MonoGame repo release process

1

Hey all. Perhaps this is too general, but I’m just curious if anyone has context on what it takes to push a release of MonoGame.

I have run into a lot of cases where something has been noticed, fixed, and is now in the develop branch, but there are many months between master/main branch releases, so none of those changes are accessible unless you either fork monogame and cherrypick the changes you want, use the develop branch, or just fix the behavior on your own somehow.

It’s really confusing because you think you might have something you could help fix by making a contribution, but then you find that it’s been solved months ago, just never released.

Is there a reason MonoGame can’t have more frequent releases so that the latest release can actually be representative of the state of the project?

I think this would do a couple things:

  1. Contributing to the repo would be more attractive (you could notice issues, make a PR to fix, and actually see it get resolved soon after in the next version)
  2. People would have the latest fixes available so they can focus on making their game and not worry about making their own forks
  3. Fixes could get out much quicker, preventing people from having to deal with issues that have actually been resolved already

But, I know I don’t have all the context. Maybe there are some hurdles specific to this project that prevent frequent releases from working? Is it a lack of test coverage, or something else related to fear of breaking changes? I’d love to know and also would love to help.

1 Like
2
  1. Any changes need extensive testing to ensure that any release is as stable as possible.
  2. MonoGame is managed by volunteers. People that have jobs/lives/etc that take priority.
  3. This is how we can change that: https://www.patreon.com/MonoGame
4 Likes
3

Agree, i am monthly small donor on that, but no one can see it, naturally assume i just want to complain, and have free framework. But Patreon doesn’t give the same visibility as the newer github sponsoring see below the happy family. If you can’t do a PR (that’s merged in a year) / or proposal for lack of historical knowledge or back-compatible or console knowledge which is basically almost everyone except the core team, or fear of rejection of PR or proposal, give $ and get recognized for it.

A good model is GitHub - stride3d/stride: Stride Game Engine (formerly Xenko)

For another project that is 3d, I evaluated it , is similar to MG in that has a shader language ( but custom and is ) is above HLSL & gets transpiled, it has a one game core Dll , with multiple thin EXE targets , refactors commonality as much as possible.
It suffers from bloat /constant flux , and unneeded features. There is one sample that do not use the IDE/ Asset manager/ tooling.As a full game engine wECS and likely not a great choice if you are doing a 2d game or something more special or investing in MG or XNA already.

But a great model of OSS organization/ funding.

Also maybe as a source of ideas for how to generalize audio and graphics and input, example to ideas how get Vulcan in there , maybe when there is or to break from strick XNA or whenever…it might be worth a peek in.
unlike Unity its netcore 6 current, and has ways to do Xbox, and even PS5 and other through 3rd parties.

Also there is breakdown of how funds are spent, bug bounties, meetings every month as few people can speak what their needs are such and seems one sort of leader or guru, seems easy going.

image
image1449×1340 139 KB

4

That’s absolutely horrible :smiley: I honestly never could take Stride seriously.

5

My point is the if you pay them you appear as sponsor. They are getting a ton of money so somebody is taking is seriously.

im using Bepuv2 which basically one guy one platform. but the bots can’t code against the lastest API and the SIMD batching is a nightmare… Im doing just physics code. for lilke, Nasa. i dont care about GPU that much… Buit so what’s wrong with Stride? its look really well funded… at least… its in horrible bloat and flux,. but they are working on Vulcan now so I know that something in common with MG. ( a deficiency) 6 moths release cycles , 2 years, just doesnt cut it in 2023…
. clearly look at their front facade compare with monogame can give ideas as to how to keep MG more current… Unity is not up to net 6… So to me Stride is a possible unity killer what else im OSS is good for 3d… … i dont want to hear vague arrogance and put downs, i want monogame to get well soon… i invested alot of time in it and im throw it all out consider restarting with avalonia or someting else… , idk its frusting mainly toxic culture and that is in a disproportion part , by -You- my dear #rshowrespect

6

This is about as coherent in form as is in content. Anyway, what I quoted in previous reply is enough to support that standpoint.

Also for this: Did you know that Stride is basically MonoGame with a 3d editor? - #21 by jonathanmcc

They are definitely not getting freepass from me. Pathetic form of advertisement. Speaking about toxic, it tells you thing or two about culture around that… thing.

7

Super super happy to hear about the new funding, and I think that’ll do wonders to address the super low release frequency.

1 Like