playMaker

Author Topic: Linker Wizard actions + a message before Build  (Read 3062 times)

Broken Stylus

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Linker Wizard actions + a message before Build
« on: September 24, 2019, 11:53:56 AM »
I think that actions that will require the linker wizard should add to their description:

"Run Linker Wizard before building your project."

Also, since PM knows how many actions of a given type are used, then it could be nice if it would check the project to see if, assuming at least one action requiring the Wizard is used, that a popup warns the dev to do a Wizard run before building. That, especially if the link.xml file does not yet contain the instruction(s) to force push all related necessary assets into the build.

jeanfabre

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Re: Linker Wizard actions + a message before Build
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2019, 03:07:45 AM »
Hi,

Yes, this would be a great update for the linker wizard,. I agree.

But, we do encourage to use custom actions when possible and make requests for actions instead of using reflection based actions, they under perform... it's always better to use a dedicated custom action.


 Bye,

 Jean

Broken Stylus

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Re: Linker Wizard actions + a message before Build
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2019, 06:18:35 AM »
Absolutely, although I encountered an issue with conditional expression that could only be solved with the Wizard, so as to explain to the build to take the necessary files with it because apparently the builder had teh dumbs and didn't think about it or something.  :D

Broken Stylus

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Re: Linker Wizard actions + a message before Build
« Reply #3 on: January 01, 2021, 07:24:25 AM »
Further points. Firstly, I recently found that the created link.xml file is present in a plugin folder. I have several link.xml files already in this project, I'm puzzled that the Linker Wizard picked one as if it picked the first one it found. I'd have expected this Playmaker Linker Wizard's file to be located in a place that seemed to belong to Playmaker in some fashion.

Also, I haven't yet totally upgraded Playmaker but the "1. first line blah blah" is displayed above the banner and not readable. Could be due to the new Unity UI though.

Finally, the preview exists but the process isn't transparent enough. As soon as the linker is in the Assets, it's ought to do its work but it appeared it reseted itself every time it was deselected. Every time, I had to say yes, do include the conditional expression stuff for umpteenth time in order to have access to the ping and select buttons.

Broken Stylus

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Re: Linker Wizard actions + a message before Build
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2021, 12:47:59 PM »
Actually, the Linker is not very UI friendly, in that we don't really see it doing anything. The linking is not transparent, we don't have any small window showing that elements are scanned in real time or anything, there's not even an UI element telling us the linking is "in progress", like a glowing button or something. We don't see what elements are seen by the Linker, we are not told if an element was found and added to the link.xml. Etc.

Considering the high sensitivity and importance of the Linker in a project, it deserves to provide a better UX to users.

Also, the documentation isn't clear enough, there's this Debug option that needs to be ticked although that's not necessarily obvious because we could also think there's an implied "release" mode if we don't select "debug". We're not told what happens if it isn't ticked, nor what happens if we leave it like this once the linking is over.
We're not told if the Linker found a link.xml file, if it's going to update it or replace it, nor where.

jeanfabre

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Re: Linker Wizard actions + a message before Build
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2021, 01:46:36 AM »
Hi,

 I agree, another edgy aspect is that you must go through all usages in your gameplay to trigger all detections, so this is not very good, but I haven't found another way...

I hope to recover time to allocate to playmaker support and update all these tools, and I agree this would be a good thing to update this wizard.

Bye,

 Jean

Broken Stylus

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Re: Linker Wizard actions + a message before Build
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2021, 06:14:17 AM »
Can't the knowledge of the existence of sensitive actions not be added during edition time instead of having to force the whole game to encounter these actions in... action? Does the reflection need to see what kind of values and references go through those actions? Even if it were true, wouldn't these parameters already be known by Playmaker's editor?
I admit I don't really know what the Linker does in details but I assume, perhaps very wrongfully, that there's a bunch of pointers being declared or something similar. If some data needs to be declared, perhaps a popup should appear? Perhaps there could be a little icon in the action telling us it's not entirely set up, and this might even be added as an error in the Graph View (like when there are events which are declared in an action but are not used in a FSM, or like when some fields are obligatory)?