Why IntermediateSerializer control attributes are not part of the Content Pipeline

re: Why IntermediateSerializer control attributes are not part of the Content Pipeline

SamRock — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:40:56 GMT

Hi Shawn!!

Thanks for your wonderful example and explanation about IntermediateSerializer and XML.

I am using XNA 3.0 with Visual Studio 2008.

I am working on a Map Editor, which will use various Tilesets. I have also created a program that makes a TileSet from various tiles and saves its attributes into a <XNAContent> XML file.

I wanted to use the XML in my Map Editor project for Content. I have a created the related Tileset class too. When I wanted to write the ContentReader/Writer functionality, I could not find it within the Content namespace! Not even IntermediateSerializer. Has this been removed from 3.0? Could you pls help me out?

Thanks for your help!!

Sam

re: Why IntermediateSerializer control attributes are not part of the Content Pipeline

ShawnHargreaves — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:08:38 GMT

Hi Sam,

The serializer types are defined in the Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline assembly, not the main Microsoft.Xna.Framework, so you will have to add a reference to this if you don't have one already.

MSDN lists what assembly and namespace you can find each type in, eg:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.xna.framework.content.pipeline.serialization.intermediate.intermediateserializer.aspx

re: Why IntermediateSerializer control attributes are not part of the Content Pipeline

SamRock — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:12:42 GMT

Hallelujah!! I got it now! :)

Thank you very much again. Actually I had not added a reference to the Content.Pipeline. Very new to C#.

Now I can continue the TileSet Maker and attach new tilesets to my Isometric Map Editor!

Is it possible to "load" a Contents file like a Tileset image at runtime without having to first add every tileset to the C# Solution's content folder?

I mean, in my Map Editor, I want to give users the option to Browse and select a tileset and start using the tile images at runtime. It was very simple with DirectX. The Editor would be for Windows only.

Here is my Isometric Map Editor, I had earlier created in VB+DirectX. Making a new version of same in XNA. :)

http://www.geocities.com/sams_gamerock/samisoeditor.html

Thanks so much!!!

re: Why IntermediateSerializer control attributes are not part of the Content Pipeline

BulkakeNinja — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:16:08 GMT

Regarding the content pipeline and generating XNB files with the IntermediateSerializer, is it recommended to have #if DEBUG blocks of code to create the contentpipeline files, and then #if RELEASE to simply use the compiled xnb files for release time?

How else would a real-world development make best use of the benefits of IntermediateSerializer in a cross-platform development?

re: Why IntermediateSerializer control attributes are not part of the Content Pipeline

ShawnHargreaves — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:19:38 GMT

> is it recommended to have #if DEBUG blocks of code to create the contentpipeline files, and then #if RELEASE to simply use the compiled xnb files for release time?

I wouldn't do it that way. The normal approach is to split out your build-time content processing code into a different assembly from your run-time game code. That way you only have to ship the game code to your customers, while the build-time code only ever runs on your development PC. This setup is very important if you want to develop for Xbox or Zune, since the Content Pipeline build code always runs on Windows, even if the final game is for some other platform. This makes it very important to keep your build-time code separate from your run-time code, because the two do not even run on the same platform!

Check out any of the Content Pipeline samples on creators.xna.com to see some examples of how such things are split up into multiple assemblies.

re: Why IntermediateSerializer control attributes are not part of the Content Pipeline

BulkakeNinja — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:36:33 GMT

Thanks, I will check-out the creators club samples, just hope I have enough time to split my code before the end of submissions for DBP, I guess this is what we call experience :)