Deep Dives
Evidence basis: source-verified at the pinned commit; tests exist (not executed for this page). Claims on this page were checked by reading the CNA source at commit 009d40f5; unless a sentence says otherwise, nothing here was built or executed.
The Deep Dives are the long-form layer of libcna.com. Where a guide tells you how to use a feature and the Development area tells a maintainer how to change it, a deep dive explains what the feature means: its exact semantics, the invariants behind it, why CNA behaves this way, what evidence supports each claim and where the edges are. They are written for advanced CNA users and for anyone who needs the precise answer.
Subjects
Foundations & compatibility 4 pages
What CNA is, how it relates to XNA and to the sibling projects, the vocabulary the rest of the site relies on, the CNAEXT extension policy, and the difference between representing an XNA API, matching its behaviour and proving that it matches.
Framework core 12 pages
The XNA-shaped core: Game and its lifecycle, services and components, the value types and their exact numeric semantics, geometry, colour and layout.
Architecture & build 5 pages
How the source tree is partitioned into physical modules, which dependencies may point where and how that is enforced, and how configuration, dependencies and tools turn into a build.
The graphics machine 17 pages
The renderer-independent graphics layer: GraphicsDevice, SpriteBatch, textures and render targets, state objects, stock effects, shaders, vertex streams and the capability model.
Renderers 19 pages
The renderer contract, identity and selection, and the families that implement it: OpenGL profiles, modern GPU APIs, Direct3D, software and portable 2D, browser renderers and the diagnostic renderers.
Content 5 pages
How content reaches a running game: ContentManager resolution, the XNB container and its type readers, CNB and CNJ, the build-time Content Pipeline and how hostile or malformed content is handled.
Models, glTF & 3D 6 pages
Model and mesh runtime types, glTF import, GPU vertex packing, skinning and animation, the CNJ model toolchain and glTF conformance evidence.
Input, audio, media & services 12 pages
Input, audio, media and video, sensors, host devices, gamer services, storage, networking and avatars: contracts, lifecycles, platform differences and limits.
sharp-runtime 4 pages
The foundation library CNA is built on: its object model, namespaces, component consumption, parity philosophy and how it is verified.
Sibling libraries 2 pages
EasyGL, MetaGL, FreeDirect and FreeAPI: what each owns, how CNA consumes it and where the boundaries are.
Cross-platform engineering 4 pages
The cross-platform contract, Windows cross-compiling and Wine, the web build and its main loop, renderer evidence on the web, Android and Apple platforms.
Diagnostics & verification 2 pages
Diagnostics and the Inspector, the test architecture, counting discipline, oracles, hostile environments, continuous integration and how evidence is graded.
Porting & project practice 4 pages
Migration and porting practice, case studies, spec auditing, samples and examples, project conventions and the road ahead.
Reference matrices 8 pages
Quick references and matrices: core graphics, feature matrix, glossary, repository map, CNAEXT catalogue, ecosystem, verification tiers, glTF evidence and the native C API.
How to use these pages
- Start from a subject, not a chapter. Each group below is a subject area; each page inside is one concept.
- Pages link outward. Every deep dive lists its neighbouring user guide, architecture map, internals tour, maintainer recipe, tests and known issues in a Related pages block.
- Evidence is graded. Each page states its basis (source-verified, tests present, and so on). “The implementation exists” is never presented as “the behaviour is proven correct everywhere”, and representation coverage is never presented as behavioural parity.
- One snapshot. Everything is pinned to CNA commit
009d40f5. Current defects are listed on Known Issues, not repeated here.