velvet/Fresnel shader for WP7, but you can for Windows and the 360).

Performance also varies: on Windows XNA performs well without much effort as it runs on the full .NET Framework. On the 360 and WP7, it runs on the .NET Compact Framework, so whilst you get the full XNA API you only have access to a subset of the full .NET Framework (though in a typical game you won't miss much of it) plus its garbage collection is shocking so depending on your game you may really have to watch memory allocation.

Upvotes: 3

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