Problems with XNA in VB.Net

[ThomasJohnsen]

On my computer I have installed:
* Visual C# 2010 Express
* Visual Basic 2010 Express
* XNA 4.0

With the installation of XNA 4.0, I automatically got a template in C# for Windows Game 4.0, and have used it many times to create XNA projects.
Now I find myself in a situation, where I'd like to use VB.Net for developing XNA projects as well, but the template for Windows Game 4.0 is not available in VB.Net.
I have tried reinstalling XNA and googling for answers. Also tried looking online for a template both in google and from within VB.Net to no avail.
(#EDIT: The solutions I found were all from earlier versions of XNA, and most included older templates or manually adding references)

Can anyone help me with this?

[Shaggy Hiker]

I don't think I ever saw any of that stuff under VB, either. It had me puzzled for a time, too, nor did I really solve the problem. In the end, I basically took the C# and manually converted it into VB. On the other hand, I wasn't creating a Game, but a WinForms app using XNA to draw individual controls, so that conversion was pretty small.

[ThomasJohnsen]

I don't think I ever saw any of that stuff under VB, either. It had me puzzled for a time, too, nor did I really solve the problem. In the end, I basically took the C# and manually converted it into VB. On the other hand, I wasn't creating a Game, but a WinForms app using XNA to draw individual controls, so that conversion was pretty small.

Ok - I was beginning to suspect that. I reckon I will stick with C# then.
I will continue to look for one though, so if anyone reads this and knows of a template, or has any idea on how to create your own - my experience in that field is non-existant, I'd like to hear some input.

In the meanwhile - thanks for your help SH.

[Inferrd]

Back in July I was curious to see what XNA could do, so I looked for a way to install it on this machine that has VB2010 Express. Needless to say, I ran into the same problems as you.

After a lot of Googling in circles, the advice at the time was to install XNA Game Studio 4.0 Refresh. Of course it won't let you, complaining that it needs VS2010 or C# Express. More Googling came up with the advice to install Windows Phone SDK 7.1, which I did out of frustration (the .iso version that weighs in at 750MB).

The Phone SDK contains a version of Game Studio 4.0 Refresh and also Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone, and that contains Templates for XNA Games under its version of VB. It means having an additional (different) version of VB Express installed, and also a load of crap I will probably never need is bundled along with it.

Probably not what you wanted to hear, but it is a way of getting a start with XNA on a free version VB. If you ever come up with a way of transferring XNA Templates to the "normal" VB2010 Express, I'd be interested to know.

[ThomasJohnsen]

Thank you very much for that solution. I might try it in the coming weekend, unless I succeed in making a template of my own. It seems more and more to me, that it wasn't my lack of googling power, but simply the fact that there isn't a template available for a windows game 4.0 in XNA for VB Express 2010, so maybe a template (should I succeed in ever making one) can help others beside myself. Lord knows I've spent quite a few hours on this, and SH and yourself may have spent some too. And time spent installing and reinstalling continuously can probably be better spent trying to solve the problem in another way.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I thought I had just installed the wrong thing. I was trying to find a way to get XNA Refresh, and trying to figure out whether I needed it, when I found a tutorial about looking under C#, so I tried that, and there it was. I never used it, though.

I did find that the Game template doesn't really do all that much for you. It appears to set up a standard game loop, but you could find tutorials that talk about doing that specifically, in which case you could probably roll your own in VB without too much difficulty. I may be wrong on what the game template gives you, though.

[ThomasJohnsen]

I thought I had just installed the wrong thing. I was trying to find a way to get XNA Refresh, and trying to figure out whether I needed it, when I found a tutorial about looking under C#, so I tried that, and there it was. I never used it, though.

I did find that the Game template doesn't really do all that much for you. It appears to set up a standard game loop, but you could find tutorials that talk about doing that specifically, in which case you could probably roll your own in VB without too much difficulty. I may be wrong on what the game template gives you, though.

The game template should mainly:
1) Add the correct XNA references
2) Add a content-project
3) Add a content-reference
4) Add the game class

I tried Inferrd's method and installed VS 2010 for Windows Phone. It only took about 20 mins, and now I'm able to write VB XNA 4.0 games without problems (not in VB 2010 Express though), so I doubt I'll look into writing a template after all. Seems easier to just use the Phone SDK.
I did try to export a template from Phone SDK to Express, but that didn't work. It probably needs a few adjustments, but since I have never worked with templates, I'll leave it to others to do that - meanwhile I'm more than happy with the Inferrd solution.