> The complexity of the Spacewar project is fairly ridiculous given what it does - surely a C# issue rather than an XNA one
Not even a C# one, there is a point where one goes over the OO edge, and in my personal opinion the Spacewar Demo went WAY beyond that. It would have been possible to do the same thing much less convoluted.
> What exactly does C#/XNA have over, say, C++/OpenGL (or even C++/D3D or C#/D3D)?
The entry point is much lower with XNA. All you need to do to get going is take the example and plug in the logic where it shows it goes, then plug in the rendering. It's maybe one step further up the ladder then the D3D/OpenGL, but it is a helpful step. Still, it's more trouble then I want to deal with.
Not even a C# one, there is a point where one goes over the OO edge, and in my personal opinion the Spacewar Demo went WAY beyond that. It would have been possible to do the same thing much less convoluted.
> What exactly does C#/XNA have over, say, C++/OpenGL (or even C++/D3D or C#/D3D)?
The entry point is much lower with XNA. All you need to do to get going is take the example and plug in the logic where it shows it goes, then plug in the rendering. It's maybe one step further up the ladder then the D3D/OpenGL, but it is a helpful step. Still, it's more trouble then I want to deal with.