Professional Development Tools for Xbox 360 and PS3

Question

I was curious to know what development tools do Xbox 360 and PS3 game developers use (I know that there are expensive SDK's to access professional development on these consoles).

So, do Xbox 360 devs use Visual Studio? And what version?

And what about PS3?

And what is the graphics API used on the PS3? Is it a variant of OpenGL?

Thanks.

Mathison

Answer 1

Professional XBox 360 development is done with Visual Studio.

PS3 uses a proprietary compiler and IDE developed by a Sony subsidiary.

There is an OpenGL-like graphics library available on the PS3, but most major games use a lower-level API that speaks directly to the graphics hardware instead.

Topside

Thanks for the information. Do you know if any version of VS can be used for Xbox 360, e.g. is it possible to use VS2010 with its C++11 features? – Mathison

@Mr_C64 The current Xbox Development Kit supports VS2010. You need more than just VS2010 to write code for the XBox, however; the SDK (which must be specially licensed from Microsoft) also has a custom compiler, toolchain, and so on. You can also use XNA to program the Xbox360, which is much easier to start with. – Topside

Answer 2

for ps3 development you need to buy ps3 dev kit, which is cost around $2000. it includes hardware and software for development. the software includes sdk where you can code in c++ ( or some other languages sony specifies ). and the graphics library to use is PSGL ( PlayStation Graphics Library ). that is a combination of OpenGL-ES and the CG programming of NVIDIA. and later to release the game you need to become sony licensed developer. for that you should contact sony through mail. that license is given only to developers or developer team which is having enough previous understanding in game development.

and now (around the feb '12 ) sony is going to release playstation suite by which developers can able to develop applications and games for playstation certified devices ( ps3, playstation vita, some android mobiles, etc ). there you have to use c# to code. but afaik it will not be a better sdk for full fledged AAA game development for ps3. Because it uses a virtual machine which translates the code dynamically to the underlying hardware platform where it runs, which may affect the performance. and the sdk is now in closed beta test for developers in us, uk, japan. you can get results regarding this from google with query 'playstation suite closed beta'. and its beta is expected to be released in the coming feb with the release of playstation vita.

for microsoft xbox 360 better place to start is xna game development. and after some time getting better knowledge in game development, you can approach microsoft to get the sdk for xbox 360 game development. the games developed with xna will not be much faster as games developed with the sdk given by microsoft. but getting the sdk for xbox is also having lots of procedures as getting sdk for ps3. the xna coding will be in c# with directx and direct3d as graphics library.

and later news tells that microsoft is migrating to metro style apps from xna. metro is going to be released with windows 8. now its beta version is bundled with windows 8 beta release. and microsoft doesn't show any support for xna in future ( it is not clear still ). now xna is only available for dircetx9. but metro is going to be released with directx11. microsoft didn't give any word about xna support in future. in metro apps, you need to be code in C++ with directx and direct3d graphics libraries.

Singletree

Answer 3

Check CryEngine 3 Free SDK. http://mycryengine.com/

Allows you to develop for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation3.

Blinding

Answer 4

The Unity3D engine also ports to PS3, XBox and Wii :]

Pseudohermaphrodite

Answer 5

You need Playstation SDK or Xbox360 SDK. Both include hardware and software. Normally only companies can gain them and it costs a lot of money. For Xbox360 you can also use XNA.

Elli

Answer 6

in response to what somebody said above, are we not all past the JIT compiler debate.

with proper coding techniques, microsoft and other companies have produced virtual machines which are far more powerful than anybody gives them credit for.

back in the day when we have VERY LITTLE memory to work with, C++ was a video game development standard due to the fact that we could directly manage our own memory when needed, and working with a lower level programming language just seemed "right"

i still enjoy developing both games and software in C++, but there is no reason that this playstation SDK which is using a JIT compiler and C#, will not be able to produce efficient code for developing video games.

Evars