When I first heard about managed languages, I immediately scoffed at the "wanna be" challengers of the mighty C++. I was using C++ and DirectX 9, and I thought that life could not get any better. The C# upstarts would be sufficiently crushed, and life would continue as normal. As time went by, and more and more people started to comment on C#, I found myself drawn to this mysterious language which dared to defy the almighty C++. So one day I did the unthinkable: I downloaded Microsoft's Visual C# Express. I immediately fell in love with the language. Everything written in C++ became a pain to my eyes, causing me to scorn that which I once so reverently worshiped. And when I got a hold of MDX 2.0, the eyes of this game developer began to tear. Never had game development been so beautiful, capturing the elegance of C# with the shear might and power of DirectX 9. Then came the days of sadness. MDX 2.0 was struck down, destroyed by a time bomb deviously planted by its developers. A new upstart, XNA, was pushed into the limelight, demanding attention and the approval of all. MDX 1 was all but forgotten, trampled into the dust by XNA and its big marketing budget. I was eager, at first to join in the joy of my fellow developers and dig into this new language that the developer gods had given us. It was only after closer inspection, however, that I noticed the ugliness of XNA rear its head. Sure, XNA was great for new developers, people would wanted to do the least work possible and still make a game. But where was the managed version of DirectX, and counterpart to the powerful beast that was used in so many games across the globe? XNA was twisted, hideous, and unusable complicated for someone who had tasted better. So now, I ask you, what is to be done? MDX 2 is totally destroyed from within, obliterating all hopes of survival. MDX 1 is frozen in ice, without any new developments it has become dead in the water. Shall we turn to XNA? Its complicated structure and its desire to hide all details from the developer, as well as the horribly restricted distribution abilities, severely cripple this new technology, making it an undesirable choice for those looking to make a game on par with the mighty DirectX 9. Shall I be forced to go back to the world of unmanaged languages, where I must keep track of memory myself, and implement even the most basic of libraries myself? It would seem that I have no other choice, as the most flexible option for the game developers of today is that old and mighty pillar, a fortress surrounded by the turmoil of the managed world, that is DirectX 9.

Quote:Also the whole "MDX isn't being updated" argument doesn't make much sense since you want to use DirectX 9, which also probably won't see anymore updates.

Oh, I was under the impression that DirectX 9 was still being actively developed. There are new releases every few months, what are they doing with each one?

Use the XNA Framework! It obsoletes MDX2 (and indeed, it was born of the same code base)

Oh, and there is a 1.1 release of XNA coming out very shortly which has many more math functions as well as font support. More information here: http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/archive/2007/03/08/announcing-the-xna-game-studio-express-update.aspx

Quote:Out of curiosity, what do you find yourself unable to do with XNA over DX 9?

Well, one major thing that jumps out at me right away is that you are unable to distribute your XNA games to anyone other than people who already have the XNA SDK already installed! How are you supposed to make a game if you can't share it with anyone other than other developers?