Build Kinect Games with Python Tools for Visual Studio 1.1

Developers looking for a way to build Kinect games with Python in Visual Studio 2010, can download a VS plug-in from CodePlex.

The Python Tools for Visual Studio is a project from Microsoft's Developer Division, with the latest release, Python Tools for Visual Studio 1.1 now available to devs.

For the time being, versions 1.1 of PTVS is only available as an Alpha development milestone, and as such the release is recommended more to early adopters and for testing scenarios than anything else.

“PTVS enables developers to use all the major productivity features of Visual Studio to build Python code using either CPython or IronPython and adds new features such as using High Performance Computing clusters to scale your code. Together with one of the standard distros, you can turn Visual Studio into a powerful Technical Computing IDE,” Microsoft notes.

Watch the video embedded at the bottom of this article in order to gain some insight into the new features available in Python Tools for Visual Studio 1.1 Alpha.

In the video “we chat with PTVS architect Sean Mortazavi and lead developer Dino Viehland to learn all about this release and see some really cool demos,” reveals a member of the Microsoft Channel9 team.

Writing Kinect games using Python is possible with Python Tools for Visual Studio’s PyKinect. But of course, devs can build so much more than just Kinect games.

In addition to PyKinect, version 1.1 of PTVS also introduces Pyvot, which the software giant defines as a Python to/from Excel Connector.

Microsoft also reveals that it has fixed over 75 bugs in the new release, on top of the new capabilities offered to developers.

Python Tools for Visual Studio is not only free, but also open source, so devs can contribute to the project, which is available under an Apache 2.0 license.

Python Tools for Visual Studio 2010 version 1.1 Alpha is available for download here.