Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2)

Hello,

I notice that some of the members are seeking information on the xbox platform
dev kit and if you can get your game into this console. Here is the most recent information i was able to find. I hope this will offer some direction for those members who are interested in this market.

If You Want to Publish Games for Xbox

The only way to publish games for Xbox is to become a licensed Xbox publisher. If you are an established game publisher and are interested in publishing games for Xbox, click here to send email to Publish@xbox.com and you will be contacted. Please include contact information and a brief description of your company.
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Xbox Registered Developer Program

The Xbox Registered Developer Program is designed to allow established game developers access to Xbox hardware and support in order to familiarize themselves with the architecture, tailor existing tools and technologies to take advantage of the unique features, and to be able to bid for and secure development projects for the Xbox console. Should your company be accepted into the program, you will be allowed access to development tools and passive technical support in form of the Xbox Central Web site and newsgroups. You may also be invited to participate in various technical sessions and seminars we hold over the course of the year.

Key Points
Applications for entry to the Registered Developer Program may be requested by emailing a request to NADev@xbox.com

Please include contact information and a brief description of your company.

Applying developers will be required to execute a non-disclosure agreement with Microsoft prior to being considered for the program.

If accepted, the developer will be allowed to obtain no more than two (2) Xbox Development Kit licenses, subject to the terms of the Microsoft XDK License Agreement.

Developer support under this program is limited to access to Web based information and materials, newsgroups access, and may include invitations to participate in Xbox technical seminars.

NOTE: Acceptance into the Xbox Registered Developer Program in no way implies any endorsement by Microsoft of the developer or their work, and does not guarantee approval of the work as an authorized Xbox title by Microsoft. NO XBOX SOFTWARE PRODUCT(S) MAY BE PUBLISHED, OR DISTRIBUTED TO END USERS, EXCEPT BY A LICENSED PUBLISHER PURSUANT TO AN XBOX DEVELOPMENT KIT AND XBOX PUBLISHER LICENSE AGREEMENT EXECUTED BY MICROSOFT.

cheers

Posted By: Why_Do_I_Die

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 08/25/05 03:47

why is porting eve a subject for people , dont u need a good game first , preferably one that has already been a commercial success in the PC gaming industry? I dont porting should even be considered if your just making a game , there's more important things to worry about , like how make a game that doesnt look like it was developed for the commodore 64.

Posted By: Why_Do_I_Die

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 08/25/05 03:54

look at the id and epic games , they are mainly PC games , they becan developing ports to consoles of the PC block busters because of their overwhelming popularity , Gamestudio is an engine for windows os systems , I dont see why anyone would need to develop for the xbox when you cant develop for windows. By the way , you CAN develop for the xbox urself , just get an sdk and some good programmers , and your good to go , though if the game your making can be successfull on the xbox , then it will be succesfull on the PC , so why worry about porting in the first place ? Once your a commercial hit , u can find a means to develop for the 360 , and not the outdated , senior citizen status Xbox.

Posted By: Peter Churness

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 08/25/05 14:25

Making a good game is obviously the critical piece and we're all doing the best we can on limited budgets (or in most cases no budgets). But publishers and investors are interested in knowing if you can get the game to console and if you have a plan to do so (for them its all about making money and based on some studies the console market is growing and the PC market is shrinking). A good game development business plan has to take the console market into consideration. The PC market may make a comeback (and I hope it does) but its best to plan for all contingencies.

Posted By: capanno

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 08/29/05 17:13

The picture I had about porting is 3dgs being able to create CD content ready to be popped into a xbox. That is not really porting, its a cross platform engine. with xbox360 on the horizon, maybe Microsoft will loosen their licence restrictions for xbox, and make it affordable to enable A6 to run on it. This will broaden Conitec customer range aswell. It might even start a new group of indies that can develop for xbox.

Just so that I can grasp the entire problem, what exactly are the hurdles that keep us from pushing that "publish to xbox" button? Is it money?

Posted By: fastlane69

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 08/29/05 19:29

Money is one, but use is another...as in "Will enough people use this feature to make it profitable to develop?".

After all, we are all aware of the glorious success the 3DGS community has had in pushing dozens upon dozens of successful Windows games every year; it's a question of whether the community can do the same for Macs or Linuxs.

(PS: My apologies to the sarcastically deprived)

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 08/29/05 21:01

Well enough money can make anything happen.

But the real issue is the fact that XBox is a closed system. Even if you had the ability to create an XBox CD you couldn't run it on your own XBox without breaking the law. You probably wouldn't get sued for it, but Conitec sure would for making the engine.

It isn't likely that Microsoft is going to open up their console any time soon. This is a �big budget� market, and you need serious money to play in it. You might want to look at their �Live Arcade� option however.

Posted By: Gho5tFac3K1llah

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 09/09/05 01:04

How do you contact Microsoft?

Posted By: Gho5tFac3K1llah

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 09/11/05 01:46

For at least the Xbox and XB-Live. Maybe Xbox 360.

Posted By: Ambassador

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 09/11/05 19:23

And can I ask you what you are going to talk with Microsoft? Are you perhaps wanting to make a game for XBox or XBox 360? If you are going to I suggest that you save AT LEAST 5 million to get some artist and coders for ya...

Posted By: Gho5tFac3K1llah

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 09/11/05 20:48

5 million dollars!

Posted By: indiGLOW

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 11/19/05 21:44

Ok first off, I have to admit to asking similiar questions about 3DGS porting, and I will admit to being somewhat wet behind the ears about how games dev actually works.

Fortunatly I have had the pleasure of working for the last 2 years with a AAA games developer, learning the craft so to speak. Not that I claim to know it all know, in fact learning that I DONT know it all, was probably the best lesson of all... anywho I digress.

So now I have returned to GS while I wait to see what happens with this developer and so with a new concept title in development the question of porting to console raises its ugly head once more....

To my understanding, Gamestudio has the potential to be ported to another OS like Xbox and PS1,2,3 etc. This potential could only be realised with X ammount of funding... Figure I would expect to be variable depending on the job, with maybe an upper limit of $100k? being realistic...

So my thinking is that it is reasonable to sell any concept developed on GS as a 'any engine portable title' which I believe is true, to a given value of true

So presuming the engine could be ported and funding was available, who would own it? I mean if my publisher hands over a check for $100k to port the engine to the PS3 (for example), would the publisher gain some kind of property rights over its use. I mean as much as I would love to raise that kind of cash and then hand over the ported version to the community, I doubt that my publisher would share in that philosophy.

I ask these questions partly as I like to play devils advocate, but also as I have a vested interest in this subject. The title we are developing is primarily aimed at the console market, and therefore the question of engine port possibility while arrise, and I would like to be armed with more fact than fiction...

Sry for the length of the post, its been a while

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 11/21/05 22:39

Before I comment I must stress again that everything in this thread is hypothetical. I'm just stating what I believe is most likely to happen based on the limited knowledge I have. If we got a serious offer, we (Conitec) would invest the time and energy to get real numbers.

That said, who owns the ported engine after we build it depends on how you negotiate the contract with us. For enough money (and, no, don't ask me how much because I'm in no position to estimate it) you could own all rights to the engine. But you would get a much better deal if you negotiated something less strict. I'm guessing that that price would be less then most console 3D engines, so your publisher could still view it as a bargain.

You should also know that, even if we create a XBox/PS2/PSP/etc. version of the engine we would have an extremely limited market to sell this to. You need to be a licensed developer with Microsoft/Nintendo/Sony to develop for their hardware. We couldn't just �hand it over� to the community. In fact, it is this restriction that keeps us from making the port in the first place.

Posted By: indiGLOW

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 11/21/05 22:48

Thanks Doug. Yes I am aware that anything here is hypothetical, but its nice to air these things and get an idea of the territory.

I don't know much about the licensing from the likes of Sony or other's, I am expecting our publisher to deal with those aspects of the deal, and would presume that the console requirement would include aquiring all licenses, from their respective owners and so on.

Really I am wondering about the feasability of porting to a console, and does this include porting the title. I exect not. Further more hypothetical questions, will the archietecture, language and so on be the same regardless of the destination platform? Or are we talking a ....Xbox version of Gamestudio or a Playstation version, each with its own ....limitations and so forth

It seems to be one of them chinese dragon puzzles....

Hypothetically, we dev a full game that we want to port from PC to Xbox. We have aquired all the developer licenses from Microsoft and have a infinite pot of cash from which to pay conitec to sort it all out.

How would this work.... hypothetically of course

after all if I really had an infinite pot of cash, I would be on an island somewhere

Thanks Doug for your reply, and your patience with this topic, Im sure you are tired of repeating yourself over and over again...

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 11/22/05 21:31

If I had an infinite pot of cash I would spend the $700,000 (est.) for the next-gen Unreal engine and hire some programmers to figure it all out (each working for a six figure salary). Too bad those infinite cash pots are so hard to find.

As far as the differences between platforms goes, ideally this should be almost invisible to the developer. Just select �XBox� from the menu and press Publish. Obviously there will be some limits (the XBox only has 64MB of memory for textures, code, etc.) but the scripts and resources should be the same.

The big issue for us, and the reason that this thread is so hypothetical, is that until we get legal access to development resources (manuals, hardware, etc.) we have very few facts to base things on.

Posted By: agreenknight

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 02/03/06 00:36

How about this, anyone who wants to make a game for another platform, prototypes in 3dgs, then goes to that platform's gatekeepers, and ask for permission to port.

Posted By: slacer

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 02/03/06 07:57

The prototype should show if it is possible to do what you want on the target platform.
If your demo uses tons of shaders, bones, terrain and multiplayer network AND your target platform is the AMIGA or a non DirecX platform like linux, the whole thing is worthles.
Well, you could show the gameplay but thats all.

You do the prototype not only for publishers - it is for YOU.
- Is feature X possible on that platform?
- How complicated is it to create this effect in our game?
- What are the model constraints (num vertices, num textures, ...)
- Can we use 3D Package [big name here] use to create the models
- What is the exact workflow to get the model out of our 3D Package into the game?
- What are the restrictions with this workflow (like: can not use bone animations because there is no exporter with that feature)

Now, your prototype is ready to show with GameStudio.
The publisher wants this to run on your target platform - say X-Box

You need to do the whole trick again, because you can not derive your experiences from engine A to engine B

-- slacer

Posted By: FoxHound

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 02/05/06 15:07

I think AGreenKnight meant that after showing it to the gatekeeper of the concole, they said it's cool with them, then getting Conitec to make the push-button that will allow you to publish to that platform.

I guess this anyway, as it's an idea I've had.

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 02/07/06 22:13

Quote:

If your demo uses tons of shaders, bones, terrain and multiplayer network AND your target platform is the AMIGA or a non DirecX platform like linux, the whole thing is worthles.

Yes, you could make a game using 3DGS that wouldn't work on your target platform, and it is doubtful that porting from 3DGS to any console will be as easy as pressing a button, you should keep this in mind when you design the project.

But, if you want to get into the console business (where the money is at), the goal isn't to use 3DGS to make a game that runs on a console. The goal is to make a game that makes people say: "If we had this game on our platform we could make big money!"

If you go to the Microsoft XBox360 developer website (the public part) you will find a guide on how to design games on available PC hardware that most closely matches the console hardware. You can do the same sort of thing for other consoles. But the first thing you should think about is making a game that is fun to play using a console controller and running on a TV screen.

Posted By: sPlKe

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 02/20/06 02:47

Back to the Download Service. SIcne Nintendo offers its Virtual Console, is there any Information about Inde development on it?
As far as I know, The Virtual COnsole system allows to donwload Demos for Revolution, and Old Games from previous consoles for a little fee every year.
Ive asked nintendo about this, however i havent got a reply yet...

Posted By: agreenknight

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 02/21/06 05:21

I worked with some programmers at a Pizza deliverly place. Why did they work there? They went to school in Russia, and they're degrees didn't transfer. So they had to do things over again.

One thing he mentioned is you need big company resources behind you. I've been thinking about that and it's somewhat true. You don't necessary need to be at a big company, though. Maybe you could get into an agreement with a big company. Too do that you would need to have something that looked good enough that they would want to invest those kinds of resources.

True, to make the big money, you need to be on the consoles. The thing is though, first I have to beable to get a project going. Right now I'm trying to study some programming books. Once I make a game, then I can think about doing xbox, or simulations, or maybe a simulation game.

One thing I will bring up is Meteos. Now if I wanted to get something on an xbox, that's where I would probably look. Simple, and addictive.

Posted By: Gho5tFac3K1llah

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 02/25/06 23:44

Quote:

If you go to the Microsoft XBox360 developer website (the public part) you will find a guide on how to design games on available PC hardware that most closely matches the console hardware.

Where's the Microsoft XBox360 developer website at? I tried looking through a search engine but I couldn't find anything.

Posted By: agreenknight

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 02/26/06 19:35

By the way, anyone looking to want to port there game to linux I suggest checking out cedega. It's a linux service that makes it able to play windows games on linux. http://www.transgaming.com/

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 02/27/06 21:29

XBox360 Developer Site: http://www.xbox.com/en-us/dev/default.htm

Posted By: Inestical

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 03/06/06 00:02

I'm waiting to see:

Conitec Datensyteme GmbH
3DGameStudio
http://3dgamestudio.com

Posted By: msl_manni

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 05/25/06 04:35

Does anybody have any information about wii sdk or dev kits. Any links of rheir developer's site. I think that as this console is the cheapest, and with new input device, would be fun and cheap to develop a game for it. And I have few concept games that would make the company interested in our games.

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 05/25/06 20:04

You need to become a "Licensee" before you can buy a Nintendo Dev-Kit.

I think this is up-to-date:

Quote:

Become a Licensee

Thank you for your interest in becoming an authorized Nintendo licensee for development of Nintendo video game system software.

Here are summaries of our Licensing Program which detail the requirements, terms and conditions of our license agreements.

GCN Terms and Conditions AGB Terms and Conditions

If, after a review of the appropriate summary, you remain interested in becoming a Nintendo licensee, please forward the following non-proprietary information to Nintendo:

1) A detailed description of your company, including a summary of your software development experience, financial resources and stability and your industry leadership. This information should be in the form of a prospectus, business plan or summary statement;

2) A detailed introduction to your key personnel and developers setting forth any technical, managerial or sales experience that may be relevant;

3) A marketing plan for your proposed products, including targeted distribution channels, advertising commitments, consumer service resources, merchandising, etc.;

4) Any market study information on consumer demand for your proposed product which you may be relying on;

5) A written description of your proposed software product;

6) A complete summary and at least three samples of software programs you have previously developed and upon which you rely for establishing your technical know-how.

Nintendo will then undertake to make a determination if your qualifications would support your selection as an authorized licensee. Because Nintendo licensees are provided with highly proprietary information and because our licensees must be able to successfully market and support high quality product to a broad base of Nintendo product users throughout the United States, Canada and South America, Nintendo exercises a high level of care in its appointment of its licensees. If we elect to proceed, we will prepare a formal license agreement which will be forwarded to you for your review. After the mutual execution of an Agreement, Nintendo will provide you with software development specifications, and support.

To obtain information regarding product submission to Nintendo's Mario Club and Lot Check department, please refer to our engineering website at: www.warioworld.com.

Again, thank you for your interest. We look forward to hearing from you.

Very truly yours,

NINTENDO OF AMERICA INC.

Juana Tingdale
Vice President, Licensing

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 05/25/06 20:13

I should note that, in the past, Nintendo has made it very hard for indie dev houses to get licensed. They may change this with Wii.

The real trick is finding a way to get their attention. With Microsoft or Sony, you could do that by making a great console style game on your PC (just buy one of their controllers and design around that) but, so far, there is no way to design a PC game that uses a Wii-style controller...

<edit>
It looks like Wii is giving a handout to the indie developers:

Quote:

Virtual Console: Wii will have downloadable access to 20 years of fan-favorite titles originally released for Nintendo 64, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and even the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The Virtual Console also will feature a "best of" selection from Sega Genesis titles and games from the TurboGrafx console (a system jointly developed by NEC and Hudson). It also will be home to new games conceived by indie developers whose creativity is larger than their budgets.

I don't know if the Virtual Console will let you access the Wii-remote, or just let you make your own SNES style games.

Posted By: msl_manni

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 05/26/06 05:52

I am for developing games that would really attract attention of major houses and then will see what can be done. Till then I hope that in the next six months, the picture of company policies of console gaming and their Indie sdk's is more clear.

Quote:

To become a Wii authorized developer:

Software Development Kits: Approximate development costs range from $2,500 to $10,000

I don't know if you have seen this earlier or not, but a regular Wii authorized developer license is $2,500 to $10,000 only. Where as for previous consoles it was 10,000 to 20,000.

And I suppose that an Indie license will be far less than the regular license.

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 05/26/06 23:15

I got a "around $2000" quote from a Nintendo rep at the GDC.

But the trick isn't the cost, but getting Nintendo's approval.

Posted By: msl_manni

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 05/27/06 04:26

Had I been a developer as 3dgs, then I would have biten the bite and bought the License, and tried my best efforts on seeing if the company was able to port the whole 3dgs or best parts of it for the console. If the development was really succesful, then would have thought about getting company's approval.

As a programmer and developer I know that, it is only to change from dx to propriety underlying graphics engine. And as standard the programming would be in 'C' or a variant of it. The whole thing in a dev suit like yours is collision detection and animation engine and such which are at higher level of classes. And as you are already able to give users the benefit of a scripting engine, there would be no need for users to know the inner workings of the console.

As an example take the case of TSE (Torque) which has been ported to xbox360, where the console developer has itself helped the TSE in porting it for their console.

But as a side note I would like to express my wishes that the company should focus on seeing if they are really able to do proting. If succesful then have a decent license of it for the would be developers.

Even Nintendo can be persuaded to be a partener in licensing of the engine, opening the market widely.

Indie developers are for fun and maybe some money and surely they can't give the big houses any tough competition.

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 05/29/06 00:04

I'm not sure if I'm following you here, but I need to point out that I wasn't offered a license from Nintendo, I just asked them how much a dev-kit would cost.

Trust me, if I could get a legal dev-kit for $2000 (or even $10,000), I would.

Posted By: msl_manni

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 05/29/06 04:55

That's their legal dev-kit. Go to Apply - wii and there they have full details for how to become developer of wii and their legal wii kit. There are two options, one for -- currently working with an authorized Wii licensee, and the second for -- If you are NOT working with an authorized Wii licensee.

Hope that helps you a lot. And I am really looking forward to hearing any news about your current adventure. You are welcome to MSN me on msl_manni@hotmail.com for any thing you want to know. I will be glad to help you.

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 05/29/06 19:50

Correct. The first option is the one Conitec Datasystems would fill out after one of our clients gets a license by filling out the second.

From the Nintendo site:

Quote:

Keep in mind that we typically look for companies that are established game developers.

Nintendo wants to deal with game developers. Conitec Datasystems is a established middle-ware provider, not game developer. While our tools have been used to create hundreds of games, we haven't developed any of them.

So you need to get a license from Nintendo first.

Posted By: Aaron

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 06/21/06 01:40

Hi I am currently working on a game console, Would anybody be intrested in making games for it, I should be done by 2008 or 2009 depends. I just want to see who would want to create games for it, I plan to just charge for development software which I will create these are just plans so far.

Posted By: FBL

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 06/26/06 07:02

The Phantom-2?

Posted By: Aaron

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 06/26/06 17:23

no not the phantom-2 but I am making a console called yeti console. I should be done by 2008 or 2009, however I want to know if you guy's would like to make games for it, you would need 200 us bucks for the payment for the software which is same kinda stuff what 3dgamestudio offer's but I created it for the game console it's all in my scirpt, and it gives you a level maker, a model maker and a scripter with a command database and comes with a tutor me software, which it explains all functions in the console that is possible ect. after you buy the software you then would need to pay 30 bucks extra when you want to sell the games you make for the game console, you just need to pay 30 bucks just one time thier is no monthly thing once you pay 30 bucks you can make games for the console as long your company's name dosen't change.

Posted By: A.Russell

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 06/28/06 13:57

You must be joking.

Posted By: FoxHound

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 06/28/06 15:56

Some people do have a rich fantasy life.

Hey, I've got bridges in every major city for sell! only 200 bucks each!

Posted By: JetpackMonkey

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 06/28/06 17:10

Tee hee hee hm sounds a little overly ambitious aaron, unless you were part of a large, well funded company. But then again i met the key guy who designed the guts of the 3DO, and he was a one-brain developer behind most of the technology, so it's not far-fetched for one person to design hardware. But the difference was he had money, they had a full engineering department management, and a real company behind him, and not to mention he was brilliant.

The idea of porting to XBox-Live Arcade is really attractive. I wonder how hard it would be to rewrite a bunch of c-script code to work in Torque. I imagine if someone has their levels designed entirely in a 3D app outside of WED (say maya or max) it probably wouldn't be too hard to transition over to Torque-- assuming they have the same kind of commands like trace, move, rotate..

Maybe if/when my game is finished and looks/works well, I could scrape up the money to paying someone to re-write the code for Torque. It'd be best if Conitec could just port A6 themselves. Though I don't think the 3DGS demographic really has strong enough demand to make it worth Conitec's while.

But then again, taking a chance to port the engine to X-Box 360 would probably attract more professional and semi-professional developers to A6, so it would probably change the demographic itself, and be a very worthwhile decision-- especially if the xbox live license came as an additional $300-800 licensing fee on top of the pro edition.... (ooh!! but I wouldn't want to pay it, personally)

I've always thought that PC->Xbox ports would be relatively easy since they rely on the same technology (don't they?) like Direct-X? I wonder how different a PC and the XBOX really are? I can't imagine it being too hard.

Bye!

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 06/29/06 21:23

Quote:

he had money, they had a full engineering department management, and a real company behind him, and not to mention he was brilliant.

And the 3DO still failed.

Quote:

especially if the xbox live license came as an additional $300-800 licensing fee on top of the pro edition...PC->Xbox ports would be relatively easy...I can't imagine it being too hard.

Please read the rest of my quotes in this thread. It isn't a hardware or software problem stopping Conitec from making an XBox port, it's a license issue.

There are games using a version of the Torque engine on XBox Live, but can't buy a Torque XBox Development Kit *without* first being approved by Microsoft (I'm also guessing that the additional licensing fee from GarageGames is far greater than $300-$800).

If you make a XBox LiveArcade style game using our engine, let me look it over. If we can convince Microsoft that it would look good on their XBox, we can work something out.

The toughest part by far is producing a game which Microsoft wants. Once you have that, the rest will follow.

Posted By: Machinery_Frank

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 07/04/06 06:57

Quote:

I think pay the license fee is not a problem.

Then everything is fine. Pay the license fee to MS and pay Conitec to develop a port for this console. It is just that simple.

Posted By: Wiz

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 07/05/06 09:00

The problem is, as stated many times in this thread, that you can't just call MS and say you want to buy a license(of course you could if you offered an outrageous amount of money, but thats another story...). You have to either be an established developer with a good record or have a game in the making that MS really want on their console.

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 07/06/06 00:25

Quote:

The problem is, as stated many times in this thread, that you can't just call MS and say you want to buy a license... You have to either be an established developer with a good record or have a game in the making that MS really want on their console.

Somebody has been reading my posts!

I feel so much better.

Yes, that's the big issue here.

Quote:

Is 3dgs ... game can run on the Xbox or Xbox360 without rewrite any code?

My thought on this is that you, the game developer, wouldn't have to rewrite much if any of your code. You would hire Conitec to make a XBox version of the engine, and it would take your resources (graphics, sounds, c-script, etc.) and convert them over.

This wouldn't be cheap, but I think we could do it for less then our competitors. The first, most important step, is to create a 3DGS game that people would want to play on the XBox 360. Once you have that, we should talk.

Posted By: PHeMoX

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 07/30/06 10:44

Quote:

Palm, PocketPC, Playstation, N64, and Dreamcast are not powerful enough to run the 3DGameStudio engine.

Would this be true for the Playstation Portable too? Or would this require a total re-write of the engine, just like with PS2 or Gamecube? When I look at the graphics of most of the PSP games, it looks like 3dgs can compete with it, but maybe it requires a bit more power?

(btw. this is just a question out of interest, since I do not have a huge amount of funding in case this would be possible.

)

Cheers

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 07/31/06 20:17

I haven't looked at the PSP dev-kits. I'm guessing (legal issues and money aside) we could write an engine that ran under the PSP, but it would require a major rewrite of the core elements (sound, 3d, input, memory management, etc.).

The PSP is a powerhouse of a handheld, but it is still limited compared to a modern PC or console. Normally you are better off writing something from scratch then trying to port over.

Posted By: Wiz

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 08/14/06 18:33

Has any of you seen this. Microsoft is opening the Xbox360, at least partially, to indies and hobbyists!

Garage Games is already on the team, with Torque X in full development. So Conitec, are you going to support this in some way, or do I have to switch over to Torque?

Posted By: FoxHound

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 08/15/06 00:43

"The XNA Game Studio Express beta will be available Aug. 30, 2006, as a free download on Windows XP, for development on the Windows XP platform."

Oh yes, come to daddy. Daddy needs his medicine.

Posted By: JetpackMonkey

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 08/15/06 13:36

I guess if you developed for just the XP side of things, it might not be so bad, or do they have the similar, highly-restricted license restrictions for XP useage as well? I wonder what the XNA toolkit is really like... I wonder if it's so user friendly for beginners as 3DGS is. I have my doubts, but you can't beat the price.

Posted By: FoxHound

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 08/15/06 14:37

I'm in touch with some xbox developers, and it's far from easy.

Everything I've seen on this it's a non commerical kinda deal. So you still need their approval to sell, but this would help bring a lot more games to their attention. I also have the feeling that indie game engines will be judged if they have XNA or not.

Posted By: AndrewJ

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 04/01/07 05:29

Dear Doug,

Quote:

"Palm, PocketPC, Playstation, N64, and Dreamcast are not powerful enough to run the 3DGameStudio engine."

Just a question about a dreamcast port, the dreamcast doesnt really need a license to publish games on it anymore (http://dcemulation.com).

why don't 'we' just port an old A4 version to dreamcast and bang instant indie community.

just a thought.

Cheers.

Andrew

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 04/02/07 19:20

First, I have to say that I still love my Dreamcast. The system was better than the PS2 in almost every way (except for the one that matters, published games

).

But I don't see us doing a Dreamcast port for many reasons. The big two are:

1) Legal issues.
I think Sega is turning a blind eye to emulators because it is hard to sue indie developers (individuals don't have enough money to make it worth their while).

2) Market share.
I don't think there are enough Dreamcast developers to make it worth the time/money to port the engine (even a simple engine).

Posted By: sPlKe

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 04/03/07 02:47

now with the virtual console out, do you think there is a chance to develop for that one?

with nintendo opting for indie developers, one could strike a deal witht ehm.
i see it like this:
3D GameStudio A7 COmcerial (or Pro) with Nintendo VC Licence...

the vc is basically rom information split into several parts of downloadable content. like a recourced file if you wish...

Posted By: Doug

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 04/03/07 20:22

Splke: Please do a search on our forum for Nintendo and port. Or just go to this post.

Posted By: sPlKe

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 04/03/07 22:09

Quote:

Splke: Please do a search on our forum for Nintendo and port. Or just go to this post.

oh... im sorry i should have know this thread. sorry

Posted By: NeutronBlue

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 05/01/08 17:38

Well, everyone seems to be looking at the major "Console" platforms for porting.
(Xbox, Nintendo, etc..)
I'd like to see 3DGS (or a subset) ported to PocketPC devices.
Windows Mobile5/6 *does* include some DirectX drivers and D3D support.
Granted, you couldn't download a 50Mb game to one of these,
but I'm sure an enjoyable game could be written for these devices.
OK, maybe you *could* download a 50Mb game if you had an SDCard installed...
This could be a NEW market for distribution, and I guarantee you this market
is *not* saturated with 3D games!
Not to mention you wouldn't need *anyone's* approval to distribute your game
on these handheld devices.

Posted By: ZozuRules

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 06/02/08 10:37

Hi, I've just registered and cannot see how you post a new topic. So this seems to be the only way to write anything. The problem I'm having with Gamestudio is capturing in Captivate and Campasia. Both programs drop frames, create strobing, flickering, the objects are visibly processing, basically not smooth and are capturing a fraction of the frames. I�ve tried several different frame capture rates and it hasn�t made any difference.

We can�t adjust the resolution of Gamestudio as our developer has left!!! We can�t adjust hardware acceleration, as the capture software recommends, as our game opens in the wrong window.

Can anyone advise? Thank you

Posted By: indiGLOW

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 06/03/08 12:11

if I understand the question correctly, I recommend FRAPS

Posted By: Quad

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 06/03/08 20:43

i can aslo recommend taksi(search google and sourceforge). Nearly same thing as fraps, lets you select video/audio codecs,can hook directx and opengl apps. etc.. and it is ıoen source and free.

Posted By: ZozuRules

Re: Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2) - 06/04/08 10:13

Hi indiGLOW! Thank you so much, FRAPS worked a treat. We're extremely happy here, although we dont understand why it worked over campasia, snagit & captivate?! Its a bit of a mystery.

Thanks anyhow you've made a lot of folk here in our office v. happy

Posted By: willjones

Macintosh - 08/25/08 21:32

Is it possible to compile a Gamestudio project for a mac OSX system? I realize XBox is a closed system and there are plenty of commments about that posted on this thread, but I couldn't find comments about Macs.

Also, curious about any support for targeting Adobe Flash SWF format although I doubt this exists.

Thanks for any info...

Posted By: lostclimate

Re: Macintosh - 09/01/08 05:30

did you read any of the other posts? 3dgs is a dx only system. ....

Posted By: MegaMarioDeluxe

Re: Macintosh - 09/11/08 06:59

You can try running DirectX games in Darwine, which emulates Windows 95 and up to XP on your mac.

Other Platforms (Porting to X: Part 2)