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Visual Studio debugging for Unity is finally here!

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by kersk, Aug 24, 2012.

  1. kersk

    kersk

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2012
    Posts:
    56
    UnityVS
    http://unityvs.com/

    A little pricey, but looks like it could really be worth it.

    Now we just need someone to be a guinea pig and tell us how it is! :)
     
  2. keithsoulasa

    keithsoulasa

    Joined:
    Feb 15, 2012
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    2,126
    Looks cool, not that I have 125 to spend on it ....
     
  3. Wild-Factor

    Wild-Factor

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2010
    Posts:
    607
    Too bad it's just a little out of my price range.
    But it's still a good news (I wish it would be include in Unity).
     
  4. ZeroByteDNA

    ZeroByteDNA

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2012
    Posts:
    1,042
    Don't forget - you need at least VS Pro ($500) to use it, since it does not work with Express versions.
     
  5. joshimoo

    joshimoo

    Joined:
    Jun 23, 2011
    Posts:
    266
    Visual studio can be acquired for free if you sign up for the website spark program from Microsoft.
    http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/

    Like always you still have to read the licenses and evaluate if this fits one's particular situation.
    But I still wanted to mention it, for people looking to save some money.
     
  6. ZeroByteDNA

    ZeroByteDNA

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    Jun 18, 2012
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    There are a few programs like that. WebSpark and BizSpark for businesses and DreamSpark for students.
     
  7. Jaimi

    Jaimi

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2009
    Posts:
    6,204
    It comes free with BizSpark also, if websitespark doesn't fit.

    I'm interested in the remote debugging of OSX unity that they have on their roadmap. Hopefully they can get this coming in the new version. If I were developing on Windows, I would buy this *right now*. Visual Studio is just that good.
     
  8. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2010
    Posts:
    29,723
    I am VERY interested in this, particularly with the unityscript / unity js angle. How well supported is it?
     
  9. tatoforever

    tatoforever

    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2009
    Posts:
    4,364
    Pretty nice, debugging works like charm (Unity4beta). You can open any script with (not just C# script), though haven't tried js/boo but they said it works too.
     
  10. npsf3000

    npsf3000

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2010
    Posts:
    3,830
    Interested - pricing isn't too bad. Need to wait for 'em to support VS 2012 though.
     
  11. dogzerx2

    dogzerx2

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2009
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    3,964
    If it's any good I don't think it's pricey at all. But yeah, depends on what features does it offer. I mean mono develop does the job anyway.
     
  12. Falin

    Falin

    Joined:
    Sep 29, 2009
    Posts:
    242
    hmm...
    is the only advantage of UnityVS in comparison with normals VS:
    ?

    or are there more things that is of use, if you use c#?
     
  13. TwiiK

    TwiiK

    Joined:
    Oct 23, 2007
    Posts:
    1,729
    The advantage is that you can debug you scripts obviously. Set break points, step through, see exactly what value each variable has, etc.
     
  14. HarvesteR

    HarvesteR

    Joined:
    May 22, 2009
    Posts:
    531
    WANT!!

    *wipes drool*

    If this works as advertised, it should be worth every penny. :)

    Cheers
     
  15. tango209

    tango209

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2011
    Posts:
    379
    Very nice! I like that it has an explorer that can mimic Unity's hierarchy. Nice set of features on their roadmap too:

    •Visual Studio 2012 support.
    •Unity 4 support.
    •Complete support for the remote debugging of an OS X Unity Editor.
    •Remote debugging of Unity players.
    •Code coloration and code completion for shaders.
    •Creation of scripts from Visual Studio.
    •Improved UnityScript and Boo code completion.
    •New productivity helpers.
    •Unity Documentation access from Visual Studio.
    •Intellisense Documentation.
    •Visual Studio REPL (read, eval, print loop) shell window connected to Unity.
     
  16. gjf

    gjf

    Joined:
    Feb 8, 2012
    Posts:
    53
    another great addition to the unity ecosystem and pushing it closer towards true AAA development!

    it's a steal when you realize the productivity gains compared to using monodevelop - it'll pay for itself in no time.
     
  17. jc_lvngstn

    jc_lvngstn

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2006
    Posts:
    1,508
    I simply had to purchase it, being able to debug with VS is massive for me.

    I do have some concerns regarding stability...I had to uninstall it because it was starting to scare the bejeesus out of me. I was getting constant crashes, and my project was starting to act like it was corrupted. Just...really weird things that I wasn't ready at the time to dig into.

    Now, this may be some quirk in my project, who knows. I'm still on 3.5, using VS 2010. Also using an older version of Resharper. I've noticed others on the forums are also having stability issues. I'm going to work with it some more this week.
     
  18. jbevain

    jbevain

    Microsoft

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2012
    Posts:
    141
    Hey JC,

    Jb from the UnityVS team here.

    Thank you very much for purchasing UnityVS. Sorry to hear that you have some stability issues. We know that Unity can crash occasionally and we're working on getting repros to send to the Unity team so they can fix the debugging interface of their scripting engine.

    Still, constant crashes is unheard of, maybe you want to get in touch with us to see if your project triggers some quirks, that we can either work around, or send to the Unity team for resolution.

    Best,

    Jb
     
  19. jbevain

    jbevain

    Microsoft

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2012
    Posts:
    141
    Hey Falin,

    There's indeed a bit more to UnityVS than just the console messags.

    You can see on UnityVS' feature page that we also add a new project view, similar to the one you have inside Unity. With this, you don't have to find your way inside the different Editor/Non Editor/Per language project.

    We're also working on adding wizards for those who discover the Unity API.

    We're always all ear when it comes to new productivity features from hard code Unity users, please feel free to send suggestion our way!
     
  20. Kinos141

    Kinos141

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2011
    Posts:
    969
    Dude.... notepad.
     
  21. AqusSeven

    AqusSeven

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2011
    Posts:
    119
    Whats the state of the remote osx debugging? If I can use visual studio for my mac and ios dev I would buy a copy in an instant!
     
  22. Jaimi

    Jaimi

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2009
    Posts:
    6,204
    I'm interested too
     
  23. JamesLeeNZ

    JamesLeeNZ

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2011
    Posts:
    5,616
    How many people have taken this up?

    Keen to drop kick that mono ****
     
  24. jbevain

    jbevain

    Microsoft

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2012
    Posts:
    141
    (Dear future readers, this post is as of Aug 30 2012, with UnityVS 1.0.1)

    There's support for that in UnityVS 1.0, but it is considered a preview feature, not currently supported. We're not happy with the amount of configuration it involves. We've seen three kind of reports:

    * Successful usage with VMWare Fusion.
    * A crash of VS when running inside Parallel with a stack trace indicating that the error happens when VS is calling into native code. We need to purchase a Parallel license to test it (all of us testing this scenario are currently using VMWare).
    * Some reports that Unity crashes during a step over operation. We reproduced that and we're working on a repro to send to Unity.
     
  25. Dabeh

    Dabeh

    Joined:
    Oct 26, 2011
    Posts:
    1,614
    This looks great, might consider buying it if it goes on a discount any time in the future.

    Please consider a sale in the near future ;).
     
  26. Zenix

    Zenix

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2009
    Posts:
    213
    I bought the add-in, and unfortunately it's way too buggy to be usable. Every now and then it works, but mostly it just freezes or crashes visual studio and Unity.

    Looks like a beta product that they decided to start charging for.
     
  27. arkon

    arkon

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2011
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    1,122
    You'll need it to work stable on Parallels on Mountain Lion for me to buy it and I really do want something like this. Sooner I can bin the buggy MonoDevelop the better.
     
    Last edited: Sep 4, 2012
  28. jbevain

    jbevain

    Microsoft

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2012
    Posts:
    141
    Hey Zenix,

    Sorry to hear that you're having issues with UnityVS. Can you get in touch with UnityVS' support to see about fixing those issues?

    Jb
     
  29. Zenix

    Zenix

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2009
    Posts:
    213
    Hey,

    I tried to post to your Google Group page, but I can't actually see anyway to start a new thread. I can reply to existing thread, but I didn't want to hijack someone elses post.

    The main crash (I've had several different ones) is when I first try and set a breakpoint while debugging. Visual studio just locks up. If I attempt to click anywhere, I get a bubble notification saying that Visual Studio is busy. VS never recovers from this state, and I have to use task manager to shut it down.
     
  30. jbevain

    jbevain

    Microsoft

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2012
    Posts:
    141
    Hey,

    The new UI for Google Group is pretty much unusable. We'll have to find something else.

    Hm, that is weird.

    Can you send a mail at the address on the support page with your current setup (VS version, addons, Win version, Unity version...)? I'll follow up with you on this issue personally.

    Thanks!
     
  31. jbevain

    jbevain

    Microsoft

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2012
    Posts:
    141
    Also we pushed a new release yesterday night that fixes a crash while debugging, it's not related to breakpoints, but it's worth updating to see if it smoothes things a bit.
     
  32. Meltdown

    Meltdown

    Joined:
    Oct 13, 2010
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    5,816
    When will VS 2012 support be implemented?
     
  33. jbevain

    jbevain

    Microsoft

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2012
    Posts:
    141
    Hey,

    We have it working, the time to adjust the installer and run tests, we should have it ready early next week!
     
  34. elix22

    elix22

    Joined:
    Apr 14, 2011
    Posts:
    1
    Hey ,
    What is the status of this tool ?
    Some users that bought it mentioned that it's not stable yet , anything changed since then ?
    I am a VS 2010 user (using Unity Pro 3.5.5f3) , I would like to buy it but I need some feedback from anyone that has been using it recently (in the last week)
     
  35. PrvtHudson

    PrvtHudson

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2009
    Posts:
    236
    I am running it right now. (VS12) No problems so far.

    Sweet.

    Edit : Unity 4
     
  36. JaneRachel

    JaneRachel

    Joined:
    May 28, 2012
    Posts:
    30
    same here. I have run it for a week, so far no crashes or spurious behaviour. I am so much happier debugging in VS
     
  37. alexzzzz

    alexzzzz

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2010
    Posts:
    1,447
    Finally F10, F11, Ctrl+F10 and Shift+F11 make sense again in Visual Studio. I'm happy!
     
  38. HarvesteR

    HarvesteR

    Joined:
    May 22, 2009
    Posts:
    531
    I'm using it here, it's been a huge help. :)

    I've been able to find and fix some issues that would have remained hidden forever without a proper debugger.

    It's a must-have if you're a VS fan like me.

    Cheers
     
  39. jbevain

    jbevain

    Microsoft

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2012
    Posts:
    141
    Amazing customers,

    Thank you very much for your kind words, it's music to my ears after all the work my team put into this.
    Still if you happen to have any issue, feel free to contact our friendly support to get if fixed promptly!

    Thanks again!
     
  40. jashan

    jashan

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2007
    Posts:
    3,307
    Ok, wow - AWESOME! I'm buying this! I did consider moving from Mac development to Windows development just for tighter integration with Visual Studio - but if I can use Visual Studio in VMWare Fusion to debug Unity while it's running on the Mac, I'll be all happy :)
     
  41. Tutanhomon

    Tutanhomon

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2009
    Posts:
    101
    Just curious...
    Are you using VisualSVN?
     
  42. alexzzzz

    alexzzzz

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2010
    Posts:
    1,447
    The day I bought and installed UnityVS Resharper showed me a several dozens of warnings and errors, and Unity hung every time I hit the play button in it. Yesterday I installed the latest UnityVS release and now everything works fine, except there's still one minor issue with Resharper:

    Code (csharp):
    1. [RequireComponent(typeof(AnyOtherComponent))]
    2. internal class Abc : MonoBehaviour
    3. {
    4. ...
    5. }
    Resharper underlines typeof(AnyOtherComponent) with a red wavy line and says "An attribute assignment must be a constant expression, typeof expression or array creation expression of an attribute parameter type" which, I think, is kind of stupid.

    I tried Resharper 7.1 EAP - no luck.

    Guys, who use Resharper too, could you check if my case is reproducible?
     
    Last edited: Oct 10, 2012
  43. jbevain

    jbevain

    Microsoft

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2012
    Posts:
    141
    Hey Alex,

    It is reproducible, those false positives are a known issue.
    We're working with the ReSharper guys to have those fixed in a next R# release.
     
  44. ProjectOne

    ProjectOne

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2010
    Posts:
    442
    I second that... I use VMWare so if you make this feature solid you may end up with a few MAC users as customers :)
     
  45. Nezabyte

    Nezabyte

    Joined:
    Aug 21, 2012
    Posts:
    110
    Any ETA on a trial version? This tool sounds fantastic, especially since I see Resharper issues are getting worked on, but I'd like to try it first.
     
  46. jbevain

    jbevain

    Microsoft

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2012
    Posts:
    141
    We're still working on the public trial system.

    In the meantime, you can contact us and we'll setup a private trial.
     
  47. jheard901

    jheard901

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2012
    Posts:
    7
    Yeah, this makes me drool too!
     
  48. whydoidoit

    whydoidoit

    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2012
    Posts:
    365
    Just got to say that UnityVS has totally sped up my work rate - the guys also provide fantastic support. I use UnityVS in a VMWare machine connected to Unity Mac 3.5.6 for iOS development. Being able to use Resharper and debug at the same time is a real plus for me.
     
  49. jbevain

    jbevain

    Microsoft

    Joined:
    Feb 22, 2012
    Posts:
    141
    Thanks Mike, that feels very good to read.

    Can I steal that for the website? :)
     
  50. whydoidoit

    whydoidoit

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    Mar 12, 2012
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    Of course :)