I change a file in Resources but it does not have an effect on Windows

[naghekyan]

Formerly when I was using cocos2d-x 3.2 the files were looked in Resources folder for windows applications. Hence, when I had a configuration file with game settings I could easily change some values and re-run the game and see what is changed. But now in cocos2d-x 3.5 the content of Resources is copied into proj.win32/Debug.win32 during Pre-Link Event which in Visual Studio is setup as follows:

xcopy "$(ProjectDir)..\Resources" "$(OutDir)" /D /E /I /F /Y

Hence when I change .plist of .json file and re-run game without rebuilding it does not take effect - old resources are being used. The same is for graphics and shaders and it is very painful each time to delete from proj.win32/Debug.win32 and also change a line in a source code to get it recompiled on run and copied the files into proj.win32/Debug.win32. Please address this extreme unhandy behavior.

More details here: http://discuss.cocos2d-x.org/t/i-change-a-file-in-resources-but-it-does-not-have-an-effect-on-windows/21067

[tankorsmash]

The workaround I use for this is add the xcopy command to the post link step, bind a shortcut to link your project, and hit that shortcut each time you want to use the updated file. Otherwise we're stuck with the current functionality.

[naghekyan]

@tankorsmash could you be more specific how you have solved this problem. What we should change in project settings? And couldn't it be included into Cocos2d-x default settings?

[tankorsmash]

It's not ideal, so I'd rather a better fix be implemented, rather than this hacky workaround.

In your projects properties, go to Build Events -> Pre-Link Event, add

if not exist "$(OutDir)" mkdir "$(OutDir)"
xcopy /Y /Q "$(EngineRoot)external\websockets\prebuilt\win32\*.*" "$(OutDir)"
xcopy "$(ProjectDir)..\Resources" "$(OutDir)" /E /I /F /Y  /D /K

I copied most of that from the post-build event, but it doesn't seem to hurt to be there either.

In Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Keyboards -> look up 'link' -> click Build.Link -> bind to key (I used Ctrl Shift G, globally.

Now each time you change a resource file, open VS and hit Ctrl Shift G, it'll copy over the resources, if they're newer than the ones already copied.

[rastermax]

Hi,
why is this file not copied like the rest of the files from the src folder ?

[v1993]

This issue is still actual for me on linux build.

[slackmoehrle]

It works for me on Linux. Tell me more about your setup.

[drelaptop]

what @v1993 said fixed at #18816