Changing enum name causes all assets using that enum to reimport

[Golesy]

Hello all!

I’m currently hitting an annoyance that im hoping I can find a workaround for. I’m using a list of ints for save data and am hiding it behind an enum for sanity sake while working. However every time I change any bit of the enum it reimports every prefab using the enum weather it references that entry or not.

For example if I have:

enum SaveInfo
{
Opened_Chest_1 = 1001,
Taked_To_Bob = 1002,
}

and change it to:

enum SaveInfo
{
Opened_Chest_1 = 1001,
Taked_To_Joe = 1002,
}

every prefab using SaveInfo at all get reimported. I am using Addressables for the prefabs if that changes anything.

It wouldn’t be a big issue but at the moment it takes 10min to reimport everything every time I want to add a new save tag. Is there any way around this aside from stopping reimporting on changes all together?

Thanks!

[Kurt-Dekker]

Enums enums are bad in Unity3D if you intend them to be serialized:

Best practice to find object in List of custom classes? Do if in list, if not do something else

BUT!!! Be very careful with enumerated types since Unity’s YAML serializer does not save the mnemonic of the enum but rather just an integer. If you change your enum in code, you could potentially silently bork all your prefabs, assets and scenes that contain these non-identifier serialized numbers. I try to stay away entirely from enums for anything that I am going to let Unity serialize. Otherwise they’re great. using UnityEngine; [CreateAssetMenu] public class Attack : ScriptableObject { …

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Use extreme caution with enums in Unity. Unity does NOT store the actual enum such as "Block". Instead, Unity stores whatever integer number is associated with "Block" This means if you have an enum with: Attack, Block and you later add one at the start: Prepare, Attack, Block Then Block will now be integer 2, and your previously-serialized Block will now magically (and silently) become an Attack. In my opinion this is a MASSIVE failure in the serialization design that Unity cho…

It is much better to use ScriptableObjects for many enumerative uses. You can even define additional associated data with each one of them, and drag them into other parts of your game (scenes, prefabs, other ScriptableObjects) however you like. References remain rock solid even if you rename them, reorder them, reorganize them, etc. They are always connected via the meta file GUID.

Collections / groups of ScriptableObjects can also be loaded en-masse with calls such as Resources.LoadAll<T>().