On Visual Studio Tools for Unity and Console Redirection

Using Visual Studio when working with Unity is awesome and Visual Studio Tools for Unity takes the comfort even further. Since Unity’s 5.2 upgrade, VSTU comes integrated with VS. Though with this integration, the developers took away some of the flexibility.

For instance, I would like my VS to have a very clean view. VSTU’s relaying Unity’s Debug.Log’s to VS’s console spoiles this neatness a considerable amount, since it opens and re-opens console window without my permission, as log prints keep coming. Before 5.2 integration, it used to have a nice configuration menu wihtin Unity, where one could toggle this feature. Now, appearently, there is not.

(EDIT): There is now with version 2.3. The code below is unneeded now.

When I asked, the developer was kind to give the answer, which is an editor script that toggles console redirection:
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On Unity’s Gfx.WaitForPresent Problem

In many Unity projects I’ve worked on, I’ve encountered those green spikes seen in the profiler, under the name Gfx.WaitForPresent, which chops framerate down to hell. This basically means that CPU’s waiting time for GPU to finish its job, in other words, that spike you see is not the problem itself. I guess it probably indicates that some rendering.. thing.. is horribly conflicting with another, and my googling failed to give me a definite answer of reason why. I’ll mention some options to try, mostly compiled from here, for not having to look at the same inconclusive forum threads again and again. Some of them doesn’t make any sense initially, or may be fixed in time, but lack of definite solutions made me keeping them here anyway:

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On Duty and Humanity

[Spoilers from The Wheel of Time up to the end of The Gathering Storm follow. Read at your own risk.]

So we knew that Rand was somehow destined to die at the rocks of Shayol Ghul, fighting the Dark One, as mentioned several thousand times throughout the series. It’s truly astounding to see the progress Rand has done since he first saw Moiraine at the front of Winespring Inn; from that innocent farmer, whose biggest trouble was the condition of his father’s herd, to some world-dominating mythical evil who ripped an entire castle with its dozens of inhabitants from existence in a moment, just to eliminate one single person.

This immense difference is a topic for another entry, though. What I want to talk about, is different.

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On Hobby Projects and Teams

OK, this is sort of a more personal entry where I blabber without reaching any kind of conclusion.

When you work for some company, your primary concern probably becomes money. Of course, you might like the people, the work you do, the game you are making. But you need money, and you are working on that game for money. If you aren’t making that game, you will be starving. On top of that, you have resource limitations, like time, money and people. Eventually, the game takes shape around those resource limitations; features added or cut, parts of story being cut, some parts of the game itself being cut, voice-overs being cut etc. Even with all the initial planning and designing, you witness a great deal of sacrifices for the game to be released, and, you guessed it right, to make it bring money.
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On Soul and Common Sense

[Spoilers from The Wheel of Time -up to Lord of Chaos- and Mass Effect 2 follow. Read at your own risk.]

When Rand saw Sulin after returning from Shadar Logoth, she was in all the servant’s white clothes and, actually a servant. I know this ji’e’toh is complicated and mean business. It’s designed to be that way. We saw Rand’s struggles to catch just an understanding of it. He did well enough, apparently. After taking the thought for a couple of moments, and remembering her treating servants like Maidens before leaving for Shadar Logoth (whatever that is supposed to mean), Rand managed to figure out why she was doing so. To be honest, I didn’t (I will be more than glad if someone will be able to shed light upon the matter). Continue reading →