XNA Game Studio 3.0 Beta is now available to download with tones of new features including support for the new Zune 3.0 firmware, Rich Presence and Invites.
Download here: http://creators.xna.com/en-us/3.0beta_mainpage
More info on the XNA team blog here: http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/archive/2008/09/16/xna-game-studio-3-0-beta-is-go.aspx
What's new?
Zune
- Compatibility with the upcoming Zune 3.0 Firmware release.
- Improved deployment stability.
- Support for Zune deployment on Windows Vista x64 Systems!
- You can now use the Remote Performance Monitor for Zune games.
Xbox 360
- Xbox 360 project templates (You will not be able to develop on the Xbox 360 until our final release. We felt this was important to include so that you could get projects converted over and look at the system, even if you are not able to run the games, yet).
- Support for the Big Button Pad.
Framework & Visual Studio Features
- Enumerate and play back media on your Windows computer or Xbox 360.
- Simple sound effect support on Windows computers and Xbox 360.
- Support for Rich Presence (lets friends know what’s going on in your game).
- Support for Invites (ask your friends to join you in a multiplayer game) and Join Session In Progress (after you see what your friends are doing, you can join their current session with just a couple of button presses, even if that’s a different game to the one you are currently playing)
- Compress your content and save space with the new content compression features!
- ClickOnce packaging support for distributing your XNA Framework games on Windows.
- Upgrade your project from XNA Game Studio 2.0 using the Project Upgrade Wizard!
- Take screen captures of your game running on Zune through the XNA Game Studio Device Center.
- Support for .NET language features like Linq
- Create multiple content projects and leverage cross project synchronization in Visual Studio.
- FBX importer improvements: read materials containing multiple textures, and export custom shader materials directly out of Max or Maya.
