Feedback Could Unity add csproj of each package project into the solution file?

The vs sln file generated by Unity editor only contains the project under Assets folder. However, there are also csproj files for each package project next to the sln file. Could Unity editor involve these package project csproj files into the sln as well?

 

I'm using the 2018.3.10f1. I could see the csproj file generated but they were not added to the sln file.

 

Maybe you misunderstood what I meant.

I meant the projects from the Asset folder, such as my own code or asmdef project, would be generated and added into the solution file.

But the projects from the packages, which were installed via Package Manager, would NOT be added into the solutions file.

 

Could it be possible for visual studio?

 

This is essential for development, because it allows you to use Go To Definition (and other IDE features) and see the implementation easily.

Also it fixes the issue with "missing" XML documentation in referenced packages.
(e.g. Unity.Entities contains a lot of documentation comments, but they won't show because there's no Unity.Entities.xml in Library\ScriptAssemblies)

 

Packages using csproj with default unity folder layout stuff would be nice, been doing some stuff with file:// packages and being able to reference/find stuff and see comments has been a god send.

 

Is there any update on this?

 

This was added in (I think) 2019.3. Enable the "Generate all .csproj files" option in Unity's preferences under "External Tools".

After enabling the option, you need to get Unity to regenerate the project, e.g. by selecting "Assets" » "Open C# Project". You then should see a lot more csproj files in your Unity project from all your package's assembly definitions.

When enabling this option and using VSCode, the documentation for all packages is displayed and go to definition jumps directly to the source code.

I did run into an issue where the option would be forgotten and I hat to uncheck, recheck and then regenerate the project to enable it again.

 

It also works with Unity 2019.2.17. Thanks a lot for pointing this out!

 

Unfortunately the functionnality doesn't work properly.
- The first time I generate all the csproj, they appear fine in Visual studio.
- If I open Visual Studio a second time, the other packages does not appear anymore in Visual Studio. Even though I can see the csproj files in Windows Explorer.

 

@ethan_jl_unity

I'm also seeing this, csproj generation is entirely messed up - for months now. Happens everywhere from new projects from scratch to existing projects. Sometimes deleting all sln+csproj files, switching to VS Code, opening the sln and switching back to VS 2019 works. Sometimes the reverse (switching to VS 2019 to repair sln in Code).

Reported a (new) case about this.
(Case 1221734) Csproj file generation excludes Packages despite "Generate all csproj" being active

 

Just double checking here, in case I'm misunderstanding, but it is expected that the "Generate All .csproj files" option in Preferences -> External Tools should be generating the csproj files for Packages that were downloaded into the PackageCache? If so, I am not seeing this occur on 2019.3.3f1. I have yet to try in 2019.2.

 

It's supposed to generate all so that developers can step through package code, one of the main advantages of packages. As with the above bug report (which happens daily), sometimes it does that but most of the times not.

 

I see. So my understanding of what it's meant to do is correct.

For what it's worth, I ended up trying it in 2019.2.17f1 and I reproduced the exact issue that you've listed. All the csproj files were generated. I opened up the solution in Visual Studio for Mac and I could see all the projects in there (only when the "Show Unity Project Explorer" option was disabled. It was not visible when that was on). But then at some point the PackageCache projects all disappeared from the solution. I don't know what caused it. I didn't close/reopen the solution. It just vanished.

From what I saw here, there are two places of issue: the first being that I couldn't see the projects with the Show Unity Project Explorer option on. I suspect this maybe a Visual Studio Tool for Unity issue. But the second issue is most likely a Unity issue, as you've described. Do you happen to have an Issue tracker link for your bug? I tried searching with your case ID, but I could not find it.

The other issue that I'm seeing is that when I try the "Generate all .csproj files" option in 2019.3.3f1, I don't even get the .csproj files for the PackageCache packages generating. So that sounds like another bug on top of what you've found.

 

It seems that the VS Code extension generates the csproj/sln, but Visual Studio 2017/2019 extension doesn't.
@LeonhardP could you follow up with the bug report and figure out whether there's a workaround? Thank you!

 

So I took a closer look at the issue, turns out the Visual Studio Code package 1.1.4 and lower only applies the setting of «Generate all .csproj files» when the preferences window is open. If the checkbox is not visible and the scripts are being reloaded or you restart Unity, the setting defaults to off. Only when you then open the «External Tools» preferences will the setting be applied properly.

But version 1.2.0 of the Visual Studio Code package came out a while ago and fixes this issue. It's not yet verified (at least for 2019.3) and therefore won't show up as an update, you'll have to select it manually.

 

This is great news! However, will 2019.3 (or 2019.4 even for that matter) see the fix? The IssueTracker ticket you linked mentions that 2019.3 is an affected version and as far as I can tell, the VS Package you're referring to is a 2020.1+ package only and is not available for 2019 (I'm assuming it was part of the 2019 editor code base, but was then spun off as a package for 2020).

 

I'm not sure where's the best place to ask this but given this issue is somewhat linked to the topic here, I figured I might as well try here!

I installed 2019.3.12 and I was happy to see that the fix for generating all the .csproj files has finally made it's way there.

After regenerating the csproj files, it was great to see all the packages in there! However, I started seeing that VS was complaining that it was unable to find references to many Unity objects, which were all fine before. I know the code was okay because everything was compiling.

Looking deeper into the issue, I noticed that the project references all have the ReferenceOutputAssembly tag set to false for any assembly that is referenced by project, like so:

<ProjectReference Include="Unity.RenderPipelines.Universal.Editor.csproj">
<Project>{A310FB9C-2715-5DC5-9006-D786D1D0DFA2}</Project>
<Name>Unity.RenderPipelines.Universal.Editor</Name>
<ReferenceOutputAssembly>false</ReferenceOutputAssembly>
</ProjectReference>

As a test, I manually edited the csproj file to remove this option (I could not see how to do it in VS itself), and low and behold VS could reference the objects that were defined in this assembly, as expected.

This is definitely a 2019.3.12 change as it does not occur in 2019.3.10.

I don't know what sets this option and I'm assuming it occurs in the csproj generation code. I'm hoping someone from Unity can explain the reason behind this change? It's somewhat annoying because firstly, my code in VS is now littered with error messages, and secondly, I can't use Find Reference Go to Declaration feature that I've been longing for since wanting to generate all the csproj files!

When comparing to a csproj file generated in 2019.3.10, any project references there does not have the ReferenceOutputAssembly tag, so this is definitely something new.

 

For reference: https://forum.unity.com/threads/2019-3-12f1-build-errors.880312/
Few workarounds for anyone running into this bug introduced in 2019.3.12f1,that seem to work.

 

Could someone from Unity confirm that this is a bug, and is gonna be fixed?
Or is this the new expected behaviour?

 

Thank you for this! I will use that thread for any follow up questions/comments. I will be curious to know if someone from Unity can comment on the matter. It seems to be a conscious decision, and so I hope someone can explain the rationale behind it.

 

I'm using Unity 2022.3.7 with Visual Studio 2022. The preferences to generate .csproj files for registry packages works great! But a little too great... Is there a way to to add only a few packages? For example, I only want to add the CesiumEditor and CesiumRuntime registry packages to the solution in Visual Studio. Is there a way to only add a few registry packages?