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What's the Pouet opinion of Monogame?

category: code [glöplog]
Hi,

I've been looking at using something as a base, and after various tinkerings I've come to the realisation that although the OpenGL stuff I've done over the last few years has taught me a lot, I didn't produce a lot apart from self-education. I did some soul searching for what I thought would be right for me, and monogame seems to be "the one".

main thing that put me off as that its C#, and i'm a dyed in the wool C/C++ dev. however I have no experience with C#, so it'd be good to add to the quiver too. (do also have experience with Objective C, and php, java)

my initial goals are simple 1 effect things like I'd been doing before, and few app type projects with very simple gui.

to save you looking up.. monogame is a free cross-platform open port of XNA4, and coupled with right set up and licences can be ported to every platform. (wiki says "iOS, OS X, Android, Linux, BSD, Ouya, Windows Phone 8, Windows Store, Windows Desktop, Windows 10, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One")


anyone use it, love it? hate it?

some links for the curious


http://www.monogame.net/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MonoGame
added on the 2016-10-25 17:28:04 by Canopy Canopy
I mean, if you can make a demo with it and it runs on my computer without having to install half the world, why not?
added on the 2016-10-25 18:03:27 by Gargaj Gargaj
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added on the 2016-10-25 18:03:58 by maali maali
^ and that means? ;)

Quote:
I mean, if you can make a demo with it and it runs on my computer without having to install half the world, why not?


exactly.. i meant obviously things like assets would need some re-jigging for different screen sise etc.. but its got that built right in.
added on the 2016-10-25 18:27:57 by Canopy Canopy
Does this also work with Visual Studio 2005?
added on the 2016-10-25 18:40:43 by Adok Adok
i like the chimp..
does it come with the chimp?
added on the 2016-10-25 18:41:46 by 1in10 1in10
Quote:

Does this also work with Visual Studio 2005


No idea.. But VS2015 enterprise is free..
added on the 2016-10-25 20:13:01 by Canopy Canopy
Mono is 'ape' in spanish, canopy ;)
added on the 2016-10-25 20:17:24 by xTr1m xTr1m
Aha yes - their logo is a chimp!

I have to finish up current project, then I'm diving in - so far I've started reading through one of the books I ordered. Looks just like what I'd have ended up with in c++ if I had infinite time..
added on the 2016-10-25 20:23:36 by Canopy Canopy
Quote:
Mono is 'ape' in spanish, canopy ;)


monolake=D
monotone..monocle..
wow, theres infinity of mono jokes in spain.
added on the 2016-10-25 21:05:42 by 1in10 1in10
mono? BB Image
Never used it and not familiar with it. But my opinion is if it helps you to produce some nice work and it you can distribute the end result easily then why not? People are already using unreal engine and unity and such, I don't see how this is any different or worse.
added on the 2016-10-25 22:39:19 by drift drift
Hi Canopy, I'm an experienced C# and C++ programmer, I have experience with OpenGL and I have recently used Monogame in couple of projects.

Not going into too many technicalities, there are many great things to say on the combination of C# and Monogame:
- C# is a true RAD language.
- C# is more fun than C++
- Monogame learning curve is quite simple.
- Both have a very active communities.
- Monogame is really lightweight and fast.
- You get mutli-platform support for free.
- Visual Studio is the best IDE ever.

Down sides to consider:
- C# isn't super fast when it comes to byte hammering code.
- Monogame hides the low-level in the name of multi-platformness.

Bottom line, C# + Monogame is just pure fun.

two cents.
added on the 2016-10-25 23:00:16 by TLM TLM
Thanks! Day job is as a C/C++ Dev (20 years now!) I've used every visual studio back to 1.52c and before that PWB so I know some of the tools well, just not had to dabble with C# much yet.

Just seems like the right tool for the job right now. Any rapid byte bashing and platform specific stuff (one thing I want to use may be require platform specific code) won't scare me off :-)
added on the 2016-10-25 23:18:40 by Canopy Canopy
Btw since this is almost the first post on pouet about monogame (or even xna) links to monogame communties, especially away from the official sites, and resources would be awesome :-)
added on the 2016-10-25 23:29:47 by Canopy Canopy
+Let's add, learning Monogame has one particular double benefit for non-C# guys -- it also makes learning Unity easier due to the C# familiarity one acquires.
added on the 2016-10-26 00:06:10 by Hoild Hoild
Have not used monogame but did a lot of C# in combination with MDX and then XNA 1-4 back in the days and can only second what TLM said.

Afaik the real XNA is dead for quite some time now and that's a good thing as Microsoft fucked it by constantly pushing backwards compatibility breaking updates and artificially imposed restrictions upon it. So while XNA in itself was nice the vendor provided ecosystem made things a bit rough, a problem that you're less like to encounter when using community driven projects like Monogame or SharpDX.
added on the 2016-10-26 00:22:43 by LJ LJ
Adok is ironically winning.
Also, does it work with Microsoft Visual C++ Professional Edition Ver.4.0?
added on the 2016-10-26 01:18:11 by ringofyre ringofyre
:D .... no. requirements here

http://www.monogame.net/downloads/

(yes you can use linux, or os x solely...)


Quote:
I don't see how this is any different or worse.


from what i've seen so far.
its lower level. with some basic content management and helper stuff.


Quote:
Afaik the real XNA is dead for quite some time now and that's a good thing as Microsoft fucked it by constantly pushing backwards compatibility breaking updates and artificially imposed restrictions upon it. So while XNA in itself was nice the vendor provided ecosystem made things a bit rough, a problem that you're less like to encounter when using community driven projects like Monogame or SharpDX.


yes Microsofts XNA is dead, and now monogame is does it all, on windows, no need additional .net above what ships with the O/S on on windows 8 and up. (For Win7 thats .net 4.5 + dx 11). Microsoft actually promote monogame for xbox one indie game development
added on the 2016-10-26 09:35:11 by Canopy Canopy
Thanks for the suggestion. I have tried using MonoGame 3.5 with Visual Studio 2015. I took a game I coded in XNA and almost instantly got it ported and working. Only some minor issues needed to be fixed such as the blinking of the game squares (in MonoGame it does not suffice to set the opacity to achieve what I intended, you also have to set the R, G and B values accordingly). I am very happy at the result because now my game can be enjoyed by users of Windows 8, 8.1, 10 and hopefully also future versions of Windows. I will most certainly make more games using MonoGame.
added on the 2016-10-26 10:03:46 by Adok Adok
I just asked about Visual Studio 2005 because I was using this version of Visual Studio for my private projects, and when I once tried opening one of my projects in Visual Studio 2008 I encountered problems. That's why I was a bit cautious about upgrading to a new version of Visual Studio. But, as said, the game I tried Visual Studio 2015 and MonoGame 3.5 with worked.
added on the 2016-10-26 10:14:04 by Adok Adok
awesome :)

I have one project to complete and i'll be diving right in.

Two things I want to are use the Microphone and if available hardware accelerated FFT (like vFFT which is available on iOS) which I know are not a standard monogame/XNA, I know the Mic can be a tricky thing. So I'll have to work out how to include per-platform specific code and where necessary behabkour for those (for example, if i were to target windows mobile it'd have to use some kind of prompt to get access)
added on the 2016-10-26 10:56:29 by Canopy Canopy
OpenTK is another option if you want to do C#, but prefer OpenGL.
added on the 2016-10-26 11:15:44 by bloodnok bloodnok
I got interested on this thread because I have been wanting to port some XNA games I did around 2008 to Linux and Android, and Monogame may be an interesting (quick) way.

But what a coincidence, their site is having problems just today, it is redirecting to Bing -- and they even tweeted that:

https://twitter.com/MonoGameTeam/status/791405983880929280
added on the 2016-10-27 01:11:27 by imerso imerso
Is it really a coincidence, or someone from Pouet hacked their site? =)
added on the 2016-10-27 01:12:13 by imerso imerso

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