content-and-assets

Content and Assets in FlatRedBall2

Decision: Shapes, Sprites, or Gum?

Need	Use	Content files required?
Simple geometry (paddles, walls, bullets)	Shapes (AARect, Circle, Polygon)	No
Textured game objects (ships, characters)	Sprite with Texture2D	Yes (.mgcb pipeline)
On-screen text (scores, labels, menus)	Gum Label or TextRuntime	No (default font auto-loaded)

Text / Fonts — Use Gum Labels

Gum's default font is loaded automatically — no .mgcb setup required. See the gum-integration skill for Label examples and full layout details.

Graphics Without Art — Use Shapes

Shapes require no content files and are ready to use immediately.

var rect = new AARect { Width = 20, Height = 120, Color = Color.White, IsVisible = true };
Add(rect);

See the shapes skill for all shape types and visual properties.

Sprites and Textures

Load textures via the XNA content pipeline (KNI) and render them with Sprite.

Loading a Texture

// Compiled xnb pipeline — bare asset name (no extension, as defined in the .mgcb):
var texture = Engine.Content.Load<Texture2D>("ship_0001");

// Raw PNG from disk — full path with extension. Participates in PNG hot-reload
// via Engine.Content.TryReload(path). See the content-hot-reload skill.
var bear = Engine.Content.Load<Texture2D>("Content/Bear.png");

Load<Texture2D> routes on the presence of a file extension:

• Bare name → the xnb pipeline (requires a .mgcb entry). Not hot-reloadable.
• Path with extension → loaded directly from disk via Texture2D.FromFile, tracked for hot-reload. Requires the file to be copied to the build output (see Content Pipeline Setup below or use a <Content Include="Content/*.png" CopyToOutputDirectory="PreserveNewest" /> item).

Creating a Sprite

var sprite = new Sprite
{
    Texture = texture,
    TextureScale = 1.5f,   // 1.5x the texture's pixel size
    IsVisible = true,
};
Add(sprite);