Gamino

Gamino is a minimal F# MonoGame project demonstrating how to set up a 3D isometric rendering environment using .obj models. It features an "assembled" character composed of multiple 3D parts (head, body, arms) rendering in a staggered isometric projection.

Assets used in this project are sourced from https://kaylousberg.itch.io/prototype-bits

Key Features

• F# Architecture: Uses a functional, module-based architecture separating Game Logic, Initialization, and Rendering from the MonoGame Game class wrapper.
• Isometric Camera: Implements an orthographic camera setup to simulate a 2.5D isometric view suitable for staggered tile maps.
• 3D Model Compositing: Demonstrates how to render multiple independent 3D model parts sharing a common origin to appear as a single animated entity.

Project Structure

• Program.fs: The main entry point and game logic.
• Gamino.Core: A module containing the functional core of the game.
• Content/: Contains the assets and the MonoGame Content Builder configuration (.mgcb).

Working with Content (MonoGame Content Pipeline)

This project uses the dotnet-mgcb tool to compile assets (models, textures, etc.) into the binary format MonoGame uses at runtime (.xnb).

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the local tool installed (it is configured in the .config/dotnet-tools.json manifest):

dotnet tool restore

Building Content

The content is automatically built when you run dotnet build. However, you can trigger a content build manually:

dotnet mgcb-editor-linux Content/Content.mgcb

(Note: Replace dotnet-mgcb-editor-linux with the appropriate command for your OS if different, or use dotnet mgcb for the CLI version).

Important: The .obj File Caveat

When importing Wavefront .obj files in this project, we encountered a specific issue with the default OpenAssetImporter. It sometimes fails to process materials correctly for simple .obj files, leading to runtime crashes (ContentLoadException regarding ReflectiveReader).

The Fix: We explicitly force the Content Pipeline to use the FbxImporter for .obj files in Content/Content.mgcb, as it handles the material mapping more reliably for these assets.

Example .mgcb entry:

#begin Assets/obj/MyModel.obj
/importer:FbxImporter  <-- CRITICAL: Override default importer
/processor:ModelProcessor
/processorParam:TextureFormat=Compressed
/build:Assets/obj/MyModel.obj

Running the Game

Simply run the project from the terminal:

dotnet run