[This message is addressed to the mighty XNA Team.]

The current XNA 2.0 Redist doesn't provide correct networking support. The applications cannot be distributed without XNA GSE installed on the end user's terminal. Please correct your Redist quickly or publish a list of all dll's and lib's needed for proper XNA Game distribution.

 

Greetings from Poland

This is by design. The LIVE functionality is currently developer only territory. As soon as this design changes, the redist will be updated. Even if you were to copy the DLLs (which violates the XNA Game Studio EULA), your user would still have to have a Creators Club subscription to play online. If online play is important to you right now, you'll want to use a different networking library like Lidgren, but of course that does limit you to Windows only.

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Nick Gravelyn -- Microsoft XNA MVP
XNA Wiki | Zune Games

Ok - maybe You could tell me what is the planned release date for the final version of the 2.0 Redist ?

Tureczek:

Ok - maybe You could tell me what is the planned release date for the final version of the 2.0 Redist ?

What you have is the final version. The 2.0 release will probably not get a newer version. XNA GS 2.0 is just not meant to have Live! functionality for end-users; only for developers.

The next version of XNA GS will be 3.0, which will have a beta later this spring, and will be released in autumn/winter 2008.
However, no details have been announced for it, so we don't know if it will have Live! networking in the redist. you'll be able to play games on the Xbox without being a developer (Community Games), but we know nothing about the Windows side.

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Microsoft XNA MVP

My blog: 12 months, 12 samples : April Sample: Dynamic 2D Shadows

That doesn't make any sense at all.

Tureczek:

That doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Fixed. :D

It makes perfect sense if you consider the fact that what they're doing is a huge task and can't all be done at once.

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Jim Perry
Here's what I'm up to.

Actually this makes a lot of sense.

The Live service requires that application go through a certification pass and be licensed by Microsoft to use the service. Microsoft need to make sure that applications behave properly and I believe they need to be signed with a special key. This service is not free to run and MS need to ensure as much as possible that your game isn't the one to open up any vulnerabilities in it.

The XNA team have a partial 'pass' around this process. All XNA games run as if they are a single app (as far as the Live service is concerned they are all signed with one key). The idea is that developers can use Live during development. If you want to release a fully live enabled game then you have to do what all developer do and become a licensed live developer. I believe you need to start here http://www.microsoftcasualgames.msn.com/developer-program.htm

The way the XNA team control this 'dev only' process is by making the libraries only available as part of the dev tool with no redist available.

Does it suck that we can't all write networked games using the nice simple XNA Live API - sure, but there are sensible reasons even if you don't like them.

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The ZBuffer - News and information for XNA and Managed DirectX

It also makes sense if you look at the XNA framework as a prototyping and portfolio buidling software for up and coming game developers instead of an instant revenue generating ATM.

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George Clingerman - Microsoft XNA MVP
XNADevelopment.com

You know after searching for a link to send the OP I realised that neither the readme file for the download nor the help file makes this point explicitly (well I wasn't able to find anything quickly) so its no surprise that people are surprised by the fact that its not in the redist and possibly discover it AFTER their game is complete. I've made a connect item for the XNA team to make this fact more obvious so that people have the facts up front.

https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=336140&SiteID=226

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The ZBuffer - News and information for XNA and Managed DirectX

The whole XNA networking system is not yet finished...

Swordshock:

The whole XNA networking system is not yet finished...

Define 'finished'.

For future readers who find this post, quote it on their blog as the gospel truth let me say that Swordshock is expressing his personal opinion on the subject and does not speak for Microsoft...

The live networking API in XNA Game studio is limited in 2.0 for sure (and as I have found the limitations are poorly documented) but its finished as far as the features for the 2.0 release are concerned. We don't know what new features will be added for 3.0 but to call it unfinished is a little over the top.

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The ZBuffer - News and information for XNA and Managed DirectX

Actually, I think we can all define some requirements necessary for a "finished" game networking system:

- It is possible for a developer to develop and test a game using networking
- It is possible for a developer to ship this game to an end user
- It is possible for the end user to play the game with networking support

Right now, XNA Game Studio only satisfies one out of these three requirements. There may be all kinds of reasons <i>why</i>, but it certainly is the truth that it doesn't satisfy all three. Thus, from the point of view of any developer, or any end user, the XNA networking system is not finished. That's fine, as long as you realize that what's in 2.0 is a developer preview, but anyone saying it's "finished" in its current state is out of touch with the developers and the market.

I would assume that even Microsoft would agree that the XNA GS 2.0 networking system is not finished -- although I don't speak for MS (hence the "assume" part).

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Jon Watte, Direct3D MVP
kW X-port 3ds Max .X exporter
14 days after getting my RROD box back, it's going back for service again. Grr.

If the goal is to enable developers to publish networked games that use live for free then yes its not finished. But its quite apparent that that is not their current goal. I totally agree with all your assertions and logic though - its effectively useless for anything at the moment other than proving it can be done to a publisher or playing a game with your 5 developer buddies. I was just ensuring that random single sentence soundbytes like the one i responded to don't get quoted as 'the truth' anywhere.

It seems to me that all the features are building for the 360 and the community games portal. Lets hope for some 3.0 announcements on windows too....

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The ZBuffer - News and information for XNA and Managed DirectX

I agree with the point about creating a game prototype in XNA to be rebuild in clean DirectX

BUT

I strongly disagree with the "huge sense". Everyone say's "LIVE this", "LIVE that" - but I aim at creating LAN games (Systemlink). That doesn't really require any "pass" for the app does it ?

No, but to an Xbox or PC, it hardly matters whether it's system link or LIVE. They both hinge on the same external API. So it would be a bunch of extra work for the team to branch off the system link portion from the LIVE portion. Not only that, but for games that support both, it's easy to share a large code base being that both have the same API. If you changed one, you'd wind up with lots of duplication of multiplayer code. So the team used a single API for both and thus enforces the same restrictions on both. That's life for now and hopefully it will change at some point, but for now these are the limitations given.

If you want a free internet (or LAN) networking solution, check out Lidgren. It seems to be pretty popular. There are even a few tutorials on Ziggyware.com for using it with XNA. Of course it doesn't work with Xbox, but for Windows it's a good solution.

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Nick Gravelyn -- Microsoft XNA MVP
XNA Wiki | Zune Games

Lidgren sounds good - I just don't like to use libraries from a private person. Why? You can't blame them :)

I like using libraries where I get the source, because then if there's a problem, I can fix it myself (if it's important enough).

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Jon Watte, Direct3D MVP
kW X-port 3ds Max .X exporter
14 days after getting my RROD box back, it's going back for service again. Grr.

The ZMan [MVP/Moderator]:

Swordshock:

The whole XNA networking system is not yet finished...

Define 'finished'.

For future readers who find this post, quote it on their blog as the gospel truth let me say that Swordshock is expressing his personal opinion on the subject and does not speak for Microsoft...

The live networking API in XNA Game studio is limited in 2.0 for sure (and as I have found the limitations are poorly documented) but its finished as far as the features for the 2.0 release are concerned. We don't know what new features will be added for 3.0 but to call it unfinished is a little over the top.

lol...  Of course it's my personal opinion.  Do you see a Microsoft logo anywhere in my post?

My post was targeted at the original poster.  His attitude was "XNA networking is missing a redistributable!"  I was just letting him know that XNA networking has not, in my opinion, been finished/finalized/completed/however-you-want-to-put-it, and that he should be patient. :-)