0.3.0-preview.4

[0.3.0] - 2019-12-03

New Features

• ENABLE_SIMPLE_SYSTEM_DEPENDENCIES define can now be used to replace the automatic dependency chaining with a much simplified strategy. With ENABLE_SIMPLE_SYSTEM_DEPENDENCIES it simply chains jobs in the order of the systems against previous jobs. Without ENABLE_SIMPLE_SYSTEM_DEPENDENCIES, dependencies are automatically chained based on read / write access of component data of each system. In cases when there game code is forced to very few cores, this can improve performance since it reduces overhead in calculating optimal dependencies.
• Two new methods added to the public API:
  • EntityManager.CreateEntity(Archetype type, int count, Allocator allocator);
  • EntityManager.Instantiate(Entity entity, int count, Allocator allocator);
    Both methods return a NativeArray<Entity>.

Changes

Removed the following deprecated API as announced in/before 0.1.1-preview:

• From GameObjectConversionUtility.cs: ConvertIncrementalInitialize() and ConvertScene().
• From Translation.cs: struct Position.
• From EditorEntityScenes.cs: WriteEntityScene().
• From GameObjectConversionSystem.cs: AddReferencedPrefab(), AddDependency(), AddLinkedEntityGroup(), DstWorld.
• From DefaultWorld.cs: class EndPresentationEntityCommandBufferSystem.

Fixes

• ConvertAndInject won't destroy the root GameObject anymore (fixes regression introduced in 0.2.0)
• Fix Android build when using new build pipeline
  • Provide correct application extension apk, aab or empty for project export
  • Set package name to be com.UnityTechnologies.Samples
  • Set API Compatibility to be .NET Standard 2.0

[0.2.0] - 2019-11-22

This version requires Unity 2019.3 0b11+

New Features

• Automatically generate authoring components for IComponentData with IL post-processing. Any component data marked with a GenerateAuthoringComponent attribute will generate the corresponding authoring MonoBehaviour with a Convert method.

• BuildSettings assets are now used to define a single build recipe asset on disk. This gives full control over the build pipeline in a modular way from C# code.

  • BuildSettings let you attach builtin or your own custom IBuildSettingsComponents for full configurability
  • BuildPipelines let you define the exact IBuildStep that should be run and in which order
  • IBuildStep is either builtin or your own custom build step
  • BuildSettings files can be inherited so you can easily make base build settings with most configuration complete and then do minor adjustments per build setting
  • Right now most player configuration is still in the existing PlayerSettings, our plan is to over time expose all Player Settings via BuildSettings as well to ease configuration of complex projects with many build recipes & artifacts

• SubScenes are now automatically converted to entity binary files & cached by the asset pipeline. The entity cache files previously present in the project folder should be removed. Conversion systems can use the ConverterVersion attribute to convert to trigger a reconversion if the conversion system has changed behaviour. The conversion happens asynchronously in another process. Thus on first open the subscenes might not show up immediately.

• Live link builds can be built with the new BuildSettings pipeline.
  Open sub scene

  • Closed Entity scenes are built by the asset pipeline and loaded via livelink on demand
  • Opened Entity scenes are send via live entity patcher with patches on a per component / entity basis based on what has changed
  • Assets referenced by entity scenes are transferred via livelink when saving the asset
  • Scenes loaded as game objects are currently not live linked (This is in progress)
    by assigning the LiveLink build pipeline

• Entities.ForEach syntax for supplying jobified code in a JobComponentSystem's OnUpdate method directly by using a lambda (instead of supplying an additional IJobForEach).

• EntityQueryMask has been added, which allows for quick confirmation of if an Entity would be returned by an EntityQuery without filters via EntityQueryMask.Matches(Entity entity). An EntityQueryMask can be obtained by calling EntityManager.GetEntityQueryMask(EntityQuery query).

• Unity Entities now supports the Fast Enter playmode which can be enabled in the project settings. It is recommended to be turned on for all dots projects.

• The UnityEngine component StopConvertToEntity can be used to interrupt ConvertToEntity recursion, and should be preferred over a ConvertToEntity set to "convert and inject" for that purpose.

• EntityDebugger now shows IDs in a separate column, so you can still see them when entities have custom names

• Entity references in the Entity Inspector have a "Show" button which will select the referenced Entity in the Debugger.

• An ArchetypeChunkIterator can be created by calling GetArchetypeChunkIterator on an EntityQuery. You may run an IJobChunk while bypassing the Jobs API by passing an ArchetypeChunkIterator into IJobChunk.RunWithoutJobs().

• The [AlwaysSynchronizeSystem] attribute has been added, which can be applied to a JobComponentSystem to force it to synchronize on all of its dependencies before every update.

• BoneIndexOffset has been added, which allows the Animation system to communicate a bone index offset to the Hybrid Renderer.

• Initial support for using Hybrid Components during conversion, see the HybridComponent sample in the StressTests folder.

• New GameObjectConversionSystem.ForkSettings() that provides a very specialized method for creating a fork of the current conversion settings with a different "EntityGuid namespace", which can be used for nested conversions. This is useful for example in net code where multiple root-level variants of the same authoring object need to be created in the destination world.

• EntityManager LockChunkOrder and UnlockChunkOrder are deprecated.

• Entity Scenes can be loaded synchronously (during the next streaming system update) by using SceneLoadFlags.BlockOnStreamIn in SceneSystem.LoadParameters.

• EntityCommandBuffer can now be played back on an ExclusiveEntityTransaction as well as an EntityManager. This allows ECB playback to be invoked from a job (though exclusive access to the EntityManager data is still required for the duration of playback).

Upgrade guide

• If you are using SubScenes you must use the new BuildSettings assets to make a build & run it. SubScenes are not supported from the File -> BuildSettings... & File -> Build and Run workflows.
• Entities requires AssetDatabase V2 for certain new features, we do not provide support for AssetDatabase V1.

Fixes

• Setting ComponentSystemGroup.Enabled to false now calls OnStopRunning() recursively on the group's member systems, not just on the group itself.
• Updated Properties pacakge to 0.10.3-preview to fix an exception when showing Physics ComponentData in the inspector as well as fix IL2CPP Ahead of Time linker errors for generic virtual function calls.
• The LocalToParentSystem will no longer write to the LocalToWorld component of entities that have a component with the WriteGroup(typeof(LocalToWorld)).
• Entity Debugger styling work better with Pro theme
• Entity Inspector no longer has runaway indentation
• Fixed issue where AddSharedComponentData, SetSharedComponentData did not always update SharedComponentOrderVersion.
• Fixes serialization issue when reading in managed IComponentData containing array types and UnityEngine.Object references.
• No exception is thrown when re-adding a tag component with EntityQuery.
• AddComponent<T>(NativeArray<Entity>) now reliably throws an ArgumentException if any of the target entities are invalid.
• Fixed an issue where the Entity Debugger would not repaint in edit mode
• Marking a system as [UpdateInGroup(typeof(LateSimulationSystemGroup))] no longer emits a warning about [DisableAutoCreation].
• Fixed rendering of chunk info to be compatible with HDRP
• Fixed issue where ToComponentDataArray ignored the filter settings on the EntityQuery for managed component types.

Changes

• Moved NativeString code from Unity.Entities to Unity.Collections.
• Updated dependencies for this package.
• Significantly improved Entity instantiation performance when running in-Editor.
• Added support for managed IComponentData types such as class MyComponent : IComponentData {} which allows managed types such as GameObjects or List<>s to be stored in components. Users should use managed components sparingly in production code when possible as these components cannot be used by the Job System or archetype chunk storage and thus will be significantly slower to work with. Refer to the documentation for component data for more details on managed component use, implications and prevention.
• 'SubSceneStreamingSystem' has been renamed to SceneSectionStreamingSystem and is now internal
• Deprecated _SceneEntities in SubScene.cs. Please use SceneSystem.LoadAsync / Unload with the respective SceneGUID instead. This API will be removed after 2019-11-22.
• Updated com.unity.serialization to 0.6.3-preview.
• The deprecated GetComponentGroup() APIs are now protected and can only be called from inside a System like their GetEntityQuery() successors.
• All GameObjects with a ConvertToEntity set to "Convert and Destroy" will all be processed within the same conversion pass, this allows cross-referencing.
• Duplicate component adds are always ignored
• When adding component to single entity via EntityQuery, entity is moved to matching chunk instead of chunk achetype changing.
• "Used by Systems" list skips queries with filters
• Managed IComponentData no longer require all fields to be non-null after default construction.
• ISharedComponentData is serialized inline with entity and managed IComponentData. If a shared component references a UnityEngine.Object type, that type is serialized separately in an "objrefs" resource asset.
• EntityManager calls EntityComponentStore via burst delegates for Add/Remove components.
• EntityComponentStore cannot throw exceptions (since called as burst delegate from main thread.)
• bool ICustomBootstrap.Initialize(string defaultWorldName) has changed API with no deprecated fallback. It now simply gives you a chance to completely replace the default world initialization by returning true.
• ICustomBootstrap & DefaultWorldInitialization is now composable like this:

class MyCustomBootStrap : ICustomBootstrap
{
    public bool Initialize(string defaultWorldName)
    {
        Debug.Log("Executing bootstrap");
        var world = new World("Custom world");
        World.DefaultGameObjectInjectionWorld = world;
        var systems = DefaultWorldInitialization.GetAllSystems(WorldSystemFilterFlags.Default);

        DefaultWorldInitialization.AddSystemsToRootLevelSystemGroups(world, systems);
        ScriptBehaviourUpdateOrder.UpdatePlayerLoop(world);
        return true;
    }
}

• ICustomBootstrap can now be inherited and only the most deepest subclass bootstrap will be executed.
• DefaultWorldInitialization.GetAllSystems is not affected by bootstrap, it simply returns a list of systems based on the present dlls & attributes.
• Time is now available per-World, and is a property in a ComponentSystem. It is updated from the UnityEngine.Time during the InitializationSystemGroup of each world. If you need access to time in a sytem that runs in the InitializationSystemGroup, make sure you schedule your system after UpdateWorldTimeSystem. Time is also a limited TimeData struct; if you need access to any of the extended fields available in UnityEngine.Time, access UnityEngine.Time explicitly`
• Systems are no longer removed from a ComponentSystemGroup if they throw an exception from their OnUpdate. This behavior was more confusing than helpful.
• Managed IComponentData no longer require implementing the IEquatable<> interface and overriding GetHashCode(). If either function is provided it will be preferred, otherwise the component will be inspected generically for equality.
• EntityGuid is now constructed from an originating ID, a namespace ID, and a serial, which can be safely extracted from their packed form using new getters. Use a and b fields when wanting to treat this as an opaque struct (the packing may change again in the future, as there are still unused bits remaining). The a/b constructor has been removed, to avoid any ambiguity.
• Updated com.unity.platforms to 0.1.6-preview.
• The default Api Compatibility Level should now be .NET Standard 2.0 and a warning is generated when the project uses .NET 4.x.
• Added [UnityEngine.ExecuteAlways] to LateSimulationSystemGroup, so its systems run in Edit Mode.

Known Issues