IDE Configuration

[vagrant wind]

There we go

[meager snow]

Thank you

Both for making a thread and being patient enough to help me

[vagrant wind]

So, you're using Visual Studio Code, which is entirely different from Visual Studio, even if the names don't differ that much

[meager snow]

wait

waaaaait a sec did i click the wrong link maybe

also

should i switch IDE?

[vagrant wind]

If you have a decent computer I would advise dropping VS Code and installing Visual Studio 2022

[meager snow]

Alr

Whats the difference

[vagrant wind]

It's heavier, but it installs 100 times faster. No package and extensions needed

It's fully built-in

[meager snow]

I see

So takes more space but got everything built in

lemme uninstall this one then

getting 2022 rn

[vagrant wind]

Community, the other two are for professionals and paid

[meager snow]

I wish i could lie and say im a professional lol

[meager snow]

I see

[vagrant wind]

If you want to pay $2500 per year, sure

[meager snow]

Perfect way to spend my money

[vagrant wind]

Just let me know when the install is complete and when it prompts you to install "workloads"

[meager snow]

Alr

Installed its getting ready

[vagrant wind]

Installer is (yet) another application that you can run to manage what workloads are installed on your system

[meager snow]

Its done

Prompting me to install workloads now

[vagrant wind]

Game Dev With Unity is the one you need, and since you already have Unity installed, on the right pane you'll have to de-select "Unity Hub"

[meager snow]

Alr

this one it is

[vagrant wind]

Yes

[meager snow]

Quick question

Unrelated but u can just choose to skip it if you want

I do code in python some times using visual studio, do i select the python option too or do i just skip it if i already have python installed?

[meager snow]

U can just skip this question if u want its completly unrelated

[vagrant wind]

You can select the workload so VS supports editing Python scripts, but not sure if it'll install other versions of Python with it

[meager snow]

Alr

I got the latest one so hopefully if it tries to install another one on top of it it will just replace the files

Alr installing!

[vagrant wind]

Or it'll install along the other Python versions, and when running from VS it'll prompt you which version you want to run it with

[meager snow]

that might be the case

[vagrant wind]

Once the install completes you can close the installer, and switch back to Unity, to finish the config on that side

[meager snow]

soon done

[meager snow]

Alr

Its done

Lemme just sign in

I'll probably get used to the start menu

Alr then time for the unity side

[vagrant wind]

So, in Unity, Edit > Preferences > External Tools

In the dropdown select VS22 Community, and hit the Regenerate Project Files button

And that's all there is to it

[meager snow]

do i browse

[vagrant wind]

Hmm, it should be there

[meager snow]

and try to find Visual Studio 2022

I could try to re-open unity

[vagrant wind]

Maybe the whole computer, so VS things go in the PATH

[meager snow]

O

alr

wait

before i was gonna do that

i tried opening a script

to see if i would get the menuy where i can choose

but it opened using Visual Studio 2022

Does it have to be selected in the external tools

[vagrant wind]

Yeah, here it failed to load

[meager snow]

alr

[vagrant wind]

"Misc files" and uncolored Unity types are hints

[meager snow]

O

alr

lemme restart pc

I really hate the interface of Visual Studio 2022 damn

oki brb

back

do u use the VS22

[vagrant wind]

Yeah

[meager snow]

alr

opening unity

[vagrant wind]

Safe mode, you closed unity with compiler errors last time

It shouldn't interfere with the rest of the config

[meager snow]

Alr

So now i just try the thing again

external tools

[vagrant wind]

Yep

[meager snow]

Got it

Regenerating project files now

and its done i think

[vagrant wind]

Yeah, it doesn't tell you anything unless the generation failed

Now open a script from Unity, you should be done with it

[meager snow]

alr

Lemme open the player script

thats the one giving errors

and the one im trying to create a loop in

its open

It doesnt seem to be autocompleting yet though

Oh your gone

Let me know when you're back (if u still want to help me lol)

Just ping me :D

[meager snow]

@vagrant wind Do i close the thread or ask someone else?

[vagrant wind]

Sorry I'm back, something important came up

[meager snow]

Its alright dont worry

You can stop helping me if you want

I can always ask someone else

[vagrant wind]

Not that close to completing it, no way

[meager snow]

Alright

:D

Can you give me an example of something it should autocomplete

[vagrant wind]

Anywhere inside the class, Transform for example

[meager snow]

alr

Autocompleted Trans to Transform so i think its working

[vagrant wind]

Okay, as long as you have that little list appearing under your cursor as you type, you're good

Do you get errors in the code, underlined red?

[meager snow]

let me check

3

Console

All are from Line 21

which is

[vagrant wind]

Yeah, so it's safe to say that the config succeded

[meager snow]

Thats good

first time its working

ive tried so many times

[vagrant wind]

And that, needs to be inside of void Start() for it to be run when the game starts

[meager snow]

alr

1 sec

green means its not giving any errors on that part?

[vagrant wind]

And the coroutine must be an actual loop for it to repeat

IEnumerator SaveLoop() {
  while (true) {
    SavePlayer();
    yield return new WaitForSeconds(3);
  }
}

Otherwise the code is good, apart from the other errors which it seems, are types that you didn't create yet

[meager snow]

Well

They are created, but in different scripts

The coroutine seems to not error up now

Its green!

:D

this are the 2 errors now

They were created in

a script called "SaveSystem"

That script got no errors though

so thats alr

I followed a brackeys tutorial

His Player script looked like

1 sec

[vagrant wind]

Yeah, so the first error is because you're referring to something that doesn't exist (it's SaveSystem, not SavePlayer)

And the second one is the same, its Player and not PlayerData

[meager snow]

OHH

let me try now

Only 1 error left now!

let me check line 20 rq

[vagrant wind]

Ah I think it's my fault lmao

[vagrant wind]

This is false. Since LoadPlayer returns a Stats, on line 20 you need to put that in a variable of type Stats, not Player

[meager snow]

Lemme re-read

im so confused

hmm

So i do

[vagrant wind]

Yeah, no more errors

[meager snow]

because the script name is

Stats

lemme try this

😔

Its fascinating how one can make so many errors in code not longer than 30 lines

[vagrant wind]

Uhh never seen that one

Not a C# error, at least

[meager snow]

Hmm

wait

is it maybe because i removed : Monobehaviour

[vagrant wind]

No idea

Refer to the tutorial, compare your code to theirs in the video

[meager snow]

I did

and i think i got an idea

Yes

fixed

i had the script without monobehaviour attached to a game object

removing it form a game object removes the error

the tutorial doesnt attach the script

so im figuring that it gets run either way

at start

[vagrant wind]

Yeah, classes that don't inherit from MonoBehaviour cannot be attached to GameObjects, but still can be used for data storage

[meager snow]

i see

alr lemme try this

I'll let you know if it works

I just need to make it display the value of coins and gems in text on the screen

and also get it to add to the value

so gimmie a moment

[vagrant wind]

I'll attract your attention on the fact that this is an old tutorial, using old tech.
Especially the BinaryFormatter used to interact with files, is unsafe and should NOT be used anymore.

An attacker can use a maliciously modified save file to exploit a breach in the BinaryFormatter that could give them access to your game, or worse, your computer.
BinaryFormatter is not safe, and cannot be made safe.
See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/serialization/binaryformatter-security-guide for more information on the subject.

[meager snow]

😭

and he said it was the safest and said some other method was unsafe lol

if its not online, is it a security risk?

its bad either way probably

but i am so scared of changing this code because im scared of breaking everything

and im already asking questions on every step

im downgrading to the LTS 2020

[vagrant wind]

And worse, I still can't believe I haven't found a single comment talking about it, all there is is "thanks it works!"

Oflline, there are way less risks. But someone can still send you a save file and be like "hey can you check it? I think it's bugged", and that save file contained a malicious payload

[meager snow]

Hm i see

What would you recommend instead

Lemme read the security guide rq

[meager snow]

reason i got 2021 was bc of the icon-

i want the new one and not the old one lol

but i can prolly change that

[vagrant wind]

JSON serialization using the safe, built-in type JsonUtility.
But you're getting a bit everywhere, have you fixed the UI issue?

[meager snow]

nope

ur corect im everywhere

oki lemme make a list of what i should prioritize

First off, i need to downgrade and get the tools working.
Then i need to fix the UI, and test to see if the code works. (Planning on making it display the value of the variable as text to see if it works)
If it works, i need to use the JSON serialization using the built-in type JsonUtility

oki

getting the 2020 version

LTS

[meager snow]

very late but im back

its finally installed

currently downgrading the project

[meager snow]

Fixed the arrow issue

@vagrant wind Did you know how to fix the UI issue?

Sorry for the ping, re-added you into the thread.
Let me know if you dont wanna help anymore/cant help anymore

[vagrant wind]

Just give me 10 minutes

[meager snow]

Alr!

[vagrant wind]

Alright I'm back

So, what's the issue? Still the anchoring, or the actual text display logic

[meager snow]

Oki so

let me try your fix above

i was everywhere and kinda confused myself

u just reminded me

this is the canvas size

this is the scene size

i cant change the canvas size

cant change the canvas size

I'll look it up on google and see if i can find a solution

[vagrant wind]

Yeah it's normal, canvas size can't be changed because it will always fit your whole screen

It has no connection at all with the actual 3d scene

[meager snow]

oh

but the text is in it

[vagrant wind]

Unity just puts it there because it has nowhere else to render

[meager snow]

and i cant get it to be the same size as the camera

[meager snow]

Oooh

but what do i do then

the text is affected by the canvas

goes after canvas center etc.

how would i make it fit to the camera center

currently looking it up on google

[vagrant wind]

Yeah, so when you'll play the game the text will be center screen, given that you anchored and positioned it middle center

[meager snow]

oooh

this means its anchored, correct?

OMFG

IM SO STUPID

[vagrant wind]

It's always anchored, here middle center specifically

[meager snow]

i should have tested

ty

Ui is good enough for now

i just needed it to display the variable

now i just need to switch the system out for JSON serialization

oh that bad

Do you have any recommendations on where i can find out how to switch the system out for JSON serialization?

[vagrant wind]

Unity's documentation for JsonUtility

[meager snow]

O

Pasting this here

this is gonna be complicated

damn

[vagrant wind]

Nah, it's similar to BinaryFormatter, it may even be easier to use

[meager snow]

I know how to use JSON, used it to store economy values for a python bot but

not sure how to do something like that in C#

i think i found something though

https://videlais.com/2021/02/25/using-jsonutility-in-unity-to-save-and-load-game-data/

[meager snow]

U might be right

all i have to change is

from custom to .json

and then some other things

but yes

start seems easy

[vagrant wind]

It works with custom extensions too, as the JSON serializer only returns a string containing the JSON, it's your responsibility to save it anywhere

[meager snow]

O

Thats even better

a little bit fun lol

oki so i dont have to change the first step

second step is checking if file exists or not

already got that done

[vagrant wind]

Just keep your current file structure, and class structure, just try to adapt what's being said in that website to your own code

[meager snow]

Alr

this part confuses me

it uses void Awake

and makes path

but

cant i just keep what its doing right now

the

[vagrant wind]

Yeah, you just have to change one line in that code, formatter.Serialize

The rest takes care of file I/O

[meager snow]

O

Alr

[meager snow]

lemme read what they do after i dont know what to change yet lol

wait

i would delete the formatter.Serialize

right?

I remember seeing a post where it said 4 times in the biggest text ever

[vagrant wind]

Yeah, in fact the whole code can be re-designed, because JsonUtility doesn't need a FileStream to work

[meager snow]

DONT EVER USE SERIALIZE
And other things about it
But brackeys said use it so i kinda messed up there

[meager snow]

O

in the page im reading rn its saying that they are gonna use filestream

but

is there some easier solution if it doesnt need it then?

damn im learning so much

[vagrant wind]

Serializing returns a string, that you can directly write to a file in bulk using the handy File.WriteAllText method, that does all the stream ops for you

[meager snow]

would i then do something like

[vagrant wind]

Same thing for reading, but with File.ReadAllText instead

[meager snow]

File.ReadAllText

[meager snow]

O

and then deserialize that

[vagrant wind]

Yep

[meager snow]

it sounds easier but problem is im not sure how i would do that

even though i kinda know

im confused a little lol

Should i do that

or follow the written tutorial thingy that uses FileStream

oh but it does that

now im even more confused

doesnt this method also do ReadAllText

and it looks pretty similar to my code

[meager snow]

well not my code but

[vagrant wind]

Working without FileStream is better because you don't handle the stream yourself, eliminating potential errors.
And plus, it shortens the code to about 2 lines

[meager snow]

ayo

I like the sound of short code

easier to not fail at

would i have to redesign my whole system though

to use it like that

[vagrant wind]

Not at all, you just have to make your data class serializable, by marking it with that attribute

[meager snow]

O

[vagrant wind]

That's all there is to modifying the data layer

[meager snow]

To make is serializable

do i put

[System.Serializable]

[vagrant wind]

Just like in the example on that page

[meager snow]

This was another file

Im just guessing rn

[vagrant wind]

That's their example yes

[meager snow]

Alr

[vagrant wind]

[Serializable] makes the class visible to JsonUtility, and it will process it

[meager snow]

O

But dont i only need to make the

file containing

[meager snow]

This serializable

Since the JsonUtility will only need to manage the Stats

[vagrant wind]

The thing that you want to serialize, so your Stats class

[meager snow]

oh

then im already done

i thought you meant serializing

the save system

now i understand that

now to the main thing

lemme re-read

alr so

now that i made it serializable i just follow the page

i got so confused for a sec

Ah give a minute

[meager snow]

something came up sorry

back now

lemme follow the tutoriual

tutorial*

Changed to ^^

@vagrant wind Unity is not happy with me rn

Should i just scrap everything and copy their system?
Its going to do the same thing

Even thought i dont want to copy

this is going so bad

And i've already spent the whole day making no progress

[vagrant wind]

Well, you aren't actually using the JsonUtility anywhere

Neither for saving nor for loading

[meager snow]

w h a t

😭

wait

ur right

wtf was i expecting this to do

[vagrant wind]

And saving should not be reading from the file, it should be writing the contents of the JSON to it

[meager snow]

Ok so

everything is wrong

[vagrant wind]

No, you're just missing one line of code per method

[meager snow]

wait

i am?

ur making me see hope in the far too long time i've spent

[vagrant wind]

The one that converts player.Stats to JSON and back

[meager snow]

i dont think they included that

oh god

isnt this it?

[vagrant wind]

They 100% did, because that's what the article is about, JsonUtility

Yeah that's the one

[meager snow]

but it is in the script

above

wait

it isnt

what

now i just need to figure out why everything is red

[vagrant wind]

Inverted, trying to save into the Load, and load into the Save

[meager snow]

So if i just

Fixed invertion error

Thats why LoadPlayer is red

thing that doesnt return value is probably

[vagrant wind]

We still have some inversion in the Save. You write before serializing

[meager snow]

O

1 sec

Changed order

and added string = path

since the File.Write needs the path

Removed duplibate path under the if (File.exists)

[vagrant wind]

I don't know what GameData is, I recall seeing you take the stats from the player parameter directly

ToJson(Player.stats)

[meager snow]

Gamedata should be

[meager snow]

I think that was before i used Json

gameData should be

OH WAIT

[vagrant wind]

You still need the same things

[meager snow]

WAIT

IS gameData A VARIABLE INSIDE OF THE SCRIPT

WAIT

no

it isnt

[meager snow]

so

Player.gameData?

but couldnt i just do

.stats then

[vagrant wind]

Converting the saving system to JSON should not have any effect on the data layer

[meager snow]

aha

then imdeleting the gameData

no im not

Because im unsure of what it does

[vagrant wind]

With BinaryFormatter you got the data from player.stats? That's the same for JSON serialization

[meager snow]

1 sec

oh

wait

so i do

[vagrant wind]

Inside of the save method, it's better

[meager snow]

Fixed

[vagrant wind]

That method looks good to me

[meager snow]

This method is the only one i now kinda understand how it would work

so

if its good then thats even better

again, thank you so much for spending your time here helping me

let me try adding

Stats data = thingy

in the If exists

[vagrant wind]

Hmm no

[meager snow]

data is not red lined now

[meager snow]

o

removed

do i need to add

in the

[vagrant wind]

You don't get the stats from thin air, they're in the JSON. You save a Stat, so you deserialize a Stat

[meager snow]

LoadPlayer ()

[meager snow]

Would i add in the brackets of LoadPlayer (Player Player)

to access Stats data thingy

then

[vagrant wind]

No

[meager snow]

oh

[vagrant wind]

The loading loads the stats and returns it that's it

[meager snow]

o

hm

[meager snow]

so i'd add the jsonString part from the Saveplayer
and then instead of FIle.WriteAllText i do ReadAllText

[vagrant wind]

Yes, read, then deserialize, and return the value

[meager snow]

Alr let me try that

i think im understanding now

do i put the file name here then

player.pepper

[vagrant wind]

No, the type

Stats

[meager snow]

O

i think i know what im doing wrong

first off

dont i need string before data

wait

no

wtf

i already read all text

in the path

no wait

im already

cant i just remove the last 2 lines

doesnt it already read

[vagrant wind]

You already read once, yes

But don't delete the line where you convert the read JSON back to a Stats

[meager snow]

to convert back i do

this one

right?

but add a string before the data

[vagrant wind]

No, FromJson<Stats> returns a Stats, not a string

So Stats data = JsonUtility...

[meager snow]

i swear im stupid

How would i convert it back to a stats

FromJson?

[meager snow]

But it cant be FromJson since thats what this did

That i deleted

I feel so stupid

[vagrant wind]

That's what it does

[meager snow]

oh

but cant i just keep the data then if thats what it does

im sorry if im missing something really obvious right now

[vagrant wind]

ToJson converts an object into its JSON representation
FromJson converts a JSON representation into an object

Once you got the data back from the JSON string, just return it, since that's what the method does

[meager snow]

OH

so i'd do

return data;

[vagrant wind]

It's literally the same thing as the BinaryFormatter, you just change how it's formatted

Nothing else

[meager snow]

i shouldnt have deleted the binary formatted thing

[vagrant wind]

There are screenshots of it in this convo

[meager snow]

the page doesnt mention anything about return

[meager snow]

lemem scroll up

lemme*

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/928260119412756510/928290772451749908/unknown.png

[meager snow]

oh would i

just copy exactly that

oh

[vagrant wind]

No

[meager snow]

oh

[vagrant wind]

That's taken from the screenshot to show you the logic

[meager snow]

aha

[meager snow]

Here is how i changed it

am i on the right track or

did i fail miserably

[vagrant wind]

Well, that's wrong, but you've got the logic down

All there is left is to use JsonUtility.FromJson in replacement

[meager snow]

would i do

.Deserialize

after FromJson

[vagrant wind]

.

[meager snow]

oh

no errors

did i actually do it

or is this false hope

if i understand

insead of doing as Stats

[vagrant wind]

Not sure, you're not supposed to be passing a file path here

[meager snow]

<Stats> is the same thing but

[meager snow]

oh

OH WAIT

I WOULD ADD

fileContents THERE

RIGHT?

[vagrant wind]

Yes

[meager snow]

PLEASE TELL ME IM RIGHT

OMFG IM UNDERSTANDING

alr now that that is done

if im not mistaken

the easy part

changing text to show the value of coins

i think i can do this myself

only thing i dont know is

where would i put that

would i put that part into the same script

Well the real question is just

How would u get the value now

Ex. From another script how would I load it

And

Yes

If I know how to load it o can use the coins variable

And modify it before saving for example

Ao all I need to know is that

[vagrant wind]

If you did not touch any other code, you are already doing it somewhere.
Like Stats s = SaveLoadSystem.LoadPlayer();

So right after that, you can access s to pull the coin count and display it

[meager snow]

O

So

s.xoins

Coins*

Or

s.gems

I see

And I can do that in any script if I'm not wrong

Correct?

I might have to define Stats

But isn't that it

If I try to access the variables from another script

[vagrant wind]

No, you can't do that from any script. You need a reference to the Stats you just loaded

Usually in the script you have a reference to the text, and set the text from there

[meager snow]

So

If I just reference the stats

I can do it from another script

[vagrant wind]

Stats s = SaveLoadSystem.LoadPlayer();
theText.text = s.coins;

Reference the text, it's easier

[meager snow]

Alr so

I just use the script called SaveSystem (the one with load player and save player) to manage anything that requires loading

That sounds a little more orginazied actually smart

And when I save

Is gonna save the current value of coins

If I didn't mess it up

Lemme try

Again third time, tysm for bearing with me and spending your own time on helping me

[vagrant wind]

If I remember correctly you already have a script that does SaveSystem.LoadPlayer(), I helped you fix it

[meager snow]

Yes

[vagrant wind]

So use that very script and apply this.

[meager snow]

Let me try this sorry unity is loading

oh i wrote a double ;; thats why i got an error

1 sec

this is where it is

but thats in another script

hm

oh it does the same thing

but remakes the LoadPlayer function

but just loads everything from the SaveSystem Load player

[vagrant wind]

So that's the code you had from the beginning, and it's on the Player script

[meager snow]

Correct

and if im not wrong

it does the same thing

just in another script

which i could use instead of the SaveSystem script to make the SaveSystem script less cluttery

[vagrant wind]

If you don't spawn your player (ie. if it's into your scene before you start the game), you can have a direct reference to the Text from there, and update the text from the player

[meager snow]

so if the text object is in the scene before i start the game

i can just do something like

Text.value = "" <- that is completly wrong i'll check how to do that im just using it as an example for a reference

https://forum.unity.com/threads/changing-textmeshpro-text-from-ui-via-script.462250/ found what im looking for

[vagrant wind]

If both* the player and the text object are in the scene, then yes

[meager snow]

hm

so the 3 scripts i have

are

in here

does that count as scene

[vagrant wind]

No

That's your project files

In the scene = scripts attached to GameObjects in the scene

[meager snow]

so i could make an empty game object called

idk

Scripts

and attach the scripts to it?

Well the player one

the other 2 dont have a mono behaviour

[vagrant wind]

I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of everything Unity, and all of this is way over your head

[meager snow]

Pretty much yes

but you only learn one way-

[vagrant wind]

So you should be doing tutorials, because tomorrow you won't remember how the JSON save/load system works

[meager snow]

i've tried tutorials

But

they are often for

specific parts of something

and not full

[vagrant wind]

No, real tutorials, that get you started with Both Unity and C#

You would need to do at least the three first that are pinned to #💻┃code-beginner

[meager snow]

I didnt even notice those

I guess i need to check those out when i get this working

[vagrant wind]

To be honest, you won't be able to get this working because you don't have the fundamentals of how scripts can communicate and what references are

It would be better to drop the current project, do the tutorials, and come back to the project

[meager snow]

i see

omg wait

its working

I added a LoadPlayer(); to the Start();

before it starts saving

Thank you so much for helping me

I'll put this project on pause

and check out the tutorials up there

Again thank you for spending so much time helping someone who doesnt know anything at all

[vagrant wind]

I just realized that we never actually tested the code, but if it works it's good, you won't have to scratch your head bugfixing later on

So off you go to tutorials now!

[meager snow]

Yes i was scared of that lol

[meager snow]

:D

At first it didnt work but

[meager snow]

I remembered that we had to load

tried and

it works

Tysm

I will master unity

And i will dm you one day saying

i understand

Tysm

Have a good day!

The thread will archive itself if im not wrong

[vagrant wind]

I'm looking forward to this moment. All of this started from an IDE config issue lmao

[meager snow]

Lmfaoo yes

[vagrant wind]

...8 hours ago

Look how far we've gone