PC deployment in a single download. (Minus framework download)

SouLDragooN

I have not seen this posted since the 1.0 release.

I really want to be able to get games into peoples hands with the least number of steps..

Downloading the framework is one more step I do not wish the less technically inclined to have to deal with. Has there been any more information released on the future prospects of being (PC SIDE) able to have a deployable game that does not require the download of external libraries ( The XNA framework )

Thank you and sorry if I missed a post on this.

Jim Perry

Umm, in order to run an XNA game you have to have the Framework installed. You can create an setup that includes the runtime though and install it automatically. There's several install creation packages if you don't want to use the MS installer. Install Creator is one.

Jon Watte

Easiest is to use the re-distributable installers for .NET 2.0 and XNA and DirectX, and put those installers into your game installer. Then chain out to those installers, in "/silent" mode, to make sure the pre-requisites are installed/updated as necessary, before you install your own code.

The draw-back is that, depending on how resilient you want to be, you may need to include a hundred megabytes of cruft, in addition to your game. Bad for downloading business!

A more elegant solution would be to inspect the user's system and download (automatically) the missing parts as necessary. The prerequisites installer/launcher for the Visual Studio Pro generated installers does this, but doesn't know about DirectX or XNA as pre-requisites :-(

Jim Perry

Jon Watte wrote:

Easiest is to use the re-distributable installers for .NET 2.0 and XNA and DirectX, and put those installers into your game installer. Then chain out to those installers, in "/silent" mode, to make sure the pre-requisites are installed/updated as necessary, before you install your own code.

That's what I meant, but I guess I didn't say it well enough.

SouLDragooN

Thank you, with all the automation in this new animal I was not sure of PC publishing and how to get the framework to the user without asking them to go out of their way to get something running.

I have just waded into this VS Express c# pond from a long time in c++ professional game dev and I sure like it here =)...