MonoGame.Reload 0.1.0

MonoGame.Reload

MonoGame.Reload is an hot-reloader for your MonoGame application.
No more thousands of restarts of your game to try out a new version of your assets.
Set up the hot-reloader in a flash and simply enjoy the magic.

Installation

MonoGame.Reload is available as a NuGeT package here.

.NET CLI

dotnet add package MonoGame.Reload --version 0.1.0

Package Manager

NuGet\Install-Package MonoGame.Reload -Version 0.1.0

PackageReference

<PackageReference Include="MonoGame.Reload" Version="0.1.0" />

Getting started

On your Game class add an instance of FileWatcher:

private FileWatcher _watcher;

Then, instanciate it inside your Initialize function:

protected override void Initialize()
{
    _watcher = new(Content);

    base.Initialize();
}

Note: The watcher is instanciated with the ContentManager because it will be used to create all the assets collections.

Now, you'll need to initialize the AssetReloader, the class used to hot-reload your content files:

protected override void Initialize()
{
    _watcher = new(Content);

    AssetReloader.Initialize(
        _watcher.ProjectRootPath,
        Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.TargetPlatform.DesktopGL,
        GraphicsDevice
        );
}

Finally, you have to load the current Content files inside your LoadContent function:

protected override void LoadContent()
{
    _spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice);

    _watcher.LoadFiles();
}

Congratulations!
The Hot-Reloader is now setup and you can easily access to an asset which will be automatically reloaded when you will update its source file:

// Access to a Texture2D
AssetsManager.Textures["Sprites/name_of_my_texture"];

Note: You have to respect the hierarchy of your files.
In the example above, the file "name_of_my_texture" is contained inside the folder Sprites inside the Content directory.

2nd Note: If the key of the texture does not exists, an exception will be thrown, so you may want to check if the texture name exists by using Textures2D.ContainsKey(string key).

Roadmap

This library is currently limited to the default assets the Content Pipeline is managing. (and even some types of files are missing)
It's why I want to improve MonoGame.Reload to make it have more files reloaded!

• Json files reload
• XML files reload
• Aseprite file reload (using MonoGame.Aseprite)

Licence

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2023 Guillaume Lortet

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.