Support for Unity editor

[ViMaSter]

Tell us more.

#19300 mentioned using Renovate with the Unity game engine, however, that post was focused on packages used inside Unity projects, not the Unity editor itself.

Unity uses a simple ProjectVersion.txt file for managing editor versions and has RSS feeds for all release streams (beta, stable, LTS) that follow the same structure.

• ProjectVersion.txt in question: https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/EntityComponentSystemSamples/blob/master/GraphicsSamples/HDRPSamples/ProjectSettings/ProjectVersion.txt
• RSS feeds:
  • beta releases: https://unity.com/releases/editor/beta/latest.xml
  • stable releases: https://unity.com/releases/editor/releases.xml
  • lts releases: https://unity.com/releases/editor/lts-releases.xml

I have already built the manager for one of the games I'm working on, so I'd be happy to integrate it back upstream.

Would this be something worth integrating or better solved via a custom fork?
Speaking from personal experience, with CI/CD gaining more and more traction in game development, having an automated dependency check for various game engines would be super useful to me.

[github-actions[bot]]

Hi there,

You're asking us to support a new package manager. We need to know some basic information about this package manager first. Please copy/paste the new package manager questionnaire, and fill it out in full.

Once the questionnaire is filled out we'll decide if we want to support this new manager.

Good luck,

The Renovate team

[rarkins]

Sounds good!

[HonkingGoose]

@ViMaSter I always thought that Git (and by extension GitHub) are not meant to deal with large game-assets and Unity editor stuff. I know Git has a Large File Support (LFS) extension , but that always seemed more of a band-aid than proper first-class thing. So it's a bit funny to see a feature request for Unity support to me.

The reason I'm raising this topic, is because if Renovate supports this way of working, we may nudge users into a sub-standard method of working? Maybe as game developer you're meant to use some other version control system, that has large file support built in? Or is this feature request only about text files, or other small files?

I'm hope I'm making sense here! 😄

[ViMaSter]

Definitely making sense and it's a great thing to keep in mind!

The reason I'm raising this topic, is because if Renovate supports this way of working, we may nudge users into a sub-standard method of working? Maybe as game developer you're meant to use some other version control system, that has large file support built in? Or is this feature request only about text files, or other small files?

Speaking from personal experience, it is true that something like Perforce is more common and useful when it comes to commercial projects with big budgets and large teams. Especially when working with large binary files (think pre-rendered video files, baked lighting information or sound banks) or concerns regarding large binary file merges, git falls short due to a lack of features like locks and virtual mounts.

Having said that, the usage of Perforce (or other tools, like Unity's proprietary VCS) often comes down to pricing and scale of the project; when dealing with small teams and asset sizes (as most indie, 2D, or mobile games tend to) you're far less likely to run into these issues.
Setting up a GitHub account is also less of a hurdle compared to maintaining a custom VCS cluster, it's free, and both Unity and Unreal offer native Git support for a few years now.

Having worked with both in the past, I can see the appeal of another VCS for bigger projects. I'd make the argument, however, that Git isn't fundamentally unsuitable for game development. :)

Or is this feature request only about text files or other small files?

In this case, it's really just a matter of updating this exact file, when Unity releases a new version of the editor. CI/CD always needs to re-download the specified version of the editor (or docker image with it) anyway, even when sticking to the same version, as it's not preinstalled on GitHub runners.

[HonkingGoose]

Thank you for the reply and extra information! 🙂 I'll let the maintainers decide if this is a good fit for Renovate.

[HonkingGoose]

Having worked with both in the past, I can see the appeal of another VCS for bigger projects. I'd make the argument, however, that Git isn't fundamentally unsuitable for game development. :)

I'm not sure if I'm reading you correctly here. Does "worked with both" mean:

1. I used Perforce and GitHub
2. I used Unity Editor VCS and GitHub
3. I used GitHub and custom VCS cluster
4. Something else

In case you mean "I used Perforce", keep reading. I have a open issue on the ProGit 2 book project, about the Perforce section. That section is badly out of date. Do you want to take a look at this issue, and maybe help improve the Perforce section?

• Rewrite Perforce sections in chapter 9 of the book progit/progit2#1350

If you don't want to help (or haven't used Perforce at all...) that's fine as well, I just thought I'd ask. 😄

[ViMaSter]

I did mean "having worked with Perforce and Git" there, yes! :)
Using Git daily still, Perforce unfortunately has been a few years as well.

More bad news: Took a look at both chapters and I've only ever used designated Git or Perforce tools respectively; neither interacted with p4 via Git as a client, nor migrated a Perforce depot to a Git repository.

Based on some of their docs and YouTube channel, I do know that Epic Games mirrors the Unreal Engine source code to GitHub for external contributors (even enabling Pull Requests, Issue tracking, the whole shebang) and they're using Perforce internally. Not in direct contact with anyone at Epic that I could direct to that Issue however, and with Git being my daily driver, I can't offer any up-to-date insights when it comes to the state of the Perforce ecosystem myself either.

I can still set up a local depot based on the guide, see if both the client and migration guides are still working, and report back any findings, if that would be of any help. Thanks for bringing that Issue to my attention, in any case! :)

[HonkingGoose]

Hi @ViMaSter,

Thank you for the quick response! ❤️

Because the Perforce sections are badly out of date, any improvements would be good. Even if you discover that the client and migration guides are broken or need work, that would be handy to know.

If you want, feel free to report your findings on the ProGit 2 issue, so we don't "pollute" the Renovate repository with a side project. 😉

Thanks again for your input. 😄

[ViMaSter]

I've only seen this questionnaire posted inside GitHub issues, so if you want me to create a separate issue instead of keeping it inside discussions, let me know!

---

New package manager questionnaire

Did you read our documentation on adding a package manager?

• I've read the adding a package manager documentation.

Basics

What's the name of the package manager?

Unity3D

What language(s) does this package manager support?

Not really applicable.
Unity supports C#, but this manager only handles which version of the Unity Editor and runtime is associated with a project (similarly to updating Node.js via the nvm provider).

How popular is this package manager?

According to SteamDB

• Over 40.000 games published on Steam are built using Unity (https://steamdb.info/tech/)
• Individual games reach up to 700.000 concurrent players (https://steamdb.info/tech/Engine/Unity/)
• 3.6 billion downloads of software made with Unity per month, according to data.ai and SteamDB combined
• Around 1.3k package version files according to GitHub search

Does this language have other (competing?) package managers?

• Yes (give names).
• No.

What are the big selling points for this package manager?

• Enabling continuous runtime updates for game development

Detecting package files

What kind of package files, and names, does this package manager use?

[^/]ProjectSettings/ProjectVersion.txt

Which fileMatch pattern(s) should Renovate use?

[^/]ProjectSettings/ProjectVersion.txt

Do many users need to extend the fileMatch pattern for custom file names?

• Yes, provide details.
• No.

Is the fileMatch pattern going to get many "false hits" for files that have nothing to do with package management?

Unlikely, given the need for a ProjectSettings directory containing ProjectVersion.txt, both are case-sensitive.

Parsing and Extraction

Can package files have "local" links to each other that need to be resolved?

No.

Package file parsing method

The package files should be:

• Parsed together (in serial).
• Parsed independently.

Which format/syntax does the package file use?

• JSON
• TOML
• YAML
• Custom (explain below)
  • A simple text file (offical Unity repository as reference):

    m_EditorVersion: <version>
    m_EditorVersionWithRevision: <version> (<hash>)
    

How should we parse the package files?

• Off the shelf parser.
• Using regex.
• Custom-parsed line by line.
• Other.

Does the package file have different "types" of dependencies?

• Yes, production and development dependencies.
• No, all dependencies are treated the same.

List all the sources/syntaxes of dependencies that can be extracted

Only the one listed inside Which format/syntax does the package file use?.

Describe which types of dependencies above are supported and which will be implemented in future

Only the one listed inside Which format/syntax does the package file use?.

Versioning

What versioning scheme does the package file(s) use?

A Unity version consists of

• semver
• followed by a letter: denotes a stream ([a]lpha, [b]eta, [f]inal release, etc.)
• followed by a number: a growing index
• optionally followed by a hash, wrapped in parentheses: calculated by Unity internally

Example:

• 2023.2.9f1 (0c9c2e1f4bef)
• 2023.3.0b6

Reference: Official Unity documentation (see headline Unity version numbers)

Does this versioning scheme support range constraints, like ^1.0.0 or 1.x?

• Supports range constraints (for example: ^1.0.0 or 1.x), provide details.
• No.

Lookup

Is a new datasource required?

• Yes, provide details.
• No.

Will users want (or need to) set a custom host or custom registry for Renovate's lookup?

• Yes, provide details.
  • Users might want to opt into specific release streams (alpha, beta, patch, LTS)
• No.

Where can Renovate find the custom host/registry?

• No custom host or registry is needed.
  • There's a fixed list of streams, provided by Unity.
    It is not possible to download Unity binaries from a custom host or registry.
• In the package file(s), provide details.
• In some other file inside the repository, provide details.
• User needs to configure Renovate where to find the information, provide details.

Are there any constraints in the package files that Renovate should use in the lookup procedure?

• Yes, there are constraints on the parent language (for example: supports only Python v3.x), provide details.
• Yes, there are constraints on the parent platform (for example: only supports Linux, Windows, etc.), provide details.
• Yes, some other kind of constraint, provide details.
• No constraints.

Will users need the ability to configure language or other constraints using Renovate config?

• Yes, provide details.
• No.

Artifacts

Does the package manager use a lock file or checksum file?

• Yes, uses lock file.
• Yes, uses checksum file.
• Yes, uses lock file and checksum file.
• No lock file or checksum.
  • Uses a hash in the version string, but not in a separate file; the contents and meaning of the hash are also opaque to end-users.

Is the locksum or checksum mandatory?

• Yes, locksum is mandatory.
• Yes, checksum is mandatory.
  • While there have yet to be two releases using the same version number but a different hash, the hash is required by the Unity Hub.
    The Unity Hub manages projects and installed versions of the Unity Editor on a developers system, similar to nvm for Node.js runtimes.
• Yes, lock file and checksum are mandatory.
• No mandatory locksum or checksum.
• Package manager does not use locksums or checksums.

If lockfiles or checksums are used: what tool and exact commands should Renovate use to update one (or more) package versions in a dependency file?

The hash is pre-determined by Unity and can be fetched at the same time as available versions.

Package manager cache

Does the package manager use a cache?

• Yes, provide details.
• No.

If the package manager uses a cache, how can Renovate control the cache?

• Package manager does not use a cache.
• Controlled via command line interface, provide details.
• Controlled via environment variables, provide details.

Should Renovate keep a cache?

• Yes, ignore/disable the cache.
• No.

Generating a lockfile from scratch

Renovate can perform "lock file maintenance" by getting the package manager to generate a lockfile from scratch.
Can the package manager generate a lockfile from scratch?

• Yes, explain which command Renovate should use to generate the lockfile.
• No, the package manager does not generate a lockfile from scratch.
• No, the package manager does not use lockfiles.

Other

What else should we know about this package manager?

This manager, is aimed at updating the Unity Editor itself, not the packages inside a game project.

Packages inside Unity projects might already be updatable by Renovate, using the npm provider (see #19300), but I've personally not yet used it.

[HonkingGoose]

Putting the questionnaire in the thread is good. 👍

[secustor]

Created an issue #27295