While I was able to resolve it myself, a suggestion for you to mention on any tutorial is to not name your programs to be something like SpriteFont (or anything already taken with a class), as it seems that'll cause your new namespace to hide the class.
P.S, thanks very much for writing these tutorials, they are excellent, and much more down to earth than the MS documentation.
Hello, I've been working through this tutorial, I've been having difficulties with actually adding the font. I've been trying to use the one mentioned in the tutorial but I tend to get this error about it being unhandled.
Would you mind posting the actual text of the error message? Also, is the problem coming up at compile time or run time?
What you're describing doesn't make sense to me. If it's talking about unhandled exceptions, that sounds like it is at run time, not compile time. Perhaps when your game is first starting, but maybe even before it shows your game's window.
Does it come up with a little window that has at the very top, a message that says ContentLoadException was unhandled, and then the next line below that, something like Error loading "SomeRandomName". File not found.?
If it shows another error message there instead, let me know what it is, and we can go from there. For now, I'll assume this is the problem, since it is the most likely possibility.
If so, it means the name you're providing to the Load method doesn't match the name/location of the content inside of your content project. You might want to check to make sure that the path to the file is included in the name, and not the extension.
For instance:
+ ContentProject
starship.fbx
+ Images
background.png
+ Music
soundtrack1.mp3
soundtrack2.mp3These three would be "starship", "Images/background", "Music/soundtrack1", and "Music/soundtrack2" by default.
If that all looks right, right click on the file you're trying to load and click on Properties. In the Properties window that comes up, make sure that you're using the name listed by Asset Name. For instance, if the Asset Name for soundtrack2.mp3 actually said "MenuMusic", then instead of using "Music/soundtrack2", you'd use "Music/soundtrack2" to access it.
Let me know if that helps solve your problem!
Probably a stupid question, but how did you get the SpriteFont extension to show up on the list? I can't locate it anywhere in the Add New items menu.
If it helps, I'm using C# 2010 Express with XNA 4.0.
It should be there by default. I didn't do anything fancy, other than install XNA Game Studio over the top of Visual C# Express 2010, which you've probably already done yourself.
I've got an idea though. Your whole solution (visible in the Solution Explorer) has two projects in it by default. One is the main game project, and the second one is your content project, where all of your content is located. Lots of people try to put their content in their main game project on accident, which isn't what you want. If you right-click and choose Add > New Item from your main game project, you won't see the SpriteFont template. You'll see a bunch of other ones instead.
Make sure you right-click on the content project (perhaps called WindowsGame1Content or something) instead of the main game project and you should see it.
Font1 = contentManager.Load<SpriteFont>("Score");
I get:
"Error loading \"Content\\Score.xnb\". File not found."
Even if my later added content project does have a file with name Score.spritefont.
I suspect that the later added content project is not taken into account when compiling the solution. How to check this?
I am experiencing the same issue as Mari.
The program compiles without error but when run from the IDE the 'ContentLoadException was unhandled' appears. When run from the created EXE file, no form is shown.
I'm using a common font, Arial, that I have made sure existed on this machine.
I've tried copying the font to the Content directory, but this doesn't help.
I'm using VS2010 on Win7 x64
After re-reading your tutorial closer, I figured out the correct way to do this.
The name that you assign to the spritefont template, is the name that needs to be used when declaring the variable.
For instance:
The default template name is SpriteFont1.spritefont
Then SpriteFont1 needs to be placed as shown below.
font = Content.Load<SpriteFont>("SpriteFont1");
Your example says the font name should go there, which is not the case.
Hope this helps others.
Thanks for the tutorial.
Hi Mark, you're right. You want to use the name of the sprite font file, without the extension, just like for every other thing you load with the content pipeline. The comment was misleading. I've fixed it now! Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Hi everyone,
Just for the record, today when I opened my project, I got to this tutorial and I have installed one font that I had downloaded while reading this awesome tutorial, when I tried to run I got the error:
"Error 1 The font family "Visitor TT2 BRK" could not be found. Please ensure the requested font is installed, and is a TrueType or OpenType font. C:\Users\blurred\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\XNA_tutorials\XNA_tutorials\XNA_tutorialsContent\score.spritefont XNA_tutorials"
One of the possible solutions, is restarting VS, I suppose that when an application is opened all the fonts that are currently installed are only loaded for that "instance" of the application, I hope (beside me), this saves some valuable time for anybody facing the same issue.
Cheers,
Elqno
I just wanted to make this comment in case it can save anyone else time.
I initially followed all of your instructions exactly. When I compiled/ran the program, however, I kept getting a runtime exception related to the incorrect loading of the spritefont. The exact error is as follows:
"An unhandled exception of type 'Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentLoadException' occurred in Microsoft.Xna.Framework.dll
Additional information: Error loading "Score". File contains Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.Graphics.FontDescription but trying to load as Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.SpriteFont."
The way I fixed it was to manually edit the project's content file. So for me, the file was at "~\Visual Studio 2013\Projects\WindowsGame2\WindowsGame2\WindowsGame2Content\WindowsGame2Content.contentproj". Somewhere in the WindowsGame2Content.contentproj file there should be an ItemGroup for the newly made spritefont. Inside the ItemGroup section there should be a Compile section. Inside the compile section below "<Name>WhateverYouNamedYourSpritefont</Name>", add the following two lines:
<Importer>FontDescriptionImporter</Importer>
<Processor>FontDescriptionProcessor</Processor>
Save the file and reload/refresh the project if it asks. That runtime error should now be a thing of the past.
In case it's relevant, I'm running Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 (90 day trial).
Thank you!! I wouldn't have been able to find this solution without your post!
How do you even find something like this? You must be a super genius!
Thanks!
Hi there
I've been trying to add a new Item "Stripe Font" but this template doesn't appear in my "Add New Item"-Dialog. If I type it in in the search box (upper right edge of the dialog) it only says: No items found.
Any ideas how I could solve this? Thanks a lot.
Not sure what a "stripe" font is, but if you're looking to add a sprite font, you must add that to the content project. It's located towards the bottom and can be found in the add new item dialog. It's best to use an existing sprite font, but if you're creating a brand new one, you'll need to go in and manually edit the SpriteFont1.Spritefont class. More than likely, you'll want to edit the code that reads:
<!--
Modify this string to change the font that will be imported.
-->
<FontName>Segoe UI Mono</FontName>You'll want to change the "Segoe UI Mono" name to reflect the font that you wish to use, as well as possibly the font size, and its other attributes (Bold, Italic, etc.). Additionally, for things to work correctly, the font you use must be TTF or one of the other approved formats, of which, there is not many. Hope this helps!
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