How to convert some asset to "Asset Serialization Mode"?

I have a question regarding "Asset Serialization Mode".
How can I convert the serialization mode of some assets?

"Asset Serialization Mode" is set to "Force Text" in our current project but I would like to convert some assets to binary format to reduce the file size and increase loading speed.

I figured out that I can mix Text format and Binary format by selecting "Mixed” from [Edit]->[PROject Settigns]->[Editor].
I couldn’t find how to make certain assets Binary format (or Text format).

I want to keep some assets like Prefab to text format so that changes are noticeable and convert resource assets such as FBX to Binary format to reduce file size.
I looked up community sites and UnityDocumentation, but I couldn’t find a solution.
If you have any information, please share.

I use Unity5.4.4f1.

Thanks in advance.

Takafumi Ogihara
ACQUIRE Corp.

 

Asset serialization mode only affects assets that you create inside Unity (prefabs, scenes, materials) not imported assets (FBXes, textures).

Have you profiled your loading time with "Force binary" mode to confirm that is causing your problem?

 

Hi Diki,

Thank you for your reply.
What I wanted to change to “Force Binary” was “Animation Clip”.
(I gave FBX as an example by mistake.)

Since “Animation Clip” is created inside Unity, Asset serialization will affect it.

＞Have you profiled your loading time with "Force binary" mode to confirm that is causing your problem?

In fact, I would like to know how to convert assets in Text format to Binary format for this.

I changed "Force Text" mode to "Mixed" mode but .anim file contents remained in Text format.
I could use "Force Binary" mode for verification but it takes so much time so I would like to convert only certain files to Binary format.

Is there a way to control from script for example import settings?

Takafumi Ogihara
ACQUIRE Corp.

 

I have a similar question; Basically, I want to change serialization for a given set of assets only.
The problem is, if I change serialization mode in the settings, it seems that ALL relevant assets are re-serialized, which is not want I need. Is there any way to set the mode only for a specific set of assets? If not, I think this option should be added.

 

When I use Asset Serialization Mode in Unity it converts all assets. BUT I need to control this process and choose assets that i need. Is there any API to invoke resealize to particular Asset Serialization Mode for particular assets?

 

I would even settle for being able to change the setting per asset type. We need to serialize all animations as binary, but the scenes are fine as text.

 

Can we set some files as text now in Asset serialization "mixed" or "force binary" mode?
I have a lot of animation files and some xml files. I need keep xml files as text mode.

 

I have a large scene in unity that even when "force text" is set will only save as binary. Smaller scenes in the same project save as text. Very strange.

 

Can we do it ? only change .anim file to binary mode ?

 

Did anyone find an answer to this?

 

Did anyone find an answer to this?

 

bump since per-asset serialization type override can be REALLY useful:
we want our scenes/big prefabs to be serialized as binary files to save size/saveload time.
But for project setting file, text serialization is WAY better since changes applied under different build configs can be easily merged by any text merger

 

I also wish we had this feature. For example, we have large scenes (200+ Mb) that we don't want to be text assets, but also have a lot of other assets that would be great to have in text mode.

So, custom serialization format for each file would be really helpful.

 

bump for per-asset serialization mode

 

This would be very helpful. Don't think it's currently possible but giving this a bump!

 

I did find a workaround some might find helpful. You can create an empty container ScriptableObject class with the PreferBinarySerialization attribute, like this -

[PreferBinarySerialization]
public class BinaryAssetContainer : ScriptableObject { }

And then package the assets you want into a BinaryAssetContainer asset. Not the prettiest solution but if you need to save the file space (eg. get under Github 100 MB per file limit) it works!

 

Is there a way to do the opposite? Sadly, there's no "[PreferTextSerialization]"

 

@Peter77 weren't you after something like this?

 

Yes, thanks for the tag. Unfortunately, [PreferBinarySerialization] isn't working for me, because I generate an UnityEngine.Mesh rather than a custom asset where I would have the opportunity to add the attribute.

 

Maybe I understood this incorrectly but, wouldn't saving the mesh inside this "BinaryAssetContainer" (via AssetDatabase.AddObjectToAsset) save the whole thing as binary? Maybe

 

Ah I see. Yes this probably works. Not particular nice, but could be a workaround. I let this sink in for a while

 

Does anyone have guidance for this problem?

 

Does someone have detailed instructions to follow this? Maybe I didn't understand clearly?

 

The BinaryAssetContainer is an empty script that lets you create a ScriptableObject asset in your project that will always have binary serialization, even if your project is configured to use text-based serialization.

You then will need to add child assets to your empty BinaryAssetContainer (otherwise the BinaryAssetContainer will remain empty).

Eg -

Code (CSharp):

1. BinaryAssetContainer assetContainer = ScriptableObject.CreateInstance<BinaryAssetContainer>();
2. AssetDatabase.CreateAsset(assetContainer, assetPath);
3.  
4. AssetDatabase.AddObjectToAsset(modelIWantToSerialize, assetPath);
5. AssetDatabase.AddObjectToAsset(textureIWantToSerialize, assetPath);

This is just my way of hacking around the problem. Unity's [PreferBinarySerialization] attribute is what makes it work. You could probably come up with other ways of using it for your particular application. But, this works well enough as a quick and dirty fix.

 

Can you give me a full example instead of a code snippet?

 

Please help !

 

That is all the code that is required for it to work - which part do you need more information about?

 

I need to throw it into a class or what, I mean with that code I don't know how to implement it.

 

Help !

 

Just to inform everyone, I came up with a new trick.
That is exporting heavy prefabs to an empty project with the force binary setting and importing it again later.
You need to set the main project's serialzie format to mixed.

 

oh. same question....

 

This is clever. Unfortunately, it does not work with Prefabs (you cannot put a prefab as a sub asset of another asset, dang).