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How to work around XNA Game Studio content pipeline warnings that can appear on Windows 8

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If you have already worked around the installation issue and are using XNA Game Studio on a computer that has the .NET Framework 4.5 installed (including Windows 8 where the .NET Framework 4.5 is installed as a part of the OS), you might notice warnings when opening or building content projects.  The warnings look like the following:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(1546,5): warning MSB3270: There was a mismatch between the processor architecture of the project being built "MSIL" and the processor architecture of the reference "Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.AudioImporters, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=842cf8be1de50553, processorArchitecture=MSIL", "x86". This mismatch may cause runtime failures. Please consider changing the targeted processor architecture of your project through the Configuration Manager so as to align the processor architectures between your project and references, or take a dependency on references with a processor architecture that matches the targeted processor architecture of your project.
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(1546,5): warning MSB3270: There was a mismatch between the processor architecture of the project being built "MSIL" and the processor architecture of the reference "Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.FBXImporter, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=842cf8be1de50553, processorArchitecture=MSIL", "x86". This mismatch may cause runtime failures. Please consider changing the targeted processor architecture of your project through the Configuration Manager so as to align the processor architectures between your project and references, or take a dependency on references with a processor architecture that matches the targeted processor architecture of your project.
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(1546,5): warning MSB3270: There was a mismatch between the processor architecture of the project being built "MSIL" and the processor architecture of the reference "Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.TextureImporter, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=842cf8be1de50553, processorArchitecture=MSIL", "x86". This mismatch may cause runtime failures. Please consider changing the targeted processor architecture of your project through the Configuration Manager so as to align the processor architectures between your project and references, or take a dependency on references with a processor architecture that matches the targeted processor architecture of your project.
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(1546,5): warning MSB3270: There was a mismatch between the processor architecture of the project being built "MSIL" and the processor architecture of the reference "Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.VideoImporters, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=842cf8be1de50553, processorArchitecture=MSIL", "x86". This mismatch may cause runtime failures. Please consider changing the targeted processor architecture of your project through the Configuration Manager so as to align the processor architectures between your project and references, or take a dependency on references with a processor architecture that matches the targeted processor architecture of your project.
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(1546,5): warning MSB3270: There was a mismatch between the processor architecture of the project being built "MSIL" and the processor architecture of the reference "Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.XImporter, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=842cf8be1de50553, processorArchitecture=MSIL", "x86". This mismatch may cause runtime failures. Please consider changing the targeted processor architecture of your project through the Configuration Manager so as to align the processor architectures between your project and references, or take a dependency on references with a processor architecture that matches the targeted processor architecture of your project.

This type of warning can occur on Windows 8 (which includes the .NET Framework 4.5 as a part of the OS) or on other versions of Windows if you install the .NET Framework 4.5 using the redistributable installer.

If you encounter warnings like this, you can work around them by opening your .contentproj file in Notepad and adding the following property to the same property group that contains the XnaFrameworkVersion property:

<PlatformTarget Condition=" '$(PlatformTarget)' == '' ">x86</PlatformTarget>

<update date="2/6/2013"> Added a note about the .NET Framework 4.5. This problem can happen if the .NET Framework 4.5 is installed on any OS, not just Windows 8. </update>

Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 05, 2012
    Many thanks. That message has been irking me for a while now!
  • Anonymous
    October 22, 2012
    Thanks, that worked perfectly.
  • Anonymous
    November 09, 2012
    had those message on VB2012/Win7 (x68) , works as well.
  • Anonymous
    February 05, 2013
    Thanks!  I've been looking for a solution to this for around an hour now.  This finally worked (though it was Win7 64bit and VS2010).
  • Anonymous
    February 06, 2013
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    March 02, 2014
    No I just get 'Unable to deploy. There is no transport available to support this project type.
  • Anonymous
    March 03, 2014
    Hi Rick - I haven't heard of this type of error before.  It could mean that there is something wrong with your XNA Game Studio installation and you need to repair it.  What version of XNA Game Studio and Visual Studio are you using in your scenario?  Could you post a screenshot of this exact error so I can take a closer look?
  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2015
    Many thx man!