Summary
Silverlight and XNA both have distinct advantages for various application types through built-in constructs, which support the particular types of applications they target. Silverlight is targeted toward textual applications with embedded graphics and video. The Metro styling offers an attractive launching point for building applications. Although Silverlight also provides animation storyboards and timelines, which can be used to develop many simple 2D games, the XNA Framework is targeted at game development and provides a high-performance runtime capable of complex graphical rendering.
Think about the application you are writing, explore some of the applications on the market today to get an idea of what’s possible, and begin prototyping with the framework of your choice. Table 3.1 shows a feature comparison between Silverlight and the XNA Framework.
Table 3.1 Decision Matrix—Silverlight Versus XNA
Criteria |
Silverlight |
XNA Framework |
2D graphics |
|
|
3D graphics |
|
|
Controls |
|
|
Cross-targeting |
|
|
Event based |
|
|
Game |
|
|
Loop based |
|
|
Metro UI |
|
|
Text based |
|