I'm developing a C# library that will be used either as a plugin in some Unity3d projects and also used in non-Unity3d projects.
I need to use some Unity3d classes (such as UnityEngine.Matrix4x4) and standardize some functions to use valid types agnostically to whether the project is an Unity project or not.
So, as the title says: what is the right way to include Unity3d libraries in a non-Unity3d library project? Should I just include reference to the local Unity3d binaries (like UnityEngine.dll) in my project? If so, which is the right folder to look for these binaries (they appear in some different folders in the unity installation folder)?
If you are not actually running the Unity Engine for rendering or handling input it may be the case of forcing a round peg into a square hole, both technically and legally.
The most elegant solution would likely be to write your library in C# using more agnostic libraries. For example the Matrix4x4 class you mentioned has an equivalent in System.Numerics. Alongside the library all thats needed is a light wrapper converting a System.Numerics.Matrix4x4 to a UnityEngine.Matrix4x4. Sometimes the Unity devs themselves do stuff like this, for example the Unity.Mathematics.float3 struct which works better in ECS land than a standard Vector3.
FYI if you're looking for how some particular system works, check out the C# Reference GitHub Repository, for example the Matrix4x4 struct. Just be aware that 'copying and pasting' Unity source code is not allowed.
Related
Simple question,
I have made a dll that uses MessagePack (from nuget). Unfortunately it seems you cannot just drop the MessagePack dll directly into unity as it generates a bunch of errors. I was trying to find the best way to add message pack binaries to unity when I noticed that there is a unitypackage file that adds all the source code to the unity project. This, however is useless to me as my external library (my dll) contains a reference to MessagePack.
In the documentation, the author suggests using a shared project for the messages. If I use the attributes in the MessagePack namespace in my external library, then I need to have a reference to MessagePack.dll. Dropping the dll into my unity project generates all kinds of errors... Sort of a catch 22...
Any idea how I should go about this?
If one would like to look into the core files of the Unity Engine, e.g: I've tried using the unity in-built "Fog" effect, but would like to see how it works on a deeper level (code). Is this something one can find, or is it encrypted in some way?
You can try to take a look at Unofficial unity decompiled repo to check if there are sources you're looking for. It's a decompiled verison so there is no guarantee that it's the actual code. Also big part of Unity's sources is written in C++ and C# scripts just call this Unity's native C++ part, so it's really incomplete.
The other option is that some of big companies, Unity's partners which have highest support level, have access to official source code. So may be you're able to find someone with access to sources.
I'm getting into Unity, and wondering if I can use F# instead of C#, simply because I prefer the syntax. I'm guessing not, since the environment it runs on is very different, but maybe there's something that will cross-compile code or something else I'm not thinking of.
I can't help but get the impression that the other answers were written by people who do not really know what they are talking about.
This is what you need to do to use F# in a Unity project:
Create an F# project that compiles into a dll. Have it build into the assets folder of a Unity project.
Add references to UnityEngine.dll and/or UnityEditor.dll. Change the reference properties so the dlls aren't copied to the build folder.
Of course you can't create new F# classes from within the Unity editor this way, but you can assign the ones you wrote in F#.
Currently you need to enable the (experimental) support for .NET-version 4.5. Alternatively you can download an older version of the FSharp.Core.dll that supports .NET 3.5. (see here).
I can't guarantee that you won't run into trouble because of compatibility issues with the FSharp.Core.dll, but that's just a guess since I haven't tested it myself.
I had success doing this sometime back by following this Github project: https://github.com/eriksvedang/FSharp-Unity, which I believe is roughly the same as Lars Kokemohr's answer above. I haven't tested it in more recent versions of Unity/Mono however.
Yes you can use F# as first class language as C# in unity.
Here is an article about it link
an excellent blog for One who want to use F# in unity
if you want to use F# as second class which I recommend.
let me show how to do it.
Usually what I do is to create Game Domain in F# in .net standard
2.0 library project build it.
Make unity API Compatibility level .net standard 2.0 then
Import library project dll in asset/plugins in Unity
Here is an explanation on how to do it automatically after each build : link
You will get this error, here is the solution
Having said that I recommend not to do any serious work in unity with F# because you won't be able to cross compile to other platforms.
Unity uses IL2cpp and it don't work with F#.
In simple words unity don't support F# and if you are having issues like bugs in Il2cpp unity will not fix it because they don't support F#
There is no easy way to do this but if you REALLY want to make it happen I believe you could use something like fs2cs:
https://github.com/hsharpsoftware/fs2cs
In theory you could write a script that calls fs2cs on all of your Unity C# files. Integrating this with Unity itself would be the more challenging part, but in theory you can trigger fs2cs transpilation on save of your file and Unity can use the transpiled C# file.
Only Boo, C#, and UnityScript are officially supported!
Unity3D contains a core dll that called UnityEngine.dll. That library contains all logic for the engine, like NavMesh.
Is it possible to use that dll in other applications, for example console applications, feed NavMesh with baked NavMesh from scene and perform navigation?
In other words, I want to create a game server that will navigate all agents and send to clients new positions of them.
No it is not possible.
This question was asked by a Unity user few years ago and he got the no answer from a Unity engineer. He tried that and failed. Unfortunate I am not able to find that question again but the answer the user got made sense.
According to the post as I remember, he said that all the UnityEngine.dll file contains all the classes you see while programming and those are for reference and complier only. He also said that the UnityEngine.dll file does not include the run-time file required to make it work alone in other application.
The Unity compiler generates the required dlls or files needed to run a Unity game.
It's very slick and cross browser/platform at the click of a button, which is leading non-technical types to conclude the entire engine is intrinsically better than what we use now. Is it simply that they've taken the time to implement all the per-browser/OS plugin versions of Unity WebPlayer and polish it, or is there anything deeper in the way the engine architecture is set up?
Unity takes scripts written in C#, UnityScript (based on JavaScript), or Boo (based on Python), and compiles them into mono assemblies. Those assemblies + the 3d models, sounds, and textures required by your game are compressed into a .unity3d file that is loaded by their browser plugin. Since almost all of the game's logic is in managed mono assemblies it runs cross platform with very few platform specific quirks.
They've recently rewritten their plugin detection and installation code so that it is very easy to drop a block of javascript into a web page that shows Unity content if the user has the plugin, or other content (image, flash, video) if they don't. I believe their plugin supports all A-class browsers on Mac and Windows, and the plugin can be installed without restarting the browser.
One advantage of the Unity engine is that you can take a lot of off-the-shelf managed assemblies and include them in your project and call them from Unity code. But you have to be aware that these assemblies can really bloat the size of the .unity3d file.
Another advantage is that you can easily write components that expose tunable parameters that can be modified by non-technical people.
And yet another advantage is that a well written project can be ported to/from iPhone, Standalone, Android, Web, etc. in under a day. I've personally done iPhone to Web by just modifying my input handler and changing texture compression.
One big disadvantage is that since the application is running managed code it is not too difficult for a curious or malicious person to decompile the assemblies into completely readable code. So you need to think about what someone could do with that info (cheat in multiplayer, write bots, falsify high scores, etc.). It is possible to obfuscate your assemblies, but it isn't trivial to add this step to your build process.