Driving Unity From Other App

Hello,

I'm kicking tires here for an upcoming project with a very short turn around and Unity has peaked my interest. A lot of my questions I have been able to answer myself, but for one particular requirement I need some guidance on how I would go about "driving" Unity from an external application over a network, and have the communication be two way (IP\port). I need to be able to add and remove entities, manipulate camera position\focus\speed, attach camera to paths, control object animation states, etc.

Is this feasible? Have any of you done anything similar? If so any help you could offer, or a poke in the right direction (links, docs) would be greatly appreciated.
--J

 

You have access to the .net library from scripts in unity so you could easily set up some socket networking. Also spawning and deleting objects, manipulating properties in response to incoming packets should be fairly simple.

Sockets in C# .net: http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=224635

 

Nice. Thanks for reply. That is exactly what I needed to hear. I appreciate your help.

-J

 

There's a networking example on the wiki where the mouse cursor is used to control another instance of Unity.
http://www.unifycommunity.com/wiki/index.php?title=NetworkCursor

 

Hello again.

Using bits and peices of information and resources submitted by community members,etc. I've attempted to create a very simple C# Server app running on one box (works fine).

I've created a C# Client DLL as described and placed it in my Assets\Plugins directory. I created a C# script in unity that I attached to my main camera.

I'm basically going for the simple functionality of the "Simple TCP/IP Server Client" example on wiki. When I add my C# script to unity, I get the following error.... type or namespace name SocketConnections could not be found.

Here is unity script attached to my camera

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. using UnityEngine;
3. using System.Collections;
4. using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
5. using SocketConnections;
6. using System.Security.Permissions;
7.  
8. public class SocketConnector : MonoBehaviour
9. {
10.     public SocketClient test;
11.    
12.     void Start ()
13.     {
14.         // create our client
15.         test = new SocketClient();
16.     }
17.  
18.     void Update ()
19.     {
20.         if (Input.GetKeyDown ("space"))
21.         {
22.             Debug.Log ("Attempting To Open Socket");
23.             test.ConnectClientSocket();
24.         }
25.        
26.         if (Input.GetKeyDown ("escape"))
27.         {
28.             Debug.Log ("Attempting to Close Socket");
29.             test.CloseClientSocket();
30.         }
31.        
32.     }
33.    
34.     void OnApplicationQuit ()
35.     {
36.         try{test.CloseClientSocket();}
37.         catch{}
38.     }
39. }
40.  

Here is the simple client DLL code.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. using System;
3. using System.Windows.Forms;
4. using System.Net;
5. using System.Net.Sockets;
6.  
7.  
8. namespace SocketConnections
9. {
10.     public class SocketClient
11.     {
12.    
13.         byte[] m_dataBuffer = new byte [10];
14.         IAsyncResult m_result;
15.         public AsyncCallback m_pfnCallBack ;
16.         public Socket m_clientSocket;
17.        
18.         public SocketClient()
19.         {
20.             // Create our client socket instance
21.         }
22.        
23.         public void CloseClientSocket()
24.         {
25.             if ( m_clientSocket != null )
26.             {
27.                 m_clientSocket.Close ();
28.                 m_clientSocket = null;
29.             }      
30.            
31.         }
32.  
33.         public void ConnectClientSocket()
34.         {
35.             // create our new socket
36.             m_clientSocket = new Socket (AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp );
37.  
38.             // Set the IPAdress
39.             IPAddress ip = IPAddress.Parse ("192.168.1.218");
40.            
41.             int iPortNo = 8000;// hard coded for now
42.  
43.             // Create the end point
44.             IPEndPoint ipEnd = new IPEndPoint (ip,iPortNo);
45.             // Connect to the remote host
46.             m_clientSocket.Connect ( ipEnd );
47.             if(m_clientSocket.Connected)
48.             {
49.                    
50.                 //Wait for data asynchronously
51.                 WaitForData();
52.             }
53.         }
54.  
55.         public void WaitForData()
56.         {
57.             try
58.             {
59.                 if  ( m_pfnCallBack == null )
60.                 {
61.                     m_pfnCallBack = new AsyncCallback (OnDataReceived);
62.                 }
63.                 SocketPacket theSocPkt = new SocketPacket ();
64.                 theSocPkt.thisSocket = m_clientSocket;
65.                 // Start listening to the data asynchronously
66.                 m_result = m_clientSocket.BeginReceive (theSocPkt.dataBuffer,
67.                                                         0, theSocPkt.dataBuffer.Length,
68.                                                         SocketFlags.None,
69.                                                         m_pfnCallBack,
70.                                                         theSocPkt);
71.             }
72.             catch(SocketException se)
73.             {
74.                 MessageBox.Show (se.Message );
75.             }
76.  
77.         }
78.         public class SocketPacket
79.         {
80.             public System.Net.Sockets.Socket thisSocket;
81.             public byte[] dataBuffer = new byte[1024];
82.         }
83.  
84.         public  void OnDataReceived(IAsyncResult asyn)
85.         {
86.             try
87.             {
88.                 SocketPacket theSockId = (SocketPacket)asyn.AsyncState ;
89.                 int iRx  = theSockId.thisSocket.EndReceive (asyn);
90.                 char[] chars = new char[iRx +  1];
91.                 System.Text.Decoder d = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetDecoder();
92.                 int charLen = d.GetChars(theSockId.dataBuffer, 0, iRx, chars, 0);
93.                 System.String szData = new System.String(chars);
94.                 //richTextRxMessage.Text = richTextRxMessage.Text + szData;
95.                 WaitForData();
96.             }
97.             catch (ObjectDisposedException )
98.             {
99.                 System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Log(0,"1","\nOnDataReceived: Socket has been closed\n");
100.             }
101.             catch(SocketException se)
102.             {
103.                 MessageBox.Show (se.Message );
104.             }
105.         }  
106.  
107.         }
108. }
109.  

I know I am doing something really stupid, or omitting something, but I've looked at it so long that I can't see it. Anyone else see what the heck is going on?

I compiled my DLL on windows box, not sure if that would make any difference or not.

 

I don't think you need the using SocketConnectons line at all. I think for DLLs Unity automatically imports the namespace.

 

C# libraries are different. They need to be in your assets along with your scripts and everything else. And yes you do need to be using the namespace in the scripts in which you're gonna access its contents. (Unless ofcourse you're using MyNameSpace.MyClass but thats usually just a pain if you ask me).

 

Bummer, so nothing obviously wrong then? I have everything where the very poor documentation on the subject says it should be and it just doesnt work. I would think that this attractive "feature" of the engine would deserve a much better run at documentation and/or example code.

 

Got it working. Made new project for the 3rd time and "whammo magico" it works.