Content Management Differences from XNA 3 to XNA 4

Question

In XNA 4, the Content structure seems much different than it was in 3 (there's the new Content project there by default with the project I created). I'm essentially just trying to understand what the purpose of the structural change was. Am I required to put all my content in the "content project?" Is it just supposed to help me be neater? Is this what people mean when they're talking about the "content pipeline?"

Thanks!

Answer 1

The XNA 4 content project is the project that will store all assets in the game (textures, sounds, etc)

The content pipeline, as MSDN describes, is "A set of processes applied when a game that includes art assets is built. The process starts with an art asset in its original form as a file, and continues to its transformation as data that can be retrieved and used within an XNA Game Studio game through the XNA Framework Class Library. "

Content can be loaded using a ContentManager. Here you can find the basics to using it.