Table of Contents

Migrating from 3.8.0

A guide on migrating a MonoGame v3.8.0 project to the current version of MonoGame.

Migrating from 3.8.0 should be straightforward for most platforms.

The major difference is that 3.8.1 now requires .NET 6 and Visual Studio 2022. You can follow the environment setup tutorial to make sure that you are not missing any components.

The MGCB Editor is no longer a global .NET tool and we recommend that you use the new Visual Studio 2022 extension which helps with accessing it without the need of CLI commands.

Note

It is also recommended that you uninstall the older global versions of the .NET tools as described below.

WindowsDX, DesktopGL, and UWP

Upgrading from 3.8.0 should be as straightforward as upgrading your TargetFramework and MonoGame version.

Edit your csproj file to change your TargetFramework:

<TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>

Then edit your MonoGame PackageReference to point to 3.8.1:

<PackageReference Include="MonoGame.Framework.{Platform}" Version="3.8.1.*" />
<PackageReference Include="MonoGame.Content.Builder.Task" Version="3.8.1.*" />

Accessing MGCB and MCGB Editor without a global tool

The MGCB Editor is no longer a .NET global tool, and does not need to be installed or registered. When migrating from 3.8.0, it is recommended that you uninstall the global versions of the tools. You can accomplish that with these commands:

dotnet tool uninstall dotnet-mgcb -g
dotnet tool uninstall dotnet-2mgfx -g
dotnet tool uninstall dotnet-mgcb-editor -g

Do not run the dotnet tool install on 3.8.1, as it would break 3.8.1.

You will also need to setup a dotnet-tools configuration file.

  • Next to your .csprojcreate a folder named .config
  • Add a file within the folder named dotnet-tools.json with the following content:
{
  "version": 1,
  "isRoot": true,
  "tools": {
    "dotnet-mgcb": {
      "version": "3.8.1.303",
      "commands": [
        "mgcb"
      ]
    },
    "dotnet-mgcb-editor": {
      "version": "3.8.1.303",
      "commands": [
        "mgcb-editor"
      ]
    },
    "dotnet-mgcb-editor-linux": {
      "version": "3.8.1.303",
      "commands": [
        "mgcb-editor-linux"
      ]
    },
    "dotnet-mgcb-editor-windows": {
      "version": "3.8.1.303",
      "commands": [
        "mgcb-editor-windows"
      ]
    },
    "dotnet-mgcb-editor-mac": {
      "version": "3.8.1.303",
      "commands": [
        "mgcb-editor-mac"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Please note that you cannot use the 3.8.1.* wildcard in the dotnet-tools.json file (tool versions have to be fully qualified). We strongly recommand that the versions match the MonoGame version referenced in your .csproj (if you are using the * wildcard, make sure that they do not end up mismatching if the nugets are updated without you noticing).

You will also need to add this to your .csproj:

  <Target Name="RestoreDotnetTools" BeforeTargets="CollectPackageReferences">
    <Message Text="Restoring dotnet tools" Importance="High" />
    <Exec Command="dotnet tool restore" />
  </Target>

With these changes, .NET will automatically install the MGCB Editor for you when launching Visual Studio 2022 (if you want to install it manually and skip adding the Target, run dotnet tool restore within the project directory).

Then, if you installed the Visual Studio extension, you should also be able to just double-click an .mgcb file to open the MGCB Editor. You can also open the MGCB Editor with the CLI via dotnet mgcb-editor when executed from within the project directory.

This new configuration has the advantage of allowing to have per-project versions of MGCB and its Editor (instead of per-machine like a global tool).

iOS/iPadOS, and Android

.NET 6 introduced breaking changes in how csproj are defined for iOS/iPadOS and Android. We recommand that you create new projects using the 3.8.1 templates and that you copy over your project files there.

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