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What's New  December

This version of the Xbox Development Kit (XDK) for the Xbox®
video game system from Microsoft® contains the following new tools,
documentation, and other important information:

Approved
Libraries

Important
Changes

Other
Changes

Approved Libraries

The December 2003 release includes libraries approved for use in
retail games.

The June 2003 XDK has been retired. If you submit a title for
certification after the release of the December 2003 XDK, you need
to use an approved August 2003 or later XDK release.

On April 1, 2004, the August 2003 XDK and November 2003 XDK will
be retired. Titles submitted for certification after this date must
use the December 2003 XDK.

Important Changes

Last Planned Release of the XDK

The December 2003 XDK is the last major release of the XDK.
However, there will be an XDK Update release in the first half of
2004. The Xbox team remains committed to supporting developers in
the creation of great Xbox games.

Other Changes

The December 2003 XDK contains many new Xbox Live
features. Some of these features were available in the November 2003
XDK in unapproved form, and some are completely new for this
release. In the December 2003 XDK, all of these features, with the
exception of Voice Mail, are approved for use in retail game titles.

Note    Some of the
new Xbox Live features will not be supported by the Xbox
Live service until the release of Xbox Live 3.0. See
the XDK Release Notes for more information.

Voice Mail in UIX Friends

The Voice Mail feature allows users to include voice mail when
they send or accept game invitations and friend requests. Users
can include up to 15 seconds of voice data with each invitation or
request to provide more context for the recipient.

The Voice Mail feature is unapproved for the December 2003 XDK.
Voice Mail will be available in approved form in the XDK
Update.

Title Managed Storage

Title Managed Storage allows a game to store information on the
Xbox Live storage servers. The feature is divided into two
parts: global storage and per-user, per-title storage. Global
storage is read-only to the title and stores matchmaking queries,
rosters, weather data, and so on. Per-user, per-title storage
provides 32 KB of storage for each player of the title, to store
playbooks, settings, and so on.

Family Title ID

Family Title IDs allow title-managed storage, teams, and
messages to be shared across a family of titles. A given title can
belong to as many as four title families. The way in which
storage, teams, and messages are shared across the title family is
up to the publisher and title developers. For example, a publisher
with multiple sports titles could have a developer use a Family
Title ID that allows a user to create a team that spans all of the
publisher's sports titles.

Teams

The Teams feature allows players to form teams within a title
that persist between game sessions. Titles expose this
functionality using the XOnlineTeamXXXX and
XOnlinePeerXXXX functions. The infrastructure, permissions,
display, and role of teams depend on the design of the title.

Competitions

Titles can use the Competitions feature to run automated
in-game single-elimination tournaments. The participants in a
tournament can be either teams or individuals. Tournaments are
created either by the title publisher or by the players
themselves.

Messaging

With Messaging, titles can send and receive any kind of
game-specific message (including voice and text attachments) using
the XOnlineMessageXXXX functions. Messages can be sent
between teammates, friends, or players.

New Xbox Live Statistics Features

The updated Stats APIs enable titles to group users into
dynamic teams, called "units. " Each unit can contain up to four
players. Users can compare how their units rank against each other
on the new Unit Leaderboards. Also, titles are now able to resolve
contested stats using the Xbox Live Arbitration servers.
Additionally, titles can now post all of the stats for a game
session with a single write call.

Support for High-Level Shader Language (HLSL)

The December 2003 XDK documentation includes a new section that
describes how to use HLSL on the Xbox.

XbColorAdjust Tool

The December 2003 XDK includes the XbColorAdjust tool, which
allows you to interactively adjust the hardware gamma ramp in
order to improve color range and brightness without performance
penalty. The XbColorAdjust tool also allows you to take
gamma-adjusted screenshots.

Competitions Support in Xbox Live Authoring and Submission
Tool (XLAST)

XLAST now supports competitions. Using XLAST, you can create
your server-side competitions configuration and then submit it to
PartnerNet and later to Certification. Similarly to MatchSim,
XLAST supports generating custom queries and Xbox client-side
code.