 | General |
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:
LibrariesThe DigitalRune Engine consists of several independent libraries:
Name | Description |
|---|---|
A base library which provides commonly used types. | |
A mathematics library. | |
A geometry and collision detection library. | |
A 3D game physics library. | |
A 3D particle system library. | |
An animation system for UI animation and 3D character animation. | |
A 3D graphics engine. | |
A base library which provides common functionality for games. | |
A game input and GUI library. |
Supported platforms and requirementsThe 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 startedInstallation
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 |
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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:
- Follow us on Twitter: @DigitalRune
- To watch the latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.
SubtopicsOther topics in this section:
Topic | Description |
|---|---|
The change history and release notes. | |
Prerequisites and installation instructions. | |
Information about supported platforms, limitations, MonoGame, etc. | |
Summary of the files that are distributed with the DigitalRune libraries and dependencies between DigitalRune Assemblies and third-party assemblies. | |
Tutorials that show how to use the DigitalRune Engine. | |
Information about the sample projects. | |
Summary of common problems and solutions. | |
Miscellaneous information concerning the whole DigitalRune Engine. | |
Contact and support information. |