Troubleshooting: Creating a Content Pipeline Extension

Troubleshooting this Tutorial Sometimes, even though you try hard to understand the information in a tutorial, things don't work out quite like you want it to. This page is here to help you resolve any problems you might be having with the tutorial on creating a custom content pipeline extension. The Common Mistakes section describes common problems that people have when doing the things in this tutorial, and how to resolve them. The Frequently Asked Questions section describes questions that people have that aren't related to mistakes, but rather, trying to understand the stuff better or exploring how it can be used. If your problem or concern isn't addressed here, feel free to add a comment below, so that I know where you're having trouble. I like to keep these pages fairly clean, so I may remove comments that I felt like have been addressed. If I remove your comment and you don't feel like the problem has been fixed, repost the question and we'll take another look at it. If a tutorial has a mistake in it, I will fix the mistake and reply to the comment with a brief explanation. However, after a couple of weeks I'll likely go back and remove the original comment as well as my reply, because, hopefully, the problem will have been fixed, and it won't be a concern any more.

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Common Mistakes None listed yet…

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Frequently Asked Questions None listed yet…

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page 1 of 212next » darcy (guest) 24 Mar 2011 08:58 when ever i press f5 i get the cornflower blue screen and when i open cmd it doesnt work either M 1 (guest) 20 Sep 2011 21:33 In step 2, it's a bit confusing that you name your Game project "ContentPipelineExtension"… it would probably be a lot more helpful to name it "LevelGame" or something like that, something that clearly indicates it's the Game which uses the Level content, and not the extension itself. Nick (guest) 08 Oct 2011 20:33 The naming of these projects is very confusing. Also, the explanation would be easier to understand if you had instead used … In Project 'A''s reference section, add a reference to Project 'B'. In poject 'B's refenence section, add a reference to project 'C' … rbwhitaker 12 Oct 2011 13:02 I can definitely see how this could be confusing… Sorry guys. I'll update it to be more clear. Kebab (guest) 25 Nov 2011 18:47 Uhm, i have a big error ;< Error 1 Building content threw IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array. at LevelPipelineExt.LevelProcessor.Process(String input, ContentProcessorContext context) in C:\Users\*\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\pipeline_ext\LevelPipelineExt\ContentProcessor1.cs:line 42 at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.ContentProcessor`2.Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.IContentProcessor.Process(Object input, ContentProcessorContext context) at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.BuildCoordinator.BuildAssetWorker(BuildItem item) at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.BuildCoordinator.BuildAsset(BuildItem item) at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.BuildCoordinator.RunTheBuild() at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.Tasks.BuildContent.RemoteProxy.RunTheBuild(BuildCoordinatorSettings settings, TimestampCache timestampCache, ITaskItem[] sourceAssets, String[]& outputContent, String[]& rebuiltContent, String[]& intermediates, Dictionary`2& dependencyTimestamps, KeyValuePair`2[]& warnings) C:\Users\*\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\pipeline_ext\pipeline_ext\pipeline_extContent\level.japierdole pipeline_ext HamsteR (guest) 15 Dec 2011 11:45 Hey guys, I solved my problem on my own, just want to share the solution. I was stuck on the part №8 when you choose importer and processor in the properties of a .level file. On my machine custom importers and processors simply had not appeared even in complete project from this site! After a couple of hours (and a few rage seizures I had) I tried to compile program without finishing it and then my custom importer and processor appeared in lists! HamsteR (guest) 15 Dec 2011 11:47 Oh and these tutorials are just pure gold, HUUUUGE thanks to the author! rbwhitaker 15 Dec 2011 18:29 Glad they're helping. Yeah, the custom importers and processors don't show up in the list until they're compiled (the problem you were running into, HamsteR) and linked into the project. It's definitely worth mentioning that before seeing them in the list, you'll need to compile them. I don't think I put that in the tutorial. Yet… Regen2100 (guest) 22 Mar 2013 00:28 Pretty great tutorials man, I'm learning a lot, but I have a question, can you task the level importer with loading large .pngs that act as maps? Also is there a way to implement this into a player/sprite class, where all the movement of the player is processed by the importer and then all the main game class has to do is draw the player position? For Example: public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game { GraphicsDeviceManager graphics; SpriteBatch spriteBatch; ParticleEngine particleEngine; Vector2 playerPosition; Vector2 playerVelocity = Vector2.One; Texture2D playerunarmed; Texture2D playerM1911; KeyboardState keyState; private SpriteFont font1; private SpriteFont font2; private Vector2 cursorPos; private Texture2D cursorTex; private Texture2D cursorTexHit; float angle; public Game1() { graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this); Content.RootDirectory = "Content"; } protected override void Initialize() { base.Initialize(); playerPosition = new Vector2(400, 400); this.IsMouseVisible = false; } protected override void LoadContent() { spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); List<Texture2D> textures = new List<Texture2D>(); textures.Add(Content.Load<Texture2D>("GFX/EFFECT/circle")); textures.Add(Content.Load<Texture2D>("GFX/EFFECT/star")); textures.Add(Content.Load<Texture2D>("GFX/EFFECT/diamond")); playerunarmed = Content.Load<Texture2D>("GFX/PERSON/PLAYER"); playerM1911 = Content.Load<Texture2D>("GFX/PERSON/PLAYERM1911"); font1 = Content.Load<SpriteFont>("GFX/FONT/Font1"); font2 = Content.Load<SpriteFont>("GFX/FONT/Font2"); cursorTex = Content.Load<Texture2D>("GFX/EFFECT/Cursor"); cursorTexHit = Content.Load<Texture2D>("GFX/EFFECT/CursorHit"); LevelLibrary.Level level = Content.Load<LevelLibrary.Level>("level1"); particleEngine = new ParticleEngine(textures, new Vector2(400, 240)); } protected override void UnloadContent() { } protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { // Allows the game to exit if (GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One).Buttons.Back == ButtonState.Pressed) this.Exit(); MouseState curMouse = Mouse.GetState(); cursorPos = new Vector2(curMouse.X +90, curMouse.Y); Vector2 mouseLoc = new Vector2(curMouse.X, curMouse.Y); Vector2 direction = mouseLoc - playerPosition; int x = curMouse.X; int y = curMouse.Y; angle = (float)(Math.Atan2(direction.Y, direction.X)); keyState = Keyboard.GetState(); if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.D)) playerPosition.X += playerVelocity.X; if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.A)) playerPosition.X -= playerVelocity.X; if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.W)) playerPosition.Y -= playerVelocity.Y; if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.S)) playerPosition.Y += playerVelocity.Y; particleEngine.EmitterLocation = new Vector2(200, 240); particleEngine.Update(); base.Update(gameTime); } protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.SkyBlue); spriteBatch.Begin(); spriteBatch.Draw(cursorTex, cursorPos, Color.White); spriteBatch.Draw(playerM1911, new Rectangle((int)playerPosition.X, (int)playerPosition.Y, playerunarmed.Width, playerunarmed.Height), null, Color.White, angle + 90, new Vector2(65, 67), SpriteEffects.None, 0f); spriteBatch.End(); particleEngine.Draw(spriteBatch); base.Draw(gameTime); } } } As you can see this is my main Game1.cs, with stuff from your previous tutorials thrown in, but I want the player to be his own outside file (much like the .level files you made in this tutorial. I simply don't want the players movement controls and texture2D loads to clutter up the main game class. Thanks!! Any help is appreciated, I'll probably be up all night trying to solve this. Shai (guest) 11 Jul 2014 15:34 I'm having trouble understanding with importing the level1 file that was uploaded. I don't completly understand what do I need to do in the start of Part No. 8. It would be appeciated if someone could please explain what is needed to do. Thanks ahead. page 1 of 212next » Post preview: Close preview or Sign in as Wikidot user (will not be published) - + Help: wiki text quick reference

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