MonoGame/MonoGame

[Help Wanted] Introduce Content.Load<Song>() fallback to load from file when no .xnb exists

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#8,483 opened on Sep 11, 2024

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Feature RequestHelp Wanted

Description

Intent

Content.Load should have the ability to "fall back" At Runtime and load song files when no corresponding .xnb exists.

This will enable a single path for developers to load songs whether they choose to use the content pipeline or not and greatly simplify the documented process for loading content.

This is not for the MGCB tool as that is used to build .xnbs already, this is about runtime!

The "Fallback" would need to handle:

  • Locating the specific file in question based on the file name (including handling for naming casing) - e.g. (Background.ogg vs background.ogg or BackGround.ogg from "background" as a name.
  • Handling sub-paths / folders (e.g. "Audio/Menu/background.ogg")
  • Determining the correct filetype being loaded (based what MonoGame supports at runtime), ogg, wav, etc
  • Handling the correct functionality to use to load the file and return the Song definition

Support is preferred by the community to help to make this happen and unify the path for all developers.

Motivation

In order to simplify the loading of manual content, rather than having separate code to identify, load, and manage files, the existing Content.Load methods should be enhanced with a fallback measure to engage with content of the specified time.

This ensures a simple path for all MonoGame developers regardless of which path they choose and also reduces the impact should the developer need to switch path and cut out unnecessary code changes.fallback

See ALso

Shaders and Models are excluded for the moment as they have additional dependencies

Contributor guide

Tech stack
csharp
Domain
developer experience
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
3-5 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
C#MonoGame frameworkFile I/O
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
65
Research direction
Start by examining the existing ContentManager class in the MonoGame source code, particularly the Load<T> method. Look at the linked issues for Texture (8481) and SoundEffect (8482) for similar fallback implementations. The implementation will need to handle file path resolution and format detection for audio files (ogg, wav, etc.). Also review the Song class to understand how songs are created from streams.