Are all ScriptableObject assets included in the build?

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Hi There

I'm t$$anonymous$$nking of storing some editor data in some ScriptableObject assets but as t$$anonymous$$s data is not required by the game itself, will Unity know that t$$anonymous$$s asset isn't used. On the flip side, can I load an asset manually that DOES need including and will Unity know to include t$$anonymous$$s asset - would it need to be in the resources folder?

Thanks H

Answer 1

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Answer by Julien-Lynge · Aug 13, 2011 at 08:54 PM

If no scene objects reference a script, Unity is pretty good about cleaning those up when compiling - they won't be included in your game. If a gameObject or any script in a gameObject references an asset, it will be included in the game. The Resources folders are only for if you want to reference an asset with Resources.Load at runtime. If you're ever in doubt about whether a needed asset is there, just compile (it takes about 30 seconds) and run the game.

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Waz · Aug 14, 2011 at 02:17 PM 1

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And to be clear, all Resource folder assets are included, regardless of reference.

Bovine · Aug 14, 2011 at 03:11 PM 0

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Sure, this was why I initially thought I'd need to store any asset created with AssetDatabase.CreateAsset() in the Resources folder, but as Bunny83 points out, the Asset can be dragged and dropped just like any other asset!

Answer 2

Answer by Bunny83 · Aug 13, 2011 at 09:51 PM

In normal Unity builds (Standalone, Web) all (runtime) classes are included in the build. Unity compiles all scripts into a .NET / Mono DLL. There is a DLL for each compiling group (Standard Assets / editor / normal script) and for each language you're using. If you're mixing Unityscript and C# and have some scripts in Standard Assets and also some editor scripts written in C# and UnityScript you will end up with 6 DLL files. only 4 will go into the build since the editor DLLs only work in the editor.

 Assembly-CSharp-firstpass.dll
 Assembly-CSharp.dll
 Assembly-UnityScript-firstpass.dll
 Assembly-UnityScript.dll

You can find those dlls in the standalone build here : $ProjectName$_Data/Managed/

Unity have to include all scripts since you can use reflection or string based functions to access classes. Just t$$anonymous$$nk of Addcomponent("MyClass")

Mobile builds have the special option to strip unused code from the build but when you use reflection to access stripped classes it will crash. As far as i know the string based function calls will work as long as you call it with a string literal. It you build the string at runtime Unity can't detect that you use the class and would strip the class. That's why it's an optional feature in pro and "can" be enabled ;)

Maybe i'm wrong how the codestripping exactly works but i guess it works like that ;)

ps. in webbuild the dlls are wit$$anonymous$$n the compressed package. As far as i can remember someone managed to "decompress / disassemble" such a package, so your stuff is not "safe" especially the code.

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Bunny83 · Aug 14, 2011 at 12:53 PM 0

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Just for the record:

To create an instance of a ScriptableObject at runtime you normally use:

 // C#  
 ScriptableObject.CreateInstance<MyScriptableObject>();  
   
 // or  
 ScriptableObject.CreateInstance("MyScriptableObject");  
   
 // or  
 ScriptableObject.CreateInstance(typeof(MyScriptableObject));

This will create a new instance of that class similar to AddComponent() but since ScriptableObjects can't be attached to GameObjects you have to create it that way.

If you have a serialized instance (created in the editor, saved as asset) you would use Instantiate() to clone the initialized instance. If you use Instantiate on a MonoBehaviour the GameObject it's attached to is also cloned.

Bovine · Aug 14, 2011 at 03:09 PM 0

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Sure, but the assets used in my EditorWindow I imagine I'll be using AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath(). Of course if there's a better place to store settings required by editor windows then please shout loudly! :)

Bunny83 · Aug 15, 2011 at 06:55 PM 0

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Well, it depends on what "settings" you want to store. If you have settings that are valid for your EditorWindow itself and not just for a specific instance you're editing with it, use EditorPrefs. But if you want to store data for a specific object in the scene or a prefab you have to use something like a ScriptableObject and store it as a seperate asset.

Bovine · Aug 15, 2011 at 08:50 PM 0

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@Bunny83 Sorry, I maybe should have put the use-case for this. For our RPG we are working on, many of the items follow a pattern which allows me to construct a range of items based on some predefined characteristics. We're doing it like this because we can then know the range of stat modifications up front for play balance and because there's only two of us and a modest item set generates around 3000 items, not countting specials or rares.

This means there are several structures we iterate over to build the real item data. This data doesn't need to be loaded in the game although I could generate the item data on game startup but I think that might cause problems for the quest system, so I want the data to persist in the editor so I can edit it and then recreate all the generated game items at the click of a button.

As of this evening I've been tinkering with an EditorWindow that loads or creates an asset from a ScriptableObject that contains the generation information. It seems to work fine - though I do wish the Editor GUi had a list control!!

I looked briefly at EditorPrefs but the data is limited so a ScriptableObject and EditorWindow is the direction I've gone with this. We did have the generation outside of Unity but I had to duplicate some structures and it was getting rather cumbersome to update - this will be much better!

Bovine · Aug 17, 2011 at 12:25 PM 0

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This is the EditorWindow I've ended up with...

http://www.bovine-software.co.uk/Images/item_generation_window.png

But it feels like a lot of work to get there!

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Answer 3

Answer by Statement · Aug 13, 2011 at 08:54 PM

If they are being referenced from the scenes or if they exist in Resources folder, then yes, I t$$anonymous$$nk so. Otherwise I am unsure. I wouldn't expect them to be included since they can't be used if they aren't referencable. I guess you could do a quick test project/scene and export the game without a scriptable object, then add a scriptable object and compare the exported games?

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Answer 4

Answer by tnetennba · Aug 15, 2011 at 07:49 PM

You can use t$$anonymous$$s script to see if any objects in your game actually use it and if not clear up your project.

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/100399-How-can-I-find-what-objects-are-using-another-object

Be warned there is no progress bar on it yet so you just have to be patient and wait for it finish.

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Are all ScriptableObject assets included in the build?

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