I made a game from a tutorial on this site a couple days ago, and got through two of them. The game works fine on my computer, but when I bring it to another computer, its a no go. I have installed the DirectX redist and the XNA redist, and I know .net framework is installed on the other computer, but it does not want to work. Any help would be greatly appriciated. Thanks in advance. :)

I know the errors from these threads aren't the same, but read through the trouble shooting steps discussed in each. That is how you will find out just what the problem is:

http://forums.xna.com/thread/55391.aspx
http://forums.xna.com/thread/55409.aspx

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

erickj92:

I made a game from a tutorial on this site a couple days ago, and got through two of them. The game works fine on my computer, but when I bring it to another computer, its a no go. I have installed the DirectX redist and the XNA redist, and I know .net framework is installed on the other computer, but it does not want to work. Any help would be greatly appriciated. Thanks in advance. :)

Maybe the graphics card? Just a thought...

SimReality, I don't understand anything about those code blocks you speak of, so if you could explain them? I am a complete noob to C# programming, and a novice in C++ and C.

And I don't think its the GPU, because this was tried on two different computers.  Thank you for the response.

Here are some links that should help you learn about exceptions and the try/catch block:

http://www.csharp-station.com/Tutorials/Lesson15.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0yd65esw.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dszsf989(VS.71).aspx

I've also compiled some information into an FAQ on this subject: http://forums.xna.com/55966/ShowThread.aspx for yourself or for others to reference.

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

I dont know how to create a reference from your guide :S. I have the code added to my Program.css, but don't know how to add a reference. Thank you for you help so far.

Right click on your game project and select Add Reference. Then make sure you are in the .NET tab of the window that pops up and scroll down to find System.Windows.Forms and double click that.

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

Okay, here are the results.

On the computer the game was made on:

Game opened and ran as normal, and no window opened telling me about any exeptions.

On the users computer:

I doubled clicked the .exe files that I got from my /debug directory of my project, after hitting f5, and it gives me the same stopped responding error.


Please help me more if you have time.

Well like I mention in that FAQ, if no window pops up with an exception it means you do not have the prerequisites installed. You need to run each of the redists in the prerequisite FAQ. Do not assume they are installed; run them. Most people who say they ran them assumed DirectX was installed. Even if some games work, the XNA framework requires some optional components. The only way to be sure is to run all of the prerequisite installer.

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

Nick Gravelyn:

Well like I mention in that FAQ, if no window pops up with an exception it means you do not have the prerequisites installed. You need to run each of the redists in the prerequisite FAQ. Do not assume they are installed; run them. Most people who say they ran them assumed DirectX was installed. Even if some games work, the XNA framework requires some optional components. The only way to be sure is to run all of the prerequisite installer.

Wont the DirectX redist work, though? That is what I installed on that computer I'm testing on.

Depends what you mean by the DirectX redist.

If you mean the web installer linked in the FAQ - yes it will work

If you mean one of the many SDK redists then it might work... XNA needs bits from several different redists and you might not get the right combination. But this is as reliable as crossing your fingers and hoping the user has the right bits becuase they installed some other DirectX game.

There's a reason the FAQ is so clear on what you need... because thats what works. If you want to use other means to get the prerequisites on your machine then make sure you understand how they all work.

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The ZBuffer - News and information for XNA and Managed DirectX

But how do I package the right things so the end user can simply install them, without having to download piles and piles of files just to play a 1 MB game? Because the web-checker seems to be a bit of a hassle or the end user to use just to get the game to work. What is a sure fire way to include the minimum needed, and also keep it at a reasonable size?


Edit: Wait here, the link in the FAQ for DirectX 9 is for the web based installer, which I can distribute to everyone and that is a small size, and that web based installer will run on the end users computer and install what is needed for them?

Unfortunately you can't. It sucks; we know. See ZMan's soapbox in the FAQ (http://forums.xna.com/thread/9927.aspx):

[ZMan's soapbox]

The issue of having a web installer for DirectX has long been a thorn in the side of managed developers since our games have small EXEs and few assets so packaging the full redist with the setups makes the download huge. DirectX has a web installer available but Microsoft do not allow you to call it from your setup. The MVPs have raised this issue with Microsoft several times with no results. With the introduction of the XNA framework and the fact that it has an even bigger audience the problem is set to get worse since your installer will have to package both the DirectX runtime and the XNA Framework runtime. If this is of concern to you then feel free to add your scenario to http://connect.microsoft.com for the XNA framework.

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

Can you confirm that the very small web installer file will work if sent with my game? As in, tell the end user to install that file along with the game itself? If you get where I'm going here?

You are not allowed to redistribute that according to the folks at MS.. so at some point in the future it may no longer work.

But I have seen people use it in that way and it seems to do what you want... just don't get caught and don't expect support from anyone if it doesn't.

Seriously.... just send your friends the 4 links.... you are making this way too complicated.

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The ZBuffer - News and information for XNA and Managed DirectX

erickj92:

But how do I package the right things so the end user can simply install them, without having to download piles and piles of files just to play a 1 MB game? Because the web-checker seems to be a bit of a hassle or the end user to use just to get the game to work. What is a sure fire way to include the minimum needed, and also keep it at a reasonable size?

You take the DX redsit bits that ship with XNA and add them to an installer than call DXsetup.exe from your installer.

I wonder why I write FAQs sometimes as we just end up repeating them in the forums 10 times per week http://forums.xna.com/thread/9927.aspx. This has all the links you need to the redsits and the help files - yes XNA has help files that tell you how to do this including community samples for some installers and dependency checkers.

Edit: Wait here, the link in the FAQ for DirectX 9 is for the web based installer, which I can distribute to everyone and that is a small size, and that web based installer will run on the end users computer and install what is needed for them?

Not allowed to redsit that and it may stop working if MS change the way it works so not IMO reliable enough to chain into an installer unless its VERY temporary and you don't want support.

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The ZBuffer - News and information for XNA and Managed DirectX

Thank you so much!!!! I'm sorry... I sound so stupid now. If I wouldn't have been bull headed, and followed the directions better, I would not have wasted all your time. Downloaded all 4 files needed, and worked like a dream. :)

Thank you again. This truly is a great community with people that know what their talking about, and also give very fast responses.

You are not the first.... you won't be the last and at least now you can help us reply to the posts with 'read the faq'... 'yes read it'...'it does work honestly'....'seriously did you really run it'....

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The ZBuffer - News and information for XNA and Managed DirectX