We will be progressively moving most code to C#.
The plan is to only use Mono's embedding APIs to set things at launch.
This will make it much easier to later support CoreCLR too which
doesn't have rich embedding APIs.
Additionally the code in C# is more maintainable and makes it easier
to implement new features, e.g.: runtime codegen which we could use to
avoid using reflection for marshaling everytime a field, property or
method is accessed.
SOME NOTES ON INTEROP
We make the same assumptions as GDNative about the size of the Godot
structures we use. We take it a bit further by also assuming the layout
of fields in some cases, which is riskier but let's us squeeze out some
performance by avoiding unnecessary managed to native calls.
Code that deals with native structs is less safe than before as there's
no RAII and copy constructors in C#. It's like using the GDNative C API
directly. One has to take special care to free values they own.
Perhaps we could use roslyn analyzers to check this, but I don't know
any that uses attributes to determine what's owned or borrowed.
As to why we maily use pointers for native structs instead of ref/out:
- AFAIK (and confirmed with a benchmark) ref/out are pinned
during P/Invoke calls and that has a cost.
- Native struct fields can't be ref/out in the first place.
- A `using` local can't be passed as ref/out, only `in`. Calling a
method or property on an `in` value makes a silent copy, so we want
to avoid `in`.
REGARDING THE BUILD SYSTEM
There's no longer a `mono_glue=yes/no` SCons options. We no longer
need to build with `mono_glue=no`, generate the glue and then build
again with `mono_glue=yes`. We build only once and generate the glue
(which is in C# now).
However, SCons no longer builds the C# projects for us. Instead one
must run `build_assemblies.py`, e.g.:
```sh
%godot_src_root%/modules/mono/build_scripts/build_assemblies.py \
--godot-output-dir=%godot_src_root%/bin \
--godot-target=release_debug`
```
We could turn this into a custom build target, but I don't know how
to do that with SCons (it's possible with Meson).
OTHER NOTES
Most of the moved code doesn't follow the C# naming convention and
still has the word Mono in the names despite no longer dealing with
Mono's embedding APIs. This is just temporary while transitioning,
to make it easier to understand what was moved where.
- Move the "sync" property for RPCs to RPCConfig.
- Unify GDScript annotations into a single one:
- `@rpc(master)` # default
- `@rpc(puppet)`
- `@rpc(any)` # former `@remote`
- Implement three additional `@rpc` options:
- The second parameter is the "sync" option (which also calls the
function locally when RPCing). One of "sync", "nosync".
- The third parameter is the transfer mode (reliable, unreliable,
ordered).
- The third parameter is the channel (unused for now).
* The harcoded 8 slots are no more and impose limits in the new extension system.
* New system is limitless, although it will impose small performance hit with a mutex.
* Use a token to request the instance binding.
**Warning**: Mono will most likely break as a result of this, will need to be modified to use the new system.
- Fix C++ compile errors about pending variable renames after the `Reference` to `RefCount` change.
- Fix C# compile errors due to the recent rename of `EnablePlugin()` and `Build()`, which are now underscore-prefixed in bindings.
- Additional rename: `godot_icall_Reference_Dtor` to `godot_icall_RefCounted_Dtor`.
The current code style guidelines forbid the use of `auto`.
Some uses of `auto` are still present, such as in UWP code (which
can't be currently tested) and macros (where removing `auto` isn't
easy).
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.
- Based on C++11's `thread` and `thread_local`
- No more need to allocate-deallocate or check for null
- No pointer anymore, just a member variable
- Platform-specific implementations no longer needed (except for the few cases of non-portable functions)
- Simpler for `NO_THREADS`
- Thread ids are now the same across platforms (main is 1; others follow)
Happy new year to the wonderful Godot community!
2020 has been a tough year for most of us personally, but a good year for
Godot development nonetheless with a huge amount of work done towards Godot
4.0 and great improvements backported to the long-lived 3.2 branch.
We've had close to 400 contributors to engine code this year, authoring near
7,000 commit! (And that's only for the `master` branch and for the engine code,
there's a lot more when counting docs, demos and other first-party repos.)
Here's to a great year 2021 for all Godot users 🎆
- Avoid spaces in Mono log file names.
- Use a `.log` extension for Mono logs, just like non-Mono logs.
- Use periods to separate hours/minutes/seconds for non-Mono logs.
Godot uses Variant parameters for calls to script methods.
Up until now we were boxing such parameters when marshalling
them for invokation, even if they were value types.
Now Godot allocates the marshalled parameters on the stack,
reducing the GC allocations resulted from boxing.
The underscore prefix was used to avoid the conflict between the `RID` class
name and the matching enum value in `Variant::Type`.
This can be fixed differently by prefixing uses of the `RID` class in `Variant`
with the scope resolution operator, as done already for `AABB`.
Enabled ARC for iOS.
Weakify/Strongify macros for objc blocks.
Removed old version checks.
Specific types for ObjC++ modules to exclude unneeded bridging.
Separate DeviceMetrics class for device specific data.
Replaced old/deprecated functionality.
