MonoGame is a
free and
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
C# framework used by game developers to make games for multiple
platforms and other systems. It is also used to make
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...
and
Windows Phone
Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design lan ...
games run on other systems. It supports
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
,
Android,
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
,
tvOS
tvOS (formerly known as Apple TV Software) is an operating system developed by Apple Inc. for the Apple TV, a digital media player. In the first-generation Apple TV, Apple TV Software was based on Mac OS X. Starting with the second-generatio ...
,
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...
,
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
,
PlayStation Vita
The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international terri ...
,
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
and
Nintendo Switch
The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a ...
. It implements the
Microsoft XNA
Microsoft XNA (a recursive acronym for XNA's not acronymed) is a freeware set of tools with a managed runtime environment that Microsoft developed to facilitate video game development. XNA is based on .NET Framework, with versions that run on Wi ...
4
application programming interface (API). It has been used for several games, including ''
Bastion
A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...
'' and ''
Fez''.
History
MonoGame is a derivative of XNA Touch (September 2009) started by Jose Antonio Farias and Silver Sprite by Bill Reiss. The first official release of MonoGame was version 2.0 with a downloadable version 0.7 that was available from
CodePlex
CodePlex was a forge website by Microsoft. While it was active, it allowed shared development of open-source software.
Its features included wiki pages, source control based on Mercurial, TFVC, Subversion or Git, discussion forums, issue tr ...
. These early versions only supported 2D
sprite-based games. The last official 2D-only version was released as 2.5.1 in June 2012.
Since mid-2013, the framework has begun to be extended beyond XNA4 with the addition of new features like RenderTarget3D, support for multiple GameWindows, and a new cross-platform command line content building tool.
Architecture
MonoGame attempts to fully implement the XNA 4 API.
It accomplishes this across Microsoft platforms using SharpDX and DirectX.
When targeting non-Microsoft platforms, platform specific capabilities are utilized by way of the
OpenTK library. When targeting OS X, iOS, and/or Android, the
Xamarin
Xamarin is a Microsoft-owned San Francisco-based software company founded in May 2011 by the engineers that created Mono, Xamarin.Android (formerly Mono for Android) and Xamarin.iOS (formerly MonoTouch), which are cross-platform implementatio ...
platform runtime is necessary. This runtime provides a tuned OpenTK implementation that allows the MonoGame team to focus on the core graphics tuning of the platform.
The graphics capabilities of MonoGame come from either OpenGL, OpenGL ES, or DirectX. Since MonoGame version 3, OpenGL 2 has been the focus for capabilities. The earlier releases of MonoGame (2.5) used OpenGL 1.x for graphics rendering. Utilizing OpenGL 2 allowed for MonoGame to support shaders to make more advanced rendering capabilities in the platform.
Content management and distribution continues to follow the XNA 4 ContentManager model. The MonoGame team has created a new content building capability that can integrate with Microsoft Visual Studio to deliver the same content building capabilities to Windows 8 Desktop that Windows 7 users had used in Microsoft XNA.
Games
See also
*
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...
*
Mono (software)
Mono is a free and open-source .NET Framework-compatible software framework. Originally by Ximian, it was later acquired by Novell, and is now being led by Xamarin, a subsidiary of Microsoft and the .NET Foundation. Mono can be run on many softw ...
*
Microsoft XNA
Microsoft XNA (a recursive acronym for XNA's not acronymed) is a freeware set of tools with a managed runtime environment that Microsoft developed to facilitate video game development. XNA is based on .NET Framework, with versions that run on Wi ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:MonoGame
C Sharp libraries
Cross-platform software
Free computer libraries
Free computer programming tools
Free software programmed in C Sharp
Mono (software)
Software using the MS-PL license
Video game development software