[SOLVED] HELP! My zune resets after each game!

[Tiptup300]

This is by design of XNA CTP. It is not even beta yet, so as a precaution they force the firmware to fully reboot for currently unknown reasons. The developer cannot change this. Now please stop making topics about this.

[SimReality]

Unless you can link to the official XNA team stating that as the reason, I really wish we'd try to be more accurate. I have not read anything from them as to why the Zune must reboot other than it is by design and they are working to see if they can remove that "feature" from future versions.

[Helium Crisis]

Although the rebooting is indeed "by design," it is not simply because the XNA is pre-beta, and we do know the reason why it does this.

"When you are actually playing the game on the Zune, when you're finished with the game, the Zune has to reboot itself. This is done for music protection, DRM reasons."

Quote taken from this video, around the 5:30 mark. The video makes no indication that this unfortunate side-effect will be removed in any future versions.

[TheZMan]

Thanks for finding a public quote... us XNA MVPs knew the reason was for DRM purposes but we were told that in an NDA meeting which is why we have been vague when responding to people about it. Now we can just refer people to this.

[Tiptup300]

I don't understand how DRM would affect it...

[TheZMan]

Well when you switch into game mode all the DRM stuff gets turned off. Maybe there is no way in the Zune OS to turn it back on other than a reboot. Thats my guess anyway.

But I doubt anyone in here will be able to explain.. you know about as much as the MVPs do on this now. If you want to know the details ask in the XNA forums and see if anyone from the team will answer.

[Tiptup300]

Ok, the main intention of the topic wasn't to explain why, it was more of just to tell people that it's not the coders fault and that it can't be "fixed."

[Andre3000]

I wonder if it will be like this for the Gen 3 Zune

[Fade3e]

im sure the real reason other than being ctp would be that the zune firmware uses a fair amount of the 16 mb ram, so i believe the xna team decided it was best to unload the majority of the firmware (apart from the nesecary system and xna software) so that developers can utilize the majority of the ram and that why the zune reboots after games to reload the unloaded firmware

Note just speculation on my part as i have no real proof since i dont know how much ram the zune actually has

[jackluo923]

Originally Posted by fade3e

im sure the real reason other than being ctp would be that the zune firmware uses a fair amount of the 16 mb ram, so i believe the xna team decided it was best to unload the majority of the firmware (apart from the nesecary system and xna software) so that developers can utilize the majority of the ram and that why the zune reboots after games to reload the unloaded firmware

Note just speculation on my part as i have no real proof since i dont know how much ram the zune actually has

Well.. in that case, Why not make a zune application with all the zune functions inside a zune game? Eg. the interface, controls, and everything else would be the same. Then we can make the "games" menu under the original game to start another game so that you can play a " game under a game" It wouldn't restart the whole thing after you exit it. We could even code for extra features such as clock on the main menu or custom menus.

[SimReality]

Read the posts above you. The reason it restarts has nothing to do with memory. It's because they have to disable DRM while your game runs and then they reboot into the Zune OS so that the DRM works again.

[noodle_976]

so, if I add games on my zune, and finish using a game, will all of my music be gone? D:

[Gregory]

No.

Originally Posted by noodle_976

so, if I add games on my zune, and finish using a game, will all of my music be gone? D:

[masonpwiley]

Originally Posted by noodle_976

so, if I add games on my zune, and finish using a game, will all of my music be gone? D:

No. Restarting your Zune is like restarting your PC. Is everything on your PC gone every time you shut down and start it back up?

[sk8er209]

well this explains it kind of, but it's still annoying that it has to rebot

[killr0y]

The reason for the reboot is to make sure any residual code from whatever program you launched has been cleared from memory. They do this so that the OS & application that runs the Zune front-end cannot be manipulated to defeat the DRM or reverse-engineer the Zune OS's code. It has nothing to do with 'switching off' the DRM to run your homemade apps.

[TheZMan]

Originally Posted by killr0y

The reason for the reboot is to make sure any residual code from whatever program you launched has been cleared from memory. They do this so that the OS & application that runs the Zune front-end cannot be manipulated to defeat the DRM or reverse-engineer the Zune OS's code. It has nothing to do with 'switching off' the DRM to run your homemade apps.

Do you have any backup for that statement? I was sitting a couple of chairs away from SimReality when a member of the XNA Zune team told us exactly what he put in his post. Now I'm sure this could be part of the grand conspiracy as orchestrated by Bill Gates but unless you work for Microsoft wr you have a link that says otherwise then this is the official answer right now.

The reason it restarts has nothing to do with memory. It's because they have to disable DRM while your game runs and then they reboot into the Zune OS so that the DRM works again.

[bryg21]

i don't get how the zune games dat come with the 3.0 & 3.1 firmware don't require a restart after exit but the xna based games do!

[Bolt]

Because Microsoft has a special exit code they won't share.

[Azu-nyan]

Originally Posted by Timtacious

Because Microsoft has a special exit code they won't share.

Well, not a piece of code per se, but a digital signature, a security and cryptogrpahic method that allows only authorized software to have access, in this case, to features like reset-less quitting in games.