Infinite compilation loop after importing PostProcessing

In my project, I decided to switch from the github version of PostProcessing v2 to the one managed by the package manager. I deleted the version of PostProcessing I had copied to my Assets folder and then enabled the PostProcessing 2.0.11 package using Package Manager.

Everything seemed to work, but as soon as I did that I noticed that the compilation spinner never stopped. I looked at Editor.log and saw that Unity appeared to be in a loop doing the same thing over and over. A small snippet of what is repeated over and over is below.

I tried deleting my .vs, Library, and obj folders and also all generated visual studio projects, and then starting Unity. However, when I started Unity, it just went through the asset import process very slowly because it was still stuck in the compilation loop (which I could see interleaved with the asset import process).

I was not able to reproduce the bug using a new project, so I could have some problem with my project I don't know about. But if anyone has suggestions on how I can stop this I would greatly appreciate it. I'm very confused at the moment.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. Pass: 1 took 98 milliseconds
3.   ProcessSitesModule Assembly-CSharp.dll elapsed time:00:00:00.2152639
4. - Starting compile Library/ScriptAssemblies/Assembly-CSharp-Editor.dll
5. - Finished compile Library/ScriptAssemblies/Assembly-CSharp-Editor.dll
6. Reloading assemblies after finishing script compilation.
7. Begin MonoManager ReloadAssembly
8. Refreshing native plugins compatible for Editor in 1.82 ms, found 10 plugins.
9. Preloading 3 native plugins for Editor in 0.23 ms.
10. Mono: successfully reloaded assembly
11. Refreshing native plugins compatible for Editor in 1.83 ms, found 10 plugins.
12. Preloading 3 native plugins for Editor in 0.23 ms.
13.  
14. ----- Total AssetImport time: 0.387712s, AssetImport time: 0.000000s, Asset hashing: 0.000000s [0 B, 0.000000 mb/s]
15.  
16. - Completed reload, in  3.330 seconds
17. Initializing Unity.PackageManager (PackageManager) v2018.2.3 for Unity v2018.2.3f1
18. Registering platform support modules:
19. Registered platform support modules in: 0.0244753s.
20. Native extension for LinuxStandalone target not found
21. Native extension for WindowsStandalone target not found
22. - Starting compile Library/ScriptAssemblies/Unity.Postprocessing.Runtime.dll
23. - Starting compile Library/ScriptAssemblies/Unity.PackageManagerUI.Editor.dll
24. - Starting compile Library/ScriptAssemblies/UnityEditor.StandardEvents.dll
25. - Finished compile Library/ScriptAssemblies/UnityEditor.StandardEvents.dll
26. - Finished compile Library/ScriptAssemblies/Unity.Postprocessing.Runtime.dll
27. Symbols will be read from Temp\Unity.Postprocessing.Runtime.dll.mdb
28. Script Module: Unity.Postprocessing.Runtime.dll
29. Pass: 0 took 22 milliseconds
30. Pass: 1 took 6 milliseconds
31. - Finished compile Library/ScriptAssemblies/Unity.PackageManagerUI.Editor.dll
32. - Starting compile Library/ScriptAssemblies/Unity.Postprocessing.Editor.dll
33. - Finished compile Library/ScriptAssemblies/Unity.Postprocessing.Editor.dll
34. - Starting compile Library/ScriptAssemblies/Assembly-CSharp-firstpass.dll
35. - Finished compile Library/ScriptAssemblies/Assembly-CSharp-firstpass.dll
36. Symbols will be read from Temp\Assembly-CSharp-firstpass.dll.mdb
37. Script Module: Assembly-CSharp-firstpass.dll
38. Pass: 0 took 43 milliseconds
39. Pass: 1 took 20 milliseconds
40. - Starting compile Library/ScriptAssemblies/Assembly-CSharp.dll
41.  

 

Note that if, instead of using Package Manager to import Post Processing 2.0.11, I simply drag the PostProcessing folder from

AppData\Local\Unity\cache\packages\packages.unity.com\com.unity.postprocessing@2.0.11-preview

into my Assets folder, the infinite build loop does not occur.

 

Do you have anything that is triggering the API updater?
I had the API updater cause infinite loops when using the new Incremental Compiler, so I don't let the API updater to run anymore.

 

Awesome. You guys nailed it. Turns out the AQUAS water shader had an InitializeOnLoad that was fighting with PostProcessing and it got into this infinite loop. I'll investigate further on the AQUAS channel (maybe they even have a fix for this right now), but these lines (inside of an AQUAS InitializeOnLoad static constructor) is the culprit:

Code (CSharp):

1. if (symbols.Contains("UNITY_POST_PROCESSING_STACK_V2") && results.Length == 0)
2. {
3.     symbols = PlayerSettings.GetScriptingDefineSymbolsForGroup(EditorUserBuildSettings.selectedBuildTargetGroup);
4.  
5.     symbols = symbols.Replace("UNITY_POST_PROCESSING_STACK_V2;", "");
6.     symbols = symbols.Replace("UNITY_POST_PROCESSING_STACK_V2", "");
7.     PlayerSettings.SetScriptingDefineSymbolsForGroup(EditorUserBuildSettings.selectedBuildTargetGroup, symbols);
8. }

I didn't even know there was something like InitializeOnLoad! I really appreciate your quick help on this. Would have taken me a long time to track down on my own.

The one thing that is weird to me is that this does not happen if I just drop in PostProcessing to my Assets folder. It only happens when I import PostProcessing using the package manager. In both cases I was using the same version of PostProcessing. Perhaps something changed regarding the order of the InitializeOnLoad methods when using the package manager version.

 

I reported this bug to the AQUAS River Set asset forum where I also describe a reproducible case starting from an empty project.