CoreCLR Update @ GDC 2025?

[stonstad]

From CoreCLR and .NET Modernization - Unite 2024 - #532 by RichardFine

… we remain committed to the project, and progress is being made, but there’s still a lot of open questions on our side around how and when exactly this work will end up in your hands. As we get those questions resolved it’ll get easier to share - I think there’ll be an update by GDC, at the latest.

On the topic of CoreCLR, has anyone heard any updates from GDC 2025?

[stonstad]

From the Unity 2025 Roadmap Session (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXG87FMd2aI&t=1s)

“We are continuing to modernize our engine foundation with updating .NET to CoreCLR. CoreCLR is Microsoft’s latest and greatest VM for C#. Meaning you will always be on the cutting edge of performance. And by making this upgrade, we will also make it easier to adopt future versions of .NET as Microsoft releases them.”

[Thygrrr]

Still no alpha, no updates, not even a confirmation this will be in Unity 7.0 (over 7.1, 7.2, or heaven forbid, I actually expect it to not come before 8.0 at this point)

Two people who were in charge of .NET Modernization, including the team lead, have left the company.

Unity must show us some goodwill by releasing something tangible here. Even a video that shows how it will work will be worth something, but an Alpha version is really what we need here. This project has been underway upwards of 8 years…

[Mauri]

@Thygrrr

This project has been underway upwards of 8 years…

Not true:

I also want to clarify something: this work didn’t start 8 years ago. That was just an early prototype. The real effort began much more recently, after a long period of dormancy for reasons beyond our control.

(Source: CoreCLR and .NET Modernization - Unite 2024 - #476 by xoofx )

[RaventurnPatrick]

Would be nice to know what he meant by “much more recently”. But we can assume somewhere in late 2020 - when we look at one of the first posts from JoshPeterson NET 6 support on the topic. Where he mentioned “we are actively working now toward the goal of .NET 5/.NET 6”. Thus this work is now ongoing for around 5 years.

I would really like them to promise us a Unity 7 with .Net Core Preview and Unity 8 with the final version. At least that is what I’m expecting at this point.

[DragonCoder]

@RaventurnPatrick

I would really like them to promise us a Unity 7 with .Net Core Preview and Unity 8 with the final version. At least that is what I’m expecting at this point.

I do bet on Unity 7 too but tend to believe there will be a 6.4 first

[carlos_uws]

I guess we will get an experimental version of CoreCLR in Unity 7 and a production-ready version in Unity 8.

[DragonCoder]

What would experimental look like in your opinion?

I mean the C# runtime is so fundamental to Unity that it either works and can be used for shipping games, or it cannot.

They wouldn’t bring a whole non-alpha/beta version that cannot ship games. The runtime can not be treated like an optional, external package I believe.

[carlos_uws]

Yeah, sorry, my wording was a bit confusing.

Richard said that in the first release of CoreCLR, their runtime code will use .NET 8 features, but user code will still be under .NET Standard 2.1.
I mean, that’s Unity 7, and the feature-complete version will be Unity 8.

Resourcing concerns for .NET Modernisation

No, we’d be running with the .NET 8 BCL, but we would only offer NETStandard21 as a profile for code compilation in the initial releases. So the only APIs you’d “see” from your code would be the same NETStandard21 surface that you see in most projects today. I know it’s limiting, but it allows us to focus on issues around Mono/CoreCLR parity before tackling issues arising from new .NET 8 features, as well as avoiding laying a trap where people use .NET 8 APIs in the Editor before discovering t…

[Thygrrr]

@carlos_uws

but user code will still be under .NET Standard 2.1.

This is literally confirming that we, the users, get .NET 8 features, language, and benefits, especially library compatibility, not before Unity 8000.0.0f1.

Good to know. I can stop stressing now, Unity is dead.

[TheOtherMonarch]

@Thygrrr

This is literally confirming that we, the users, get .NET 8 features, language, and benefits, especially library compatibility, not before Unity 8000.0.0f1.

Good to know. I can stop stressing now, Unity is dead.

Not sure why you are getting down voted for your opinion. I personally don’t believe keeping Mono around longer is great. However, getting the new garbage collector etc., presumably in 7000.X, will be very useful. I expect issues from switching to the new garbage collector etc. to take a while to iron out. I just hope that Mono-isms don’t creep into the code base.

[DragonCoder]

Mono fulfills its purpose well enough for many many games…

[Murgilod]

No, don’t you understand? It’s literally impossible to make games with Unity and now Unity is dead

[stonstad]

Shipping Core CLR remains one of Unity’s last major competitive advantages.

[DragonCoder]

@stonstad

Shipping Core CLR remains one of Unity’s last major competitive advantages.

How can you call it an advantage without it being released for quite some time yet? Do you assume that people in position to make decisions really base it on that prospect?

[peerless-dev]

@Thygrrr

Unity is dead.

You’ve been making this kind of expression over and over, yet people are still shipping games made with Unity.

@Murgilod

It’s literally impossible to make games with Unity and now Unity is dead

Consider pass discussions you are clearly a troll. Or I literally don’t understand why you’re still being here if the engine is dead as you condemned it to be?

[AndreaGalet]

They will have it ready for Unity 7, now that they can do whatever they want with the naming, they can just wait until is ready and release it, take the new animation system for example, it was promoted to Unity 6 but it was showed for Unity 7, anything can change and they are more commited now to CoreCLR than ever in my opinion.

[Mauri]

@peerless-dev Murgilod is one of the few people who downvoted Thygrrr’s post. Their post was clearly meant to be a sarcastic response.

[stonstad]

@DragonCoder

How can you call it an advantage without it being released for quite some time yet?

Fair enough. C# integration with the promise of Core CLR support is why I use Unity.

[Murgilod]

@peerless-dev

Consider pass discussions you are clearly a troll. Or I literally don’t understand why you’re still being here if the engine is dead as you condemned it to be?

Or you can’t recognize obvious sarcasm.