Xbox app for PC gets speed boost, ditching Electron for React Native UWP
Microsoft is parting with Electron for its new Xbox PC app.
www.windowscentral.com
Xbox app for PC gets speed boost, ditching Electron for React Native UWP
- Thread starter Theorry
- Start date
www.windowscentral.com
I also didn't know you can build Windows apps with it now. Very interesting
edit: looks like it's made by MS https://github.com/microsoft/react-native-windows
So with it being UWP I'm guessing the Xbox App is no longer cross-platform (has it been prior? w/Linux & OSX, being Electron's strength).
Widely used Electron applications include Github Desktop client, Slack, Discord, Spotify etc. I like it as a platform. And the next version of V8 (JS engine which Electron uses) has 40% less memory footprint.
Widely used Electron applications include Github Desktop client, Slack, Discord, Spotify etc. I like it as a platform. And the next version of V8 (JS engine which Electron uses) has 40% less memory footprint.
Microsoft has done UWP port of React Native.
GitHub - microsoft/react-native-windows: A framework for building native Windows apps with React.
A framework for building native Windows apps with React. - microsoft/react-native-windows
github.com
The Electron version was also UWP if I'm not mistaken.
Please link this with the PC Gamepass application, there's no need for two separate apps when they can be one.
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There isn't two apps? The GamePass app is the Xbox app.
There's the Xbox Console Companion app, though. But I believe those two should be rolled into one anyway.
that's how Facebook built it but they've open sourced it and a bunch of companies are porting it to their own tech as well. Microsoft has a huge RN push themselves and they're shifting a lot of their mobile apps for it
source: I built an RN Xbox app too
The main point about Electron is to easily enable a cross-platform deployable desktop application. And the application itself is written using web-technologies (running on-top of Chromium & NodeJS within Electron) so that work can also be re-used on the actual web.
Good.
I really like the design and lay-out of the Xbox app and think it's the most fancy launcher on PC, but the memory footprint was just too much and performance wasn't the best as well. This should be solved now.
Now I still would like to have a dedicated "My Library" tab that displays my installed games with a cool-looking displayed collection / tiles like the bar to the left. My bar is filled with games and all the scrolling can be a bit too much.
I really like the design and lay-out of the Xbox app and think it's the most fancy launcher on PC, but the memory footprint was just too much and performance wasn't the best as well. This should be solved now.
Now I still would like to have a dedicated "My Library" tab that displays my installed games with a cool-looking displayed collection / tiles like the bar to the left. My bar is filled with games and all the scrolling can be a bit too much.
Yea that's what I mean, the console one and Gamepass one. There's no need to have two, its annoying.
I don't really get it myself. The console app is actually better, too.
How dare you!
Electron is amazing! ... for home projects and toying around
I wish react-native-windows project setup was more streamlined... i think they are working on it's user friendliness, but i gave up when i tried it few months ago and it's a bit messy for now.
I'm not really sure why that matters when they only released it as a UWP app on desktop.
But it's a lot easier to use than the 'PC app' and you can still install PC games with it. The actual PC app has less functionality.
I'm just scratching my head about why they would wrap an Electron app in an outer UWP app layer (instead of using the default Electron Win32 .exe deployment). :)
VS Code has been the only Electron app worth its damn. Everything else has been poop. :p At least in my experience. :D
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Unless they plan to release the app on multiple operating systems like VS Code, I guess it makes sense to abandon the Electron platform.
React Native is a web-based technology as well.
I mean, they've stopped now lol. That's what this thread is about.
Perhaps they originally had other plans?
I tried switching from Sublime to VSCode and it was just way too slow, it was actually dropping inputs because I was used to being able to type fast. The RAM usage is absurd for an IDE too. It just feels completely bloated.
Slack is fine in my experience, but I can't think of any other Electron apps that run well.
You're writing React code but its translated to native UWP UI elements, so you're getting native performance when app is compiled.
It's been what, more than a year of this app being in "beta" now? It's still useless trash and sees like 1/3rd of games I've bought in Windows Store. Maybe they should fix this before making anything else.
I also fail to see why we need about five or so different apps for Xbox-things:
I also fail to see why we need about five or so different apps for Xbox-things:
React native uses the syntax of React to create a UI. The react compiler/transpiler decides what to do with it. React Native is a very different approach than something that "simply" wraps a website (Electron or Phonegap come to mind).
It also uses Javascript as the programming language of choice, or whatever derivation of Javascript you like.
Google does the same thing with https://flutter.dev
It's not as popular yet though I think, as it uses the Dart language.
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As should UWP. Just do a normal desktop application for crying out loud.
No but that link says I already have installed. Maybe I need to unistall the current app and then re-install through your link?
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The link is for the normal released version. They dont link the new one. :)