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Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!

Hello SunBurn community!

Over the past year we've quietly worked on several awesome new advancements to the SunBurn Game Engine - and now, at long last, we're ready to start announcing the details!


Platform Independent

Starting with the upcoming SunBurn 2.1 the SunBurn Game Engine is now platform independent - it no longer relies on XNA (or any single api) to run games.  Instead your games can deploy and run on any number of target platforms and devices.

With this SunBurn 2.1 adds support for a variety of new frameworks like DirectX 11+ and WinRT, which allow you to release games on the latest Windows devices (including WinRT devices).


 

Which device OS's are already supported by SunBurn 2.1:

  • Windows Desktop (XP - Windows 8)
  • Windows Metro / Modern (for apps and games released through the Windows 8 marketplace)
  • Xbox 360
  • Windows Phone 8
  • Windows Phone 7 / 7.5
  • And support for even more are planned in future updates (yes, including iOS :).


Free Update!

And of course SunBurn 2.1 is a free update, like all of the updates we release!

SunBurn Game Engine licensees will gain access to the SunBurn 2.1 update before the public beta.  Which means the best way to get early access is to join the SunBurn developer ranks!


How Does it Work?

SunBurn now includes its own platform layer that looks similar to XNA and presents game developers with the same clean and easy to use api regardless of the underlying device / OS.

Under the hood the platform layer could be running XNA, DirectX, WinRT, or any future supported frameworks, but this is all transparent to the game and game developer.

Here are some details based on questions we've been asked:

Will my existing game code work in 2.1?

Yes, the SunBurn platform api is nearly identical to XNA and for most classes / methods it's a drop-in replacement.

Do I have to learn a new api?

No, as mentioned above the api is very similar to XNA, so there's not much to learn.

Can I access the underlying OS framework (like DirectX 11+, ...)?

Yes!  The SunBurn platform api exposes the underlying OS framework (XNA, DirectX, …), which allows you to create platform specific features for games and take advantage of device specific features.


More to Come!

There is a lot more info to come and many new features to introduce, so stay tuned for more announcements!

So which devices would you like to see SunBurn support next?  Let us know!

-John Kabus

Posted 10-23-2012 9:06 PM by JohnK "bobthecbuilder"

Comments

cemalsensivas wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-23-2012 9:26 PM

Fantastic!

trekker wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-23-2012 9:57 PM

Most Excellent!

DSebJ wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-23-2012 10:05 PM

Awesome!

In terms of platforms, I would say iOS next, if for no other reason than it being the biggest established market for games to be released on.

After that then Mac & Linux. I don't know what the revenue opportunity is on Mac and Linux but they are pretty important when it comes to getting a game included in a Humble Bundle & we need to see some SunBurn games in those Bundles!

David wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-23-2012 11:05 PM

Awesome! I'm glad to see that I'll be able to use this to make games for the Windows Store for both Windows Rt and Windows Phone 8! Great job you guys! Also when is the update expected to be released?

mmsbludhound wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-23-2012 11:55 PM

This is beyond wonderful. Great job, you guys! Another thing for me to get excited about, as if the upcoming W8 and WP8 launches aren't enough.

Ole wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-24-2012 5:57 AM

Woooow!

That sounds really nice guys! :)

Do you think it will be possible to develop for the PSVita?

Cheers

Sehlor wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-24-2012 9:22 AM

Excellent!

Nate "Vulture" wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-24-2012 2:43 PM

Sweet! :D

BigDaddio wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-24-2012 8:17 PM

I would really like to see some sort of built in particle engine.

So how soon can we see this? My PreOrder Surface gets here friday!!

Philippe Da Silva wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-25-2012 4:14 AM

Great stuff John!

I wondered how you worked out the shader/effect question?

Did you create your own shader compiler?

Use an existing abstraction (such as MonoGame's)?

Decide to not manage this side of things letting developers creating their platform specific shaders?

or any other innovative approach you may had?

Ryan Seidensticker wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-25-2012 10:41 AM

Hello John,

I have a question about  SunBurn Engine with Windows 8.

I am going to upgrade my OS to Windows 8 next week, and install Visual Studio 2012.

1) Will XNA still be available for Visual Studio 2012 and Windows 8 to use with SunBurn?

2) Do you foresee any problems that I would have developing for the XBox 360?

BigDaddio wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-26-2012 6:08 AM

Ryan

XNA is not on windows 8. I have not tried using sunburn yet in win8, I still have a drive with win7 for XNA etc. You can use MonoGame. I kind of doubt it will work with Sunburn but who knows I have not tried it. This looks like it will be our solution though for the Windows 8 no XNA problem. This will be especially great since it will run on RT and build for the windows store.

Tom wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-26-2012 7:38 AM

This is very cool! I'll give this a try right now.

Ryan Seidensticker wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-26-2012 9:17 AM

@BigDaddio,

So i was looking at forms about XNA on Windows 8, and your pretty much right about it not working. Their are a couple people that came up with a work-a-round to get it to build, but it isn't supported and I don't feel comfortable hacking it to get it to work. I think i am going to stick with Windows 7. Thanks

JohnK "bobthecbuilder" wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-26-2012 1:52 PM

Hi guys, thanks for the awesome feedback!

With the new platform api all devices / os's are possible, we only need to develop the platform "driver", which is fairly lightweight.

We'll release more info shortly about the release timeframe!

@Philippe, the platform api supports DirectX FX files, and compiles into effect objects similar to XNA.

There are only a couple of differences: techniques can only be single pass, and cannot contain device state changes (like blending and culling order).

Other than that standard fx2.0 files compile to DirectX 11+.  And you can use "#if DX11" blocks to include newer code unique to ps4.0 / vs4.0 and up. :)

@Ryan, SunBurn 2.0 and XNA 4.0 already work great on Windows 8 *Desktop*.  We use Win8 here on a number of dev pc's. :)

The upcoming update adds support for creating Metro / Modern apps sold through the Win8 marketplace.

Let me know if this helps!

mmsbludhound wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-26-2012 6:39 PM

While we are at it, I'm quite interested in Android development :)

MrBoolean wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-27-2012 11:59 PM

so wait will the new upadate be compatible to XNA? pr will sunburn be its own engine?

Philippe Da Silva wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-29-2012 6:56 AM

Ok John for the DirectX11 effect system but how will you handle other API such as OpenGL when you'll target other platforms?

TBSRaven wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-31-2012 4:19 AM

This sound like a life saver. I was really starting to get the feeling MS shanked me in the back. I'm pretty sure the next release will not support XNA anymore, as they are not allowing W8 to be a target. The current WP7.5 app support is a last supper.

I find it really strange MS is killing XNA off like this, without having a viable alternative them self's. I can program C++, but not anywhere near as good as C#, plus all the knowledge and investments in XNA would be thrown out of the window.

Again, thanks for having our backs!

chrispetersinc wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 10-31-2012 2:00 PM

Very excited about this.  

Sehlor wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 11-01-2012 6:39 AM

Is it too much to ask remove that 75 bone limit? Or am i asking too much? :)

MadMojo wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 11-08-2012 7:17 PM

I've been busy and just noticed this post. How exciting! =) Awesome work, everyone!

JacKAsterisK wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 11-15-2012 6:02 PM

This is great news, I can't wait to try it out!

MichaelPeters wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 11-17-2012 5:36 PM

Looking forward to  iOS platform support if at all possible.  And C# if at all possible.  Thanks!

ecbouma wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 11-18-2012 8:26 AM

I have a license and am very eager to try this...when o when !!

XaMMaX wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 11-19-2012 12:28 AM

Will buy license after this release is out :)

chrispetersinc wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 11-20-2012 7:00 PM

I can't wait for this to come out.  Ever since I upgraded my computer to Windows 8 I haven't been able to get my XNA code to compile...  I put my project on the back burner until this comes out, but I'll probably look into workarounds soon.  

JuMP Games wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 11-28-2012 5:35 PM

@JohnK: Do you guys have a ETA on when you will start releasing BETA's to the community?

point0 wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 11-30-2012 4:34 PM

I would also like to know a time frame as to when we can expect this to start trickling out.

MadMojo wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 11-30-2012 6:52 PM

I was also really disappointed in the Windows 8 drop of XNA. Shocked, would be a more appropriate description of my feelings, I suppose. But this definitely makes me feel better. I hope the beta releases before the end of the year for testing! =)

maconbot wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 12-01-2012 5:56 AM

This is great. Cheers! As far as other platforms...I think you would continue to grow your niche if you next targeted Blackberry and similar devices.

JuanAlberto wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 12-04-2012 10:23 AM

Awesome! My vote is for Mac OSX support.

BigDaddio wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 12-05-2012 11:13 AM

So wait did I see a game/demo running on the surface tablet? When do we get our grubby little hands on this?

mezcaholic wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 12-10-2012 7:20 PM

@JohnK:  When can I get my grubby little hands on it? :)

mezcaholic wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 12-15-2012 12:27 PM

Will ARM WinRT devices be part of the initial release as well?

Israel wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 12-19-2012 2:34 PM

Can't wait for check this new release of sunburn, it looks amazing!!!!

Israel wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 12-19-2012 2:35 PM

Can't wait for check this new release of sunburn, it looks amazing!!!!

raistlinthewiz wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 12-24-2012 10:23 AM

when will be 2.1 released? any eta's?

mezcaholic wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 12-30-2012 2:04 AM

Bob, your killin me...  How about a New Year's scrap of news?  :)

MadMojo wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 01-02-2013 3:06 PM

Definitely. It's been a couple of months since the initial announcement. New Year's update, Bob? =)

JacKAsterisK wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 01-02-2013 5:12 PM

I am also very eager to try it out. Even a date for the date of the announcing of the release date would satiate me for a while. Just something to let us know the update is still going to happen!

Ryan Seidensticker wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 01-04-2013 10:11 AM

It would be nice to hear a progress update. What are some problems that you have been running into? Any set-backs? New features? Just feed us something please.

Syyntax wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 01-04-2013 11:24 AM

Greetings, new pro license holder here.

I bought in due to the advert about version 2.1, I'm greatly looking forward to this upcoming release.

I'm sitting here on my Win8 development box (VS2012), just realizing that I can't take advantage of the existing version that I just bought!!

All is good though, I have a Win7 Box (my gaming specific box) that I can pollute with VS2010, XNA and such.

An update would be nice, to at least know there's someone on the other end of this listening!

Steve Godrich wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 01-21-2013 4:11 AM

How are we looking on timescales for this?  I've build a win 8/vs 2012 machine and I don't really want to install VS 2010 if it's coming out in the next few weeks.

Derrick wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 01-22-2013 1:40 PM

Which versions of Visual Studio will this support?  Will it work with existing 3rd party plugins?  Is it available for download yet?

Aredhel wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 02-18-2013 12:18 AM

Awesome job guys :D

yasyas777 wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 03-11-2013 3:39 AM

This is so awesome! You guys have really seriously stepped it up. Good job, good job.

KeldorKatarn wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 04-13-2013 4:59 PM

You guys have just moved to the top of my list of possible engines for a followup project. ;)

David wrote re: Announcing SunBurn 2.1 - Platform Independent Game Engine!
on 04-14-2013 2:24 AM

Is there an ETA on when 2.1 will be available?



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