Yes Unity 5.5 new compiler and GC!

https://twitter.com/unity3d/status/737920987249967106

Thank You Unity!

Darn it though with instancing, IL2CPP on all platforms (see slide 5.4) and a new GC I'll have nothing to complain about...

Hmm, any chance you could you know add GPU parallel processing to C#, Please?

EDIT: Might be in here?

 

You'll find something ...

 

It only says 5.5 will have new compiler but not the others or else the 5.5 would be in the main entry?

With the current pace of the betas and coming summer + holidays, 5.5 sounds like it's coming at the end of the year and then its already close to Unity 6 next year... very depressing in the light of the new pricing scheme.

I hope someone who attended the roadmap session can prove me wrong

 

I'd love more info on the new compiler and GC

 

You need to look at the photos they have taken of the slides.

Hopefully they will put the video up of this session?

 

I don't get what's with the instancing stuff... why custom shaders? Shouldn't it just be if meshes are identical they are instanced?

 

Good point. There is probably overhead for instancing, e.g. shared arrays, set up, which could be wasted when you only have a few things. A bit like using SIMD or Multi-threading, only worth doing if there is a big enough 'batch' to process to make it worth the overhead.

 

Yes, that's what I was looking at. Even the twitter post says only about compiler in 5.5 which does not include everything. For the rest they have been under works or research for years which does not mean much for the other points

 

Good stuff.

 

The way Mono/.NET works if you upgrade your version you tend to get a newer GC right?

The latest versions have some great GC updates for high performance servers that could be ideal for games.

Good but dated 2014 article here -> http://mattwarren.org/2014/06/18/measuring-the-impact-of-the-net-garbage-collector/

Or Unity could adopt something like this -> http://www.philosophicalgeek.com/2015/02/06/announcing-microsoft-io-recycablememorystream/

 

Well they are talking only about compiler for 5.5. You can even use Roslyn with Unity currently if you set it up. However AFAIK the gc is part of the runtime or separate thing they customized to work with mono or IL2CPP.

 

Last line under .Net/MONO Upgrade (Yay!) section GC!

 

Yes, GC is just one step under the topic just like compiler is as first step of em all and planned for 5.5, or that's how I see it.

 

Just watching the video now. Was going off the indentation and limited information on the slides and my now collapsed optimism.

 

Start on game now and by the time finished you get new garbage collection and perhaps some additional all around bit of increased performance as well.

 

You still need to code correctly

 

GC Allocation -> http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/ga...third-party-assets-in-the-asset-store.140673/

GC Update? -> http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/mono-garbage-collection-can-i-get-a-summary.228199/

Firewatch (2016) 'Hiccups' -> http://news.cheatcc.com/articles/398071

 

Yes you still need to code correctly even with a improved GC compiler. Or to say it more correctly. "You still need to take responsible for what your codes does". Avoiding repeated allocation is not that difficult. But allocation that comes from the UI or Unity engine/editor it self, it something i am looking forward to see improvements on. Specially on canvas and UI elements. But IL2CPP is def the right direction for Unity. But you still need to code correctly

 

We have had this conversation before we disagree -> http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/mono-garbage-collection-can-i-get-a-summary.228199/

But it's good to see that Unity is working on the a solution to the problem and have a 'roadmap'.

 

Maybe you missunderstand what the new improvements are. You still need to code correctly. Its not a problem its a lack of understanding.IL2CPP will not remove gc, its mostly translation performance to c++ native. There is no roadmap to remove gc.

 

@Arowx, at some point in the later half Joachim says that they are moving the rendering nuts n bolts from the C++ black box into a ~500 lines of C# file. Available in a repo near the cinematic image effects, @soon. This will be a huge step towards custom-tailored rendering and will facilitate custom GPU compute solutions in platforms where such an approach makes sense.

 

Do not allocate and you do not have to worry about GC. I know its pain but certainly less pain than handling multiple pointer indirection. In iL2CPP route we can skip this GC thing altogether, right?

 

You can't avoid allocation, but we can certainly avoid reallocation. The problem is that internally Unity modular component generates allocation without you doing any codes at all, this should be fixed. IL2CPP is still managed code at start. It just increase the performance from intermediate language to unmanaged code. When memory blocks is no longer in use, it needs to be cleaned for new allocation. How this cleanup happens can be improved, but never removed. IL2CPP comes with a upgraded version of the collector (a better one). Mostly this updates are monobehavoir/compiler . It will be nice to see 4.6 .Net support. Allot of new interesting improvements are coming.. Good news. but not groundbreaking. I love how Unity thinks and the way things are going.

 

Hey, does compiler upgrade mean faster script compiling?

 

Well, for some time it essentially means bugs.

 

Was also excited about the IL2CPP everywhere, but if you watch the video (11:45) a question is asked about Standalone IL2CPP and it's being pushed back behind the mono upgrade.

Should the inability to compile on Mac for PC native be a blocker, and could cloud build get around this problem?

 

ILCPP will come for desktop, eventually, after a Mono upgrade.
Cloud Build accelerates building and distributing builds on multiple platforms - devices.
ILCPP for desktop currently is not available as a build target, so Cloud Build cannot help on this.

 

I know it was the developer using the fact that you cannot build/compile to PC from a Mac as the 'reason' for why this has not been added.

For instance you can't build for iPhone or Mac without a Mac.

But cloud build should allow developers on any platform to built to a supported target platform, right?

Even the CEO in the Keynote mentioned the PC platform being a good option for game developers.

 

dont quote 'reason'; it's pretty valid reason - you cannot use Apple's dev stack on you Windows legally
and yes, cloud build might help overcome this - but that is so far in the future that not one, not even two, but several threads will be made about it until then

 

I do wonder though how much of a performance boost PC games would get from a native IL2CPP build?

 

while we talking about IL2CPP for does who haven't seen this yet:

My solute to Lucas & Ralph

 

I'm kinda excited for those custom renderloops. It would allow for finetuning rendering code to the way your game works so you can e.g. detect objects that would fill large portion of the screen and are non-transparent so you can avoid rendering anything behind them that is either very far or very small so it wouldn't be visible anyway. Basically avoiding overdraw.