XNA Game Studio Express Update

Crasch mi fa notare che ad aprile Microsoft aggiornerà XNA Game Studio Express.
Queste le novità più importanti:

• XNA Game Studio Express
  • Windows Vista is now fully supported
  • You can now add icons to XNA Game Studio Express Games.
  • Incrementally deployment of Xbox 360 projects now works for all your projects (not just the last one loaded)
    
• XNA Framework
  • Added Bitmap based font support
  • Added XACT 3D Audio support
  • Improvements and additions to the Math framework API’s
  • BasicEffect now supports per-pixel lighting
  • Many more changes based on your feedback!
    
• XNA Framework Content Pipeline
  • Added support for Volume Textures (Texture3D)
  • Content builds can now be canceled
  • Support for “clean” builds
  • Added the ability to read vertex and index buffer information from Model types
  • Many more changes based on your feedback!
    
• XNA Game Launcher (Xbox 360)
  • Game thumbnails are now displayed for your games
  • Improved connection-key connectivity experience between the Xbox 360 and the PC
  • The ability to test and diagnose the connection between the Xbox 360 and the PC
    

• Developer sharing of packaged XNA Game Studio Express Games
  • Users can now package their binary games into a single file to share with other users of XNA Game Studio Express.
  • These files can be emailed or hosted on websites like any other files.
  • To run a game double click a file and it will unpack to your Windows based PC or Xbox 360 console, it’s that easy!

Finalmente e' stato aggiunto il supporto ai font Bitmap based (come valida alternativa c'e' XNA Stage) ed e' stato inserito il packaging per condividere il proprio progetto con altri utenti.
Ahime' manca ancora una feature fondamentale : una libreria di supporto al multiplayer Online;
sviluppare il networking usando la System.net di C# mi pare un suicidio bello e buono.
Per chi ha voglia di dare un occhiata ad XNA, stanno per uscire i seguenti libri:

1. Expert One-on-One XNA Game Programming: For Xbox 360 and Windows (Paperback)
2. Microsoft® XNA Game Studio Creators Guide (Paperback)
3. Professional XNA Game Programming: For Xbox 360 and Windows (Paperback)

l'ultimo libro e' di Benjamin Nitschke, molto attivo sulla scena Xna con il suo ottimo blog.

Se siete a caccia di link, ho raccolto qualche risorsa sul tag Xna di del.icio.us.