ScriptedImporter with lengthy processing time

Hello,

I want to write a ScriptedImporter to load a voxel format I created (it's an old format that I have lots of assets already made with). I would also like the ScriptedImporter to perform some calculations on the data that are fairly CPU-heavy (I want to raymarch the voxel objects to bake a custom ambient occlusion effect into them). However, I fear that these calculations won't be preserved, and that the calculations will happen every time Unity is loaded (The ScriptedImporter is called every time a file is loaded, as far as I know). Is there any way I can ensure this data be stored in some way, perhaps by serialization in the generated .meta file that accompanies my custom file?

Thanks!

 

I don't have any experience with the new ScriptedImporters, but after a cursory glance I don't see what could stop you from storing associated data in your project and saving/loading that.

Something like this:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. string path = Path.Combine(Application.dataPath, "Resources", "VoxelData");
3. string file = path + "unique identifer for your asset goes here";
4.  
5. if(File.Exists(file) == false)
6. {
7.    // data doesn't exist yet
8.    string data = GenerateVoxelData(object);
9.  
10.    File.WriteAllText(file, data);
11.    AssetDatabase.SaveAssets();
12.    AssetDatabase.Refresh();
13. }
14. else
15. {
16.    // data does already exist
17.    string data = File.ReadAllText(file);
18.    
19.    // do whatever
20. }
21.