This guide will provide you with a workaround for using XNA in Visual Studio 2017. This will solve problems with the target files and Microsoft.Build.Framework.dll such as:
Error loading pipeline assembly "C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\Microsoft.Build.Framework.dll"
- Download a modified version of the XNA vsix: https://mxa.codeplex.com/
- Unzip XNA Game Studio 4.0.vsix and replace the
<Installation />
tag in extension.vsixmanifest with this:
<Installation InstalledByMsi="false">
<InstallationTarget Version="[12.0,16.0)" Id="Microsoft.VisualStudio.VSWinDesktopExpress" />
<InstallationTarget Version="[12.0,16.0)" Id="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Pro" />
<InstallationTarget Version="[12.0,16.0)" Id="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Premium" />
<InstallationTarget Version="[12.0,16.0)" Id="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Ultimate" />
<InstallationTarget Version="[14.0,16.0)" Id="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Community" />
<InstallationTarget Version="[14.0,16.0)" Id="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Enterprise" />
</Installation>
-
Place everything in a zip file again and change the extension to vsix. Now run the the vsix file. It should give a warning message but other than that install for VS2017 without problems.
-
Copy everything from
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\XNA Game Studio
toC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\Microsoft\XNA Game Studio
-
Open the Visual Studio 2017 developer command prompt by searching for
Developer command prompt for VS 2017
as administrator and execute the following code: (this will add the new version of Microsoft.Build.Framework to the Global Assembly Cache).
cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin
gacutil /i Microsoft.Build.Framework.dll
Note that the bug is tracked here: dotnet/msbuild#1831
After this you should be able to work with XNA in Visual Studio 2017 without problems. Remember that you can upgrade the .Net version XNA uses by manually editing the csproj files in notepad :).
- Roy Triesscheijn @roytries http://roy-t.nl
The MXA installs for installing XNA Game Studio are still on the XNA Game Studio Archive here
https://github.com/SimonDarksideJ/XNAGameStudio/wiki/GettingStarted
There are still only catalogued up to the 2017 version, but it's not that hard to unpack the MSIX installers and update them to newer versions (seen it working in VS2019) but the Visual Studio Team are deprecating older features that the XNA GS depends on as far as I know, so the better route is to still use the versions compatible with these installers for accessing XNA content.
The archive is still slowly updating XNA content to MonoGame, but it's slow progress with only one hand on the wheel ;D