Managed plug-insA set of code created outside of Unity that creates functionality in Unity. There are two kinds of plug-ins you can use in Unity: Managed plug-ins (managed .NET assemblies created with tools like Visual Studio) and Native plug-ins (platform-specific native code libraries). More info
See in Glossary are .NET assemblies you create and compile outside of Unity, into a dynamically linked library (DLL) with tools such as Visual Studio.
This is a different process from standard C# scriptsA piece of code that allows you to create your own Components, trigger game events, modify Component properties over time and respond to user input in any way you like. More info
See in Glossary, which Unity stores as source files in the Assets folder in your Unity project. Unity compiles standard C# scripts whenever they change, whereas DLLs are pre-compiled and don’t change. You can add a compiled .dll file to your project and attach the classes it contains to GameObjectsThe fundamental object in Unity scenes, which can represent characters, props, scenery, cameras, waypoints, and more. A GameObject’s functionality is defined by the Components attached to it. More info
See in Glossary in the same way as standard scripts.
For more information about managed code in C#, see Microsoft’s What is managed code? documentation.
Managed plug-ins contain only .NET code, which means they can’t access any features that the .NET libraries don’t support. However, managed code is accessible to the standard .NET tools that Unity uses to compile scripts.
When you work with DLLs in Unity, you must complete more steps than when you work with scripts. However, there are situations where you might find it helpful to create and add a .dll file to your Unity project instead, for example:
This page explains a general method you can use to create managed plug-insA managed .NET assembly that is created with tools like Visual Studio for use in Unity. More info
See in Glossary, as well as how you can create managed plug-ins and set up a debug session using Visual Studio.
To create a managed plug-in, you need to create a DLL. To do this, you need a suitable compiler, such as:
Not all compilers that produce .NET code are compatible with Unity, so you should test the compiler with some available code before doing significant work with it. The method you use to create a DLL depends on if the DLL contains Unity API code:
C:\Program Files\Unity\Hub\Editor\<version-number>\Editor\Data\Managed\UnityEngine
Unity.app
file on your computer. The path to the Unity DLLs on macOS is: /Applications/Unity/Hub/Editor/<version-number>/Unity.app/Contents/Managed/UnityEngine
Unity.app
UnityEngine
folder contains the .dll files for a number of modules. Reference them to make them available to your script. Some namespaces also require a reference to a compiled library from a Unity project (for example, UnityEngine.UI
). Locate this in the project folder’s directory: ~\Library\ScriptAssemblies
If the DLL does not contain Unity API code, or if you’ve already made the Unity DLLs available, follow your compiler’s documentation to compile a .dll file.The exact options you use to compile the DLL depend on the compiler you use. As an example, the command line for the Roslyn compiler, csc
, might look like this on macOS:
csc /r:/Applications/Unity/Hub/Editor/<version-number>/Unity.app/Contents/Managed/UnityEngine.dll /target:library /out:MyManagedAssembly.dll /recurse:*.cs
In this example:
/r
option to specify a path to a library to include in the build, in this case, the UnityEngine
library./target
option to specify the type of build you require; “library” signifies a DLL build./out
to specify the name of the library, which in this case is “MyManagedAssembly.dll”./recurse
method to add all the files ending in “.cs’’ in your current working directory and any subfolders. The resulting .dll file appears in the same folder as the source files.After you’ve compiled the DLL, you can drag the .dll file into the Unity project like any other asset. You can then:
This section explains:
DLLTest
as the name).MyUtilities
in the Solution browser.using System;
using UnityEngine;
namespace DLLTest {
public class MyUtilities {
public int c;
public void AddValues(int a, int b) {
c = a + b;
}
public static int GenerateRandom(int min, int max) {
System.Random rand = new System.Random();
return rand.Next(min, max);
}
}
}
To set up a debugging session for a DLL in Unity:
<project folder>/bin/Debug/DLLTest.dll
) into the Assets folder.using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
using DLLTest;
public class Test : MonoBehaviour {
void Start () {
MyUtilities utils = new MyUtilities();
utils.AddValues(2, 3);
print("2 + 3 = " + utils.c);
}
void Update () {
print(MyUtilities.GenerateRandom(0, 100));
}
}
Unity displays the output of the code from the DLL in the Console window
Unsafe C# code is code that is able to access memory directly. It is not enabled by default because the compiler can’t verify that it won’t introduce security risks.
You might want to use unsafe code to:
To enable support for compiling unsafe C# code go to Edit > Project Settings > Player > Other Settings and enable Allow Unsafe Code.
For more information, see Microsoft’s documentation of unsafe code.