We're targeting .NET 5 for now to make development easier while
.NET 6 is not yet released.
TEMPORARY REGRESSIONS
---------------------
Assembly unloading is not implemented yet. As such, many Godot
resources are leaked at exit. This will be re-implemented later
together with assembly hot-reloading.
The main focus here was to remove the majority of code that relied on
Mono's embedding APIs, specially the reflection APIs. The embedding
APIs we still use are the bare minimum we need for things to work.
A lot of code was moved to C#. We no longer deal with any managed
objects (`MonoObject*`, and such) in native code, and all marshaling
is done in C#.
The reason for restructuring the code and move away from embedding APIs
is that once we move to .NET Core, we will be limited by the much more
minimal .NET hosting.
PERFORMANCE REGRESSIONS
-----------------------
Some parts of the code were written with little to no concern about
performance. This includes code that calls into script methods and
accesses script fields, properties and events.
The reason for this is that all of that will be moved to source
generators, so any work prior to that would be a waste of time.
DISABLED FEATURES
-----------------
Some code was removed as it no longer makes sense (or won't make sense
in the future).
Other parts were commented out with `#if 0`s and TODO warnings because
it doesn't make much sense to work on them yet as those parts will
change heavily when we switch to .NET Core but also when we start
introducing source generators.
As such, the following features were disabled temporarily:
- Assembly-reloading (will be done with ALCs in .NET Core).
- Properties/fields exports and script method listing (will be
handled by source generators in the future).
- Exception logging in the editor and stack info for errors.
- Exporting games.
- Building of C# projects. We no longer copy the Godot API assemblies
to the project directory, so MSBuild won't be able to find them. The
idea is to turn them into NuGet packages in the future, which could
also be obtained from local NuGet sources during development.
Use `System.Array.Empty<T>` to get an empty array instead of allocating
a new one every time. Since arrays are immutable there is no need to
allocate them every time.
This source generator adds a newly introduced attribute,
`ScriptPath` to all classes that:
- Are top-level classes (not inner/nested).
- Have the `partial` modifier.
- Inherit `Godot.Object`.
- The class name matches the file name.
A build error is thrown if the generator finds a class that meets these
conditions but is not declared `partial`, unless the class is annotated
with the `DisableGodotGenerators` attribute.
We also generate an `AssemblyHasScripts` assembly attribute which Godot
uses to get all the script classes in the assembly, eliminating the need
for Godot to search them. We can also avoid searching in assemblies that
don't have this attribute. This will be good for performance in the
future once we support multiple assemblies with Godot script classes.
This is an example of what the generated code looks like:
```
using Godot;
namespace Foo {
[ScriptPathAttribute("res://Player.cs")]
// Multiple partial declarations are allowed
[ScriptPathAttribute("res://Foo/Player.cs")]
partial class Player {}
}
[assembly:AssemblyHasScripts(new System.Type[] { typeof(Foo.Player) })]
```
The new attributes replace script metadata which we were generating by
determining the namespace of script classes with a very simple parser.
This fixes several issues with the old approach related to parser
errors and conditional compilation.
It also makes the task part of the MSBuild project build, rather than
a separate step executed by the Godot editor.
This is needed with newer Mono versions, at least with Mono 6.12+
Depends on the following commit from our build scripts:
godotengine/godot-mono-builds@9d75cff174
- Removed item list that displayed multiple build
configurations launched. Now we only display
the last build that was launched.
- Display build output next to the issues list.
Its visibility can be toggled off/on.
This build output is obtained from the MSBuild
process rather than the MSBuild logger. As such
it displays some MSBuild fatal errors that
previously couldn't be displayed.
- Added a context menu to the issues list with
the option to copy the issue text.
- Replaced the 'Build Project' button in the panel
with a popup menu with the options:
- Build Solution
- Rebuild Solution
- Clean Solution
- The bottom panel button was renamed from 'Mono'
to 'MSBuild' and now display an error/warning icon
if the last build had issues.
Because `Strings OS_OSX::get_name() const` now returns "macOS" (15a9f94346)
The C# GodotTools were still using "OSX" as identifier a few things were borken (e.g. dotnet/msbuild detection).
Godot.NET.Sdk
-------------
Godot uses its own custom MSBuild Sdk for game
projects. This new Sdk adds its own functionality
on top of 'Microsoft.NET.Sdk'.
The new Sdk is resolved from the NuGet package.
All the default boilerplate was moved from game
projects to the Sdk. The default csproj for
game project can now be as simple as:
```
<Project Sdk="Godot.NET.Sdk/4.0.0-dev2">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netstandard2.1</TargetFramework>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
```
Source files are included by automatically so
Godot no longer needs to keep the csproj in sync
when creating new source files.
Define constants
----------------
Godot defines a list of constants for conditional
compilation. When exporting games, this list also
included engine 'features' and platform 'bits'.
There were a few problems with that:
- The 'features' constants were only defined when
exporting games. Not when building the game for
running in the editor player.
- If the project was built externally by an IDE,
the constants wouldn't be defined at all.
The new Sdk assigns default values to these
constants when not built from the Godot editor,
i.e.: when built from an IDE or from the command
line. The default define constants are determined
from the system MSBuild is running on.
However, it's not possible for MSBuild to
determine the set of supported engine features.
It's also not possible to determine if a project
is being built to run on a 32-bit or 64-bit
Godot executable.
As such the 'features' and 'bits' constants had
to be removed.
The benefit of checking those at compile time
was questionable, and they can still be checked
at runtime.
The new list of define constants includes:
- GODOT
- GODOT_<PLATFORM>
Defaults to the platform MSBuild is running on.
- GODOT_<PC/MOBILE/WEB>
- TOOLS
When building with the 'Debug' configuration
(editor and editor player).
- GODOT_REAL_T_IS_DOUBLE
Not defined by default unless $(GodotRealTIsDouble)
is overriden to be 'true'.
.NET Standard
-------------
The target framework of game projects was changed
to 'netstandard2.1'.
- Include PDB files in exported games.
- Release export templates also allow debugging now.
Right now the only way to enable debugging in exported games is with the environment variables, which may be cumbersome or not even possible on some platforms.
Right now, games only work on devices when exported with FullAOT+Interpreter.
There are some issues left that need to addressed for FullAOT alone. Right now,
it's giving issues with the Godot.NativeCalls static constructor.
`Variant::operator String()` returns "Null" if the type is `Variant:NIL`.
We must consider that and return a null `MonoString*` instead when marshalling.
This was also causing a "Null" error to be displayed when exporting a game
because null string members would be set to "Null" during hot-reload.
d09193b08a introduced a regression in
StringExtensions.FindLast. StringExtensions.GetFile was also affected as it
relies on FindLast. This in turn broke the project exporter as it uses GetFile.
The cause of the regression is that now FindLast is calling LastIndexOf
with 'startIndex: 0'. This should be 'startIndex: str.Length - 1' instead.
Also fixed another regression in the project exporter:
de7c2ad21b moved 'GodotTools/GodotSharpExport.cs'
to 'GodotTools/Export/ExportPlugin.cs' and in doing so accidently reverted
the changes from commit e439581198.
- Added correct config file for android dllmaps.
- Fix __Internal DllImports with a dlopen fallback.
- Add missing P/Invoke functions and internal calls expected by the monodroid BCL and our custom version of the 'Android.Runtime.AndroidEnvironment' class (this last one can be found in the godot-mono-builds repo).
- Make sure to set 'btls' instead of 'legacy' as the default TLS provider on Android.
