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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?