Thank you very much for that clarification.
You know, if you would have just Googled my name you would have found all that.
Whatās so hard to believe? Thatās what this system is.Iāve been writing code since 1985. This was written in XNA: http://general-staff.com/
This was written in C# Winforms:
http://dinosaur-island.com/
Stillā¦ 16~ years of x64 and you are a game developerā¦ if you want to do anything game related today, even the iPhone is enforcing x64 projectsā¦
Any reason you still use a 32bit PC? did you not use anything that would benefit from extended memory usage? or perhaps a faster computer on newer hardware+ 8GB+ RAM?
32GB RAM here and it still is not enoughā¦ 
looking forward to more in futureā¦
I was not putting you down, you have to realise this is the internet and people randomly making boastful claims, for all we know you are a 14 year old kid who found an alias to take advantage of [Damn kids are smart these daysā¦] and linking to something means nothingā¦
But my point wasā¦ perhaps time for an upgrade?
After I got out of the game biz around 2000 I did a lot of work for the military (DARPA, DoD, US Army, Office of Naval Research). All this work (except for the shooting thing I did for the Marines) was Windows XP or Windows 7 based. I havenāt got a new PC since about 2013. Probably due for one.
Now, a game publisher (who for now shall remain nameless) wants me to do a new version of a #1 game I did in 1988 (UMS). I, too, thought that the smartphone and tablet market would be big but they assured me - that at least for wargames - only the Windows market matters. Even though my game is 3D solid modeled (an ancient term) itās not really graphically intense. XNA should easily handle what I need for it. That is to say, I just need a topographical map, 3D terrain and some 3D pieces. Thatās it; no animation (at least not like an RPG). Itās not an infinite world, in fact itās pretty small actually.
I need an IDE that lets me concentrate on the AI behind the game and not worry about the graphics side.
It looks like I would need to get a new 64-bit system (which will probably come with Windows 10, sheesh!) to use Monograme. For that reason, alone, Iāll probably just bash this out in XNA, which I already know from work I did back in 2010 and 2011.
I just did a stint in a defense-related job. It is a government requirement here that only 64-bit operating systems are used for any government project. Possibly the same over there now too.
Thatās fine, and it suits you for what you need. When it comes time to go beyond XNA or port to a different platform, MonoGame will still be here to help you with that.
If you need advice on hardware choices, just ask, or post anything you find and would like feedback on hereā¦
I think mobile strategy is popular and needed, there are a lot of LARGE [5"+ screens] screen devices out there nowā¦
If you released for Windows Desktop and Windows UWP [Universal Windows Platform / Windows 10] you would cover a lot of users immediately, and then Android for those aforementioned large screen devices, and UWP will cover Windows Phone devices for you, iPhone, wellā¦ even for Mac you need a Mac and you need a Mac computer for anything Apple relatedā¦ so that side is entirely up to you, however with PC, you can do anything elseā¦
I am unsure if you mentioned which game you have been asked to remake/modernise but can you tell us which one?
Visual Studio 2015 CE is free, and is code first based, it will cover you for Android, Windows, WEBā¦
Not to mention that MonoGame allows you to use the same codebase and just support various platform interfaces such as UI/dialogue boxesā¦ as well as moreā¦
If you still want to use Windows 7 on your new system, you could build a custom system [Or go the Dell style routeā¦ build a system on a website and have them build it for you] and then install Windows XP/7 along side 10ā¦ although I am unsure if XP will work like that but you can always use a separation method such as front bay hot swapping of drivesā¦ word of warning though, the latest Intel and AMD CPUās [Not sure if the ones already released though] only work with Windows 10ā¦
Good Luck and keep us posted on development [if possible]
EDIT
Oh and MonoGame code is similar to XNA soā¦ I can suggest a book for you to shoot through perhaps?
This is really strange. I just Googled my old game to find some screen shots for you and found that somebody had posted a video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7cfyeAPFE0. This was the MS DOS version (which was running in 640 x 200 x 2 rez).
Anyway, the new version would be solid modeled and look something like this http://general-staff.com/2d-or-not-2d-that-is-the-question-redux/.
Which leads me to a quick question (I assume the answer is applicable to XNA and Monogame): Iām going to create a wireframe from a heightmap. I then need to cover the wireframe with textures that represent the terrain (farm, fields, swamp, etc.) I need to use probably 8 different terrain textures. Will that cause a problem (I was using the XNA Sunburn engine some years ago and there was a 4 texture limitation)? Is there an example of something like this running around?
Take a look at this game, your map system reminds me slightly of it, as well as another gameā¦
Just some input
Yeah, but thatās tile based and only has a few elevations.
This is a game I did in the '90s called The War College. Iām looking for more of an effect like this:
Or, have you seen Sidās Civilization Revolutions? Iām kinda going for that kind of terrain/topography effect.
Hereās a typical bitmap that Iām using for a heightmap:
And after getting and storing elevation points I want to tile terrain texture maps (35 x 35 pixels) over that. Got any ideas for examples?
Just copy/paste the compiled assets (.XNB) from XNA over to MonoGame.