The June 2012 release of the Durango XDK from Microsoft contains the following new features, tools, and documentation.
For features that shipped in a previous Durango XDK release, see the What’s New document for that release.
The most recent release notes and Durango XDK updates can always be found on Durango Downloads on the Xbox Game Developer site. For access, log in with your ID and password on https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/games/xbox/partner/index; at the top of the page, point to Development and click Downloads.
The Durango developer support group sends e-mail to Durango developers whenever a new Durango XDK is released. Also, you can check with your account manager for the latest information about upcoming Durango XDK releases.
You must update to the Visual Studio 2012 Release Candidate
This release of the Durango XDK requires that you update to the Release Candidate version of Visual Studio 2012. You can download this version of Visual Studio from the Durango Downloads page on XGD.
To install the Release Candidate, simply download and install the Visual Studio 2012 Release Candidate from the Durango Downloads page.
New features in PIX
PIX, the graphics performance investigation tool, now includes the following features to assist in graphics profiling of your app on Durango:
To get the most use out of the new GPU hardware counter functionality, refer to the GPU Counters whitepaper on the Xbox Game Developer site.
New User and Controller APIs
The new User API provides you with information about the users who are active on the Durango console, and provides interesting information about them, including identification information and the controllers they are using. The current implementation provides a minimum of information about users. Future releases will bring expansions to the User API to support new features as they are added to the XDK.
The new Gamepad API is how app developers enumerate controllers, poll controller buttons and other controls, and activate vibration motors. Gamepad replaces XInput, and will be the only API for device input on the Durango console when it ships. XInput is still included in this release, but it will be removed in some future XDK release, after we’ve had a chance to get your feedback about Gamepad.
Hardware video encode/decode
With this release, Durango can carry out performance-intensive video encode/decode operations in hardware, at a fraction of CPU utilization as compared to performing these operations in software. Currently, the Durango video decoder can decode compliant H.264 streams generated by the hardware encoder. It can also decode MPEG-2 and VC-1 (also known as WMV-9 or XMV on Xbox 360).
With this update, the former requirement to configure software encode/decode by editing registry keys, is removed.
IXMLHTTPRequest2 is the supported HTTP client API for Durango
IXMLHTTPRequest2 has been chosen as the only official HTTP client API for Durango. All developers should move to this API and rely on it for HTTP communication. Existing support for WinHttp will be removed in a future release. Together with Windows.Data.Json, Durango has a modern HTTP client that can interact with services exposed by Xbox Live and more. For more information on IXMLHTTPRequest2, please see the documentation on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh831151(v=vs.85).aspx