Since the release of the Zune update I have received quite a few emails asking why their games no longer work. As I stated in the update post it has to do with how the games were compiled with the XNA Game Studio CTP and not XNA Game Studio 3 Beta, which fully supports the new Zune 3.0 update! Yay!!!
To get your old games and applications to work all you have to do uninstall the CTP and install the new XNA Game Studio 3.0 Beta and edit a few lines of code:
Modify the .contentproj file to delete all instances of the OutputPath element. This element usually is within a PropertyGroup element that has Condition attributes. For example:
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|Xbox 360' ">
. . .
<OutputPath>bin\Xbox 360\Debug</OutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
Add the following as a child element in the same PropertyGroup that includes the XnaFrameworkVersion element:
<OutputPath>bin\$(Platform)\$(Configuration)</OutputPath>
The folks over at Zuneboards have a list of games that have already been “fixed” to work with 3.0.
If you wish to do it yourself you can download the latest version of the XNA Beta from here and be sure read the READ ME file.
Enjoy!
There is a new snapshot feature too! A few people wrote in asking on how to do this so here it is. Screen captures are taken using the XNA Game Studio Device Center. It’s important to understand that screen captures can only be made when you start the game from your computer using Visual Studio. You cannot play a game stand alone (i.e. Running from the Games menu on Zune or from the Games Library on the Xbox 360. Here are the two ways to capture:
- Starting the game with debugging (usually “F5” in Visual Studio of Visual C#)
- Starting the game without debugging, and hence better performance (usually Ctrl+F5 in Visual Studio)
Once started and connected startup the XNA Game Studio Device Center, right-click on the device currently running the game and select “Take Screen Capture”. A PNG of your Zune’s Screen will then be placed in your Pictures folder, and it will be opened automatically for viewing.
Note: This will not work with packaged games like creators club game packages (*.ccgame files). This files are automatically installed on your Zune and don’t require to be built.