[GenerateAuthoringComponent] is it available yet?

The Unite Keynote mentions the reduction of boilerplate with this compiler [tag], is it available yet?

 

Not yet, probably will soon, cause they on b5 and it’s next beta release, I think it will be public together with new DOTS sample.

 

Fingers crossed!

 

would be awesome if it was out in time for ludum dare

 

Unfortunately it doesn't sound like it: New SubScene & ConvertToEntity workflows

Also, nice to know I'm not the only one crazy enough to attempt LD45 with DOTS.

 

Still not available? Or am I missing something?

 

See recent reply from Joachim here:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/dots-netcode-copenhagen-updates.760112/

 

Thanks! So hopefully any day now

Edit Nov 20: Any day now!

 

It is available!

 

How does it work? I tried this but I can't see any generated component in the editor.

Code (CSharp):

1. using Unity.Entities;
2.  
3. [GenerateAuthoringComponent]
4. public struct TestData : IComponentData
5. {
6.     public float Value;
7. }

 

Your code works fine for me.

 

Strange, nothing comes up for me. Created a new Unity 2019.3.0b12 project, latest Entities package.

I'll try downloading the 2020 alpha.

 

I did this in 2019.3

 

When I go to AddComponent and type TestData or TestDataAuthoring nothing comes up. But if I use the promt to add a new script called "TestDataAuthoring" it does say "A class called TestDataAuthoring already exists", so it is generating it, but for some reason the editor won't display it.

 

Aha I figured it out! It was a very strange interaction with comments.

My actuall file was like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. using Unity.Entities;
2.  
3. // [GenerateAuthoringComponent]
4. // public class TempData : IComponentData
5. // {
6. //     public int Value;
7. // }
8.  
9. [GenerateAuthoringComponent]
10. public struct TestData : IComponentData
11. {
12.     public float Value;
13. }

Once I removed the comment it works. Seems like it was confusing the editor, I assume this is a bug?

Thanks for the help.

 

class vs struct

EDIT: AAAH I actually misread the issue. So you had the comment above (still commented) but had it as a struct?

Iiiinteresting.

 

Yes it was breaking it even when commented out. I've tried putting the comment back and it breaks again.

 

Well seems like I ran into another problem already...

Adding any generated component to a GameObject with a ConvertToEntity component immediately crashes the editor when entering play mode. Only happens with the generated authoring components.

 

I can't reproduce the crashing behaviour now. The sample scene works fine.

It may have been related to the problem with comments. Example:

Code (CSharp):

1. using Unity.Entities;
2.  
3. // [GenerateAuthoringComponent]
4. // this line breaks everything struct
5.    
6. [GenerateAuthoringComponent]
7. public struct TestData : IComponentData
8. {
9.     public float Value;
10. }
11.  

Line 4 breaks the authoring component in the editor. Delete just that comment on line 4 and it works again.

 

So it seems like the authoring component generation is using strict string matching rather than going through the C# parser...

Works:

Code (CSharp):

1. using Unity.Entities;
2. using Unity.Mathematics;
3.  
4. [GenerateAuthoringComponent]
5. public struct Velocity : IComponentData
6. {
7.     public float2 Value;
8. }

Doesn't work:

Code (CSharp):

1. using Unity.Entities;
2. using Unity.Mathematics;
3.  
4. [GenerateAuthoringComponent()]
5. public struct Velocity : IComponentData
6. {
7.     public float2 Value;
8. }

Doesn't work:

Code (CSharp):

1. using Unity.Entities;
2. using Unity.Mathematics;
3.  
4. [GenerateAuthoringComponent]
5. public struct Velocity: IComponentData
6. {
7.     public float2 Value;
8. }

 

I found out that if I don't have any of my own system in project and I have only components with [GenerateAuthoringComponent], it will crash when hit play button.

 

So glad to see this functionality in 0.2.0, thank you!

Will [GenerateAuthoringComponent] gain support for IBufferElementData at some point in the future? That would be very helpful as well.

I use IBufferElementDatas to represent ai behaviors in my project, and those end up being 90% of what I need to write separate conversion MonoBehaviours for.

 

That would be useful, at least in my case - for the same reason that it’s useful for IComponentData. Right now, anytime I’d like to add a DynamicBuffer to an entity in the editor, I need to write a custom conversion MonoBehavior.

 

I can't add ComponentData to gameobject until my system have errors!!!