Table of Contents

Create a File-Based App - Engine Only

The Create a File-Based App page runs a toolkit scene from a single .cs file. This is the same idea with no toolkit package: a ground, a cube and a camera against Stride alone, so you can see what the toolkit's helpers stand for. The project version walks through the code and maps each part to the helper it replaces; this page is only what changes when the app is a single file.

Steps

  1. Create a folder for the app and go into it - one app per folder, for the reason on the file-based app page.

  2. Create Program.cs with these directives at the top, then the code from the project version after them:

    #:package Stride.Engine@4.4.1
#:package Stride.AssetCompiler@4.4.1
#:property PublishAot=false

    Use the Stride version you are on. PublishAot=false is there because file-based apps publish as native AOT by default and Stride is not AOT-compatible.

  3. Create Directory.Build.targets next to it - the second file, and the reason this page exists:

    <Project>
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Update="Stride.AssetCompiler" IncludeAssets="build;buildTransitive" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

  4. Run it:

    dotnet run Program.cs

Why the second file

The asset compiler has to be referenced build-only. As a plain reference its own assemblies are copied next to the app, and the app fails at start-up with Could not load file or assembly 'Stride.NuGetResolver'. A .csproj says build-only with IncludeAssets="build;buildTransitive" on the reference; a #:package directive has no way to, so a Directory.Build.targets beside the file says it instead - a file-based app imports one like any project. The toolkit's file-based apps do not need this because Stride.CommunityToolkit already passes the asset compiler on build-only; this is the one thing the toolkit does on the packaging side, and the reason the engine-only version is not quite a single file.

See it in the repository

ProgramEngineOnly.cs is this app in the toolkit's repository, in the examples folder examples/code-only/E01_3D_BasicScene_FileBasedApp, next to the toolkit versions of the same scene. Two things differ from the steps above, both because the file lives inside the repository:

  • It writes the version as @$(StrideVersion), which the repository's Directory.Build.props resolves. Outside the repository write the version number.
  • The Directory.Build.targets beside it has one more line, an Import of the examples folder's own Directory.Build.targets. MSBuild imports only the nearest file of that name, so a folder that adds one has to pass the outer one on. Your own app has no outer file and does not need the line.

That Directory.Build.targets is read by all three apps in the folder, but it only changes the engine-only one: it updates a direct reference to Stride.AssetCompiler, and the two toolkit apps have none. Run the engine-only app with:

dotnet run examples/code-only/E01_3D_BasicScene_FileBasedApp/ProgramEngineOnly.cs
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