What is the Purpose of this DOTS Tutorial?
This is a sample project that demonstrates how to create a multiplayer AR experience using Unity's DOTS. We include full workflows, code, GIFs and also share links to external resources.
Last updated
This is a sample project that demonstrates how to create a multiplayer AR experience using Unity's DOTS. We include full workflows, code, GIFs and also share links to external resources.
Last updated
At Moetsi we build Reality Modeling technologies for Mixed Reality experiences. By Reality Modeling we mean the process of: capturing the spatial map of a real space, modeling the state of the environment, the objects within it, and the positioning of the sensors, and then packaging all that data for end-users.
A lot of our use-cases require both desktop and "live" (AR) client networking because part of what our technology does is stream updated Reality Models in real-time to connected clients, which is data-intensive.
We choose Unity DOTS and DOTS NetCode for our interaction layer. DOTS is able to handle heavy data processing without draining device batteries. DOTS NetCode uses an authoritative server model that works best for Reality Modeling.
Unity DOTS is still in the beginning of its development and as such, it goes through major iterations. Sometimes there are breaking changes in newly released versions of DOTS. We know this is frustrating, so to help out the developer community, the Moetsi team does its very best to keep up with DOTS' evolution and its interdependencies across Unity's technology stack. There are not too many DOTS tutorial resources online, which means there are probably a lot of developers going through the same (painful) process of trying to figure it all out. Resources on how to connect GameObject (Monobehaviour) Unity and ECS Unity (hybrid development) seems to be especially lacking for things like UI Toolkit and UI Builder. Hopefully Moetsi fills a void for you and the rest of the dev community!
We provide a tutorial and sample project for how to create a multiplayer real-time XR experience using Unity's DOTS. Anyone that has been interested in trying out DOTS but are concerned about stability or package interoperability can use this tutorial knowing that "it will work."
In this gitbook, we build a project that can deploy to both desktop and ARKit platforms. Desktop players will be able to navigate using WASD keys and AR players will be able to navigate using their device movement.
Github repo: https://github.com/moetsi/Unity-DOTS-Multiplayer-XR-Sample
Our focus here is on how to put pieces together in Unity DOTS, not an explanation of what the pieces are. For in-depth explanations of "what" the technologies are, we provide links to great external resources throughout this gitbook; we encourage you to click on those to dive in and learn more!
The styling (GUI) in the builds of this sample project is very minimal on purpose. Our sample project is not meant to provide a how-to guide on how to make a juicy game because we do not want to cloud your understanding of the underlying architecture. That's why we exclude anything but basic example implementations. If you are underwhelmed by the styling of the Asteroids apps in this project, that is good. A lot of the other DOTS tutorial materials we found online added superfluous bells and whistles that made projects more interesting, but we found that they got in the way of our true understanding of the underlying architecture.
Code-alongs will take anywhere from 5 to 50 hours (depending on your skill level and time commitment to reading through each line) and they cover these Unity packages:
Entities v0.50
Sub Scenes and conversions
Setting components and variables during conversion
Using EntityManager to make structural changes
Using command buffers to make structural entity changes
Setting up command buffers to run parallel jobs with CreateCommandBuffer().AsParallelWriter()
Adding, setting, and removing components
Generating authoring components and IConvertGameObjectToEntity interfaces
Entity queries and .ForEach()
Setting local variables for entity queries
Scheduling a job with .Schedule()
Scheduling a parallel job with .ScheduleParallel()
Running on the main thread with .Run()
Combining job handles with JobHandle.CombineDependencies()
Create and destroy entities programmatically
Create and move entities based on user input
Create an entity from a prefab
Adding cameras to entities
Hybrid ECS
New Build Configuration system
Creating a base shared configuration
Sub-second "play" start
The UI Builder and UI Toolkit sections can be useful as standalone. However, all of the other sections build off one another so it is best to go page-by-page.
At Moetsi, we will always update our sample project to stay current with the latest set of working Unity packages.
Case in Point: in the middle of us writing this gitbook, DOTS was upgraded mid-project and we adjusted course to update our documentation and all of the packages as soon as possible.
✅ already have a general understanding of Unity
✅ are looking for info on Entity, Jobs, Physics, NetCode, UI Builder, UI Toolkit, Multiplayer and AR Foundation packages
✅ are looking for a stable Monobehaviour / ECS hybrid solution template that is kept up to date with new releases
✅ are interested in building apps and/or experiences with high number of components/performance requirements (very often these are AR or other mixed reality apps, but don't need to be!)
❌ are looking for a full introduction to software development
❌ are looking for a "Pure ECS" solution
❌ are looking for a framework
