Unity 5 / Xcode 7 / 64-Bit IL2CPP compile times are killing me

It seems ridiculous that a Universal "hello world" using Unity GUI creates a 705 MB Xcode project that takes almost 6 1/2 minutes to compile and install on my iPad or iPhone from my Mac Mini server.

I have apps I've been trying to update for the app store to 64-bit (Universal), but they never, ever finish compiling in Xcode 6 or 7.

Xcode doesn't crash, hang or freeze - I can hit the stop button and it will stop compiling. But it never finishes a build or archive, even after running for 90 minutes. There's no error messages - over 200 warnings.

Have tried with Unity 5.1, 5.2 the latest patch update, Xcode 6, 7, 7.1, Yosemite, El Capitan, and two difference macs. I get the same result - projects that never finish compiling.

If I set the scripting backend to Mono2x the apps compile and install like normal, but that's now help since 64-bit builds are required.
I have no idea what to do or how to get these apps to build and compile properly. Ready to throw Unity out and start from scratch with Unreal.

 

I tried leaving it running with powersaver preferences turned off. It only took 2 hours and 27 minutes for a Universal IL2CPP build to compile in Xcode.

Yeah. 2 hours 27 minutes using IL2CPP Scripting backend.

Using Mono2X, it takes two minutes.

IL2CPP Scripting backend takes 7,350% longer to compile in Xcode than Mono2x.

 

I filed the bug report yesterday Josh, and included a zip with the entire project composed inside. I'm still not having any luck getting IL2CPP backend script to compile in Xcode in a reasonable time.
Bug report/Case No. 732782

 

How much ram does your mac mini have? I found ram made a much MUCH bigger difference with building times than I thought it would with mine. (although mine was memory starved at 4GB, so I guess that's why there was such a big difference).

 

My Mac Mini Server has 8 GB RAM (using it as a mac, not as a server).

My wife's brand new iMac also has 8GB RAM, and that took 1 hour 40 minutes to compile from Xcode.

If I do it with Mono2X scripting backend, it takes about 2 1/2 minutes.

I've been trying to figure it out and not having any luck. Even a basic "Hello World" with just text, using Unity UI took over 5 minutes to compile and install. No scripts, 3D or images of any kind.

Maybe I missed some setting or something that causes these long compile times.

 

I don't know if you've had any luck figuring this out, but Changing Optimization Level in the Building Setting in Xcode to 'None [-Oo]' reduces the compile/install time to 12 minutes and 15 seconds instead of 2 1/2 hours. (6.5 minutes for Xcode to compile, the rest for Linking, generate dYSM, signing and installing).

I got that idea from this thread:

http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/969870/too-slow-to-compile-archive-in-xcode-il2cpp.html

 

I have the same problem with archive. It worked once when i started it over Night but that is way to long !

 

It worked with the tip of changing the Optimization level to None . Great , Thank you !

 

It's good for testing on a device, but it's still a pain to have to let it compile overnight for uploading to iTunes.

 

I'm going to have to submit another bug report. I have a brand new 27" iMac. Last night, a new build took over 3 hours for Xcode to archive.

I wonder if it has anything to do with Unity abandoning Unityscript, which is what is used in this 5 year old app I'm trying to update.

 

Just wanted to confirm that compiling IL2CPP takes approx. 7x longer than Mono.

 

It's the same app, but I've made a ton of changes and optimizations, and removed all extraneous files. Going to see if it uploads to iTunes connect properly - last time it said I couldn't use beta software or SDKs - which I wasn't.

 

I've been having the same problem for a while after upgrading Xcode 7.3 and El Capitan that compiling just would not complete. I am so grateful for the tip to set the Optimization level to None for Release! Thank you for the help, much appreciated!

 

Do you have Code with arrays in them, such as,

private var VR10 = Array(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7);

This was causing the problem for me. (My arrays were much longer). Changing it to:

private var VR10 = [0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7];

solved my problems.

Now compiling for Xcode only takes a couple of minutes.

 

We have the same problem but we are using C#....

This happened after we integrated ARKit, I checked all our code and there's nothing about using Array()....

Any idea?

Using:
Unity 5.6.3
XCode 9

 

Compile times take a long time if you have a lot of code, so some things to check:

• Are you using a lot of generics with many different generic type arguments? This can generate a lot of code.
• Source files that are not referenced anywhere but are still in your project will be compiled, so check that you have removed all example scripts, unused scripts etc from your project (or move them into an excluded folder).

Also this doesn't really solve the problem but maybe it helps you: I sell Hdg Remote Debug on the asset store which can be used to tweak fields on GameObjects live on your running device. That way you don't have continually re-deploy if you just want to iterate on some small things.

-sam

 

i have the same problem

clang: error: unable to execute command: Killed: 9
clang: error: clang frontend command failed due to signal (use -v to see invocation)
Apple LLVM version 9.0.0 (clang-900.0.39.2)
Target: arm-apple-darwin16.7.0
Thread model: posix
InstalledDir: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin
clang: note: diagnostic msg: PLEASE submit a bug report to http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/ and include the crash backtrace, preprocessed source, and associated run script.
clang: note: diagnostic msg:
********************

PLEASE ATTACH THE FOLLOWING FILES TO THE BUG REPORT:
Preprocessed source(s) and associated run script(s) are located at:
clang: note: diagnostic msg: /var/folders/01/h2b2_63n7wj4xw4phrn78sp80000gn/T/Bulk_Assembly-CSharp_8-0dd90c.cpp
clang: note: diagnostic msg: /var/folders/01/h2b2_63n7wj4xw4phrn78sp80000gn/T/Bulk_Assembly-CSharp_8-0dd90c.sh
clang: note: diagnostic msg: Crash backtrace is located in
clang: note: diagnostic msg: /Users/lx/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/clang_<YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS>_<hostname>.crash
clang: note: diagnostic msg: (choose the .crash file that corresponds to your crash)
clang: note: diagnostic msg:

********************
Bulk_Assembly-CSharp_8.cpp is 8m
clang crash after i found out it eaten 30g memory of my mac, anyone solve this problem?
xcode 9.2
unity5.5.2f1

 

thanks for help, i had found out the problem. with c# code

Code (CSharp):

1. public class SomeWord
2. {
3.     public static List<string> Words = new List<string>(new string[]
4.     {
5.         "aaa"
6.         , "bbb"
7.         , "ccc"
8.         , "ddd"
9.         , "eee"
10.         , "fff"
11.         , "ggg"
12.         // the list has 3w ele

il2cpp convert this to

Code (CSharp):

1. extern "C"  void SomeWord__cctor_m3830774958 (Il2CppObject * __this /* static, unused */, const MethodInfo* method)
2. {
3.     static bool s_Il2CppMethodInitialized;
4.     if (!s_Il2CppMethodInitialized)
5.     {
6.         il2cpp_codegen_initialize_method (SomeWord__cctor_m3830774958_MetadataUsageId);
7.         s_Il2CppMethodInitialized = true;
8.     }
9.     {
10.         StringU5BU5D_t1642385972* L_0 = ((StringU5BU5D_t1642385972*)SZArrayNew(StringU5BU5D_t1642385972_il2cpp_TypeInfo_var, (uint32_t)((int32_t)26109)));
11.         NullCheck(L_0);
12.         ArrayElementTypeCheck (L_0, _stringLiteral1002530778);
13.         (L_0)->SetAt(static_cast<il2cpp_array_size_t>(0), (String_t*)_stringLiteral1002530778);
14.         StringU5BU5D_t1642385972* L_1 = L_0;
15.         NullCheck(L_1);
16.         ArrayElementTypeCheck (L_1, _stringLiteral632527236);
17.         (L_1)->SetAt(static_cast<il2cpp_array_size_t>(1), (String_t*)_stringLiteral632527236);
18.         StringU5BU5D_t1642385972* L_2 = L_1;
19.         NullCheck(L_2);
20.         ArrayElementTypeCheck (L_2, _stringLiteral1347057182);
21.         (L_2)->SetAt(static_cast<il2cpp_array_size_t>(2), (String_t*)_stringLiteral1347057182);
22.         StringU5BU5D_t1642385972* L_3 = L_2;
23.         NullCheck(L_3);
24.         ArrayElementTypeCheck (L_3, _stringLiteral2523984302);
25.         (L_3)->SetAt(static_cast<il2cpp_array_size_t>(3), (String_t*)_stringLiteral2523984302);
26.         StringU5BU5D_t1642385972* L_4 = L_3;
27.         NullCheck(L_4);
28.         ArrayElementTypeCheck (L_4, _stringLiteral2530099938);
29.         (L_4)->SetAt(static_cast<il2cpp_array_size_t>(4), (String_t*)_stringLiteral2530099938);
30.         StringU5BU5D_t1642385972* L_5 = L_4;
31.         NullCheck(L_5);
32.                // this style of code repeat nearly 3w times

just pick out the string in list and put it in a file, then read in from file solve the problem. the c# code is auto generate with some reason maybe i don't know why. next time if someone meet the same problem, do with this step:
1) check out the xcode compile step and find out which file cost a lot of time
2) open the file and find if there is some weird function with a lot of statement in
3) find out which c# file convert to those code and change it

sorry about my poor english i wish can help you.

 

thanks

 

I'm suffering with this issue it seems. But what if my large dictionary object include inline functions? I don't think I can easily parse that from an external file and even if I do, won't parsing that stuff during run-time be super slow since there is so much variable references? Please help I have ~3000 scenarios. I'm building a project from Unity 2018.2.9 to xcode 9.4.1.

Code (CSharp):

1. {1, new ScenarioNode("PASSAGE TEXT 1 HERE. Took out due to spoilers.",
2. //***display condition for choices
3. new Func<bool>[]    {()=>{return true;}},
4. //***display text for choices
5. new Func<string>[]      {()=>{ return "...";}},
6. //***linked scenario ID for choices
7. new int[]       {-1},
8. //***various actions or subroutine to run base on choices if any
9. new Action[]        {()=>{GameController.controller.GenerateWorld(CityEnum.Location_Tutorial_Start);}})},
10. {2, new ScenarioNode("PASSAGE 2 TEXT HERE.",
11. new Func<bool>[]    {()=>{return true;}},
12. new Func<string>[]      {()=>{ return "...";}},
13. new int[]       {2366},
14. new Action[]        {()=>{}})},
15. {3, new ScenarioNode("PASSAGE 3 TEXT HERE.",
16. new Func<bool>[]    {()=>{return true;}},
17. new Func<string>[]      {()=>{ return "Eat food";}},
18. new int[]       {-1},
19. new Action[]        {()=>{GameController.controller.GenerateItemPage(true, false, 4);}})},
20. ...
21. ...
22. ... so on so forth

 

Wow I didn't think you'd reply given the age of this post, thanks. I'd be glad to write my static dictionary into a external file. Having the project compile is more important than performance right now.

However I'm not sure how to do it. Can you point me to the right direction where I can learn how to move my static dictionary to an external data file and have it loaded into memory once? Also can you suggest where I can learn more about writing a synthetic benchmark to gauge run-time performance for this issue?

A side question: My mac is super old (mid 2010 mac book pro with almost maxed out disk usage and 4 GB of ram). Compile is super slow, do you think xcode can brute force its way out of this issue if I upgrade to 8GB of ram and add more storage.

Here is the declaration of the variable if it helps any. I could also message you the script.

Code (CSharp):

1. private static Dictionary<int, ScenarioNode> scenarioDict =
2.         new Dictionary<int, ScenarioNode>
3.     {
4.         {1, new ScenarioNode("PASSAGE TEXT 1",
5. new Func<bool>[]    {()=>{return true;}},
6. new Func<string>[]      {()=>{ return "...";}},
7. new int[]       {-1},
8. new Action[]        {()=>{GameController.controller.GenerateWorld(CityEnum.Location_Tutorial_Start);}})},
9. {2, new ScenarioNode("PASSAGE TEXT 2",
10. new Func<bool>[]    {()=>{return true;}},
11. new Func<string>[]      {()=>{ return "...";}},
12. new int[]       {2366},
13. new Action[]        {()=>{}})},
14. {3, new ScenarioNode("PASSAGE TEXT 3",
15. new Func<bool>[]    {()=>{return true;}},
16. new Func<string>[]      {()=>{ return "Eat food";}},
17. new int[]       {-1},
18. new Action[]        {()=>{GameController.controller.GenerateItemPage(true, false, 4);}})},
19. {4, new ScenarioNode("PASSAGE TEXT 4",
20. new Func<bool>[]    {()=>{return true;}},
21. new Func<string>[]      {()=>{ return "...";}},
22. new int[]       {5},
23. new Action[]        {()=>{}})},
24. .....}