Pass MGCB /define param from .csproj

loodakrawa · March 23, 2016, 3:27am

Hi,

Is it possible to pass the /define parameter from the .csproj file?

I have multiple projects pointing to the same content file but I need different inclusions depending on platform. I figured the easiest way is to have preprocessor macros inside the content file and have different projects pass the preprocessor param.

If this is not possible - what’s the most elegant way of having multiple platforms share 95% of the content and have the remaining 5% separated? One common content file + an additional one per platform?

Thanks

Tom · March 23, 2016, 6:34pm

You would have to customize the .target file to allow you to pass whatever you want:

github.com

MonoGame/MonoGame/blob/develop/MonoGame.Framework.Content.Pipeline/MonoGame.Content.Builder.targets

<!--
  MonoGame - Copyright (C) The MonoGame Team
  This file is subject to the terms and conditions defined in
  file 'LICENSE.txt', which is part of this source code package.
-->

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <UsingTask TaskName="MonoGame.Build.Tasks.CollectContentReferences" AssemblyFile="MonoGame.Build.Tasks.dll" />
  <!-- Add MonoGameContentReference to item type selection in Visual Studio -->
  <ItemGroup>
    <AvailableItemName Include="MonoGameContentReference" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <!-- This disables the IDE feature that skips executing msbuild in some build situations. -->
  <PropertyGroup>
    <DisableFastUpToDateCheck>true</DisableFastUpToDateCheck>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <Target Name="Prepare">
    <PropertyGroup>

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Like different content files for one platform vs another?

This is a feature we really want to get into the Pipeline tool directly, but I’ve not had time to implement.

That is a reasonable option and how you would have done it in XNA if you didn’t want to hand modify the .contentproject flle.

loodakrawa · March 24, 2016, 5:34am

Yes - mostly for shaders since they tend to be quite different on different platforms. This feature would be really cool.

I don’t really like the idea of having multiple content files so I’ll copy the .target file, edit it and reference it locally. I’ll probably just add:

/define:Platform=$(MonoGamePlatform)

That should cover my use-case without introducing many custom params.

Thanks for the tips!

loodakrawa · March 24, 2016, 5:40am

I just tried tinkering with mgcb.exe and it seems there’s no /define option although the doc page mentions it. I installed the latest version (3.5) but still no luck. What am I missing?