PlayScript Windows 8 "Modern UI"?

[Matt Summers]

We have several games built on Stage3d/Starling that we'd love to port to the Windows 8 store and with Adobe dropping their previously planned support Windows 8  Modern UI/App Store I've been looking for alternatives that don't require a full re-write and PlayScript looks very promising.

In its current from does PlayScript run on Windows 8? I ask because the website for PlayScript mentions "Complete Windows API support", but all of the "how to use PlayScript" texts mention Xamarin Studio which doesn't target Windows directly so I am curious what the process is to build a Windows app with PlayScript.

[Matt Summers]

I was looking in the Stage3d implementation in PlayScript and it looks like it is using OpenTK which means Windows 8 App store support would most likely require adding a DirectX compatible implementation for it to work in Windows & Windows Phone. (this was mentioned in the Win Phone 8 thread here in the forums)

Are there any plans yet on how best to support the Stage3d on non OpenGL platforms like Windows 8/Windows Phone? I was discussing it with another dev here and we were thinking it might make sense to build the 3d system in PlayScript on top of MonoGame. Are they any efforts in that direction already started? or other Plans for going a different direction?

[Ben Cooley]

Hi Matt,

We do not yet support the WP8 API with PlayScript.  It took Icer a little while to implement Stage3D support in OpenGL for Android/iOS, and we're still working on making sure the Android version actually works.

That being said, the OPENGL and TARGET_MONOTOUCH macro defines could be replaced by DIRECTX and TARGET_WP8, if you're willing to put in a little bit of work.  It's unlikely we could get to this any time soon, but if you're up to it we would really appreciate the help.

Icer can work with you to work through the AGAL to HLSL conversion (required for shader support), and some of the other issues that you'll run into.  At this point I suspect it is a bit more straightforward than it was for the openGL port, since Icer now has a fairly systematic way to convert AGAL for GLSL already.

In any case, let me know if you're interested.

[Matt Summers]

Myself and 2 other developers are interested in working on the DirectX implementation for PlayScript. I've been digging through the code to get an idea of what needs to be done and have a decent handle on things. Is this forum the best place to ask questions about issues we run into during development? Was there any rough plan laid out on your end for supporting Windows 8/Win Phone 8 in the future?

[zuzzu]

Have you any progress on this? That would fit playscript exactly into my needs.

[Ben Cooley]

Should be posted ( I think ) tomorrow on the Zynga open source repository on github.  I did the final code review on Friday.

[Ben Cooley]

Oh.. wait.  Thought you were talking about the SWF to Starling UI plugin.  Wrong answer to this question.   

We're working on an OpenGL version for Windows right now, but not XNA or DirectX (at least not yet).