Question Serialized array [HideInInspector]

Hi,
serialized array via Inspector (thousands of values); after that added [HideInInspector] like this:

[HideInInspector]
public Vector3[] vertices;

array updating every frame.
Is this slow for performance or not ?

 

What does the profiler tell you?

 

I need to know - fundamentally.

 

When the inspector repaints, inspected assets get serialised and deserialised. So, assets with large amounts of serialised data - even when not viewed - incur a lot of overhead.

Usually when you're dealing with huge volumes of data, you work with it in a format Unity cannot serialise - such as a binary file - and only specifically read and write the data when needed to avoid this re-serialisation overhead.

I think UI toolkit doesn't have this same overhead - not 100% sure. This is definitely a thing with IMGUI though.

 

Would a private field that isn't marked with SerializeField work too?

 

Should work, but naturally nothing would be drawn in the inspector and no data would persist. That and Unity does serialise private fields not marked with

[SerializeField]

in some contexts too (such as domain reloads), so often you want to explicitly mark it with

[NonSerialized]

to prevent this too.

Depends on exactly what OP is trying to do.

 

In other words this situation bad for developer - slow Inspector repaint, slow UI for work, isn't it ?

What about standalone .exe build for target user same situation?

Clarify please.

 

Only if you don't have the hardware for it, or don't do what I suggested.

Somewhat unrelated honestly. There's no inspector to be repainting and re-serialising assets. Once assets are loaded (which includes de-serialising), that's it. Larger assets make take longer to de-serialise, but tools like addressables can be used to spread out the overhead with async code.

 

Ok.