Feedback wanted - Your feeling about 2019.2 in its current state (b7)

[ROBYER1]

@isaac-ashdown

Well mainly it was that we’ve got a custom terrain shader and it would’ve been some work to get that running with LWRP. But even with the default terrain material and LWRP, with our setup there were issues with grass/details being culled strangely.

This makes me nervous to upgrade engine version now, still on 2019.1 but the majority of my scenes involve Terrain and Detail/grass meshes.

[Vagabond]

What could cause that - 30 seconds to start a scene !?
Seems related to editor windows!
I am waiting for 2019.2 b8 in order to test if things are better !

[isaac-ashdown]

@ROBYER1_1

This makes me nervous to upgrade engine version now, still on 2019.1 but the majority of my scenes involve Terrain and Detail/grass meshes.

These issues are only with LWRP, which is optional.

[Elecman]

I cannot even open my project in 2019.1, or 2019.2 beta due to a bug in the importer:

Mesh disappears when upgrading project

There is a weird bug where several meshes disappear (reference to submesh in FBX is lost in Mesh Filter) when upgrading my project from Unity 2018 to Unity 2019.2 I have a reasonably small repo which is 100% reproducible. Hopefully this can be fixed because currently I can’t use the latest version of Unity anymore and fixing this manually is too time consuming. Case nr 1155649

So no, it doesn’t feel ready.

[fherbst]

Since you asked for pain points I thought I’d take the time to report myself with an actual production project going through the pain of updating from 2019.2.0b5 to 2019.2.0b9 (what before Unity 2019 lifecycle usually was a smooth experience, just recently upgraded an old project from 5.3 to 2018.4 without issues).

Downlaoded 2019.2.0b9, opening project that was in 2019.2.0b5 for quite a while now. I didn’t update before because I was waiting for LWRP updates which are now in (6.9.0).
I marked things that feel like bugs or regressions in bold.

My Update Experience

• opening project in the new version, some errors about internal unity UI package
  
  
• fortunately I’m already used to that, restarting Unity makes that one disappear.
• next finding, the Burst package now has an update that it didn’t have before and that is required because otherwise I can’t compile anymore. (Burst+Math 1.04 in 2019.2.0b5 vs. Burst+Math 1.1.1 in 2019.2.0b9).
• ok, updating Burst. Need to restart, then that error goes away
• next up, LWRP updates - this is the main reason I wanted to try 2019.2.0b9, so I upgrade LWRP to 6.9.0
• result is ShaderGraph errors + can’t compile anymore
  
  
• oh, ok, yeah I know that one already as well, despite ShaderGraph and Core RP being versioned dependencies of LWRP, PackageManager didn’t manage to upgrade them automatically.
• so, next up, manual upgrade of both Core RP and ShaderGraph
• every single shader in the project is compiled for every single of these updates (would have been nice to press one button and wait instead of 3 buttons and 3 waits)
• the ShaderGraph update now has forced a partial reimport it seems (Unity stuck on “Importing Small Assets” - took 20 minutes. Then it started reimporting all FBX files. Is there an AssetPostprocessor in ShaderGraph?! Then the Shadergraphs. Then all prefabs)
• so, couple of cups of coffee later (after ~30min, on a high-end machine), coming back, I’m greeted with new errors I haven’t seen before about AssetPreviewUpdater and Shader properties
  
  
• again, Unity restart fixes that one
• after it opens up, greeted with another new error that I didn’t have before
  
• (note that I was able to properly build/deploy to Android with this project before, will see whether it still works in a minute)*
• also, since PackageManager is still open, it might as well report a new visual corruption in the UI that I think wasn’t there before (note the fancy double arrows and also the arrows not being positioned in the center of the line
  
• OK, let a build attempt run through - didn’t succeed. New error, not seen before!

Unable to find player assembly: C:\git\project\Temp\StagingArea\Data\Managed\UnityEngine.TestRunner.dll
UnityEngine.Debug:LogWarning(Object)
Unity.Burst.Editor.BurstAotCompiler:OnPostBuildPlayerScriptDLLsImpl(BuildReport) (at Library/PackageCache/com.unity.burst@1.1.1/Editor/BurstAotCompiler.cs:166)
Unity.Burst.Editor.BurstAotCompiler:OnPostBuildPlayerScriptDLLs(BuildReport) (at Library/PackageCache/com.unity.burst@1.1.1/Editor/BurstAotCompiler.cs:46)
Error building Player: 2 errors

• turns out Burst Tests asmdef references UnityEditor.TestRunner and nunit and is (I can only assume incorrectly) set to “Included in all platforms” instead of Editor only

• either that wasn’t the case on 0b5 or it wasn’t a problem (note that “Unable to find player assembly” is logged as a warning but prevents the build from happening)*

• had to go into text editor and manually edit the asmdef file inside the package cache (since package files are locked from inside Unity), just to be able to build again - just added “Editor” in “includePlatforms”

• after that, I was able to build again

• Shader Compilation time is up ~6x compared to 2019.2.0b5 now (I literally can see that it’s only doing ~30 shader variants per second, while before it felt like ~200 even on a complete shader recompile).

• It looks like the Shader Compilation progressbar UI is super responsive now. Just a guess, might it be that there’s an UI update after every single compiled shader variant resulting in a slowdown to max. 30-60 fps?

• Note: would be great to have an “estimated time left” on the “Compiling Shader Variants” window. It really takes a long time, even with Optimize Meshes disabled.*

• good news is, after going through all this the project is now in the process of building! (that’s a better experience than the time I tried Unity 2019.3.0a5 with this project).

• EDIT: was too happy too soon. Unity crashed somewhere after begin halfway through the shader compilation (not sure, didn’t watch the screen). I’ll restart and try again.

• and the journey continues. After restarting Unity (no new errors) and starting a new build that went through shader compilation/stripping fine (I watched this time), I’m greeted with new errors:
  

  

• reimported the Lightweight RP package (rightclick > reimport in Project window), now trying a new build again

• new build failed with the same errors. OK, so this is a “real error” now.

• After opening one of the files in question (Lightweight2D.hlsl) I immediately see that the compiler is right - output isn’t initialized. Actually, it’s not even used here. It’s a damn typo right there. It should be “input”. A line was wrongly copypasted from the vertex shader.

• Note that I’m not even using anything that would require the Lightweight2D shaders to be included. I see that the Shader Compiler takes a while (and some Variants) for Lightweight2D-SimpleLit though.*

• fixing that file brings the build errors down to 2 (the ones with the BLENDINDICES)

• opening and re-saving those two ShaderGraph files doesn’t help (still those 2 errors)

• fortunately they are outdated anyways, so I can happily delete these two files

• trying another build. This time, it went through! And has approx. the same size as the one before, and works the same. My journey that started with “hey, LWRP 6.9 is out, let’s update to Unity 2019.2.0b9 so I can use it” comes to an end.

Summary

• overall process took 4 hours and counting (I had plenty of time writing this blog post during all the imports/reimports/compiles/builds though)

• not a single second was spent on fixing things in my scripts or the parts of Unity that I actually touched in this project

• updating LWRP package took 3x as long as it should (since I had to manually update Core RP, ShaderGraph, and LWRP to the same version), updating ShaderGraph caused a complete reimport (it’s ok if it has to - just a pain point)

• I needed to restart Unity several times just to fix random errors of the “well, that’s probably gone after a restart” kind

• I needed thorough knowledge of asmdef files and how to manually edit them outside of Unity to even be able to build again, plus I will have to do that every single time Unity decides to automagically update the PackageCache (haven’t found a way to disable that yet)

• Unity crashed on building on the first attempt after fixing all of the above (it didn’t crash in 2019.2.0b5)

• after that, more errors appeared. I was able to delete some files that gave errors, and had to dive right into HLSL shader code in LWRP and fix a typo in a method that seems to not have been tested at all. Then, and only then, was I able to build again.

Sorry for hijacking this feedback thread. If I had known what I’m getting into I would have opened a separate thread for this.

[fherbst]

Since I was so impressed with the amount of errors and in-depth manual work needed for upgrading that project I tried starting from scratch with a new project, created in 2019.2.0b9.

My New Project From Scratch Experience

• went to Hub, created a new project in 2019.2.0b9 with LWRP selected
• opening project works fine
• contrary to previous versions, shaders compile on the first start, no need to restart Unity a couple of times anymore - great!
• went to PackageManager, selected Lightweight RP, pressed on Upgrade
• Unity updates the package, goes into “cyan shader compilation mode” and crashes immediately.
• Restarted Unity, all looking good.
• Windows Build of the sample scene - works
• Android Build of the sample scene - shader compilation takes ages (seems it’s way more Variants than for Windows Desktop for some reason)
• peeking into Lightweight2D.hlsl in LWRP shows the same issue, but the default scene doesn’t seem to hit that particular shader
• Android Build went through
• I can’t reproduce the issue, seems the Lightweight2D.hlsl isn’t used in any case, not even when I add a CustomRenderDataAsset for 2D Lighting.
• after adding the exact manifest and project settings of the project above, the build failed one time with the same warning (about Burst Testing dll) and the same error (about Lightweight2D.hlsl)
• on the next build the warning is still there but the error gone and building works again.
• I can’t reproduce the weird ShaderGraph shader issue that only happened with 2 of my shaders

[phil_lira]

@fherbst thanks for sharing this info here. Regarding the LWRP issue:

We will fix the Lightweight2D.hlsl error in shader asap. Sadly this was not caught in our automated testing suite for packages, we are missing some tooling on XR side. To give some info about why this Lightweight2D pass is added. It’s because LWRP now supports a 2D renderer, and this renderer uses the Lightweight2D pass.

[Peter77]

@fherbst

Shader Compilation time is up ~6x compared to 2019.2.0b5

It does feel a lot longer than in earlier builds, so I submitted bug report:
https://discussions.unity.com/t/749362

… but QA found shader compilation is actually two times faster than before

Good spot and idea with the progress update though! If they call UpdateProgressbar every iteration, this most likely slows it down significantly. I had this issue a few times and it’s an easy fix in most cases.

[fherbst]

@phil_lira I knew that this was added, but why would it even try to be compiled for my project? I’m not using any of the 2D lighting features, and also not the CustomRendererData that could cause this to happen.

[optimise]

1. Are you using 2019.2 in a real production? If not, did something keep you from doing so?
Not yet.

2. What feature(s) are you most excited about?
Optimized Frame Pacing for Android I guess.

3. What is/are the most annoying/painful part(s) of 2019.2 today?
a) Case 1140018 I already getting no fix for months. Even now with the latest Nvidia driver I still get the same issue. It still cut the power of my laptop. I only able to reproduce this problem in Unity and no problem at any other software I used. Something wrong with Unity seriously and this problem really need to get fix asap. If one day new Unity version introduces some new features that requires new Nvidia driver I will not able to use that features. Fun fact the game build with Unity does not cut the power of my laptop. So, I believe it’s Unity Editor problem that emits something.

b) Case 1164012 still not getting fix yet. The same model build with latest Addressables 1.1.4 has deformation bug. I believe it’s engine regression as it’s not reproducible at 2018.4 cycle. Another is Case 1157753 which load the same scene second time will crash Unity editor.

4. How did your experience with 2019.2 develop during the alpha/beta phase?
Not so nice. It suddenly change Test Runner asmdef setting from Auto Referenced to Override Reference and make it throw errors at Console.

5. How would you feel if we released 2019.2 in its current state (b7)
I would be disappointed. 2019.2 does not feel ready.

[Dwight_P]

@LeonhardP

Thanks for the feedback so far!

It would be very helpful if you could submit bug reports for these issues, if possible with reproduction projects. It looks like the graphic job crash is a known issue but it’s impossible to tell for sure without having a look at this specific incidence and another reproduction project would also help us verify potential fixes more securely.

Edit:
Issue tracker link to the graphics jobs bug

I am currently using many variations of different distortions together to get certain affects. I would have to break down each shader and pin point exactly what distortion is breaking and why. Once I get an opportunity I will go through and see what’s broken and get a bug report sent. I still need to build a sample project for the ambient node bug I reported, as well. Lol

[Vagabond]

Using Unity 2019.2 b9

Every time Unity gets on focus it takes a second to get interactable.
I don’t know about other users but i would love to know if current editor performance state is known to be bad or not, because i can promise it slows down development like twice for me Also toggle fullscreen is glitching and slow and often is not detected because the editor feels like it’s running at 20 fps.

Still taking a 15-30 seconds to start a scene which is nothing close as complex compared to what i can achieve with the other game engines out there !

Build are running smooth and good for now though but the editor itself it incredibly slow for me !

Thank You !

P.S. - just to mention PC specs:

• 6 core OLD AMD CPU, 16 GB Ram and GTX 1060 6GB GPU

[Vagabond]

May be i have a problem with my PC.
Is it 15 seconds for assembly reloading considered normal ?

[konsic]

I think Unity needs less hard drive space.

It’s not good it grows with more space requirements.

Package manager should serve people not install all those un-needed addendums for HDRP and LWRP.

Also, load/boot time of Unity has increased.

[nitrofurano]

i’m missing a lot of things on 2019.3, like: having GNU/Linux version easy to find and download (on the official download webpage you can only find OSX and Windoze versions for downloading); Unity-Hub is still chaotic for opening projects (in the initial learning process we need to create hundreds of projects, and they get lost around that mess quite easily); Unity still crashes when we don’t have enough hardware for running it (instead of notifying us what is missing in a message box, like Godot does); it is painfully slow for opening, loading projects, build and run, etc.; minimal tutorials (as simply as merely moving sprites, shapes, displaying text with changing numeric values, etc.) are very hard to find, and the official tutorials are painfully demotivating; etc…

[Vagabond]

Another issue that i just ran into just now again ( using Unity 2019.2 b9) :

• very very often ( few times a day ). input field stop respond on entering a value. The slider based interaction is working though ! Engine should be restarted to get fixed !

P.S. - Alt+F ( E ) to exit engine also not registered. Seems the engine just not accepting some user input events !

This happened in 2019.2b7 as well

[Vagabond]

In general i try to ignore many things, but here is one more:
This is showing non stop in b7 and b9 as well !

[5argon]

@Vagabond

P.S. - Alt+F ( E ) to exit engine also not registered. Seems the engine just not accepting some user input events !
This happened in 2019.2b7 as well

I got a report where shortcuts involving Alt doesn’t work, but the case was closed as low priority defect and Won’t Fix. https://fogbugz.unity3d.com/default.asp?1157429_3t3sf1kt96j23b12 If you change to something else not containing Alt in shortcut manager, did it work?

[Stormy102]

@Vagabond

In general i try to ignore many things, but here is one more:
This is showing non stop in b7 and b9 as well !

Yes I have this a lot too

[Vagabond]

Hi guys let me report another issue i got i b7 and now in b9 as well.
If i minimize the editor to the task bar (Windows 10 x64) for let’s say 15-20 minutes, then i am not able to maximize it. This happens every time i do it and i always forgot about it and keep minimize the editor. May be is something in the project, may be the OS or may be the editor. Would be good if you ( devs ) can investigate ( give it a try ).

Note : the editor has a scene loaded
Note : should close the editor using Task Manager to be able to open it again

Thank You !