archived-dots

[pliant pike]

the hard part also is figuring out where exactly this correlates to my code

[haughty rampart]

yeah that does not seem to be a lot of vectorized code

actually, is that even your code? doesn't seem like it. that's pretty much all from AllocatorManager.cs

[pliant pike]

yeah I think its part of my code its at the top but its not my code

like I said its difficult to figure out exactly where my code starts

[haughty rampart]

get to the line where there's a comment that says your c# file name

[pliant pike]

like that?

[haughty rampart]

yeah

[pliant pike]

cool

[haughty rampart]

does look pretty well vectorized

what's the issue again?

[pliant pike]

there's lots of nativequeue code like this just below though

that seems to be where the most time is spent in my job at least from what the markers indicate

there's tons of these yellow nativequeue lines

maybe thats the problem, Nativequeue isn't really good for what I want?

[haughty rampart]

what are you trying to do again?

[pliant pike]

its a flow field type pathing system checking for all possible paths within an area

[haughty rampart]

and native queue is used how?

[pliant pike]

I can show you

Marker.Begin();
                    while (indicesToCheck.Count > 0)                            
                    {                        
                        CellData curcellDat = indicesToCheck.Dequeue();
                        var deneigbors = GridCellHelperStuff.GetNeighbours(curcellDat.gridIndex, jobflowfieldat.gridSize.y);
                        foreach(int2 neigh in deneigbors)
                        {                            
                            CellData neigborCelldata = new CellData();//CelldataArray[indexneighpos];
                            for(int i = 0; i < PotentialMoveCells.Length; i++)
                            {
                                if(neigh.Equals(PotentialMoveCells[i].gridIndex))
                                {
                                    neigborCelldata = PotentialMoveCells[i];
                                }
                            }
                            if (neigborCelldata.cost == byte.MaxValue)
                                continue;                            
                            if (neigborCelldata.cost + curcellDat.bestCost < neigborCelldata.bestCost)
                            {
                                neigborCelldata.bestCost = (ushort)(neigborCelldata.cost + curcellDat.bestCost);
                                indicesToCheck.Enqueue(neigborCelldata);
                                for (int p = 0; p < PotentialMoveCells.Length; p++)
                                {
                                    if (PotentialMoveCells[p].gridIndex.Equals(neigh))
                                    { indicesToCheck.Enqueue(PotentialMoveCells[p]);
                                        PotentialMoveCells[p] = neigborCelldata;
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }  
                    }
                    Marker.End();```

[haughty rampart]

hmmm

[pliant pike]

well from posting that I at least realised one thing I had one to many Enque()s

that will probably saves some cycles

[karmic basin]

You mean compared to SystemBase.GetEntityQuery() ? That one is cached.

[pliant pike]

and getting rid of that one Enque() seems to have reduced the time by roughly over 1500ms

maybe it isn't such a good idea to use an nativequeue

[wooden falcon]

Am I blind or does there not exists something like Mathf.Deg2Rad in the Mathematics package?

[haughty rampart]

that seems like a huge decrease for such a little change. not sure what was going on there

[haughty rampart]

correct. there's something much better. math.radians()

[wooden falcon]

Ah

Thank you

[pliant pike]

yeah maybe its just that expensive, and also it is processing that extra value which is just a waste of time

[rustic rain]

hmmm

when I instantiate a prefab

I kind of expect it to instantiate children as well

but they are not instantiated

is that supposed to happen?

Entity prefab

[covert lagoon]

I thought I already asked this question before but I can't find it back with Discord's search feature.
When making an open world game with blocky terrain generated at runtime, can I use NavMesh APIs for the AI of hostile creatures who need to follow the players, or do I need to make my own pathfinding and link it to my character input components?

Also, here's another question I don't think I've asked before.
With Netcode for Entities, when the server creates an entity with ghost-related components in its server world, does it automatically tell the clients to create them? Either through RPCs, or simply by adding them to the next snapshots it sends (I don't know about their internals).

[viral sonnet]

Is that a generic blobHash deserizalizer?

[round narwhal]

Someone has a reply for this ? I find it pretty interesting but I can't see how it can be done

[rustic rain]

Took me just a bit though xD
#archived-dots message

[rustic rain]

ping

[covert lagoon]

I should have asked "should I use NavMesh APIs" rather than "can I use NavMesh APIs"

Keep in mind that this is an open world game

[half jay]

how can i measure cache miss in system? i want to understand if GetSingleton() before scheduling an Entity.Foreach() make missings ?

[rustic rain]

it gets singleton entity from query, not sure how cache miss is any importance

[half jay]

or may be find some explanation about this. I have a dispute with a colleague about this topic

[covert lagoon]

    [UpdateInGroup(typeof(ClientSimulationSystemGroup))]
    public partial class CollectOwnedPlayerInputSystem : SystemBase
    {
        // ...

        protected override void OnUpdate()
        {
            var ownedPlayer = GetSingleton<CommandTargetComponent>().targetEntity;

            if (ownedPlayer == Entity.Null)
            {
                var commandBuffer = _entityCommandBufferSystem.CreateCommandBuffer();
                var ownedPlayerId = GetSingleton<NetworkIdComponent>().Value;
                var commandTargetEntity = GetSingletonEntity<CommandTargetComponent>();
                Debug.Log("About to run Entities.ForEach");

                Entities
                    .WithAll<PlayerTag>()
                    .WithNone<OwnedPlayerTag>()
                    .ForEach((Entity entity, in GhostOwnerComponent ghostOwner) =>
                    {
                        Debug.Log("About to run Entities.ForEach");

                        if (ghostOwner.NetworkId != ownedPlayerId)
                        {
                            return;
                        }

                        commandBuffer.AddComponent<OwnedPlayerTag>(entity);
                        commandBuffer.SetComponent(commandTargetEntity, new CommandTargetComponent
                        {
                            targetEntity = entity,
                        });
                    })
                    .Run();

                return;

            // ...

Why?

There's an entity with a PlayerTag, a GhostOwnerComponent, no OwnedPlayerTag, yet the Entities.ForEach above never runs

[rustic rain]

you have the same log message before loop and in loop

is that intended?

[covert lagoon]

No

                Debug.Log("About to run Entities.ForEach");

                Entities
                    .WithAll<PlayerTag>()
                    .WithNone<OwnedPlayerTag>()
                    .ForEach((Entity entity, in GhostOwnerComponent ghostOwner) =>
                    {
                        Debug.Log("Running Entities.ForEach");

[rustic rain]

hmmmm, I have a leak somehwere and I can't find where

any tip how to find one?

[covert lagoon]

When I enter play mode with "PlayMode Type" set to "Client & Server" in the "Multiplayer PlayMode Tools" window, should I see logs of clients and the server in the console?

Are the created clients and servers even separate players? They seem to just be different worlds in the same player

If I should see server logs then I guess my server never sets client connections as in-game

[drowsy pagoda]

Editor->Jobs menu should have a Full Leak trace option.

[rustic rain]

yeah, that is turned on by default for me

I didn't really find it

but it was result of switching from End ECB to Begin ECB

going back to End fixed leaks

but I can't figure out why

[drowsy pagoda]

Hmm

[viral sonnet]

Intel VTune, but getting detailed cache misses is kind of hard. for getting the singleton it's a sure one. once it's on stack and used it's all good

[vocal wing]

When instatiating a Prefab entity, a copy of the source entity is created with all components (and shared components), minus the Prefab component. It also seems not to copy system state components from the prefab to the new instance. Is this the intended behavior? The docs are not explicit about this.

[rotund token]

Nah need to write it specifically

[rustic rain]

yes, State components and Prefab tags are removed

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.entities@0.50/api/Unity.Entities.EntityManager.Instantiate.html?q=Instantiate

[vocal wing]

Ah thanks. I was looking at the ECB.Instantiate docs which is not as verbose.

[rustic rain]

also a tip: to instantiate whole hierarchy you need LinkedEntityGroup buffer component

I didn't know that, had to spent some time to figure out xD

[vocal wing]

Yes, thanks this I already knew. 🙂 I tried to be creative with a system state component on the prefab to save an archetype change on instantiation. Guess that it currently not preventable.

But maybe I don't fully understand the archetypes yet, are system state and tag components not part of the archetype?

[rustic rain]

they are

[pliant blaze]

Is there a way to reverse a query and see what component its querying?

[rustic rain]

ahem? As in provide a list of entities and figure out what they have in common?

[cerulean pulsar]

GetEntityQueryDesc : "Returns an EntityQueryDesc, which can be used to re-create the EntityQuery." https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.entities@0.50/api/Unity.Entities.EntityQuery.GetEntityQueryDesc.html

[cerulean pulsar]

GetEntityQueryMask : "Returns an EntityQueryMask, which can be used to quickly determine if an entity matches the query." https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.entities@0.50/api/Unity.Entities.EntityQuery.GetEntityQueryMask.html

[cerulean pulsar]

More methods listed here: You might be able to find one for your use case: https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.entities@0.50/api/Unity.Entities.EntityQuery.html

[void wadi]

hi guys, i have a NativeList<FindPathJob> findPathJobList = new NativeList<FindPathJob>(); throwing this error : The type 'Pathfinding.FindPathJob' must be valid unmanaged type (simple numeric, 'bool', 'char', 'void', enumeration type or struct type with all fields of unmanaged types at any level of nesting) in order to use it as a type argument for 'T' parameter
the struct is..

    private struct FindPathJob : IJob {

        public int2 gridSize;
        public NativeList<PathNode> pathNodeArray;

        public int2 startPosition;
        public int2 endPosition;

        public Entity entity;

        public void Execute() {...}

does anyone know if there is a workaround so I can force it to allow this 'managed type'?

[rotund token]

you can't have nativecontainers inside other native containers

but the better question i have is, why do you have a list of jobs?

[viral sonnet]

I remember the code from yesterday and he's scheduling the list from a job which prompted my question, since when is that possible? on topic of that, I'd also not recommend that. just let the job work on an array.

[viral sonnet]

that took an unholy amount of vector math

[void wadi]

thanks for the tips guys, i just dont know how to apply it, ill keep trying and learning

[rotund token]

collision camera?

[viral sonnet]

yeah

[rotund token]

i remember trying to do this myself with maths a while ago

i could not get it to feel nice

so well done as that looks great

i just use cinemachine 3rd person camera with a modification to use dots physics because lazy 😦

[viral sonnet]

i maintain an asset since 2015. guess cinemachine has come a long way, last I used it (which was some kind of wipeout demo) it still had clipping issues and not many features

[void wadi]

what do you mean by this sorry just let the job work on an array. as in remove the list completely and just run the job straight away?

[viral sonnet]

build all your pathfind elements in an array and after all are gathered, schedule the job once and let it run on an that array.

[void wadi]

ok, I thought that was what the code is doing 😂
for each entity, create a pathfinding job once thats done, run them all

[viral sonnet]

you don't need to schedule a single job for every pathfind request. it's not really how it's supposed to work

[rotund token]

i think yours might work nicer anyway

seems to 'predict' the collision instead of going, clonk, ok slide along wall now

[viral sonnet]

yeah it does. started out as simple camera with a smart pivot like wow and then got quite a bunch of features were the most complicated one was the camera offset vector which many 3rd person shooters use. one of the tough things was to still keep the same point in the view because when the camera jumps around while aiming on someone, that's really annoying. 🙂

I was thinking a lot if I should do a DOTS port but then I always concluded that the camera is still managed so there's little use

[rustic rain]

Anyone has any experience with saving?
I'm looking for a way to interface saving my data.

I need the most versatile system in this regard as possible

but I don't want to add for example interface to all component types that require saving

meanwhile also certain components actually mean, that some other component needs to be saved

[rotund token]

For recent save I use [Save] attribute (and [SaveIgnore on fields]) for this

at work we just have containers per entity type - so each type of entity gets its own data container which is just what it saves, probably not flexible enough for you though

[rustic rain]

yeah, I am looking at your link in forum

as part of inspiration

but I'm still not sure if that's the best approach

so far I decided that I will save all entities that have PrefabDef class object component

which is basically just link to serialized prefab in XML

[rotund token]

if you're writing a definition and attaching it

you could just use that to determine components to save

[rustic rain]

yeah, but that would be pretty complex

for writing literally everything

[rotund token]

i don't find it as flexible as just generic saving though

[rustic rain]

    <ShipDef>
        <defName>Faster</defName>
        <speed>0,2</speed>
        <rotationSpeed>0,2</rotationSpeed>
    </ShipDef>

    <GraphicDef>
        <defName>CapsuleShip</defName>
        <mesh>Capsule</mesh>
        <material>PlayerWhite</material>
        <children>
            <SphereHead>
                <position>(0;0,57;0)</position>
                <graphicDef>
                    <mesh>Sphere</mesh>
                    <material>Lit</material>
                </graphicDef>
            </SphereHead>
        </children>
    </GraphicDef>

    <PrefabDef>
        <defName>Player</defName>
        <defs>
            <defName>CapsuleShip</defName>
            <defName>Faster</defName>
            <defName>Wanderer</defName>
        </defs>
    </PrefabDef>

    <ComponentDef>
        <defName>Wanderer</defName>
        <enableAI />
        <addRandom />
        <comp>WanderingAI</comp>
    </ComponentDef>

here example of how I managed to make it work

GraphicDef is transform + RenderMesh hierarchy

[rotund token]

i am slightly concerned about your performance though if you need to scale really large

[rustic rain]

ShipDef is unique def that adds unique set of components

[rotund token]

like my approach, i can save 250,000 entities with hierarchies in < 20ms

[rustic rain]

ComponentDef adds tags by name

[rotund token]

and deserialize in ~30 (of which 20ms is entity instantiate which i cant avoid)

[rustic rain]

and PrefabDef actually creates entity prefabs

[rustic rain]

I don't think I'll need saving of this many entities

[rotund token]

but if you dont care about a) that crazy entity count or b) just hiding it behind load screens etc then its fine

flexibility for your game would be more important

[rustic rain]

yeah, versatility is key

since my biggest goal - maximum moddability

so anyone can inject their own dll with their own components, which will also be saved in simple way for modder

so far I see such options:

1. I create special method in IDef and during save load, it'll assign/read all components

        public void SetUpPrefab(Entity e, EntityManager em)
        {
            foreach (var def in _defs)
            {
                def.SetUpPrefab(e, em);
            }

kind of like this

but with actually restored entities

but I find this option troubling, because that would mean I'll need not only to define this method for all defs

but also if for example X def needs saving of Translation + Rotation and Y def needs saving of Translation - I'll get duplicates

2. I could try adding attributes, in which I could also link other component that needs saving for that component
   But that would somewhat break ECS approach of data oriented
   And also I won't be able to do that with translation, rotation and etc

[molten flame]

When is your asset coming out tertle XD

[rotund token]

when i go work on it again >_>

thought of doing some documentation and trying to setup some samples for testing

and noped out of there

tbh been too drained from work recently to actually do much of my own stuff 😦

[rustic rain]

bruuuuuh, I still couldn't figure out how to do saving

[rustic rain]

Is there a way to get untyped object of IComponentData?

[haughty rampart]

object ?

[rustic rain]

Anything that can be serialized

[haughty rampart]

no i mean object

[rustic rain]

or maybe get ready string

which can later be transformed back into IComponentData of ComponentType

[rotund token]

DynamicComponentTypeHandle

[rustic rain]

but doesn't it require chunk to operate with?

[rotund token]

well that's where IComponentData live

if you're using IComponentData, you're (in)directly using chunks

[rustic rain]

yeah, but I meant I need this just for 1 entity

allthough later maybe I can try to go into per chunk base

For now I basically have list of ComponentType and I need to figure out how to get serialized data from them

I am looking into it, but I just don't get it where is magic

how would you determine ElementSize

[rotund token]

TypeInfo.ElementSize

var typeInfo = TypeManager.GetTypeInfo(typeIndex);
var elementSize = typeInfo.ElementSize;

[rustic rain]

hmm, I see

but that would give me what exactly?

this GetDynamicArray

array of whole chunk?

[rotund token]

an array of each element yes

you should be doing this per chunk - every chunk will be the same archetype so they should all be saved

[rustic rain]

I just struggle to imagine how it's done

also, this gives unreadable result basically

I would prefer editable through hand result

[rotund token]

yeah gl with that 😬

you're going to have to do a few things entities was not designed for

[rustic rain]

I assume it's simply impossible to get component without knowing type before compilation?

unless ofc it's byte array

[rotund token]

what you probably want is

byte* ptr = EntityComponentStore->GetComponentDataWithTypeRO(entity, typeIndex);

and then convert ptr with
UnsafeUtility.CopyPtrToStructure<T>(ptr, out T value);

[rustic rain]

and if T is unknown?

I only have Type

[rotund token]

if T is unknown then you have a ptr

that's it

[rustic rain]

soooo, I can't serialize it

without Unity's intended way

[rotund token]

well i'd argue serialization is the conversion of data to a byte array

[rustic rain]

yeah, but with pointer I'm not sure how I can get

oooh

wait a second

Does ComponentType contain this kind of information?

[rotund token]

yes

you can get elementsize

and everything from TypeInfo

[rustic rain]

so, what is my best shot?
What kind of data type in the end?

byte[] or?

[rotund token]

it's already stored as a byte array

it's actually what made serializing entities so easy for me

didn't have to do anything

being unmanaged it's already in the format you need to write

now being readable that's a whole different problem

[rustic rain]

I'm ok with it being unreadable as long as I can simply read it back xD

EntityComponentStore where do I get this?

chunk?

hmm, nope

[rotund token]

it's inside entity manager

it is not public

[rustic rain]

oh

[molten flame]

I know what you mean, my brain is complete mush by the end of the work day.

[rustic rain]

hmmm

ISharedComponent can't nullable

that is sad

@rotund token sir, could you show how you desserialize that chunk data?

[rotund token]

i just do the opposite of how i wrote it

[rustic rain]

I get it conceptually, but I have no idea what kind of methods you even use

[rotund token]

                {
                    var headerChunk = this.Deserializer.Read<HeaderChunk>();
                    var entities = this.Deserializer.ReadBuffer<int>(headerChunk.Length);
                    var components = this.Deserializer.ReadBuffer<byte>(headerChunk.Length * header.ElementSize);

                    for (var i = 0; i < headerChunk.Length; i++)
                    {
                        if (this.Remap.TryGetEntity(entities[i], out var entity))
                        {
                            this.SerializedData.Add(entity, (IntPtr)(components + (i * header.ElementSize)));
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            Debug.LogError($"Entity {entities[i]} wasn't found");
                        }
                    }

                    index += headerChunk.Length;
                }```

oh you're more interesting in writing the data back?

[rustic rain]

I'm interesting in everything

[rotund token]

                if (components.Length == 0)
                {
                    return;
                }

                var entities = batchInChunk.GetNativeArray(this.EntityType);

                for (var i = 0; i < entities.Length; i++)
                {
                    var entity = entities[i];

                    if (!this.SerializedData.TryGetValue(entity, out var srcStart))
                    {
                        continue;
                    }

                    var dst = (byte*)components.GetUnsafePtr() + (i * this.ElementSize);
                    var src = (byte*)srcStart.ToPointer();

                    foreach (var element in this.SaveChunks)
                    {
                        UnsafeUtility.MemCpy(dst + element.Index, src + element.Index, element.Length);
                    }

                    foreach (var offset in this.EntityOffsets)
                    {
                        RemapEntityField(dst, offset, this.Remap);
                    }
                }```
i just loop all entities and see if they were saved

[rustic rain]

I'm trying to replicate this method, but so far very little progress

MemCpy 🙃

[rotund token]

doesn't have to be used

[rustic rain]

it's fine, I get how it works

just scary

[rotund token]

could do a UnsafeUtility.AsRef and just write it as a component if you were doing it generic or something

[rustic rain]

kek

[rotund token]

but that code above

is, apart from job boilerplate

the entire code in my deserialization for componentdata

i have similar code for buffers

and then a small chunk to instantiate the prefabs

and that's basically my entire system

the rest is just features

[rustic rain]

hmm

That made super confused

this.Serializer.AddBufferNoResize(components);
so that gives you NativeArray in some sort of list

I assume it's managed one?

[rotund token]

Serializer is just a wrapper for NativeList

    {
        private NativeList<byte> data;```

like literally

[rustic rain]

ah

[rotund token]

it just handles all the T to byte conversions

[rustic rain]

wait a second, then how do you later serialize that data

[rotund token]

a list of bytes

is already serialized

that is my serialized data

[rustic rain]

ah yes

[rotund token]

i compress it and then write it to disk

[rustic rain]

How do you link it to entities? chunks or whatever?

[rotund token]

effectively I write
key[]
component[]

where key is just entity.index

that is what i use as my unique key

[rustic rain]

yeah, but in the end all you have is byte array

out of where can I get keys for them?

[rotund token]

if you notice the above code

var headerChunk = this.Deserializer.Read<HeaderChunk>();

i write a small header for each chunk

which is basically just Length

i.e. number of elements in this chunk

[rustic rain]

that byte array contains data other than componenets?

[rotund token]

so my final format looks like
int Length
int[] Keys
T[] Components

[rotund token]

oh i have layers of headers

thats per chunk

but there are multiple chunks per component right

so i have a component header

which is number of chunks, component type, saved component size (in case it has changed for migration) etc

then i have a header above this for number of components saved, type of compression etc

[rustic rain]

no I mean

how do you link that byte array

that's the part I don't get

that's all I have rn and I'm super confused

[rotund token]

whole thing is in my above code

deserializing is slower because i read everything back 1 at a time

to validate it etc

when i load i create all entities i need to deserialize onto

store it in a hashmap<int, Entity>

where int was the saved entity index, Entity is the new Entity

then to deserialize basically i just loop both arrays (key, value) and check if the entity exists then store the data for it in a hashmap

[rustic rain]

Is that serialization or deserialization?
#archived-dots message

[rotund token]

that's the 'apply' step

first code was deserializing

and storing the valid data into a hashmap

the second step was applying which is just literally looping every entity in the world and checking if they have data that was saved

and if so write it

[rustic rain]

wait a minute

so this byte array that you get from chunk

it contains entity array as well?

[rotund token]

I get the entity array from the chunk as well

Using entity type handle

[rustic rain]

it slowly starts to make sense

so you made a struct which contains type/length, entitty (index) array and component (byte) array

[rotund token]

Well I don't make a struct, I just directly write them to my stream

But yeah

Past bedtime, need to sleep

Hopefully that helped

[rustic rain]

Yeah, thanks

[viral sonnet]

@rustic rain why XML instead of json?

[rustic rain]

everything is built in

attributes

names

just easier to write

I'll do saving in Json though xD

Only parsing XML is easy

writing is pepega

[viral sonnet]

I dunno, json reading and writing is like one line of code with a strongly typed model. also json is faster than xml

[rustic rain]

json has no built in attributes support

[viral sonnet]

I didn't see any attributes in your xml 🙂 eh, if you like it more power to ya. i stopped writing xml parsers like 10 years ago in favor of json

[rustic rain]

well, it's probably just bias

cause I used to write XML in my first game

kek

[viral sonnet]

for anything more practical I use https://msgpack.org/index.html then

[rustic rain]

and Json didn't look good at all in it

[covert lagoon]

Should my non-Burst-compiled code use the Entities API's Method(typeof(T)) methods or Method<T>() methods when both can be used?

[rustic rain]

Method<T>() is probably better

[covert lagoon]

As far as I know, Burst doesn't support RTTI or whatever it's called in C#, so I can't use typeof(T) in Burst code

[viral sonnet]

it's just syntactic sugar

eh scrap that, if you need the type it's very different things

I would be surprised if burst doesn't support it. as long as T is unmanaged/struct it should work

both of these codes do very different things though. one gets the type as variable. the other is compiled with the types you actually use it for

[covert lagoon]

It's basically dynamic vs static dispatch, isn't it

🤔

        public static int GetTypeIndex<T>()
        {
            var index = SharedTypeIndex<T>.Ref.Data;

            if (index <= 0)
            {
                ManagedException<T>();
                BurstException<T>();
            }

            return index;
        }

        public static int GetTypeIndex(Type type)
        {
            var index = FindTypeIndex(type);

            if (index == -1)
                ManagedException(type);

            return index;
        }

[viral sonnet]

I never heard of this: https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.netcode.gameobjects@1.0/manual/index.html

[covert lagoon]

I did

[viral sonnet]

oh, this is not DOTS netcode?

[covert lagoon]

I think it's DOTS Netcode ported to GameObject-based development

Actually nvm

It's more a port of the concepts/architecture than of the code

I think

[viral sonnet]

yeah, seems it has nothing to do with burst/entities. man, I don't like codenames but having the same names for very different projects is even more annoying

[covert lagoon]

They're not entirely the same names

"Netcode for Entities" (previously "Unity NetCode") vs. "Netcode for GameObjects"

[viral sonnet]

ah they did rename it, I can only see "Netcode for Entities" in google 😄 well the problem I have is that it's still unity.netcode and the go one uses unity.netcode.gameobjcts which imples to me that gameobjects is built on unity.netcode. kind of confusing but if you know, you know

[karmic basin]

Nothing to do with DOTS

it's the new name for unity MLAPI

100% gameobjects

I agree very confusing naming 😛

[rustic rain]

all right, sir. I finally made some progress and now I'm at a stage when I need to attach byte array of components to entities. I have index hashMap, but I'm stuck figuring out what this part means this.SerializedData.Add(entity, (IntPtr)(components + (i * header.ElementSize)));

[rustic rain]

var components = this.Deserializer.ReadBuffer<byte>(headerChunk.Length * header.ElementSize);
What is this type?

[covert lagoon]

Why does my server build log these errors (besides using the null graphics device)? Are shaders included in my server build?

ERROR: Shader HDRP/Lit shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
ERROR: Shader Hidden/HDRP/DebugLightVolumes shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
ERROR: Shader Hidden/HDRP/CameraMotionVectors shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
ERROR: Shader Hidden/HDRP/GGXConvolve shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
ERROR: Shader Hidden/HDRP/CharlieConvolve shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
ERROR: Shader Hidden/HDRP/OpaqueAtmosphericScattering shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
ERROR: Shader Hidden/HDRP/CustomPassRenderersUtils shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
ERROR: Shader Hidden/HDRP/FinalPass shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
ERROR: Shader Hidden/PostProcessing/SubpixelMorphologicalAntialiasing shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
ERROR: Shader Sprites/Default shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
ERROR: Shader Sprites/Mask shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)

I have these components in my server build configuration

Not sure what I should have

Not sure if it's normal that Unity warns me that the "Net Code Conversion Settings" component is "not used by the build pipeline"

If you want to build a standalone player for the project you must create a BuildConfiguration - the regular build menu in Unity will not work.
The Netcode for Entities manual could be more helpful than that

It looks like the only place where the NetCodeConversionSettings build configuration component is used is here, in com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Authoring/Hybrid/GhostAuthoringConversion.cs:

        private static NetcodeConversionTarget GetConversionTarget(GameObjectConversionSystem system, bool isPrefab)
        {
            // Detect target using build settings (This is used from sub scenes)
#if UNITY_EDITOR
            if (system.TryGetBuildConfigurationComponent<NetCodeConversionSettings>(out var settings))
            {
                //Debug.LogWarning("BuildSettings conversion for: " + settings.Target);
                return settings.Target;
            }
#endif
            // Prefabs are always converted as client and server when using convert to entity since they need to have a single blob asset
            if (!isPrefab)
            {
                if (system.DstEntityManager.World.GetExistingSystem<ClientSimulationSystemGroup>() != null)
                    return NetcodeConversionTarget.Client;
                if (system.DstEntityManager.World.GetExistingSystem<ServerSimulationSystemGroup>() != null)
                    return NetcodeConversionTarget.Server;
            }

            return NetcodeConversionTarget.ClientAndServer;
        }

[covert lagoon]

What's the point of BeginSimulationEntityCommandBufferSystem?

[rustic rain]

sync point at beginning of update cycle

[covert lagoon]

So 2 sets of structural changes per update cycle?

[rustic rain]

as many as you want actually

fixed group also has 2

[covert lagoon]

Netcode for Entities's CommandSendSystemGroup is part of the GhostSimulationSystemGroup which is part of the ClientSimulationSystemGroup

It would make sense for my system that collects player input on clients to run before the GhostSimulationSystemGroup so that the client doesn't wait for the next frame to send the collected input

This system gets the owned player from GetSingleton<CommandTargetComponent>().targetEntity

If it's set to Entity.Null, it tries to find a ghost player owned by the client, gives it a PlayerInput buffer, and sets GetSingleton<CommandTargetComponent>().targetEntity

This is done in Entities.ForEach using an entity command buffer

Then it returns so input collection is skipped for the current frame

But for when it does not return early because the owned player is found and so the input is collected, I want the system to run before the GhostSimulationSystemGroup

The system currently uses EndSimulationEntityCommandBufferSystem

Should the system switch to using BeginSimulationEntityCommandBufferSystem or not

I can't talk

What the fuck

The words don't come out

Nevermind

Ok I think I should use BeginSimulationEntityCommandBufferSystem by default and use EndSimulationEntityCommandBufferSystem when I don't want the changes to go unnoticed by the PresentationSystemGroup until the next frame

[viral sonnet]

I read some logic for Begin and End to destroy entities but I forgot 🙂 Maybe someone else remembers. solved some possible issues

[covert lagoon]

Not sure if this means anything by itself

$ cd Library/PackageCache
$ rg -g '!*{Documentation,Test}*' BeginSimulationEntityCommandBufferSystem | wc -l
46
$ rg -g '!*{Documentation,Test}*' EndSimulationEntityCommandBufferSystem | wc -l
13

$ rg -lg '*/Runtime/**' BeginSimulationEntityCommandBufferSystem
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/ClientServerWorld/ClientServerWorldAllocatorResetSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Rpc/RpcCommandRequest.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Snapshot/GhostSendSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Snapshot/PredictedGhostSpawnSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Snapshot/GhostReceiveSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Snapshot/GhostDespawnSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/NetDebugSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Rpc/RpcSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Snapshot/Prespawn/PrespawnGhostInitializationSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Snapshot/GhostSimulationSystemGroup.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Connection/NetworkStreamReceiveSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Snapshot/Prespawn/ServerTrackLoadedPrespawnSections.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/NetCodeDebugConfig.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Snapshot/Prespawn/ClientPopulatePrespawnedGhostsSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Connection/NetworkStreamCloseSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Connection/HeartbeatSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Snapshot/Prespawn/ServerPopulatePrespawnedGhosts.cs

$ rg -lg '*/Runtime/**' EndSimulationEntityCommandBufferSystem
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Snapshot/Prespawn/AutoTrackPrespawnSection.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Snapshot/SwitchPredictionSmoothingSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Snapshot/GhostDistancePartitioningSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Snapshot/GhostSendSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Rpc/RpcSystem.cs
com.unity.netcode@0.50.1-preview.19/Runtime/Rpc/RpcCommandRequest.cs

Netcode for Entities prefers BeginSimulationEntityCommandBufferSystem

[woeful comet]

Does anyone know if there's some way to update a RenderMesh's mesh from within a job?

I vaguely remember that there was an API for this, but I can't seem to find it now.

[rotund token]

you can get the nativearrays from a mesh and manipulate that

technically you can actually get shared components in a job when you're not in burst (and I even wrote a SharedComponentDataFromEntity container for this)

but you're going down a pretty rocky road if you do this

[woeful comet]

Thanks, what's the API for getting the NativeArrays from the mesh? I don't see an obvious way to do it.

I'd like to keep things bursted if possible.

[rotund token]

Sorry I meant there are overrides for writing to a mesh from native array*

SetVerticies, SetUVs, SetIndices etc all have native array overrides

[woeful comet]

Ah okay, so does that mean I have to calculate the mesh in a job (which I'm doing now), and set it on the main thread?

[rotund token]

yes unfortunately you need to write the final mesh on main thread, however you can speed this up a bit with MeshData

https://docs.unity3d.com/2020.1/Documentation/ScriptReference/Mesh.MeshData.html

[woeful comet]

Thanks very much, I'll give that a try. 🙂

[rotund token]

it lets you write all the verts etc to the mesh in a job

but you still need to call
Mesh.ApplyAndDisposeWritableMeshData(dataArray, mesh);

to finalize it on the main thread at some point

[woeful comet]

Ah, it was the MeshData API that I heard of before but couldn't find again.

Thanks again for the help.

[hot basin]

can i get array of values from NativeMultiHashMap?

is there a better way to have array of values per Key?

in my case Entity is the Key and I need array of floats

if that helps

[rotund token]

GetValuesForKey

if you want an array you'll just have to iterate it and populate it yourself

[hot basin]

ok

can I assume same index per value?

[rotund token]

sorry not sure what you mean

[hot basin]

when I put the values in order

would I get the same order while reading?

or reversed

or it would be random

[rotund token]

you mean put values into hashmap

you should consider order random for a hashmap

if you dont remove an element then i believe it'll be reversed

but you shouldn't rely on this behaviour

[hot basin]

so Can I store values in something else to preserve order?

[rotund token]

a list? 😄 (nativestream?)

get enzis parallel block list

[heady edge]

Hello all it's been a long time since I played around with dots and slowly getting back just for the fun of it.
I remember that [BurstCompile] attribute applied to static function actually caused the burst to compile it. is it still the case?
If so is there a reason why those functions don't show up in burst inspector?

[hot basin]

oh yeah I think NativeStream would be enough

wtf lately I figured out that NativeStream is best container ever

[rotund token]

you also need to apply it to the owning class

[hot basin]

I mean it's just so versatile

[viral sonnet]

neat little trick for entity as key is to just use an int as key type and the index, saves one integer, the version.

nativestream is great for that, especially when it operates on the same query, then the data is ordered and you don't even need to index really

would require that every entity has the same amount of data though, otherwise it'll misalign

I've also tried indexing entities myself for when another query needs it. i've mostly found better solution for this. it's quite fast to do and can come in handy

[hot basin]

can I get index of entity in IJobEntityBatch?

for stream writing

[rotund token]

IJobEntityBatchWithIndex

[viral sonnet]

nativestream has the restriction that you can't write to the same index due to the memory block design and there's no good way around it (which is usually fine when the chunkIndex or entityIndex is used) for non-linear writes this could be interesting and I think I can make this work with the parallel list

parallelParallelList? 😄

could be a huge save when I manage to apply this to some of my code paths and I don't need to write out arrays and make a hashmap 🤔

[molten flame]

Now that AddHybridComponent is gone, how are we meant to do hybrid things?

[rustic rain]

sir, could you explain what is SaveChunks in this context?

                    foreach (var element in this.SaveChunks)
                    {
                        UnsafeUtility.MemCpy(dst + element.Index, src + element.Index, element.Length);
                    }

[rotund token]

oh

that you can probably ignore

that is for my [SaveIgnore]

[rustic rain]

how do I copy data though?

I am at a point when I restored entities, restored map

[rotund token]

UnsafeUtility.MemCpy(dst, src, ComponentLength);

is all you need

[rustic rain]

but saved data is in byte arrays

hm, I tried that

[rotund token]

thats what it simplifies to if there is no [SaveIgnore]

[rustic rain]

hold on, unity is opening

also, what is

SerializedData

is that (Entity, IntPtr) dictionary?

[rustic rain]

var components = this.Deserializer.ReadBuffer<byte>(headerChunk.Length * header.ElementSize);
And this

I don't really get, what is it

[rotund token]

<Entity, IntPtr>

this.Deserializer is just the opposite of Serializer (except just a native array)

it just holds the byte array

[rustic rain]

 foreach (var type in _typesToSaveWrite)
            {
                var elementSize = TypeManager.GetTypeInfo(type.TypeIndex).ElementSize;
                var dynamicHandle = GetDynamicComponentTypeHandle(type);
                foreach (var chunk in chunks)
                {
                    var components =
                        chunk.GetDynamicComponentDataArrayReinterpret<byte>(dynamicHandle, elementSize);
                    if (components.Length == 0)
                    {
                        continue;
                    }

                    var entities = chunk.GetNativeArray(entityHandle);

                    for (int i = 0; i < entities.Length; i++)
                    {
                        var e = entities[i];
                        if (!componentPtrMap.TryGetValue(e, out var srcStart))
                        {
                            continue;
                        }

                        var dst = (byte*)components.GetUnsafePtr() + (i + elementSize);
                        var src = (byte*)srcStart.ToPointer();

                        UnsafeUtility.MemCpy(dst, src, elementSize);
                    }
                }
            }

here's what I did

and that seems not to work

no errors, but entity position is not restored

and always defaults

[rotund token]

is it running the actual memcpy

because it looks fine i think

this is wrong
var dst = (byte*)components.GetUnsafePtr() + (i + elementSize);

needs to multiply
var dst = (byte*)components.GetUnsafePtr() + (i * elementSize);

[rustic rain]

                foreach (var savedChunk in savedType.chunks)
                {
                    var legnth = savedChunk.entities.Length;
                    var entities = savedChunk.entities;
                    var components = new NativeArray<byte>(savedChunk.dataArray, Allocator.Temp);
                    var compsPtr = (IntPtr)components.GetUnsafeReadOnlyPtr();

                    for (int i = 0; i < savedChunk.entityCount; i++)
                    {
                        if (remap.TryGetValue(entities[i], out var entity))
                        {
                            componentPtrMap.Add(entity, (IntPtr)(compsPtr + (i * savedType.elementSize)));
                        }
                    }
                }

Here how I create source pointer

what about getting pointer?

One remark, I serialize to managed byte array

and then recreate NativeArray from it

is that ok?

ooooh, ok

now that I swapped + to * it works

hmmm, now gotta figure out that thing for sharedcomponents

allthough, it's just integer

[rustic rain]

Any idea what is faster?
EntityManager's GetComponentData or GetSharedComponentData?

both are just integer wrappers

[proper charm]

Hi there,
How can I get started with Unity Dots?

[rustic rain]

A good guide
https://dots-tutorial.moetsi.com/

[rustic rain]

Unity manual is a must to read
https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.entities@0.50/manual/index.html

[proper charm]

Can I use unity dots with my individual free license of unity?

[rustic rain]

this is for ECS tho

[proper charm]

what is that 🙂

[rustic rain]

smth way more fun than OOP

you don't have to use ECS for dots tho

there are also jobs and burst

[proper charm]

Is it worth to get into dots for an indie solo developer?

or should I continue with the native one?

[rotund token]

i'd say most (not all) are indie developers in here

depends entirely what your objectives are

and how much you enjoy coding vs making games

[rustic rain]

what are you implying? xD

[proper charm]

I am targeting from low end pcs to high end consoles.

[rustic rain]

nah, it's more about

what kind of game do you have in mind

if it's some kind of large simulation

[proper charm]

Multiplayer war game

[rustic rain]

with a lot of comutations

ECS might be the perfect one

[proper charm]

and also a simulative game of a city builder

[rustic rain]

but it's still alpha, so you'll have to create everything by yourself from scratch (almost)

city builder sounds good for ECS I think

[rotund token]

a lot of people who currently use dots do so because they like spending hours optimizing and getting the most
as it is still a preview, it currently does not have the same tools and usability as regular unity so if you're unfamiliar and new to it, it might take a lot longer to build your game.

hence i ask if building games or coding is your focus

[proper charm]

Currently I am doing it with URP but the fps dosen't even touch 20 on i5 with no graphics card

[rustic rain]

render pipeline is not really related to dots

you'll have to use either urp or hdrp with dots ecs after all

[proper charm]

I don't want to launch my city game rn but have some 3-4 years of planning on making it perfect before launching it 🙂

[rustic rain]

anyways, I suggest just to try and read manual

it'll give you concept ideas

what ECS in Unity is about

[proper charm]

I would prefer with urp cause hdrp will break my system hot.

[rustic rain]

hmm, any idea how can I make some sort of message system for ECS?
Basically I have certain systems, that have public methods that are widely used by other systems. Can't avoid that.
What I'd want - make it so there's a way to call it as simple as CurrentWorld.CallXMethod
Instead of having to save those systems as fields in every other system

[rustic rain]

some kind of Buffer could do the job, without structural changes

my point stays though
If you have a lot of things to instantiate, enqueue or etc
Using entities/adding components for that would not be great for perfomance

Collision system is using buffers

For example

[rotund token]

dont get tricked, performance is relative

some of the people writing these systems are testing on 250k entities

most games are going to have 1/1000th of that

[hot basin]

Do I remember correctly that enabled/disabled components will be part of 1.0

Or at least that's the plan for now

[rotund token]

yes

(I think people have overhyped these in their minds though)

[rustic rain]

I'm kind of used to not having them already xD

What I can't wait for: getting rid of RenderMesh components

some dev said they will use smth else

[rotund token]

you'll have to pre-register all your meshes with the hybrid renderer

[rustic rain]

it's fiiine

For now I use resources

later I might figure out smth else

[rotund token]

how is this going to benefit you though?

(just curious)

[rustic rain]

Versatility

ability for modders to have simple access to all these tools

[rotund token]

im not really understanding how that will change

[hot basin]

rly? I've done my renderer this way 😄

[rotund token]

i believe so

[hot basin]

oh I get it now

they showed us the tech

https://forum.unity.com/threads/new-batchrenderergroup-api-for-2022-1.1230669

here

[rotund token]

yeah

This means that you can't directly reference objects such as instances of Mesh and Material, and instead, you need to register them with the BRG before you use them

this is why i'm asking because if anything, I feel like this would make it harder for modders.

[hot basin]

why would it?

[rotund token]

now we dont know how they will set it up

but imagine you have to be setup via a subscene or something on game launch - this is unlikely but i'm just pointing out how a certain work flow could make it worse

[hot basin]

you can dynamically load meshes at startup and register them

I assume there will be such possibility

[rotund token]

but either way, i'm not exactly seeing why it would be better

hence curiosity

[hot basin]

in my solution I don't have any mesh/material on my entities so there is no managed components

only tag component identyfing how should I render this

of course it strategy game

so I can assume few things

[rotund token]

that's much more ideal because it means you can easily strip rendering from servers for client/server games

[rustic rain]

but that's hardcoded solution

it works, just not everywhere

[hot basin]

so what is the problem? 😄

[rotund token]

im not saying there is a problem

[hot basin]

for now it is hardcoded but i'm still on 0.17 so I don't have source generators afaik

[rotund token]

im just trying to figure out why its better for modders

which was issues claim

[rustic rain]

what

what is better?

[rotund token]

^ like how does it change anything

[rustic rain]

oh, I didn't really mean it about pre-registering

allthough

registering meshes and materials

sounds like interesting idea

[rotund token]

1.0 going to break all our projects 😄

[rustic rain]

it's fine

it's half broken anyway

build won't even run

because it crashes

xD

[rotund token]

maybe you should fix it 😛

[hot basin]

yeah for now I'm still waiting for 0.51 😛

but I think I'd welcome changes in 1.0

[rustic rain]

idk how, I reported it as bug to unity

I just don't see any solution

because all stack trace is going towards Unity TRS system

[rotund token]

interesting

i wonder what you're doing wrong

havent seen an issue in there in a long time

changing parents?

[rustic rain]

hm

yeah

What could go wrong with it?

rn afaik I simply assign Parent component

[rotund token]

only time i've ever seen people have issue with TRS is them doing parenting

[hot basin]

Don't you need to change LocalToParent also?

[rotund token]

i think it happens when you change parents in same frame or something

and the PreviousParent system state hasn't had a time to cleanup or something

never had the issue myself, just seen it rarely reported

basically something like reparenting causes issues

[rustic rain]

hmm

Transform group

is under tick simulation

which has ECB on start/end

[hot basin]

is IJobEntityBatchWithIndex with ComponentTypeHandle<> better than IJobParallelFor with Query.ToComponentDataArray<>?

[rotund token]

yes

[rustic rain]

it's chunk array vs all entities array

[rotund token]

Query.ToComponentDataArray<>
is just doing a batch iterate and copying it to array

[hot basin]

how? both are using query

[rustic rain]

IJobEntityBatch is giving you batchInChunk

from which you take componentData

vs you get Array from whole query

smaller array -> smaller cache miss

[hot basin]

but then I use the whole array so where are those misses?

[rustic rain]

no idea, how that low level stuff works

[hot basin]

so anyway

Can I assume that if I use data from entity it's always better to use IJobEntityBatch?

or .ForEach() if it's enough

[rotund token]

in 98.7% of cases yes

[pulsar jay]

Do you guys prefer methods in component structs, extension methods or some other way for functionality that is related to a component and should be reusable and why?

[rustic rain]

that's somewhat against Data Oriented Design

[woeful comet]

There's nothing about reusable logic that goes against DOD. It's just good software engineering practice.

[rustic rain]

I mean having methods in structs

[woeful comet]

If they modify the struct, then yeah, but static methods are a good way to organize code.

[rustic rain]

yeah, I use static Method(this T kek) for such cases

helps with organisation as well

[woeful comet]

Yeah, that's the best way to go IMO.

No reason to have files full of free functions IMO. We're not programming in C any more.

[pulsar jay]

Thats why I am asking. Whats the reasoning/advantage of moving the methods into a separate file?

Its still technically part of the struct as it "extends" it 🤔

[rustic rain]

well, for one
Component structs usually is just data, that can be accessed from any sort of system

so by putting any logic in separate class

you follow DOD design

avoid clutter

nothing stops you from having methods in structs though

if it's specific struct that was designed by you for it

why not?

[woeful comet]

If a function applies to a specific struct, it should live with that struct.

[pulsar jay]

The advantage of the extension methods could be that you can have multiple files extending the struct. So you can have Assembiles that add the extension methods that are used by that assembly for that component

@rustic rain do you have any kind of naming convention for your extension classes?

[rustic rain]

VectorUtility
MathUtility
PepegaUtility

xD

nothing fancy

if it's system specific

hmm

I haven't had such case yet

kind of tend to have such methods as generic as possible

[pliant pike]

I have weird problem where a job seems to be taking excessively long I'm not sure what's the problem or how to solve

when searching an 18 by 18 grid it takes roughly 101ms, whereas at a 20 by 20 grid it takes 610ms

[rustic rain]

is burst on?

[pliant pike]

yep

[rustic rain]

how many if do you have in job?

[pulsar jay]

Thx for the input @rustic rain and @woeful comet. Will keep that in mind

[pliant pike]

4 ifs

[rustic rain]

can you bring it down to 0?

[pliant pike]

I'm not sure how

[rustic rain]

anyways, what I mean is that

if statements break vectorisation

[pliant pike]

its weird at lower values the time it takes doubles each time(which seems normal)when the grid gets one bigger but at the 10 value it gets inordinately longer

[rustic rain]

have you thought of implementing quadrants?

[pliant pike]

I kind of do have a rough sort of that thing, it exits early when its searched usually less than half of the grid

[rustic rain]

maybe try brute force?

[pliant pike]

the job was roughly 2000ms at 20 by 20 now its down to 600ms

[rustic rain]

no early returns and etc

literally go through all data

and only then return correct result

[pliant pike]

gotta see if I can get it down further

[rustic rain]

that potentially will let you lift some ifs

and you might get truly bursted code

[covert lagoon]

Why does Rider tell me that the partial keyword is redundant when it knows that the class is a Unity ECS system

[pliant pike]

I am kind of brute forcing, but will see if I can get rid of some of the ifs, thanks

[rustic rain]

you should also take a look at burst analyzer

I never used it myself

but it shows that burst code gen

[rotund token]

are you latest rider? it usually fixes itself on recompile

[rustic rain]

in which you might get an idea whether result code is good or nah

[pliant pike]

you mean the burst inspector

[rustic rain]

yeah

I never used it myself yet xD

[pliant pike]

yeah that stuff is really hard to read

[covert lagoon]

Rider 2022.1.1

And in Unity I have the "JetBrains Rider Editor" version 3.0.14 package installed

It's the latest version

[civic shard]

So uh, there have been whispers that Unity dots helps with large entity counts, is this true?

[rustic rain]

yeah

hundred thousands entities and etc

[civic shard]

Does it work in 2D?

[rustic rain]

it's literally just engine

you can do anything with it

[civic shard]

Can you recommend a starting point video?

[rustic rain]

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.entities@0.50/manual/index.html

manual

[viral sonnet]

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.entities@0.17/api/Unity.Entities.EntityManager.AddComponentObject.html is still a thing

[split cedar]

except solving the million dollar problems of IT

[rustic rain]

who knows

maybe one day...

[split cedar]

if you solve them one day... you gotta tell me first before you publish it 😉

[carmine plover]

Anyone know if PUN/Photon will work with entities/DOTS?

[haughty rampart]

can you make it work? -> probably
would it make sense? -> absolutely not

[carmine plover]

Is DOTSNET the best option then?

[haughty rampart]

i have no idea what DOTSNET is
there is / will be a full dots networking package though

[carmine plover]

Are you referring to Unity's networking solution?

I've heard it's not fully fleshed out and as well documented as existing solutions

[haughty rampart]

there's not THE unity networking solution. they have multiple now.
you are probably referring to Unet.....which has been deprecated ages ago
the new ones are pretty damn good and solid

[carmine plover]

Which one is the dots networking package? Do you happen to have a link?

Thanks!

[haughty rampart]

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.netcode@0.50/manual/index.html

there's netcode for gameobjects (self explanatory)
then there's netcode for dots (link)
then there's unity.transport (low level, everything doable pretty much)

like even for normal gameobjects, after working with netcode for gameobjects for a while, i cannot recommend photon or mirror or whatever anymore

imo

[carmine plover]

Understood. Are you bucketing DOTSNET in with photon and mirror as well? How does DOTSNET compare to Unity NetCode for DOTS?

I'm reading through the documentation right now. But looking for some opinions as well 🙂

[covert lagoon]

When should a system be put in the InitializationSystemGroup?

Where should my server choose a seed for my procedural terrain generation? In a system that is destroyed after updating once? In the OnCreate on my terrain generation system?

I want it to automatically be done when the server starts

[viral sonnet]

OnCreate and parse an args argument from commandline

[InitializeOnLoad] is probably fine too to parse the argument. I'm not sure if the system is already created then, I don't think so, you'd have to test for that

[covert lagoon]

Ok thanks

[rustic rain]

wtf

            _allSystems = GetEntityQuery(ComponentType.ReadOnly<StarNormal>(),
                ComponentType.ReadOnly<StarShared>());

it's not assigned into this query

[whole gyro]

Does that entity have the Prefab or Disabled tag components on it? Those are excluded by default. Based on the entity name, looks like a prefab.

[rustic rain]

no, it's not

it's instantiated

from prefab

I am really confused, I am assigning these 2 components to all entities in child hierarchy. But children don't get assigned 😐

        public static void SetStarComponents(this EntityManager em, in Entity e, int ind)
        {
            var starNormal = new StarNormal() { systemID = ind };
            var starShared = new StarShared() { systemID = ind };
            foreach (var child in GetAllEntitiesInHierarchy(e, em))
            {
                em.SetComponentData(e, starNormal);
                em.SetSharedComponentData(e, starShared);
            }
        }

        public static IEnumerable<Entity> GetAllEntitiesInHierarchy(Entity parent, EntityManager em)
        {
            yield return parent;
            if (!em.HasComponent<Child>(parent))
            {
                yield break;
            }

            DynamicBuffer<Child> buffer = em.GetBuffer<Child>(parent);
            foreach (var child in buffer)
            {
                foreach (var anotherChild in GetAllEntitiesInHierarchy(child.Value, em))
                {
                    yield return anotherChild;
                }
            }
        }

[rotund token]

Does it actually have child buffer

[rustic rain]

yes

which contains child entity

[rotund token]

So are you not getting an error?

[rustic rain]

I did not just set parenting, I also created child buffer

[rotund token]

You seem to be looping a buffer and calling em set shared component

[rustic rain]

hm

[rotund token]

Which would invalidate the buffer

[rustic rain]

doesn't getting IEnumerable

already gives you final result of looping?

[rotund token]

Don't think so

It just calls that method once, yields, runs your code

Back into method

Same reason you can't foreach a dictionary and remove an element - invalidates the foreach

[rustic rain]

            var hierarchy = GetAllEntitiesInHierarchy(e, em);
            foreach (var child in hierarchy)
            {
                em.SetComponentData(e, starNormal);
                em.SetSharedComponentData(e, starShared);
            }

I even tried this, same thing

hmm

hmmm

[rotund token]

That doesn't change anything

[rustic rain]

I'll convert to array

[rotund token]

You need toarray or something

[rustic rain]

to test

[rotund token]

That said if it was actually iterating it should error

[rustic rain]

nah

same thing

[rotund token]

So if you're not getting an error I feel like it isn't iterating

Have you stepped through?

[rustic rain]

yeah, it seems to return both

hmm

wait, just one

[rotund token]

Why are you setting shared component on e

Not child

[rustic rain]

it's part of visual system

that enables, rendering

or disbles

[rotund token]

You are setting on the same entity every time

Not the child

[rustic rain]

what

me

so dumb

but that still doesn't fix broken children getting

hmm

it only returns parent

even though there is certainly a children

at very least because I instantiate from this prefab

and it has linked entity group

[rotund token]

Your get all entities in hierarchy seems wrong to me

[rustic rain]

but I need it

[rotund token]

You never turn a child

I don't think

You just loop to bottom and break

[rustic rain]

I don't return child, because I return parent

and then call same function on child

in which it becomes parent

[rotund token]

Oh I missed that part

That seemed an odd way to write it

But yep you want to return original parent as well

[rustic rain]

Wait a second

there is no child

wat

[rotund token]

You lied to us

Is it a static entity?

[rustic rain]

no

ok

so child buffer

is removed for some reason

after instantiation

bbbbbbruh

and how am I supposed to restore it

seems like an old issue

ok, so I still have LinkedEntityGroup

maybe I can restore hierarchy myself

[rustic rain]

sooo

how can I call method with burst?

 [BurstCompile]
        private void RestoreChildHierarchy(NativeArray<Entity> entities)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < entities.Length; i++)

I did some monstrocity

and I need to make sure it runs bursted

[rotund token]

has to be static to start with

and you can't pass native containers to burst methods

(you can't pass structs except if it only has 1 pointer field in it)

[rustic rain]

hm

I can't even pass Entity?

[rotund token]

no

primitives and pointers only

just like you were talking to native code

(which you are)

[rustic rain]

            var list = new NativeList<Entity>(Allocator.Temp);
            for (int i = 0; i < entities.Length; i++)
            {
                var e = entities[i];
                var buf = EntityManager.GetBuffer<LinkedEntityGroup>(e);
                list.AddRange(buf.ToNativeArray(Allocator.Temp).Reinterpret<Entity>().GetUnsafePtr(), buf.Length);
            }

When I dispose list, will buffer be safe?

and also will those NativeArrays that get reinterpreted disposed if I dispose list?

Do I even need to do toNativeArray?

[rotund token]

yes it'll be fine

and no you dont need to do tonativearray

just do as

[molten flame]

Do you know the correct way to destroy a companion object without destroying the entity?
When I spawn one in netcode I get 2 instances on the host so I need to remove the game object, the entity however should stay as its ghosted position is required for the client companion object.
When I try to delete the companion object the companion transform system complains because its trying to look them up with entity references like everyone else

[viral sonnet]

hm, isn't the real problem that 2 instances are spawned? doesn't sound right. if you have a transform on the entity you can destroy the transform.gameobject and then remove the transform component

[molten flame]

This is normal in netcode on the host.
Normally one entity goes to server world and one to client world.
But companion objects dont live in a world, so you get 2 in the same scene

[viral sonnet]

why does a server spawn a companion object? isn't it client only?

[molten flame]

hmm, I see what you're saying...
Its part of a ghost prefab. So maybe I could replace it with a client only spawner instead and hook up the parenting afterwards on the client

Netcode makes things twice as complicated as they ought to be but I guess that comes with the territory

[viral sonnet]

yeah, there's an attribute so a system runs only on client, server or both. if you set this to client for the spawner it should work out

[rotund token]

oh yeah

its a huge problem when you run things like multiple clients on same machine

you get like 2x lights etc in the scene

i specifically avoid companion objects on ghosts

[molten flame]

how you gonna do nameplates? runtime spawn them?

[rotund token]

what do you mean by nameplates sorry?

[viral sonnet]

sure, don't put them on the ghosts

[molten flame]

little name tag above the players head

[rotund token]

probably render them from code instead of UI

my draw system can already draw text really nicely in world

(mostly just for performance)

but if i didn't do it from code i'd probably just spawn them when required from a pool i think

i haven't considered it though

[molten flame]

Interesting, was wondering how you go about these rough edges in DOTS

[heady edge]

thanks a lot, turns out my code wasn't bursted at. So now I look at new performance number and my mind is blown

is there a bursted implementation of sort function for NativeArray/List? Build-in one seems not to be bursted

[rotund token]

it's bursted if you call it in burst code 🤣

[heady edge]

yeah, asked the question and started to actually look at the attributes %)

[viral sonnet]

burst or not, depending on how many elements you have in the list, sort is slow

[heady edge]

well burst turned 3.5 ms into 0.43 ms, so I'm happy

I have to say I'm as always amazed with burst performance, it allowed me to calculate vision cone against 10k edges in sight in 1.5 ms whereas without burst it was around 5

and once I get to manual vectorization I expect it to become even less

[viral sonnet]

yeah burst is amazing. 10x speedups are pretty normal

sometimes even more, kind of crazy

[rustic rain]

I just don't get it

            _allSystems = GetEntityQuery(ComponentType.ReadOnly<StarNormal>(),
                ComponentType.ReadOnly<StarShared>());

I have this EntityQuery

StarShared is Shared Comp

if that matters

EntityManager.AddComponent<DisableRendering>(_allSystems);
I do t his

some entities are unnaffected

There it is

It's not part of that query, and has no relationship with SetRenderingSystem from which this query exists

and no, it's not prefab

Meanwhile, here other and it IS affected

absolutely no difference

WAaaaait a second

oh my god

I figured it out

            _curSystem = GetEntityQuery(ComponentType.ReadOnly<StarNormal>(),
                ComponentType.ReadOnly<StarShared>());
            _allSystems = GetEntityQuery(ComponentType.ReadOnly<StarNormal>(),
                ComponentType.ReadOnly<StarShared>());

they are same

and _curSystem is getting filters

should have simply created new

[rustic rain]

Any tip where can I find manual on loading/unloading subscenes?

I need to have full control over what subscenes are loaded, what subscenes are not loaded

[oak sapphire]

Manual no, but did you check the subscene demo? I would guess it would explain a lot, but I did not check.
https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/EntityComponentSystemSamples/tree/master/ECSSamples/Assets/Advanced/SubsceneWithBuildConfigurations

[rotund token]

poorly documented

[rustic rain]

is that good?

[rotund token]

seems pretty gross

btw you can load subscenes from jobs

[rustic rain]

also, can't find how can I stop subscene from loading by itself?

[rotund token]

            this.Entities
                .WithNone<RequestSceneLoaded>()
                .ForEach((Entity entity, int entityInQueryIndex, in SceneSectionData sceneData, in LoadWithBoundingVolume load) =>
                {
                    var boundingVolume = (AABB)sceneData.BoundingVolume;
                    var maxDistanceSq = load.LoadMaxDistanceOverrideSq > 0 ? load.LoadMaxDistanceOverrideSq : loadMaxDistanceSq;

                    foreach (var ltw in playerPositions)
                    {
                        var distanceSq = boundingVolume.DistanceSq(ltw.Position);
                        if (distanceSq < maxDistanceSq)
                        {
                            buffer.AddComponent<RequestSceneLoaded>(entityInQueryIndex, entity);
                            return;
                        }
                    }
                })
                .WithReadOnly(playerPositions)
                .ScheduleParallel();```

this is how i load subscenes within range of a player

reverse is just removing RequestSceneLoaded component

[rustic rain]

ahem

I'm confused

So, all subscenes inside loaded normal scene will be loaded

that seems clear

so, instead I should remove that subscene

and load it manually?

[rotund token]

subscenes can actually be made up from multiple sections

each with its own bounds

by default all subscenes will have 1 section

and this is where your entities actually live

(but you can break them up further into more regions if you wnat)

to load a section all you need to do is attach RequestSceneLoaded to the section

if you look at your SceneSystem.LoadEntitySceneAsync

what it's actually doing is

        {
            RequestSceneLoaded requestSceneLoaded = CreateRequestSceneLoaded(parameters);

            EntityManager.AddComponentData(sceneEntity, requestSceneLoaded);

            if (parameters.AutoLoad && EntityManager.HasComponent<ResolvedSectionEntity>(sceneEntity))
            {
                foreach (var s in EntityManager.GetBuffer<ResolvedSectionEntity>(sceneEntity))
                    EntityManager.AddComponentData(s.SectionEntity, requestSceneLoaded);
            }
        }```

adding RequestSceneLoaded

to all it's sections

[rustic rain]

hmm, I see

wait what

where does this SceneSystem exists?

is that Editor only?

[rotund token]

no

[rustic rain]

hmm, could you recommend any specific pattern for bootstrap?

rn subscene is just loaded, which I don't want

[rotund token]

that's kind of a broad question

[rustic rain]

What I want - is to load all subscenes manually

Basically I have a World subscene which is supposed to be loaded only when world is getting generated

and several subscenes that I would want to load/unload on demand

[rotund token]

i have a script i attach to all subscenes which tells it how it should load

AutoLoad
Range
Custom

(range is what you saw above)

[rustic rain]

hmm

[rotund token]

when i start a world, i then load all AutoLoad subscenes and i make the world not tick until they're loaded

(so i don't have to through dependencies in all my systems - these are mostly my settings, prefabs etc)

[rustic rain]

Do I need any special settings for mono behaviour script execution order for this?

[rotund token]

there's no logic on these scripts

they just hold data

[rustic rain]

oh

so when scenes are even loaded on it's own?

[rotund token]

what do you mean

[rustic rain]

rn, no special scripts or systems

from what I noticed

they are loaded in async

and sometimes even during OnStartRunning

they might be not loaded yet

[rotund token]

yes subscenes load async

could take seconds

[rustic rain]

so, when and from where are they even scheduled to be loaded?

first of all I am looking for a way to stop them from loading alltogether

so I can try and do that manually

also what bothers me is that normal scene is also loaded as entity

[rotund token]

theres a toggle on them called auto load

untick it ^_^'

[rustic rain]

🤡 <- this is me

[round narwhal]

hi everyone,
since there's no update of DOTS Animation for 0.5, how can I animate models on a scene ?

[frosty siren]

through hybrid solutions (keep gameobjects synced with entities) or write animation yourself

[rustic rain]

any tip how I can differ between scenes? It seems like entities by itself contain little to no information about actually what scene is it.
Not sure how I can figure difference between this scene and another

you mentioned adding some data to scene game object

But I don't really see how it's data can be passed to entity

unless ofc, IConvertGameObject interface works on subscenes

[rotund token]

I setup all my subscenes when I create my world

I need to load my auto loads as well

[rustic rain]

I get it, but what is tying game object with entity in this scope?

can ConversionSystem catch it?

or IConvert interface?

[rotund token]

Nothing

[rustic rain]

how do I know whether this entity is scene I want?

[rotund token]

There is no entity

Until you create it via loading the subscene

I think you can just set the flag don't load or something like that to instantiate the sub scene to create its entity but not load its assets.

(in bed sorry can't check api, time to sleep anyway )

[rustic rain]

but it creates scene entity even if I untick Auto Load Scene

[covert lagoon]

To which system group should a character controller system implementing basic physics belong to in a game that uses Netcode for Entities?

I want clients to predict their owned player's movement

But GhostPredictionSystemGroup does not belong to FixedStepSimulationSystemGroup, to which physics systems should belong afaik

I guess I'll put the system in FixedStepSimulationSystemGroup and make it retrieve the GhostPredictionSystemGroup to get the predicting tick anyway

[misty wedge]

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.netcode@0.50/manual/physics.html

[covert lagoon]

I don't know how I missed this, thank you

[molten flame]

I cannot more highly recommend using Rival if you want a good DOTS character controller out of the box.
But even if you wanna do it yourself, Rival discord is a good place to ask, Philippe StAmand knows character controllers in DOTS better than anyone else.

[covert lagoon]

Rival discord
Link?

Nvm I found it

[covert lagoon]

I have 2 problems

1. Creating a Unity.NetCode.PredictedPhysicsConfig singleton on both the client and server does not move physics systems to the PredictedPhysicsSystemGroup

2. I can't manage to do a raycast that collides with my procedurally generated terrain

Ok I noticed something

[molten flame]

Are you using entities 0.50?
How do you create your singletons? I do mine immediately after I create the worlds.

[covert lagoon]

Yes I am using Entities 0.50.1-preview.2.
I create my singletons with a system, not inside my bootstrap:

    [UpdateInGroup(typeof(ClientAndServerInitializationSystemGroup))]
    public partial class NetcodeConfigSystem : SystemBase
    {
        protected override void OnStartRunning()
        {
            var netcodeConfig = EntityManager.CreateEntity();
            EntityManager.AddComponentData(netcodeConfig, new PredictedPhysicsConfig
            {
                PhysicsTicksPerSimTick = 1,
                DisableWhenNoConnections = true,
            });
        }

        protected override void OnUpdate()
        {
        }
    }

It's probably not the best way but I still expect it to work

[molten flame]

mm ok, only difference to me is that it runs in a system and has DisableWhenNoConnections = true instead of false

[covert lagoon]

What I noticed is that if I add a cube to my subscene and give it a dynamic physics body, it will collide with my terrain and bounce, roll around, etc

But if I make my player prefab's physics body dynamic instead of kinematic, it just falls through

Ok fuck me

I put my TerrainChunkMeshGenerationSystem in the ClientAndServerSimulationSystemGroup but I put my TerrainChunkGenerationSystem in the ClientSimulationSystemGroup

So the server didn't generate the terrain, so the player fell through on the server side, so the client received snapshots of the player falling through

And now my raycasts work too

[pearl tendon]

WAKE UP! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7mUuCSAX0A

[scarlet inlet]

Hey all: do you know if it is possible to iterate only a portion of a TransformAccessArray through a IJobParallelForTransform job?

I have a doubt now, maybe TransformAccessArray is not meant to be cached, but recreated every iteration?

[rustic rain]

what are you even trying to do?

[scarlet inlet]

iterate only a portion of the TransformAccessArray?

like let's say for an example sake I want to set only the first 100 positions in the array

and not to be forced to iterate it all

but I have the impression I may have misunderstood how to use it, if I should create the TransformAccess every iteration may make more sense. However it's still awkward if the number of gameobjects change, since the array must be of the exact size

so if I want to reserve space but not using it is a problem

in conclusion: I Wish I could at least pass an array and the count in the TransformAccessArray constructor, but it seems that even that is not possible

[covert lagoon]

Entity shows up in game view

But not in scene view

How

I checked in the hierarchy and the entity exists in both client and server worlds

Not that it only existing in one of them could change something in my opinion but I don't know what to check

Same Translation and LocalToWorld values in both worlds too

I restarted Unity and the issue did not fix itself

[covert lagoon]

But my PredictedPhysicsConfig singleton works now? Despite that I didn't touch the system that creates it?

[covert lagoon]

error NetCode: GhostField missing on field Alter.Characters.PlayerInput.Tick . Buffers or CommandData must have all fields annotated

^ When I first saw this error, I didn't think much and simply added the GhostField attribute to the Tick property of my following ICommandData-implementing struct:

    public struct PlayerInput : ICommandData
    {
        [GhostField]
        public uint Tick { get; set; }

        [GhostField(Quantization = 1000)]
        public float3 Translation;
    }

But I just noticed this in Netcode for Entities's source code:

    public interface ICommandData : IBufferElementData
    {
        [DontSerializeForCommand]
        uint Tick { get; set; }
    }

Should I replace the GhostField attribute on PlayerInput.Tick with DontSerializeForCommand?

Wait no I can't

If I do then I still get the same compiler error

It really wants me to use annotate all PlayerInput fields with GhostField

[molten flame]

Looks like you are correct, all fields should be ghost fields and it should be marked as ghost component

[molten flame]

I have an Entity Command Buffer question...
Say I have some entity that I delete with an ECB early in the loop.
There is no guarantee that, some later system that runs before the ECB plays back, reading that entity before it is destroyed, to do some logic, right?

[rotund token]

correct

[haughty rampart]

Unity when 0.51? XD

[rustic rain]

hopefully, before we all die out of old age

[timber ivy]

So does dots have animations yet?

[karmic basin]

Nope, not before long after 1.0

Have to rely on an hybrid with mecanim or roll your own animation implementation for DOTS

or find someone that sleeps less than you and already implemented it

[timber ivy]

I couldn't even find someone to pay to make that for me 9 months ago

[karmic basin]

Keep an eye on user DreamingImLatios 's framework, it will include animation at some point

Look at "Kinemation" here https://github.com/Dreaming381/Latios-Framework

Oh actually he did speed up this package I guess, looks like he published it in a public alpha stage https://forum.unity.com/threads/0-4-5-my-personal-dots-framework-latios-framework.797685/page-3#post-8077046

[covert lagoon]

Actually it makes sense to annotate the Tick property with GhostField: you want the peer to know which tick the command is from in an authoritarian server model

I don't know why it's annotated with DontSerializeForCommand in the definition of ICommandData

[oak sapphire]

Also there is this vertex animation dots project: https://github.com/maxartz15/VertexAnimation
Tens of thousands of animated 3d models. Just not the fancy rigs of the normal animation package.

[covert lagoon]

    public class GhostComponentAttribute : Attribute
    {
        // ...
        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets the type of ghost this component should be sent to if the ghost is owner predicted.
        /// </summary>
        public GhostSendType OwnerPredictedSendType {get; set;}

I don't want player input to be sent back from the server to any clients, right? So I should use GhostSendType.None?

[heady edge]

Any native collection out there that can insert sorted?

[viral sonnet]

so, uhm, who knows why nativecontainers are so slow in unbursted code? I said the problem is marshalling but some guy tells me I'm wrong. So what is it?

[heady edge]

            {
                var obstacle = Obstacles[i];
                var pp1 = new PolarCoords() {angle = 10, radius = 20};
                var pp2 = new PolarCoords() {angle = 20, radius = 10};
                // PolarHelpers.CartesianToPolar(ObserverPosition, obstacle.position1, out var pp1);
                // PolarHelpers.CartesianToPolar(ObserverPosition, obstacle.position2, out var pp2);
                ObstacleDatas[i] = new ObstacleData()
                {
                    cp1 = obstacle.position1,
                    cp2 = obstacle.position2,
                    direction = obstacle.dir,
                    pp1 = pp1,
                    pp2 = pp2,
                    obstacle = i,
                };```
when a thing like that became one of the two bottlenecks I have (other one is sort) I'm thinking i've reached the end of what I can squize out of it performance wise

[rustic rain]

checks