Is MonoGame just XNA?

Question

So I want to learn C# and XNA but after some research is came to my attention that XNA is apparently dead, and there is an alternate library called MonoGame which uses XNA framework.

So, can I use XNA lessons/ tutorials for MonoGame or are the major differences in the way programming is done depending on what you use making XNA tutorials completely useless for MonoGame?

Solution 1

Almost.

MonoGame doesn't use the XNA framework, it is a re-implementation of the XNA framework. The difference is that all of the code inside MonoGame has been re-written to behave identically to the XNA framework.

You're probably wondering why someone would want to re-implement something that already exists. Well, you're correct in saying that XNA is "dead" so to speak. You can in fact still use the XNA framework if you want but it's no longer supported by Microsoft on Windows 8 or above.

However, that's not really the primary reason MonoGame came about. The real reason is that XNA only works on Microsoft platforms (e.g. Windows, XBox, Windows Phone). MonoGame's purpose is to allow existing XNA code to be easily ported to other plaforms (e.g. iOS, Android, Mac OS X, Linux, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, PlayStation Mobile and the OUYA console)

Yes, you can use XNA lessons / tutorials for MonoGame most of the time. MonoGame's code and behaviour is intended to work exactly like the XNA framework. I say intended, because it's not perfect but it does work very well and there are plenty of games already using MonoGame to prove it.

Solution 2

XNA can still be used on windows 8, despite the being not supported. To do so you have to install a n additional component first. You have to download Windows live Games redistributable, then XNA, and it will work on windows 8.

Comments

[Matthew]

Thank you for the info! :D PS. "You can in fact still use the XNA framework if you want but it's no longer supported by Microsoft on Windows 8 or above." Does this mean I can't use the XNA Framework if I have Windows 8?

[craftworkgames]

I believe the XNA installer refuses to install on windows 8. I think some people have managed to hack around it but it's certainly not supported by Microsoft. You make the game in XNA but then you are limited to the platforms you can release on. Ironically, you can use MonoGame to release games to the windows 8 store.

[craftworkgames]

I've recently started using MonoGame on Windows 8 in Visual Studio 2013. Everything seems to work as expected without any headaches, although, I am not using XNA's content pipeline so there may still be some issues with that.

[Ryan Mann]

XNA cannot be used to make Metro Apps, it can still run on Windows 8 in desktop mode.