HOT RELOAD - Edit Code Without Compiling!

Thanks again for your feedback. We are in the process of changing our pricing model for smaller companies and can offer you a better price. I've sent you the details through a DM.

 

It seems that folders referenced through 'mklink' in Windows, will not be detected for code changes

 

Hey, thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We will investigate it.

 

Hey everyone!

We just released version 1.11.0.

Features:

• Added debugger support (including On-Device)

Fixes:

• Fixed a rare issue with invalid IL being generated when editing structs

Improvements:

• Asset Refresh setting is now recommended and enabled by default for new users

 

Hi, I updated Hot Reload to v1.11.0.
I'm using it with Unity 2021.3.19f1 and 2021.3.26f1, on a Windows 10 PC.
In general, it works great for me (I like the features from the newer versions!), but I'm having the following issues:


- Since circa v1.9.3, after I run Hot Reload, it takes quite a few minutes before it actually starts working, be it in edit mode, or in play mode. This is still happening in v1.11.0.

When I change my code during the first 2~5 minutes after initializing the Hot Reload server, the tool doesn't work at all.

After those minutes (a timeout?), it shows a pywatchman-related error, and then it reverts to the built-in file watcher.
Only after that, did Hot Reload start working correctly.

I attached some screenshots to help showcase the error messages.


- I'm using Unity Personal, but it seems I'm still being restricted to using Hot Reload for "2 free hours" per day.
I don't remember this happening on earlier versions (I only recently upgraded to v1.11.0)

I'm getting errors like:
[HotReload] Licensing failed with exception TrialLicenseExpiredException: Trial period for the device has expired: 2023-02-08T00:00:00.000Z.
[HotReload] **NOTE** This file change will not get processed because your daily limit is reached or your license is invalid

From the Pricing page:
"Do I need to pay for Hot Reload when using Unity Personal?

If you are using Unity Personal, you can download Hot Reload from our website and use it for free. After the free trial expires, you can continue using it for free without restrictions. While purchasing a plan is not necessary to use Hot Reload, we greatly appreciate your support in helping us continue to develop and improve this tool."

 

Hey there,

- Regarding "watchman" error:

We are in the process of moving away from watchman-wait to our custom watchman client. We will make the new client a default one after it's proven to be reliable.

You can enable this watchman client by following these steps:

• Create a `hot-reload-config.json` file in the root of your Unity project
• Add the following json field:
  
  Code (JavaScript):

  1. {
  2.      "useWatchmanClient": true
  3. }

Please let us know if the new client works well for you.

- Regarding license related issues:

Please email us at contact@hotreload.net - it's the best place to receive support for license-related issues.

 

Thanks for the info!
I sent an email regarding my license issue and I was quickly answered there.

About the watchman client, I tried using it, but I had essentially the same results as watchman-wait.
It takes from 2~5 minutes until the client timeouts, then it reverts to the built-in file watcher, and then Hot Reload starts working.

I attached some screenshots with the errors I had with the watchman client.

 

It seems like you've got an issue with watchman that we've not encountered before. Would appreciate if you can provide more logs following these steps:

- cd into `%LocalAppData%\singularitygroup-hotreload\watchman\watchman`
- open command line in this folder and run`.\watchman.exe --foreground --logfile=watchman_log.txt`
- attach logs from `watchman_log.txt` in the same folder

 

Thanks for the instructions. I attached the generated log file.

 

@PencilBow Seems it's an issue with an 'á' character in my user folder's name. (Usuário)
Unfortunately, I can't rename that Users\Usuário folder, as that would break many stuff on my Windows setup.

I'll try renaming that Usuário-state folder, to see what happens if I get rid of that '?' character.

EDIT: Renaming that "state" folder doesn't work.
Hot Reload creates a new "Usu�rio-state" folder that it tries to use.

 

Does the output of watchman_log.txt change if you invoke the command with `--sockname "hotreload"` argument?

Full command would look like this: `.\watchman.exe --foreground --logfile=watchman_log.txt --sockname "hotreload"`

 

I tried the full command including the `--sockname "hotreload"` argument.
The watchman_log.txt output is exactly the same as the one from the file I posted yesterday. (except the timestamps)

Is there any way to make Hot Reload better handle special characters in the User folder's name?
That may explain the issues some other users are having regarding Hot Reload. (at least for users with special characters names, usernames in certain languages, etc.)

 

Understood. Then we will resolve an issue with the startup getting delayed by 2-5 minutes and rely on a built-in file watcher.

We will reproduce this issue, implement a fix and include it in the next version. Once done, we will email you instructions on how to get a preview version of the build so that you can use a build with this issue resolved.

 

When do you plan to provide better support for generic types? Our code is heavily generic so Hot Reload struggles to be of much consistent use.

 

No set date as of yet, but we will amp the priority of this feature. In the best-case scenario, we'd have this feature in a month, but it can take longer.

 

Hey everyone!

We just released version 1.12.0.

Fixes:

• Fixed an issue with not being able to patch startup code (e.g. Awake and Start methods)
• Fixed an issue with getter-only properties with expression syntax not hot-reloading
• Fixed an issue with not being able to remove event functions if they were compiled
• Fixed an issue with the startup getting delayed for a long time due to the project path containing non-ASCII characters

Improvements:

• Various quality-of-life and user interface improvements
• Added an indication of current Hot Reload status (Idle/Compiling/Patching etc.)
• Added a list of encountered unsupported changes
• Added an option to hide the console window (supported on Windows and Linux)
• Added a toolbar overlay (available in Unity 2021.2 and up)

 

After upgrading from 1.11.0 to 1.12.0 and try to do a Build I get the following errors and the build fails:



It works fine in the editor though.

 

Hey, thanks for reporting the issue. We will fix this and deploy a patch version in the coming hours.

 

Hey again,

Strangely enough, I was not able to reproduce this issue. I've found a likely cause for it, but before deploying, I would like you to try out new version and see if the issue is fixed.

You can install it with this git link: `git+https://gitlab.hotreload.net/root/hot-reload-releases.git#1.12.1`

 

Hey everyone!

We just released version 1.12.1.

Fixes:

• Fixed an issue with builds failing on previous version

 

Sorry I wasn't able to test before your deployment, but I did try now and it worked perfectly!

Thanks for the quick fix.

 

I've decided to deploy it anyway since I had high confidence in what caused the issue. Glad it worked!

 

Hi,
After upgrading to HotReload 1.12.1, I'm getting two errors regarding IRequiredSettingChecker in RequiredSettings.cs

I've tried in both Unity 2021.3.25f1 and Unity 2022.3.0f1

Here's the error:

Packages\com.singularitygroup.hotreload\Editor\RequiredSettings\RequiredSettings.cs(73,25): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'IRequiredSettingChecker' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

[UPDATE]
I had to open the Package Manager (From Window menu), set packages from top left to 'In Project' and remove HotReload from my project, then reinstall it from 'My Assets'.
It works now.

 

There's an issue with Unity Package Manager when files get removed in the new package version (see here for more info https://forum.unity.com/threads/pac...esnt-remove-obsolete-files-on-update.1002333/).

We've implemented a custom way to update the package which is recommended now, more info in the docs: https://hotreload.net/documentation/getting-started#upgrading-hot-reload.

We're glad your issue is resolved!

 

Any idea what this issue is about?

 

The issue is most likely with path to project containing non-ascii characters. Right now our solution to this problem is limited, please follow these steps and let us know if there are any issues:

1. Create a json file `hot-reload-config.json`
2. Set "useSystemFilewatcher" to true in the json file:
   

   
   
   {
   
     "useSystemFilewatcher": true
   
   }
   
   

3. Place the json file in project root

We're working on adding this info to troubleshooting section in our documentation soon!

 

I'll try that soon, thanks.
File path is 'X:\UnityProjects\PK-PSCM-2022'

 

Hey @PencilBow, I just started using Hot Reload a few days ago and I LOVE IT. It makes iteration so much faster!
I downgraded the unity editor version from 2022.3.0f1 to 2021.3.27f1 and some problem started appearing:
1. The indicator with the colored circle that showed up on scene view in the editor won't show up, I can't find any setting to make it appear.
2. The hot reload functionality is less consistent. Sometimes it will recompile, sometimes it won't and will require exiting play mode. For example, commenting out a Debug.Log or other small changes won't take effect until after exiting game mode manually recompiling.

The downgrade procedure was:
1. open a new project with the target editor version
2. export everything under assets folder in old project and import in new project
3. reinstall hot reload

Is this a known issue when downgrading?
Thanks!

 

I have to ask, why did you downgrade? (Sorry for off-topic)

 

Greetings GameBrews, we are glad you are enjoying Hot Reload! If it has been increasing productivity for you and you are having a good experience feel free to share your experience with a review on the Asset Store

These things you are mentioning are not know bugs, no.

The overlay should be available on all versions starting from 2021.2. Can you find the Hot Reload overlay in your overlay menu? Or is it entirely missing? (The default shortcut to open the overlay menu is tapping spacebar while the sceneview is focused. Alternatively tapping the menu button in the top right of the scene view should reveal the available overlays).

Regardless, adding a setting/button that reveals the overlay in the Hot Reload window is a good idea! Thank you for your feedback, we will discuss implementing this into one of the upcoming updates.

For the second issue, I am not able to replicate by commenting or uncommenting Debug.Log while in play mode. Can you provide an example code snippet or screenshot of code that is problematic?

 

@PencilBow Thanks for the reply!
I didn't know about the overlay menu, it was indeed there, hidden. enabling it revealed it and its working great
I can't seem to reproduce the second issue. Hot Reload works flawlessly, if I'll be able to reproduce it consistently I will let you know. Is the contact form on your site the appropriate place for bug reports?

@VirtusH The editor version I was using was initially 2021, but I wanted to use the new UI system for runtime UI and its more fleshed out in 2022 lts so I upgraded it. the 2022 version had much slower iteration cycles, the domain reload on entering play mode was half a minute longer + sometimes opening editor menues took like 3-4 seconds each time, it was bad. I eventually gave up on UI Toolkit and decided to implement the UI using the old system and a dedicated UI camera, which works flawlessly and much easier to maintain.

So I downgraded for faster iteration times

 

Indeed the contact form is fine, this forum is also fine. You can also report bugs on our gitlab: https://gitlab.com/singularitygroup/hot-reload-for-unity/-/issues and last but not least you can report it in our discord: https://discord.com/invite/kgxAS4Bqxr.

 

Hi there @PencilBow, regarding some of the features on your roadmap, do you have an ETA on them? Namely the following:

- Adding/removing new fields to an existing class/struct
- Adding/removing vanilla C# classes/structs

Also some questions I had:
- Does it support polymorphism when it does the reload? (i.e. if I had an array of BaseClass[] and some elements are of ChildClass1 type, ChildClass2 type, etc will the references be resolved back correctly?)
- Does it handle common generic collection types like List<>, Dictionary<>, Queue<>, Stack<>?
- Does is properly handle cyclic dependencies between fields?
- Does it have full Visual Studio debugger support? Does the debugger stop working after multiple reloads?
- Is there any IDE dependency for this to work? i.e. can developers use Rider, VS, VSCode etc. to work with this?
- If I build and run an exe of my game (Windows), can I use this to hot reload the running exe?

We wrote our own DLL hot-reloading system that builds the game to a separate DLL and patches it on reload, and I just want to make sure we're not gonna be losing any features using your system.

Thanks very much!

 

Hey there!

We don't have an ETA on the new features as of right now. Hot Reload is packed with features but so far hasn't received widespread adoption. If it gets more traction, new features will become a higher priority.

As for your questions: I will do my best to answer them but keep in mind that the best way to ensure Hot Reload will be useful to you is to download a version from our website with a free trial: https://hotreload.net/download.

- Polymorphism is supported - references get correctly resolved
- Using existing generic code in non-generic code is always supported - including common generic collections. Editing generic class methods is not supported
- To the best of my knowledge, cyclic dependencies between fields are supported
- I've just tried using Visual Studio 2019 - debugging patched code works for me. If you encounter any issues, please let us know
- Hot Reload does not depend on which IDE or code editor you use. It works with Rider, VS, and VSCode
- Yes, you can use Hot Reload to debug a running game on Windows/Linux/Mac

 

Hey everyone!

We just released version 1.12.2.

Fixes:

• Hot Reload now correctly reports changes to attributes as unsupported

Improvements:

• Added an option to auto recompile when unsupported changes are detected (enabled by default for new users)

 

I tend not to be able to debug patched code with Rider, sometimes it works, sometimes Rider complains about the file being changed and the breakpoint has errors (especially if it's a conditional breakpoint). That latter event just happened and it caused Unity to seize up too. (2022.3.4f1)

As for adoption of Hot Reload, I think getting consistent behaviour is key. I tend to turn it on and off as needed, but other developers I know don't want to have to figure out how to deal with it when it doesn't produce the desired result.
Huge improvements have been made since I first tried it, and this change today with automatic triggering of recompile when needed is another big step in the right direction.

The features kholiobungholio asked about are also key. It's things like those that keep me on the free version. Because I have to manage Hot Reload in my workflow, I tend to only use it when I expect to make small successive changes. Ideally I could leave it on all the time, but issues with debugging and needing to do things that Hot Reload doesn't support has meant I could end up entering play mode, having to exit, force a recompile, then enter again, blowing away all my time savings.
That said I'm a huge fan, I love it when it works and I'm close to buying a license. (If cash wasn't so tight these days I might have already)

Summarized:
A) Stop Hot Reload from getting in people's way (Unity does that enough lol) (Today's update is great though)
B) There are crucial features (like adding fields) and inconsistent behaviour (debugger doesn't always work) that I think keep a lot of people on the fence.

Best of luck though, I really hope this approach becomes the standard. You guys have done what Unity promised and utterly failed to deliver on: faster iteration speeds!

@GameBrews I'm having similar or slightly faster iteration times.. I encourage you to deep profile the editor while entering play mode next time and see if you have any unwanted behaviour. (I'm currently digging into why some gameplay code is causing domain reload to take an extra 4.2 fricken seconds every time!)

 

Actually, I can't seem to use that feature in 2022.3.4f1?

 

Hey, Unity changed their API in this version which we were not aware of. There's a way to support this option with their API changes, and we will include a fix in the next Hot Reload version.

 

I swear, half of asset code these days is just #if UNITY_._._.
I appreciate y'all putting up with it and fixing stuff so rapidly!

 

Hey I'm looking into why our project takes so long to enter play mode and I noticed that HotReload is running code during the editor entering play mode when Hot Reload isn't running at all. Is this something that you could address?

Timings aren't accurate, can only see this with deep profile. (using Editor Iteration Profiler)

 

Hey, thanks for letting us know about this, it's something we can improve on. We'll include a fix in the next version.

 

Hi there, so I've been trying this out for the new project, and overall I'm pretty impressed with it.

However I noticed sometimes it just doesn't work. It says all patches have completed successfully, there are no errors. Only one instance of Unity and VS is open.

I get this in the console log:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. [HotReload] Watchman process ran into an error. Falling back to built in file watcher.
3. System.TimeoutException: RunQueryRaw timed out. args: get-sockname
4.    at %:jp`<mRGDIH<:_HN?\&B"bb\*(.‬‪‌‭‮‌‪‍‎‭‍‌‍‏‭‭‬‮(String , String , Int32 )
5.   at %:jp`<mRGDIH<:_HN?\&B"bb\*(.‮‍‌‎‬‫‪‌‮‎‬‍‍‪‬‍‏‍‏‭‮‪‪‏‮(String , String , String , Int32 )
6.    at %:jp`<mRGDIH<:_HN?\&B"bb\*(.‭‎‫‮‍‪‌‮‪‭‏‎‪‍‍‭‍‭‏‬‍‭‌‫‫‮(String )
7.   at 5jke8(f#~\&n~vy/\\LaD={LA0".‎‪‪‮‫‎‎‮‎‍‎‍‎‮‍‌‏‭‌‫‮(String , Action`1 , IEnumerable`1 , String )
8.    at 5jke8(f#~\&n~vy/\\LaD={LA0".‭‌‭‫‭‎‮‪‎‌‭‌‏‪‮‍‏‌‍‌‫‎‫‌‬‮(String , ‫‬‮‏‌‪‭‫‬‌‭‬‬‎‍‏‎‍‎‏‎‮ , ‏‮‌‏‪‭‏‍‪‫‫‪‎‍‌‫‬‏‪‫‌‫‭‬‏‮ )
9.  

After that, when I make a change, the hot-reload does seem to catch it, but the new code does not take affect until I stop and recompile in Unity.

If there's any diagnosis tools I can turn on for more info or logs you want me to give you, please let me know.

Its also worth noting that I have Domain Reload and Scene Reload disabled.

The issue seems to happen at random. I restarted my computer just now and its back working.

Thanks for your help!

EDIT: I just saw the post above from @VirtusH with a screenshot of the error (I initially searched for the string here and didn't a post about it) - And I def don't have non-ascii characters in my project path, I will try the json config and see if it helps.

 

Hey there, thanks for bringing up this issue. I would like to know which version of Hot Reload you're running and how often this issue happens, that might tell a lot about what's causing it.

You can also try using a different file watcher client by updating your config:

1. Create a json file `hot-reload-config.json`
2. Set "useWatchmanWait" to true in the json file:
   {
   "useWatchmanWait": true
   }

Please let us know if this yielded better results and if you have more information on this issue!

 

I believe I'm running the latest version of Hot Reload. (HR 1.12.2, Unity 2022.3.1f1)

I'll try that setting and report back, thanks!

 

Curious when that config file gets loaded, if I change a setting do I need to reboot HR or Unity or both?

Also do I use that setting in combination with the "useSystemFilewatcher"?

And just to confirm, the config file should live in the root folder (the folder that has Assets and Library), correct?

 

You only need to restart Hot Reload (if that doesn't work it would be interesting to know if restarting + recompiling Unity fixes it but that shouldn't be needed). You don't need the `useSystemFilewatcher` setting no.

The root of your project is the correct place, yes.

Let us know if you encounter any issues!

 

1.12.2 fresh install constantly complains about missing icon (Win11/Unity2023.1)

 

Hey, update is already pending to fix this issue (it's only present on Unity 2023).

Thanks for letting us know though!

 

Hey everyone!

We just released version 1.12.3.

Announcements:

• The Hot Reload pricing model for Unity Pro users has been adjusted. Unity Pro customers that are part of a company with ten or fewer employees no longer fall under the business pricing plan and are eligible for the Indie pricing.

Fixes:

• Fixed an issue with broken rendering of the indication icon on Unity 2023
• The "Auto recompile unsupported changes" setting is now supported on most versions
• Reduced performance impact when Hot Reload is not running

 

I use VSCode, it show error on my IDE.


Type does not exist in namespace "SingularityGroup.HotReload" or namespace name "EditorDependencies" (missing assembly reference?). [SingularityGroup.HotReload.Editor]

I just buy it and use it, it works well for now. But I don't know how to fix this error on My IDE. I use VSCode.