Read-Only Scenes in Packages

So my company has stumbled into a bit of a problem in our deployment of scoped repositories - Scenes in our packages.

Previously these packages were distributed via a somewhat tenuous system of remapping perforce views to distribute package contents at specific revisions - and this worked alright for scenes since technically they were write-able even though the mapping prevented submission via 1-way imports.

We've switched to a private scoped repository and are now using the UPM, but people can't test read-only scenes that we distribute in packages and use as portions of a composite of multiple scenes. We're not trying to save or alter data in these scenes, simply load and test them as portions of multi-scene levels.

We can only load them through runtime - actually playing the game. But you can never pull up and play a level in isolation now, since you can't actually load the scenes to play them in editor.

I want to point out that a samples workflow doesn't really fit the bill here as this isn't a sample in and of itself, and should retain its read-only quality. (reference material https://forum.unity.com/threads/can...ckages-cant-load-scenes-from-packages.590764/ and https://forum.unity.com/threads/samples-in-packages-manual-setup.623080/)

Has anyone found a workaround for this? Are there any plans to allow the loading of read-only scenes? I'm curious why the decision was made to block this behavior, instead of preventing actually saving a changed state.

 

If you're using Unity 2019.2 or later, https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/PackageManager.Client.Embed.html looks promising.

I'm curious if there's a way to do this call in 2018.4 or later with something like reflection.

 

That's actually a much better solution than the stopgap one we'd devised which included a hybrid package/import system. We'll probably switch to that in the short term for the projects and packages that can utilize it.

We're still hoping that there is or could be a way to simply play read-only scenes, as the read-only flag is useful for homogeneity between projects and the prevention of further modification to scenes that are meant to be static.

 

I just tried using Client.Embed called from inside of a scopedRegistry package in Unity2019.3.12. It did nothing. The package stayed read-only. I hit a breakpoint to make sure the function was called with the correct package name string.

This function does throw an error correctly when it's called in a package that's already local/embedded.

 

Hi there,

I've heard back from the Package Manager team that this is a known limitation and that it's something we could have a workaround for, but we can't provide any form of ETA on this at this time.

 

We have similar issue
https://forum.unity.com/threads/it-...n-a-scene-in-a-read-only-package-why.1148036/

Are there any news about the workaround?
Does bug report is relevant in this case? Should we report with a basic project?

 

Hey there,

The stance remains as I pointed out last year - it's something the team want to look at but there's more pressing things that the team want to focus/implement first before they can dig into this.

Other than making the package non-immutable (local or embedded), there is not else you will be able to do.

 

The simplest workaround I can come up with is:

• copy the `*.unity` Scene asset from the read-only package location to anywhere you like in the `Assets/**` space.
• (drag-and-drop within the Project window works just fine)
• voila. the Scene can be opened, viewed, etcetera from within the Asset space, and reference assets and scripts in the Package space just fine.

For me, this is a perfectly fine solution, because the Scenes in question are just some samples for Spine. I can't currently think of a case where this easy fix would be inadequate, but best of luck either way!

♠ LP

 

In our case, we do want it to be un-editable. So a copy of the scene in the assets folder is not a complete solution

 

We made this script as a workaround. Its a bit hackish for some, but works fine.

Right click the SceneAsset you want and click "Play".

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEditor;
2. using UnityEditor.SceneManagement;
3. using UnityEngine;
4. using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;
5.  
6. public class PlayReadOnlySceneMenuOptions : Editor
7. {
8.     [MenuItem("CONTEXT/SceneAsset/Play")]
9.     private static void Play(MenuCommand menuCommand) => Play(menuCommand.context as SceneAsset);
10.  
11.     [MenuItem("Assets/Play")]
12.     private static void Play() => Play(Selection.activeObject as SceneAsset);
13.  
14.     [MenuItem("Assets/Play", true)]
15.     private static bool SceneAssetValidation() {
16.         return Selection.activeObject is SceneAsset && Selection.objects.Length == 1;
17.     }
18.  
19.     private static void Play(SceneAsset scene)
20.     {
21.         Debug.Log($"{nameof(Play)} {scene.name}");
22.         if (Application.isPlaying)
23.         {
24.             SceneManager.LoadScene(scene.name);
25.         }
26.         else
27.         {
28.             if(EditorSceneManager.SaveCurrentModifiedScenesIfUserWantsTo())
29.             {
30.                 EditorPrefs.SetString(nameof(PlayReadOnlySceneMenuOptions), scene.name); //For some reason setting a variable was not working. Using EditorPrefs as a workaround.
31.                 EditorSceneManager.NewScene(NewSceneSetup.EmptyScene, NewSceneMode.Single);
32.                 EditorApplication.isPlaying = true;
33.             }
34.         }
35.     }
36.    
37.     [RuntimeInitializeOnLoadMethod]
38.     private static void OnRuntimeMethodLoad()
39.     {
40.         string sceneName = EditorPrefs.GetString(nameof(PlayReadOnlySceneMenuOptions));
41.         if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(sceneName))
42.         {
43.             EditorPrefs.DeleteKey(nameof(PlayReadOnlySceneMenuOptions));
44.             SceneManager.LoadScene(sceneName);
45.         }
46.     }
47. }
48.  

 

Smart! solved my issue!