Possible to SerializeDeserialize JSON with Job?

Unity Engine
,
1

Hello,

My app requests some data from web api’s and gets json strings as response.

I’d like to see if I can get any performance benefits from doing the Deserialization from inside a job.

I would try and Deserialize the string into a struct, but the results have some nested objects I need.

ex:

{
    "name": "Joe",
    "stuff": [
        {
            "thing": {},
            "otherThing": 1
         },
         {
            "thing": {
                "someBool": false
            },
            "otherThing": 2
         },
    ]
}

While the root object I can make a struct and make the name a NativeString32, the “stuff” object, needs to be a NativeArray and even if Stuff is also a struct with value types, because it needs to be a NativeArray it isn’t blittable and thus can’t run on a job thread with .Schedule

So i’m looking for suggestions on best practice.

Should I just give up on having a BurstCompiled job to do this deserialization? I imagine Unity has to do some serialization/deserialization from the ConvertGameObject flow, so maybe they’ve figured out a way?

2

Really? nobody has any thoughts? This really surprises me.

1 Like
3

I’m not understanding your logic here. You can use NativeArrays in jobs fine. Are you looking to use an existing JSON library or write your own Burst-compatible library?

4

Deserialize JSON in a job is easy enough. Doing it with burst? Not unless you want to spend the time writing a deserializer in pure HPC#. Unity will probably get around to doing this one day anyway so I’m not sure I’d waste my time. As for the job part you should look into GCHandles. Once you create a GCHandle to a managed object (string, json deserializer, deserialized type, etc) you pass that handle in and out of jobs no problem. Cast the GCHandle target back to the type you know it is and use it as you normally would in managed code. Of course all job system safety gets throw out the window when you do this so take care in how you use this.

1 Like