Hot-Reloading & Non-Serializable Types

[antfarmar]

Minor Issue:

• Hot-reloading (recompile during playmode) is not possible with the pool used.
  • Requires you to not use any types which can't be serialized.
• ObjectPooler uses a Dictionary to reference the object pools (queues).
  • Dictionaries cannot be serialized.

Possible Fixes:

1. Don't hot-reload.
2. Re-implement w/o using non-serializeable types. See SerializeField manual entry for types
3. Destroy then recreate the pools:
   • Recompiling code in Unity calls OnDisable() and OnEnable() on all objects.
   • Do it there.

[antfarmar]

Created a new branch hot-reloadable.

• Project now only uses serializable types.
  • except for static instance references in Manager classes.
• The pooling class is no longer a static singleton class with static fields (the pool Lists) & methods.
  • It's just a POCO (plain old clr class) and no static data fields.
  • The GameManager singleton now manages 1 pool instance per prefab.
  • Probably not advisable on larger projects.
• When a live recompile occurs, static references are still lost (== null).
  • They are reassigned OnEnable.
  • e.g. The GameManager instance.
  • No other static data fields exist, hence nothing else to clone/save.

[antfarmar]

_Note:_ It is better to take advantage of things like dictionaries, queues, static classes, object references, etc, rather than the minor advantages that hot-reloading provides (which is probably not sustainable as a project grows anyhow). One should prefer clean, efficient, readable code and architecture over most things that would sacrifice it.