contunies plug in code?

Unity Engine
1

Not sure if I’m overlooking something here and may need to try a multi thread approach but wanted to ask.

We are integrating a speech engine with unity via a plug-in.

Now with this speech engine it needs to be running continuously. As far as I see it, that is not going to work with a dll based system. The dll is called and intended to run without a continues loop ( I would think ) . So I was wondering is there an event call for a dll?

Alternatively a button could turn on the speech engine from the users perspective, but that would stop all game attributes. So would there be a way to some how run a bit of code off of the main engine loop?

2

Your functions call the plugins.
Without C# code for the wrapper and additional code for functionality, plugins don’t do anything actually.

So you have all events at hand you have present regularily.

3

dreamora, thx so much for your reply. Can you help me understand where I’m failing to understand?

// The function we will call from Unity.
	//
	// We pass the Color array, texture size and current time to the plugin.
	// The C++ plugin then assigns noise-like colors to the color array.
	void EXPORT_API UpdateTexture( void* colors, int width, int height, float time )

I read this as unity calling this code. If I put any type of loop in this code unity locks up. How can I loop say, just for example, a sound. Understating of course this would be pointless, but for sake of argument.

4

You need to create new thread for time consuming operations.
For Windows DLL, check CreateThread (or _beginthreadex) and for OS X dynlib check pthread_create.

You can use callbacks in plugins to inform when your functions has done something etc.

In Windows (MinGW compiler) callback looks something like this:

#define EXPORT __declspec(dllexport)

// Reference for external callback
static const char*(__stdcall *callback_func)(char * buffer, int bufferLength);

EXPORT void SetCallbackRef(const char*(__stdcall *f)(char * buffer, int bufferLength))
{
	callback_func = f;
}

In C# callbacks are used like this:

    // Delegate for DLL event handling
    delegate void DLLCallBack(IntPtr buffer, int bufferLength);

    [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.FunctionPtr)]
    DLLCallBack dllCB;

    [DllImport("myPlugin")]
    private static extern void SetCallbackRef(DLLCallBack dllCB);

Hope this helps!

BR, Juha

5

Yes this does…thx.

Is there a flow chart that shows the relationship of the dll handling and unity anywhere?

also What about a plugin api reference?

6

There is no plug-in API, but there is some information about using plug-ins here in the manual. At the bottom of that page, there are also some links to useful material about using the Mono runtime with C/C++ code.

7

Then what is “UpdateTexture” ? surly that is a unity function of some type? There is no way the unity3d team would expect people to guess function names? I got this example form that link you posted. This info is nice but there has to be some way for a plug-in developer to know what functions they can call? – I’m missing something I know, but just dont know what?

8

As far as I know, there’s no way for plugins to directly call Unity functions.

Unity scripts can call plugin functions, and change their behavior based on the result, but not vice-versa.

9

In fact, the callback example in my previous post is an example where managed C# function is called from unmanaged DLL…

More info: Calling Managed .NET Function from Unmanaged Windows Custom DLL. - CodeProject

BR, Juha

10

Thx for the info JFo.

–Ahh ok that could work. Was not thinking of it in reverse . that or I was thinking reverse .