There is something I still couldn’t get a good grasp of, related to the Artifacts in AssetDatabase.
Official documentation states in this page Asset Database’s under the The Artifact database heading:
“Artifacts are the results of the import process. The Artifact database contains information about the import results of each source asset. Each Artifact contains the import dependency information, Artifact meta-information and a list of Artifact files.”
In the same page, after navigating alittle bit down, under the Platform Switching and reimporting:
“… the platform is part of the hash that the Asset Database uses to store the import results for Unity’s built-in importers. This means that the results for importing your assets on different platforms are stored as separate pieces of cached data.”
So, when I add a new Texture to my project, I can observe the creatin of the artifact via the Import Activity window. With the Show Previous Imports option being on, I can keep track of the whole changes step by step. This Previous Imports section has a column named Artifact ID and looks quite unique like a GUID. There is also another piece of info on the Asset-related section under the Produced Files / Artifacts. The artifact name looks like being generated from the hash itself.
According to my understanding of the official documentation, if I change the name of the asset, the artifact itself should change, a new artifact is produced. And, this happens exactly as expected. Morever, the same result must be observed if I simply switch platforms. However, in this case, the only changing thing is the Artifact ID in the Previous Imports section, not the real artifact file, as stated in the Asset-related section of the window.
I don’t know if I have missed something crucial about the whole process, but I can’t understand why things happen this way. I’d really apreciate if you tell me the whole logic behind this process.
Pics indicate the change for this order: initial import, platform change and finally name change for the file.
