Is it possible to resolve the depth buffer into a texture on the 360? It is possible to do this in native code simply by specifying D3DRESOLVE_DEPTHSTENCIL
when resolving, and is pretty darned useful for deferred lighting and other nifty stuff.

If not, what are the chances of opening this up to users? It isn't exactly hard to do...

This functionality is not exposed in the XNA Framework, mostly because there is no consistent way to do this across different platforms.

Shawn Hargreaves:

This functionality is not exposed in the XNA Framework, mostly because there is no consistent way to do this across different platforms.

What, and the Zune can render shader model 3.0? ;) Surely all platforms are going to vary to some extent?

CosmicFlux:

Is it possible to resolve the depth buffer into a texture on the 360? It is possible to do this in native code simply by specifying D3DRESOLVE_DEPTHSTENCIL
when resolving, and is pretty darned useful for deferred lighting and other nifty stuff.

If not, what are the chances of opening this up to users? It isn't exactly hard to do...

Been there, done that, asked this question before. Even opened up a Connect request and it was subsequently closed. I know _exactly_ what you're looking for, because I too had/still have a need for it. Unfortunately, I've had to accept that it's "the way things are" and just deal with it. At least knowing this much allows you to plan for it. For deferred, you're gonna have to write depth values and save your own depth/z buffer. As Shawn said, we can all see where the differences are between the 360 and the PC regarding this issue, so I guess for that reason the lowest common denominator wins out.