DOTS Info

Preface, “Why?”

Unity is in the midst of a transformation that will fundamentally change the way games are written. While those changes are not in the mainstream distribution of the engine, it is imminent. This document aims to consolidate and summarise information on the requirements and use of this new Data-Oriented Technology Stack, and serve as a reference for project setup and development in the future.

It is still a good idea to learn the “classic”, object-oriented approach taken by both our game development module and the current series of learning materials that Unity provides. Much of the programming, concepts and techniques will still be useful and will still be necessary with some changes.

Required Packages

DOTS Packages

Installing the DOTS packages requires opening the Package Manger within the project (Select Window > Package Manager), then add by name (select from the drop-down “+” menu). Enter the following package names (one at a time):

• com.unity.entities
• com.unity.rendering.hybrid
• com.unity.dots.editor
• com.unity.physics ← The re-implementation of the physics engine built on DOTS

These packages are marked experimental, so be sure to save often and make use of good version control practices. Be sure to push changes to the remote repository often, and use branches when writing and testing new functionality before merging with parent branches.

I expect we will be working simultaneously so we can work out any issues, talk about problems etc. together.

Domain Reload

As noted in the entities documentation, Domain Reload occurs when entering play mode within the editor, and is especially slow when using DOTS. To disable this, enable the ”Enter Play Mode Settings” checkbox in the Editor section of the Project Settings, while leaving its child options unchecked.

Platform Packages

It is also necessary to install the DOTS based platform packages for Unity (The default tool-chains will not be replaced by default).

Install, in the same way as above, the com.unity.platforms.<platform> packages, where <platform> is the desired target, for example I will install com.unity.platforms.linux and com.unity.platforms.windows to produce binaries for Linux and Windows.

Builds

Building through the standard File > Build and Run or <ctrl+b> will not work with DOTS. You must create a “Classic Build Configuration” for each target platform through the asset manager: + > Build > <Platform> Classic Build Configuration. From now on you must build the project by selecting this configuration and using the options shown in the inspector.