Original Post
I'm using some of the tips on using XNA in a WinForms application and putting together a level editor. I'm trying to implement the rendering stuff as a library that mimics much of XNA's Game class, but allows you to render either to a Panel in a WinForms application or to the entire window by passing in the control's handle. The idea being I can reuse the rendering library for level editors and games alike. I'm also trying to make use of the content pipeline to load in textures, models, etc. With my level editor, I'm not going to be able to add a texture to the map just by supplying a filename, it needs to be compiled to the format used by the content pipeline. What would be the best way to do this at runtime? Would it be best for my level editor to only accept content that is already compiled, or implement something like the content builder the folks at XNADev.ru have? It would be nice to have the level editor hide all the content building details so that each time I want to load up a new texture or model I wouldn't have to fire up some 3rd party tool to build it and then import that, I'd like to just be able to have the level editor browse to say a png file and say here, I want to use this as a texture, do what you gotta do so I can. There doesn't seem to be much 'official' support for doing stuff like this from Microsoft, and I was just wondering if/how everyone else is doing it, or what you think of my plan. Should I have the level editor build them and copy them down to where it knows to load them from, or am I overestimating the benefits of the content pipeline? Is loading textures, models, and shaders really that difficult without it? Any input is greatly appreciated.