Can I use BEPUphysics without having user install XNA?

[rsery]

Hi,
I'm making a game using SlimDX and I want to use bepuphysics which depends on XNA. What I'm wondering is, can I just include the XNA framework dll's with my game and have it work even if the user doesn't have XNA installed on their pc? I'm only developing for PC. Thanks for any insight into this.

[Norbo]

I posted on the Gamedev.net thread here:
http://www.gamedev.net/topic/608104-can ... stall-xna/

If I'm not mistaken, you aren't allowed to distribute XNA .dlls; the end user must install them using the installer.

However, BEPUphysics can have its dependencies swapped out without a massive amount of effort. Most of them are just simple math types, like Vector3 and Matrix. SlimDX has replacement types which would fit perfectly without name changes. There are a couple of convenience methods based on the Model class, but they aren't important and can be replaced with equivalent functionality pretty easily. I've been hoping/asking that the community undertake the effort (possibly with a new Codeplex fork) to port and maintain it so I can focus on core features.

[Norbo]

An update:

Well, I went ahead and created a fork that removed all XNA dependencies from the core library. The prototype uses SlimDX plus some extension classes to fill in the gaps and make some things a little more XNA-ish.

It hasn't been tested at all, but if you'd like to take a look or use it as a starting point, here it is: http://bepuphysics.codeplex.com/SourceC ... dby/SlimDX

I might set up an extremely basic demo for testing it soon.

Of course, my request for help with maintaining it still stands. If anyone wants to help test, fix, and maintain it so that it keeps parity with the main XNA version, I'd appreciate it!

[Deimos]

Hi,
I've tried to load the SlimDX Bepu fork solution in VS 2010, but it tells me "The project type is not supported by this installation" and ends up without loading any project. I suppose it's because of the remnant XNA references in the csprojs and wherever and the fact that I don't have XNA installed. It would be great if that could be fixed eventually. Thanks! BTW BEPUphysics is awesome and reading Bepu goes SlimDX was the greatest news for me in the last couple of months!

[Norbo]

It should be fixed now: http://bepuphysics.codeplex.com/SourceC ... dby/SlimDX

BTW BEPUphysics is awesome and reading Bepu goes SlimDX was the greatest news for me in the last couple of months!

Good to hear

[Deimos]

Thanks Norbo, that helped! The project builds now without an XNA installation.

I have another question. Is it possible to grab the code with TortoiseSVN from CodePlex? I'd like to add BepuPhysics as an external to my project and since I'm using TortoiseSVN this would be the most convinient/clean way for me.

The connection instructions on CodePlex state this:

Projects using Team Foundation Server / Subversion
If you are not a developer on a project then you need to use a Subversion client to anonymously access the source control repository:
TortoiseSVN: A GUI source control client that integrates into Windows Explorer and provides edit-merge-commit and offline support.

But I can't find the SVN URL. Any Ideas?

[Norbo]

The BEPUphysics project uses Mercurial instead of SVN, so you'll need TortoiseHg. The clone URL for a fork can be found on the right side under Source Control connection instructions. For the SlimDX fork in particular: https://hg01.codeplex.com/forks/rossnordby/slimdx