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.
Implement built-in classes Vector4, Vector4i and Projection.
* Two versions of Vector4 (float and integer).
* A Projection class, which is a 4x4 matrix specialized in projection types.
These types have been requested for a long time, but given they were very corner case they were not added before.
Because in Godot 4, reimplementing parts of the rendering engine is now possible, access to these types (heavily used by the rendering code) becomes a necessity.
**Q**: Why Projection and not Matrix4?
**A**: Godot does not use Matrix2, Matrix3, Matrix4x3, etc. naming convention because, within the engine, these types always have a *purpose*. As such, Godot names them: Transform2D, Transform3D or Basis. In this case, this 4x4 matrix is _always_ used as a _Projection_, hence the naming.
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 🎆
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`.
Implementation for new Variant types Callable, Signal, StringName.
Added support for PackedInt64Array and PackedFloat64Array.
Add generation of signal members as events, as well as support for
user created signals as events.
NOTE: As of now, raising such events will not emit the signal. As such,
one must use `EmitSignal` instead of raising the event directly.
Removed old ThreadLocal fallback class. It's safe to use thread_local now since
it's supported on all minimum versions of compilers we support.
- Renames PackedIntArray to PackedInt32Array.
- Renames PackedFloatArray to PackedFloat32Array.
- Adds PackedInt64Array and PackedFloat64Array.
- Renames Variant::REAL to Variant::FLOAT for consistency.
Packed arrays are for storing large amount of data and creating stuff like
meshes, buffers. textures, etc. Forcing them to be 64 is a huge waste of
memory. That said, many users requested the ability to have 64 bits packed
arrays for their games, so this is just an optional added type.
For Variant, the float datatype is always 64 bits, and exposed as `float`.
We still have `real_t` which is the datatype that can change from 32 to 64
bits depending on a compile flag (not entirely working right now, but that's
the idea). It affects math related datatypes and code only.
Neither Variant nor PackedArray make use of real_t, which is only intended
for math precision, so the term is removed from there to keep only float.
Happy new year to the wonderful Godot community!
We're starting a new decade with a well-established, non-profit, free
and open source game engine, and tons of further improvements in the
pipeline from hundreds of contributors.
Godot will keep getting better, and we're looking forward to all the
games that the community will keep developing and releasing with it.
`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.
Make the build system automatically build the C# Api assemblies to be shipped with the editor.
Make the editor, editor player and debug export templates use Api assemblies built with debug symbols.
Always run MSBuild to build the editor tools and Api assemblies when building Godot.
Several bugs fixed related to assembly hot reloading and restoring state.
Fix StringExtensions internal calls not being registered correctly, resulting in MissingMethodException.
Added constructor that takes IEnumerable for Array and IEnumerable<T> for Array<T>.
Added constructor that takes IDictionary for Dictionary and IDictionary<TKey, TValue> for Dictionary<TKey, TValue>.
Using `misc/scripts/fix_headers.py` on all Godot files.
Some missing header guards were added, and the header inclusion order
was fixed in the Bullet module.
- Allow non-public fields to be exported as well (to avoid confusion).
- Set PROPERTY_HINT_RESOURCE_TYPE for resource derived fields.
- Support enums and automatically fill PROPERTY_HINT_ENUM's hint_string for enum fields.
Ignacio Roldán Etcheverry
reduz
Rémi Verschelde
Marcel Admiraal
Aaron Franke
magian1127
lupoDharkael
Juan Linietsky
Ignacio Etcheverry
Ryan Schmitt
Ferenc Arn