Tip of the Day: 32bpp BackBuffers in XNA

Here's a tip: by default, XNA uses a 16-bit R5G6B5 back buffer format. This causes horrific banding if you use lots of gradients in your game. You can fix this by manually telling XNA to use a 32-bit backbuffer format.

In you Game class's constructor, add this line:

graphics.PreparingDeviceSettings += PreparingDeviceSettingsEventHandler;

And somewhere in your Game class, add this method:

void PreparingDeviceSettingsEventHandler(object sender, PreparingDeviceSettingsEventArgs e)
{
    var pp = e.GraphicsDeviceInformation.PresentationParameters;
    pp.BackBufferFormat = SurfaceFormat.Color;
}

The difference won't show up in the emulator. But on an actual device, it'll vastly increase your image quality by getting rid of a lot of your banding.