Questions about UnsafeBufferAccessor

Unity Engine
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1

Hello! A question about the upcoming UnsafeBufferAccessor feature coming in Entities 0.17:

Will this allow me to simultaneously write to different indices of the same DynamicBuffer from two, parallel jobs?

I’ve really needed to do this in the past, but when I called GetBufferFromEntity() for the same type from two different systems, Unity would automatically create a dependency between those two systems - meaning the jobs would always run sequentially.

I had to create a workaround in which I cached a single BufferFromEntity in an earlier system, and then used it in multiple later systems, if I wanted those later system’s jobs to run in parallel. This works, but it’s a workaround I would be very happy to remove.

Does UnsafeBufferAccessor mean my workaround will no longer be necessary?

And:

Will the new ArchetypeChunk.GetUnsafeAccessor() function be the only way to retrieve these?

2

It looks like UnsafeBufferAccessor may not have made it into Entities 0.17 after all.

It only appears to be in the Changelog, but nowhere else in the Entities source.

3

There is a UnsafeUntypedBufferAccessor that you can retrieve via ArchetypeChunk.GetUnsafeUntypedBufferAccessor(ref DynamicComponentTypeHandle chunkBufferTypeHandle)

1 Like
4

Thanks! Name threw me off.