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Games for Windows -- LIVE
Playing Halo 2 over Xbox LIVE is a “mildly” popular online activity for console gamers (As I write this, there are over 57 thousand players enjoying Halo 2 online. Note: the game was released for Xbox in November 2004. If you’re a gamer, there is a slight chance you may have tried it, or know someone who occasionally gets on there and raises a ruckus. Bringing this experience to the Windows Vista platform is made possible with the help of our good friends on the Games for Windows – LIVE team. Over the past year, they have been hard at work ensuring the translation to the Windows Vista platform from Xbox results in an experience that is familiar and new all at once. As we near the release of Halo 2 for Windows Vista (May 8, 2007!!!), the first LIVE-enabled game, we thought it would be a good idea to let the LIVE guys lay out the skinny on the expansion of their service to Windows VIsta. We spoke with Drew Johnston, Group Program Manager for the Games for Windows – LIVE team to ask questions that we have heard from many of you out there.
Hired Gun: Some of you may already know that Halo 2 for Windows Vista is the first Games for Windows – LIVE title. Hired Gun & Bungie have worked alongside the LIVE team to develop features that were right for Halo, but also ready for the many PC games that I am sure will start to use the service in the future. We asked Drew what it was like developing the new service…
Opening new doors to online gaming
Drew: There were a lot of challenges in getting to this stage of the project in a short period of time. On one hand there was a proven online gaming service with an existing code base running on a closed platform with a single purpose. For Windows, we had to move to an open platform designed for multiple purposes with a vibrant enthusiast community. Not all of the Xbox code could be ported directly to Windows and major portions had to be re-written to use the existing Windows infrastructure while maintaining the connection to the LIVE servers. This was an interesting challenge given the byte order differences between the two platforms as well as other architectural differences. Because of the open platform nature of Windows, security was, and continues to be, a primary focus and design consideration for bringing LIVE to Windows. This focus on security helped steer many of the design decisions as did the desire to welcome Windows gaming to the LIVE community as quickly as possible.
Two heads are better than one
Drew: It was great having Halo 2 for Windows Vista help focus the design decisions for Games for Windows – LIVE. One of the first design tasks was to replicate the in-game guide in Xbox LIVE. From the Guide, gamers can access and experience the majority of the community features of the LIVE network, including: multiplayer game play, voice communication, messaging (text & voice), friends, presence, family settings, gamer score, achievements and gamer reputation.
 If it ain’t broke…
Hired Gun: We were adamant that all the great things about LIVE came over to the PC. Halo 2 was originally shipped on the Xbox, and all you die-hard Xbox players out there will know that the LIVE service has evolved since Xbox to Xbox 360 to include a guide that manages all of your friends lists etc, features that used to be built into a game’s UI. This gave the Hired Gun team some challenges as we pretty much re-wrote the infrastructure for our LIVE game play to take advantage of the new way the Xbox 360 does things. We asked Drew what was important from the service perspective about LIVE…
Drew: The primary draw for the LIVE service is all the community benefits and the ease of use. Everything just works in LIVE from easily getting matched into a game with your friends or players of similar skill, to voice communications, to maintaining a list of friends that you play with in all your games. Interacting with their gaming friends and comparing gamer scores and earned achievements are something gamers enjoy and seek out. All of this is possible by providing similar functionality found by the in-game Guide on Xbox LIVE.
 The “Wow” factor
Hired Gun: We didn’t believe the PC gamer wants exactly the same things as a console gamer. There are features in our game that have never before been seen on the Xbox, but use the LIVE service in our game. Being able to work with the Games for Windows – LIVE team really helped us in this area, and is why we have Dedicated Servers on LIVE on day 1. We asked Drew how they approached development for the PC…
Drew: We didn’t think just blindly porting the Xbox 360 gaming experience to Windows would do justice to the LIVE service and to Windows gaming. There are some great things about how the Xbox 360 is easy to use that we wanted to bring over. There were some things that Windows gaming also brought to the table: higher resolution high definition gaming, keyboard and mouse control, pervasive internet connectivity, mobility (laptops), and dedicated servers.
Drew: If you are already familiar with LIVE on the Xbox then the Games for Windows – LIVE Guide looks more like Vista and less like the Xbox. It appears from the center of the screen and unfolds like a scroll instead of sliding in from the side like a blade. This was done to work better with the higher screen resolutions found on Windows and to work better in windowed environments. In addition you will see more transparency effects while still retaining all of the same features found on Xbox LIVE. The Guide works equally well with both the keyboard and mouse as it does with the common controller. If you’re one of the many dual gamers who plays on both Xbox and Windows this will all seem pretty natural even though it looks different. This just underlines the fact that this is a single LIVE service spanning two platforms: Windows and Xbox.
 Dedicated to serving your online gaming experience
Drew: It was apparent from the beginning that Windows gamers would demand that LIVE support dedicated servers. Certainly the Hired Gun team did! Xbox LIVE didn’t support the concept of dedicated servers to the extent that Windows gamers expected. This was one of the major challenges for the Games for Windows – LIVE team. We rallied to the cause and the Microsoft Advanced Technology Center (ATC) team in Beijing, China who were already working with our team on the Vista Games Explorer joined with us to deliver a Locator Service as a clearing house for listing dedicated servers for Games for Windows – LIVE games. This is how Halo 2 for Windows Vista provides a games browser that supports both traditional P2P based games as well as dedicated servers. The design of the Locator Service and dedicated servers in Games for Windows – LIVE was strongly influenced by the close design interaction with the Halo 2 for Windows Vista team.
Hired Gun: Hired Gun and Bungie decided pretty early on to break the ability to play cross platform with the Xbox version. Doing so enabled us to make the security and size changes to map files that allowed custom map creation and sharing over the LIVE service. Drew weighs in on why he thinks Halo 2 for Windows Vista is a great LIVE title.
Drew: Halo 2 for Windows Vista is a great game that takes full advantage of Games for Windows – LIVE. Halo 2 for Windows Vista players who aren’t already Xbox LIVE members will immediately join a community of millions of other LIVE gamers and begin sharing gamer scores, Achievements and enjoy the LIVE gaming and entertainment network. Those who are already Xbox LIVE members now no longer have to treat the gaming experiences as a separate universe and can start adding their Halo 2 for Windows Vista Achievements to their LIVE reputation and experience.
If you already play Halo on Xbox LIVE, the basis of the new experience on Windows Vista will no doubt be old hat to you – friends lists and the like. However there are many places where moving the game to Games for Windows – LIVE has really opened the door and allowed us to add new features and functionality not possible on the original Xbox. We have already talked a little about achievements but in the coming weeks look out for details on Dedicated Servers and their playlists, stats exporting, and custom content with the Map Editor.
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