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DigitalRuneGeneral

The DigitalRune Engine is game engine which empowers professional .NET developers, indie developers, and hobbyists to create 3D games and simulations. The complete game engine is written in managed code and supports the Microsoft XNA Game Studio and MonoGame.

This topic contains the following sections:

Libraries

The DigitalRune Engine consists of several independent libraries:

DigitalRune Engine  

Name

Description

DigitalRune Base Library

A base library which provides commonly used types.

DigitalRune Mathematics

A mathematics library.

DigitalRune Geometry

A geometry and collision detection library.

DigitalRune Physics

A 3D game physics library.

DigitalRune Particles

A 3D particle system library.

DigitalRune Animation

An animation system for UI animation and 3D character animation.

DigitalRune Graphics

A 3D graphics engine.

DigitalRune Game

A base library which provides common functionality for games.

DigitalRune Game UI

A game input and GUI library.

Supported platforms and requirements

The DigitalRune Engine is a set of .NET libraries. The libraries can be used on the following platforms: Portable Class Library (PCL), Windows (desktop), Windows Store, Windows Phone, Universal Windows Platform, Xbox 360, Linux, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, Silverlight, Unity Game Engine

The libraries require the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 (Client Profile), or a comparable .NET/Mono implementation depending on the target platform.

The libraries DigitalRune.Game.UI and DigitalRune.Graphics require the Microsoft XNA Framework 4.0 or MonoGame. For all other libraries (DigitalRune Mathematics, Geometry, Physics, etc.), XNA/MonoGame is supported but not required.

See Platforms for more details.

Getting started

Installation

See Installation for info about prerequisites and installation steps.

Required knowledge

Before using the DigitalRune Engine you should be familiar with .NET development and C#. If you are new to .NET, have a look at the MSDN Library.

You should also know how to create normal apps for your target platform. For example, if you are targeting iOS, it helps if you are familiar with developing Xamarin.iOS apps.

If you plan to create XNA or MonoGame applications, you should be familiar with XNA or MonoGame game development. Helpful links:

Tutorials

The Tutorials provide a hands-on introduction to the DigitalRune Engine and selected features.

Samples

To start the Samples project, go to the Samples folder and open the XNA Windows samples solution. Compile and run the project. Have a look at the included Readme.txt file.

Learning how to use the DigitalRune Engine

Please check out following sources to learn how to use the DigitalRune Engine:

  • Read this documentation, which is included in the download as .chm file and also available online: http://digitalrune.github.io/DigitalRune-Documentation/
  • Check out the Tutorials and Samples.
  • If you need code samples for a specific API (e.g. a property, method, class, etc.). Open the Samples solution in Visual Studio and search the whole solution using the Visual Studio Find functionality. You can also use an external search tool, like Agent Ransack, and search the whole Samples folder.
Tip Tip

Tips for beginners: Start simple! Go through the Tutorials. Then get familiar with the Samples solution for XNA Windows (desktop). Once you are familiar with XNA Windows development, you can check out the Samples solution for MonoGame Windows (desktop). After you are familiar with MonoGame desktop development, you can move on to more challenging platforms (e.g. Windows Phone, iOS, etc.).

Staying up-to-date

To get news about the DigitalRune Engine:

Subtopics

Other topics in this section:

Topic

Description

What's New?

The change history and release notes.

Installation

Prerequisites and installation instructions.

Platforms

Information about supported platforms, limitations, MonoGame, etc.

Files, Folders and Dependencies

Summary of the files that are distributed with the DigitalRune libraries and dependencies between DigitalRune Assemblies and third-party assemblies.

Tutorials

Tutorials that show how to use the DigitalRune Engine.

Samples

Information about the sample projects.

FAQ

Summary of common problems and solutions.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous information concerning the whole DigitalRune Engine.

Additional Documentation and Support

Contact and support information.