Microsoft Game Development Kit (GDK) | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft Game Development Kit (GDK)

github.com

28 pointsLyalinDotCom16 comments

I clicked the link expecting some sort of open source library. Instead, the "repo" contained just proprietary binaries. Not even docs.

"Publishing to GitHub" used to be synonymous with donating open source code, with all the goodwill and recognition that entails. Publishing proprietary binaries on GH effectively steals attention in a space that used to be reserved for FOSS projects.

What on earth... Putting a bunch of binary installers in a GitHub repo. Why would you do that?

I mean Microsoft does own GitHub so I guess they can do whatever they want with their GitHub repos.

There is no requirement for anyone to use an open source license or even to have source code in a GitHub repository. It is of course expected by most people, but this is not a special privilege only granted to Microsoft.

I'm guessing the rationale of their producting marketing people is something like: Meet the developers where they hang out, etc.

I'd agree with these hypothetical "product marketing people".

As annoying as it is to deal with binaries over source I absolutely would rather deal with a git repo than just a handful of URLs.

Open source binaries?

Another death knell for UWP. Already, you can't use modern .NET with UWP.

Now this says:

> [Although] the Universal Windows Platform was introduced [...] as a bridge between [...] Windows PCs, and Xbox One[, now] UWP apps and games are community-supported only.

> Using Win32 + GDK is the primary, supported app model to build games for Xbox console, Xbox Game Pass (both Xbox and PC), and ...

And I thought Win32 was dead, only to see it resurface again and again and the new shiny thing that was supposed to replace it is dead instead.

No kidding! Win32 / WinForms were great.

For desktop / high performance apps I'm not sure XAML / WinUI3 (even though it is called the premiere native user interface (UI) framework) is really that much quicker.

Are there some examples of larger spreadsheets apps or other solutions for 10+M row files using XAML. Every time I've tried to play the Windows GUI game with their new and improved solutions the things fall over. But I've been out of touch with space forever now. UWP was the last big push I made to get on board with the "better" way of doing things - was surprised a trillion dollar company was making that sort of thing the premier platform for their busuiness.

I'm having a hard time understanding what this is and the page does a poor job of explaining it. The only question it answered was, "wait, so does this mean anyone can develop games for Xbox consoles?" The answer is, "No, not without access to the NDA'd extension that lets you do just that."

OK, so what does this let you do then? interact with Xbox services (friends, leaderboards, achievements, etc.) on Windows?

Github is becoming "social media" instead of a code repository. I guess that it is Ok. But I do not know how smart is that level of brand dilution.

Slowly I am becoming less and less inclined to click on Microsoft Github links, but maybe I am the only one, and Microsoft is happy to increase that engagement.

Welcome to Sourceforge.

Github to me is "Programmer LinkedIn" honestly. I treat it basically as my personal portfolio as do many people.

Screw anyone that uses this in favor of GLFW/GLEW, SDL2, or even just a game engine. There's so many cross-platform options available nowadays, why would you use this?

GDK is on a same level as iOS SDK, you use it to develop for Xbox. Before it there was Xbox Development Kit (XDK). The difference now is Microsoft is more keen on bringing PC and Xbox development to one SDK, hence why GDK.

Any game or game engine (like Unity or Unreal) which wants to run on Xbox natively is required to use GDK. But the details are only available to licensed developers.

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