MonoGame Content Pipeline Tool Doesn't Build XNBs

Content
1

Hello everyone, I’m trying to build .wav files in the MonoGame Content Pipeline Tool, but when I click Build in the tool nothing happens at all. I clearly see my file in the hierarchy and have saved the project for good measure. There aren’t even any build messages. I checked the output directory just in case and there was nothing. Here’s some more information about my development environment:

MonoGame Version: 3.5
OS: Windows 10
IDE: Visual Studio Community 2015 Update 1
MonoGame Project Type: DesktopGL

Since I couldn’t create an XNB, I tried loading in the raw .wav file as a SoundEffect and while it didn’t throw a ContentLoadException, it returned an empty SoundEffect with no data (not a null reference), which crashes when I try to play the SoundEffectInstance I created with it. Do .wav files require a specific bit rate to load in MonoGame?

The file is sitting in my Visual Studio project in the exact directory I specified with the Build Action set to Content and Copy to Output Directory set to Copy if newer. I am able to load in raw PNG files fine so I’m not sure what the deal with this or the Content Pipeline Tool is. Any help is greatly appreciated!

2

Are you able to provide us with the .mgcb file and the .wav file? I don’t really know what to suggest here yet.

3

Sure thing, here’s a zip with the .wav and the .mgcb:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7bJfnQzrN8Ia3MyYkdUZG5aYlE/view?usp=sharing

Thanks!

4

It certainly generates a .xnb, but it ends up in the obj directory because the output directory and intermediate directory are back-to-front in the .mgcb file.

/outputDir:obj/$(Platform)
/intermediateDir:bin/$(Platform)

That should be

/outputDir:bin/$(Platform)
/intermediateDir:obj/$(Platform)

With projects created from the latest templates, you don’t need to change anything with the Build Action or Copy to Output Directory properties. The project is already setup to build and copy the content output to the relevant place in the project output directory.

5

Even after those changes it’s still not doing anything for me. Nothing happens when I click Build.

6

I had the same thing just now. It gives no output whatsoever. Restarting my PC fixed it… then it happened again, restarting my PC didn’t fix it that time. Restarted my PC a third time and it was fixed… kind of makes me scared to use this tool.

7

What are you building? Are effects included? Can you post your .mgcb file when the tool doesn’t work? What MG version are you using, some work was done recently so there was some unstable behavior at times.

8

It’s version 3.5.1.1679, according to the About MonoGame Pipeline Tool dialog.

I created a new Windows project called Game1, double-clicked Content.mgcb in VS which opens up the pipline tool. I added one file to it, I don’t think the file type matters as I’ve tried with a .wav and a .png and they had the same problem. I’ve attached the png, it was called debris.png and I tried saving it in the root Content folder, or creating a subfolder for it, with the same results:

debris.png512×512 498 KB

I’ve tried switching between HiDef and Reach profiles, no difference. Click Build or Rebuild, it asks me to save the project, I click Yes then nothing happens. Try again, nothing happens. Clean works though.

9

Here’s the entire contents of my mgcb file:

#----------------------------- Global Properties ----------------------------#

/outputDir:bin/$(Platform)
/intermediateDir:obj/$(Platform)
/platform:Windows
/config:
/profile:HiDef
/compress:False

#-------------------------------- References --------------------------------#


#---------------------------------- Content ---------------------------------#

#begin debris.png
/importer:TextureImporter
/processor:TextureProcessor
/processorParam:ColorKeyColor=255,0,255,255
/processorParam:ColorKeyEnabled=True
/processorParam:GenerateMipmaps=False
/processorParam:PremultiplyAlpha=True
/processorParam:ResizeToPowerOfTwo=False
/processorParam:MakeSquare=False
/processorParam:TextureFormat=Color
/build:debris.png
10

(I’ve been trying to convert my XNA project to monogame having quite a few issues, I may post some more of them later).

11

Hmm, in that case it really should work… You can try to install a newer version of MonoGame, not sure what else to do :confused:

Please do! One of the goals of MG is to make this as painless as possible

12

I think I should have realised this earlier, but it seems to always happen when you access the project by double clicking on the Content.mgcb in the Solution Explorer of Visual Studio (2015 - Community edition).

If you access it by opening the MonoGame pipeline directly, it doesn’t happen… I think.

13

I’ve been opening the MonoGame pipeline directly and it happens to me.

14

That shouldn’t matter. There was a version of MG where I had the same issue, I think upgrading should fix it.

15

Which release is it fixed in? I’m currently on 3.5, the latest major one that I know of.

16

Not sure if you checked this, but be sure that the Build Action for the .mgcb file is MonoGameContentReference. If that option is not available (as it is not in a shared project), then you can try manually editing the project items file and changing the None tag to MonoGameContentReference. For shared projects, this makes the .mgcb file disappear from visual studio, but it still seems to do the actual build of the .xnb files. I am using Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 with MonoGame 3.5.1 (the current stable release). In Xamarin Studio on the Mac, the .mgcb file shows up fine in the shared project.

17

When you open the .mgcb file, make sure the one it loads is the one you tried to open. I ran into a bug a while back that (I think?) eventually got fixed where if you tried to open the pipeline tool by double clicking a .mgcb file it would instead open the most recent mgcb file the tool last opened with. I spent a while hitting build and checking the directory wondering why nothing was there, when it was actually just building an older unrelated mgcb file.

18

It shouldn’t be broken in 3.5 stable release as far as I know. You could try the latest develop build

19

I just downloaded MG 3.5. The MonoGame Pipeline doesn’t build anything for me (so far I tried a .x, a .xml, a .dae and a .wav). I’m using Windows 7 and VS2010. When trying to build nothing happens. Any ideas?

20

After reformatting my computer I downloaded MonoGame 3.5.1 and it started working again. I haven’t tried building any file formats you mentioned except .wav files. Make sure you have 3.5.1.