Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
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use crate::{
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meta::MetaTransform, Asset, AssetId, AssetIndexAllocator, AssetPath, InternalAssetId,
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UntypedAssetId,
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};
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2024-09-27 00:59:59 +00:00
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use alloc::sync::Arc;
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2024-09-23 17:34:17 +00:00
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use bevy_reflect::{std_traits::ReflectDefault, Reflect, TypePath};
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2024-09-27 00:59:59 +00:00
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use core::{
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Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
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any::TypeId,
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2020-05-03 01:35:18 +00:00
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hash::{Hash, Hasher},
|
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|
|
};
|
2024-09-27 00:59:59 +00:00
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use crossbeam_channel::{Receiver, Sender};
|
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use disqualified::ShortName;
|
2024-12-06 17:03:55 +00:00
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use thiserror::Error;
|
2024-03-07 02:30:15 +00:00
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use uuid::Uuid;
|
2020-05-03 01:35:18 +00:00
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Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// Provides [`Handle`] and [`UntypedHandle`] _for a specific asset type_.
|
|
|
|
/// This should _only_ be used for one specific asset type.
|
|
|
|
#[derive(Clone)]
|
|
|
|
pub struct AssetHandleProvider {
|
|
|
|
pub(crate) allocator: Arc<AssetIndexAllocator>,
|
|
|
|
pub(crate) drop_sender: Sender<DropEvent>,
|
|
|
|
pub(crate) drop_receiver: Receiver<DropEvent>,
|
|
|
|
pub(crate) type_id: TypeId,
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
2024-02-25 15:20:03 +00:00
|
|
|
#[derive(Debug)]
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
pub(crate) struct DropEvent {
|
|
|
|
pub(crate) id: InternalAssetId,
|
|
|
|
pub(crate) asset_server_managed: bool,
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
impl AssetHandleProvider {
|
|
|
|
pub(crate) fn new(type_id: TypeId, allocator: Arc<AssetIndexAllocator>) -> Self {
|
|
|
|
let (drop_sender, drop_receiver) = crossbeam_channel::unbounded();
|
|
|
|
Self {
|
|
|
|
type_id,
|
|
|
|
allocator,
|
|
|
|
drop_sender,
|
|
|
|
drop_receiver,
|
|
|
|
}
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
2020-05-03 01:35:18 +00:00
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// Reserves a new strong [`UntypedHandle`] (with a new [`UntypedAssetId`]). The stored [`Asset`] [`TypeId`] in the
|
|
|
|
/// [`UntypedHandle`] will match the [`Asset`] [`TypeId`] assigned to this [`AssetHandleProvider`].
|
|
|
|
pub fn reserve_handle(&self) -> UntypedHandle {
|
|
|
|
let index = self.allocator.reserve();
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Strong(self.get_handle(InternalAssetId::Index(index), false, None, None))
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
pub(crate) fn get_handle(
|
|
|
|
&self,
|
|
|
|
id: InternalAssetId,
|
|
|
|
asset_server_managed: bool,
|
|
|
|
path: Option<AssetPath<'static>>,
|
|
|
|
meta_transform: Option<MetaTransform>,
|
|
|
|
) -> Arc<StrongHandle> {
|
|
|
|
Arc::new(StrongHandle {
|
|
|
|
id: id.untyped(self.type_id),
|
|
|
|
drop_sender: self.drop_sender.clone(),
|
|
|
|
meta_transform,
|
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|
path,
|
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|
asset_server_managed,
|
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|
|
})
|
|
|
|
}
|
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|
|
|
|
|
|
pub(crate) fn reserve_handle_internal(
|
|
|
|
&self,
|
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|
|
asset_server_managed: bool,
|
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|
path: Option<AssetPath<'static>>,
|
|
|
|
meta_transform: Option<MetaTransform>,
|
|
|
|
) -> Arc<StrongHandle> {
|
|
|
|
let index = self.allocator.reserve();
|
|
|
|
self.get_handle(
|
|
|
|
InternalAssetId::Index(index),
|
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|
|
asset_server_managed,
|
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|
path,
|
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meta_transform,
|
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|
|
)
|
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|
}
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}
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/// The internal "strong" [`Asset`] handle storage for [`Handle::Strong`] and [`UntypedHandle::Strong`]. When this is dropped,
|
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|
/// the [`Asset`] will be freed. It also stores some asset metadata for easy access from handles.
|
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|
#[derive(TypePath)]
|
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|
pub struct StrongHandle {
|
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|
pub(crate) id: UntypedAssetId,
|
|
|
|
pub(crate) asset_server_managed: bool,
|
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|
pub(crate) path: Option<AssetPath<'static>>,
|
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|
|
/// Modifies asset meta. This is stored on the handle because it is:
|
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|
|
/// 1. configuration tied to the lifetime of a specific asset load
|
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|
/// 2. configuration that must be repeatable when the asset is hot-reloaded
|
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|
|
pub(crate) meta_transform: Option<MetaTransform>,
|
|
|
|
pub(crate) drop_sender: Sender<DropEvent>,
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
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|
|
impl Drop for StrongHandle {
|
|
|
|
fn drop(&mut self) {
|
Asset v2: Asset path serialization fix (#9756)
# Objective
- Silence `Failed to send DropEvent for StrongHandle "SendError(..)"`
errors when `StrongHandle` were dropped during application shutdown.
- Re-export `BoxedFuture` considering that it's used everywhere in
bevy_asset
- Fixed an issue introduced by #9729.
```
Asset 'final_gather.rgen' encountered an error in
dust_render::shader::spirv::SpirvLoader: Failed to deserialize asset
meta: SpannedError { code: InvalidValueForType { expected: "string
AssetPath", found: "a sequence" }, position: Position { line: 9, col: 24
} }
```
Basically, for processed assets with dependencies, bevy will serialize
the metafile as follows:
```
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: (203, 239, 108, 156, 180, 23, 157, 217, 159, 36, 158, 193, 185,
253, 242, 156),
full_hash: (77, 58, 30, 200, 21, 180, 221, 133, 151, 83, 247, 47, 193,
70, 228, 97),
process_dependencies: [
(
full_hash: (56, 46, 55, 118, 3, 6, 213, 250, 124, 26, 153, 87, 15, 85,
4, 89),
path: ("standard.glsl"), # <<---------- See here
),
],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "dust_render::shader::spirv::SpirvLoader",
settings: (),
),
)
```
`AssetPath` gets serialized as `("standard.glsl")` which was then
deserialized as a sequence instead of our `AssetPath`.
## Solution
- Serialize `AssetPath` directly as a string instead. The above metafile
would be serialized as follows:
```
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: (203, 239, 108, 156, 180, 23, 157, 217, 159, 36, 158, 193, 185,
253, 242, 156),
full_hash: (77, 58, 30, 200, 21, 180, 221, 133, 151, 83, 247, 47, 193,
70, 228, 97),
process_dependencies: [
(
full_hash: (56, 46, 55, 118, 3, 6, 213, 250, 124, 26, 153, 87, 15, 85,
4, 89),
path: "standard.glsl", # <<------- No longer a tuple struct
),
],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "dust_render::shader::spirv::SpirvLoader",
settings: (),
),
)
```
---
2023-09-13 05:43:01 +00:00
|
|
|
let _ = self.drop_sender.send(DropEvent {
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
id: self.id.internal(),
|
|
|
|
asset_server_managed: self.asset_server_managed,
|
Asset v2: Asset path serialization fix (#9756)
# Objective
- Silence `Failed to send DropEvent for StrongHandle "SendError(..)"`
errors when `StrongHandle` were dropped during application shutdown.
- Re-export `BoxedFuture` considering that it's used everywhere in
bevy_asset
- Fixed an issue introduced by #9729.
```
Asset 'final_gather.rgen' encountered an error in
dust_render::shader::spirv::SpirvLoader: Failed to deserialize asset
meta: SpannedError { code: InvalidValueForType { expected: "string
AssetPath", found: "a sequence" }, position: Position { line: 9, col: 24
} }
```
Basically, for processed assets with dependencies, bevy will serialize
the metafile as follows:
```
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: (203, 239, 108, 156, 180, 23, 157, 217, 159, 36, 158, 193, 185,
253, 242, 156),
full_hash: (77, 58, 30, 200, 21, 180, 221, 133, 151, 83, 247, 47, 193,
70, 228, 97),
process_dependencies: [
(
full_hash: (56, 46, 55, 118, 3, 6, 213, 250, 124, 26, 153, 87, 15, 85,
4, 89),
path: ("standard.glsl"), # <<---------- See here
),
],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "dust_render::shader::spirv::SpirvLoader",
settings: (),
),
)
```
`AssetPath` gets serialized as `("standard.glsl")` which was then
deserialized as a sequence instead of our `AssetPath`.
## Solution
- Serialize `AssetPath` directly as a string instead. The above metafile
would be serialized as follows:
```
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: (203, 239, 108, 156, 180, 23, 157, 217, 159, 36, 158, 193, 185,
253, 242, 156),
full_hash: (77, 58, 30, 200, 21, 180, 221, 133, 151, 83, 247, 47, 193,
70, 228, 97),
process_dependencies: [
(
full_hash: (56, 46, 55, 118, 3, 6, 213, 250, 124, 26, 153, 87, 15, 85,
4, 89),
path: "standard.glsl", # <<------- No longer a tuple struct
),
],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "dust_render::shader::spirv::SpirvLoader",
settings: (),
),
)
```
---
2023-09-13 05:43:01 +00:00
|
|
|
});
|
2023-07-15 21:32:17 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
2024-09-27 00:59:59 +00:00
|
|
|
impl core::fmt::Debug for StrongHandle {
|
|
|
|
fn fmt(&self, f: &mut core::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> core::fmt::Result {
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
f.debug_struct("StrongHandle")
|
|
|
|
.field("id", &self.id)
|
|
|
|
.field("asset_server_managed", &self.asset_server_managed)
|
|
|
|
.field("path", &self.path)
|
|
|
|
.field("drop_sender", &self.drop_sender)
|
|
|
|
.finish()
|
2020-05-03 01:35:18 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// A strong or weak handle to a specific [`Asset`]. If a [`Handle`] is [`Handle::Strong`], the [`Asset`] will be kept
|
|
|
|
/// alive until the [`Handle`] is dropped. If a [`Handle`] is [`Handle::Weak`], it does not necessarily reference a live [`Asset`],
|
|
|
|
/// nor will it keep assets alive.
|
2022-01-04 23:38:39 +00:00
|
|
|
///
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// [`Handle`] can be cloned. If a [`Handle::Strong`] is cloned, the referenced [`Asset`] will not be freed until _all_ instances
|
|
|
|
/// of the [`Handle`] are dropped.
|
2022-01-04 23:38:39 +00:00
|
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|
///
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// [`Handle::Strong`] also provides access to useful [`Asset`] metadata, such as the [`AssetPath`] (if it exists).
|
2024-10-09 21:10:01 +00:00
|
|
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#[derive(Reflect)]
|
|
|
|
#[reflect(Default, Debug, Hash, PartialEq)]
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
pub enum Handle<A: Asset> {
|
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|
|
/// A "strong" reference to a live (or loading) [`Asset`]. If a [`Handle`] is [`Handle::Strong`], the [`Asset`] will be kept
|
2024-01-03 03:31:04 +00:00
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/// alive until the [`Handle`] is dropped. Strong handles also provide access to additional asset metadata.
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
Strong(Arc<StrongHandle>),
|
|
|
|
/// A "weak" reference to an [`Asset`]. If a [`Handle`] is [`Handle::Weak`], it does not necessarily reference a live [`Asset`],
|
|
|
|
/// nor will it keep assets alive.
|
|
|
|
Weak(AssetId<A>),
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
impl<T: Asset> Clone for Handle<T> {
|
|
|
|
fn clone(&self) -> Self {
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
match self {
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
Handle::Strong(handle) => Handle::Strong(handle.clone()),
|
|
|
|
Handle::Weak(id) => Handle::Weak(*id),
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
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}
|
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}
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Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
impl<A: Asset> Handle<A> {
|
|
|
|
/// Create a new [`Handle::Weak`] with the given [`u128`] encoding of a [`Uuid`].
|
|
|
|
pub const fn weak_from_u128(value: u128) -> Self {
|
|
|
|
Handle::Weak(AssetId::Uuid {
|
|
|
|
uuid: Uuid::from_u128(value),
|
|
|
|
})
|
2020-06-17 05:23:33 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
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/// Returns the [`AssetId`] of this [`Asset`].
|
Modular Rendering (#2831)
This changes how render logic is composed to make it much more modular. Previously, all extraction logic was centralized for a given "type" of rendered thing. For example, we extracted meshes into a vector of ExtractedMesh, which contained the mesh and material asset handles, the transform, etc. We looked up bindings for "drawn things" using their index in the `Vec<ExtractedMesh>`. This worked fine for built in rendering, but made it hard to reuse logic for "custom" rendering. It also prevented us from reusing things like "extracted transforms" across contexts.
To make rendering more modular, I made a number of changes:
* Entities now drive rendering:
* We extract "render components" from "app components" and store them _on_ entities. No more centralized uber lists! We now have true "ECS-driven rendering"
* To make this perform well, I implemented #2673 in upstream Bevy for fast batch insertions into specific entities. This was merged into the `pipelined-rendering` branch here: #2815
* Reworked the `Draw` abstraction:
* Generic `PhaseItems`: each draw phase can define its own type of "rendered thing", which can define its own "sort key"
* Ported the 2d, 3d, and shadow phases to the new PhaseItem impl (currently Transparent2d, Transparent3d, and Shadow PhaseItems)
* `Draw` trait and and `DrawFunctions` are now generic on PhaseItem
* Modular / Ergonomic `DrawFunctions` via `RenderCommands`
* RenderCommand is a trait that runs an ECS query and produces one or more RenderPass calls. Types implementing this trait can be composed to create a final DrawFunction. For example the DrawPbr DrawFunction is created from the following DrawCommand tuple. Const generics are used to set specific bind group locations:
```rust
pub type DrawPbr = (
SetPbrPipeline,
SetMeshViewBindGroup<0>,
SetStandardMaterialBindGroup<1>,
SetTransformBindGroup<2>,
DrawMesh,
);
```
* The new `custom_shader_pipelined` example illustrates how the commands above can be reused to create a custom draw function:
```rust
type DrawCustom = (
SetCustomMaterialPipeline,
SetMeshViewBindGroup<0>,
SetTransformBindGroup<2>,
DrawMesh,
);
```
* ExtractComponentPlugin and UniformComponentPlugin:
* Simple, standardized ways to easily extract individual components and write them to GPU buffers
* Ported PBR and Sprite rendering to the new primitives above.
* Removed staging buffer from UniformVec in favor of direct Queue usage
* Makes UniformVec much easier to use and more ergonomic. Completely removes the need for custom render graph nodes in these contexts (see the PbrNode and view Node removals and the much simpler call patterns in the relevant Prepare systems).
* Added a many_cubes_pipelined example to benchmark baseline 3d rendering performance and ensure there were no major regressions during this port. Avoiding regressions was challenging given that the old approach of extracting into centralized vectors is basically the "optimal" approach. However thanks to a various ECS optimizations and render logic rephrasing, we pretty much break even on this benchmark!
* Lifetimeless SystemParams: this will be a bit divisive, but as we continue to embrace "trait driven systems" (ex: ExtractComponentPlugin, UniformComponentPlugin, DrawCommand), the ergonomics of `(Query<'static, 'static, (&'static A, &'static B, &'static)>, Res<'static, C>)` were getting very hard to bear. As a compromise, I added "static type aliases" for the relevant SystemParams. The previous example can now be expressed like this: `(SQuery<(Read<A>, Read<B>)>, SRes<C>)`. If anyone has better ideas / conflicting opinions, please let me know!
* RunSystem trait: a way to define Systems via a trait with a SystemParam associated type. This is used to implement the various plugins mentioned above. I also added SystemParamItem and QueryItem type aliases to make "trait stye" ecs interactions nicer on the eyes (and fingers).
* RenderAsset retrying: ensures that render assets are only created when they are "ready" and allows us to create bind groups directly inside render assets (which significantly simplified the StandardMaterial code). I think ultimately we should swap this out on "asset dependency" events to wait for dependencies to load, but this will require significant asset system changes.
* Updated some built in shaders to account for missing MeshUniform fields
2021-09-23 06:16:11 +00:00
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#[inline]
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
pub fn id(&self) -> AssetId<A> {
|
|
|
|
match self {
|
|
|
|
Handle::Strong(handle) => handle.id.typed_unchecked(),
|
|
|
|
Handle::Weak(id) => *id,
|
2020-05-03 01:35:18 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// Returns the path if this is (1) a strong handle and (2) the asset has a path
|
2022-10-06 13:33:30 +00:00
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
pub fn path(&self) -> Option<&AssetPath<'static>> {
|
|
|
|
match self {
|
|
|
|
Handle::Strong(handle) => handle.path.as_ref(),
|
|
|
|
Handle::Weak(_) => None,
|
2020-05-04 18:20:12 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
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2022-07-12 15:44:09 +00:00
|
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|
/// Returns `true` if this is a weak handle.
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
pub fn is_weak(&self) -> bool {
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
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matches!(self, Handle::Weak(_))
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2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
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}
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2022-07-12 15:44:09 +00:00
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/// Returns `true` if this is a strong handle.
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
pub fn is_strong(&self) -> bool {
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
matches!(self, Handle::Strong(_))
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
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|
/// Creates a [`Handle::Weak`] clone of this [`Handle`], which will not keep the referenced [`Asset`] alive.
|
Modular Rendering (#2831)
This changes how render logic is composed to make it much more modular. Previously, all extraction logic was centralized for a given "type" of rendered thing. For example, we extracted meshes into a vector of ExtractedMesh, which contained the mesh and material asset handles, the transform, etc. We looked up bindings for "drawn things" using their index in the `Vec<ExtractedMesh>`. This worked fine for built in rendering, but made it hard to reuse logic for "custom" rendering. It also prevented us from reusing things like "extracted transforms" across contexts.
To make rendering more modular, I made a number of changes:
* Entities now drive rendering:
* We extract "render components" from "app components" and store them _on_ entities. No more centralized uber lists! We now have true "ECS-driven rendering"
* To make this perform well, I implemented #2673 in upstream Bevy for fast batch insertions into specific entities. This was merged into the `pipelined-rendering` branch here: #2815
* Reworked the `Draw` abstraction:
* Generic `PhaseItems`: each draw phase can define its own type of "rendered thing", which can define its own "sort key"
* Ported the 2d, 3d, and shadow phases to the new PhaseItem impl (currently Transparent2d, Transparent3d, and Shadow PhaseItems)
* `Draw` trait and and `DrawFunctions` are now generic on PhaseItem
* Modular / Ergonomic `DrawFunctions` via `RenderCommands`
* RenderCommand is a trait that runs an ECS query and produces one or more RenderPass calls. Types implementing this trait can be composed to create a final DrawFunction. For example the DrawPbr DrawFunction is created from the following DrawCommand tuple. Const generics are used to set specific bind group locations:
```rust
pub type DrawPbr = (
SetPbrPipeline,
SetMeshViewBindGroup<0>,
SetStandardMaterialBindGroup<1>,
SetTransformBindGroup<2>,
DrawMesh,
);
```
* The new `custom_shader_pipelined` example illustrates how the commands above can be reused to create a custom draw function:
```rust
type DrawCustom = (
SetCustomMaterialPipeline,
SetMeshViewBindGroup<0>,
SetTransformBindGroup<2>,
DrawMesh,
);
```
* ExtractComponentPlugin and UniformComponentPlugin:
* Simple, standardized ways to easily extract individual components and write them to GPU buffers
* Ported PBR and Sprite rendering to the new primitives above.
* Removed staging buffer from UniformVec in favor of direct Queue usage
* Makes UniformVec much easier to use and more ergonomic. Completely removes the need for custom render graph nodes in these contexts (see the PbrNode and view Node removals and the much simpler call patterns in the relevant Prepare systems).
* Added a many_cubes_pipelined example to benchmark baseline 3d rendering performance and ensure there were no major regressions during this port. Avoiding regressions was challenging given that the old approach of extracting into centralized vectors is basically the "optimal" approach. However thanks to a various ECS optimizations and render logic rephrasing, we pretty much break even on this benchmark!
* Lifetimeless SystemParams: this will be a bit divisive, but as we continue to embrace "trait driven systems" (ex: ExtractComponentPlugin, UniformComponentPlugin, DrawCommand), the ergonomics of `(Query<'static, 'static, (&'static A, &'static B, &'static)>, Res<'static, C>)` were getting very hard to bear. As a compromise, I added "static type aliases" for the relevant SystemParams. The previous example can now be expressed like this: `(SQuery<(Read<A>, Read<B>)>, SRes<C>)`. If anyone has better ideas / conflicting opinions, please let me know!
* RunSystem trait: a way to define Systems via a trait with a SystemParam associated type. This is used to implement the various plugins mentioned above. I also added SystemParamItem and QueryItem type aliases to make "trait stye" ecs interactions nicer on the eyes (and fingers).
* RenderAsset retrying: ensures that render assets are only created when they are "ready" and allows us to create bind groups directly inside render assets (which significantly simplified the StandardMaterial code). I think ultimately we should swap this out on "asset dependency" events to wait for dependencies to load, but this will require significant asset system changes.
* Updated some built in shaders to account for missing MeshUniform fields
2021-09-23 06:16:11 +00:00
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#[inline]
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
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pub fn clone_weak(&self) -> Self {
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
match self {
|
|
|
|
Handle::Strong(handle) => Handle::Weak(handle.id.typed_unchecked::<A>()),
|
|
|
|
Handle::Weak(id) => Handle::Weak(*id),
|
2020-05-03 01:35:18 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// Converts this [`Handle`] to an "untyped" / "generic-less" [`UntypedHandle`], which stores the [`Asset`] type information
|
|
|
|
/// _inside_ [`UntypedHandle`]. This will return [`UntypedHandle::Strong`] for [`Handle::Strong`] and [`UntypedHandle::Weak`] for
|
2024-01-03 03:31:04 +00:00
|
|
|
/// [`Handle::Weak`].
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
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|
#[inline]
|
|
|
|
pub fn untyped(self) -> UntypedHandle {
|
Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
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self.into()
|
2020-05-15 23:55:44 +00:00
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}
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}
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|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
impl<A: Asset> Default for Handle<A> {
|
|
|
|
fn default() -> Self {
|
|
|
|
Handle::Weak(AssetId::default())
|
2021-12-09 22:40:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
2024-09-27 00:59:59 +00:00
|
|
|
impl<A: Asset> core::fmt::Debug for Handle<A> {
|
|
|
|
fn fmt(&self, f: &mut core::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> core::fmt::Result {
|
Remove allocation in `get_short_name` (#15294)
`ShortName` is lazily evaluated and does not allocate, instead providing
`Display` and `Debug` implementations which write directly to a
formatter using the original algorithm. When using `ShortName` in format
strings (`panic`, `dbg`, `format`, etc.) you can directly use the
`ShortName` type. If you require a `String`, simply call
`ShortName(...).to_string()`.
# Objective
- Remove the requirement for allocation when using `get_short_name`
## Solution
- Added new type `ShortName` which wraps a name and provides its own
`Debug` and `Display` implementations, using the original
`get_short_name` algorithm without the need for allocating.
- Removed `get_short_name`, as `ShortName(...)` is more performant and
ergonomic.
- Added `ShortName::of::<T>` method to streamline the common use-case
for name shortening.
## Testing
- CI
## Migration Guide
### For `format!`, `dbg!`, `panic!`, etc.
```rust
// Before
panic!("{} is too short!", get_short_name(name));
// After
panic!("{} is too short!", ShortName(name));
```
### Need a `String` Value
```rust
// Before
let short: String = get_short_name(name);
// After
let short: String = ShortName(name).to_string();
```
## Notes
`ShortName` lazily evaluates, and directly writes to a formatter via
`Debug` and `Display`, which removes the need to allocate a `String`
when printing a shortened type name. Because the implementation has been
moved into the `fmt` method, repeated printing of the `ShortName` type
may be less performant than converting it into a `String`. However, no
instances of this are present in Bevy, and the user can get the original
behaviour by calling `.to_string()` at no extra cost.
---------
Co-authored-by: Gino Valente <49806985+MrGVSV@users.noreply.github.com>
2024-09-19 15:34:03 +00:00
|
|
|
let name = ShortName::of::<A>();
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
match self {
|
|
|
|
Handle::Strong(handle) => {
|
|
|
|
write!(
|
|
|
|
f,
|
|
|
|
"StrongHandle<{name}>{{ id: {:?}, path: {:?} }}",
|
|
|
|
handle.id.internal(),
|
|
|
|
handle.path
|
|
|
|
)
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
Handle::Weak(id) => write!(f, "WeakHandle<{name}>({:?})", id.internal()),
|
|
|
|
}
|
2020-05-15 23:55:44 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
impl<A: Asset> Hash for Handle<A> {
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
2020-05-03 01:35:18 +00:00
|
|
|
fn hash<H: Hasher>(&self, state: &mut H) {
|
Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
|
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self.id().hash(state);
|
2020-05-03 01:35:18 +00:00
|
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}
|
|
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}
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|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
impl<A: Asset> PartialOrd for Handle<A> {
|
2024-09-27 00:59:59 +00:00
|
|
|
fn partial_cmp(&self, other: &Self) -> Option<core::cmp::Ordering> {
|
Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
|
|
|
Some(self.cmp(other))
|
2020-10-13 01:12:17 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
impl<A: Asset> Ord for Handle<A> {
|
2024-09-27 00:59:59 +00:00
|
|
|
fn cmp(&self, other: &Self) -> core::cmp::Ordering {
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
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self.id().cmp(&other.id())
|
2020-10-13 01:12:17 +00:00
|
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}
|
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}
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|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
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impl<A: Asset> PartialEq for Handle<A> {
|
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#[inline]
|
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fn eq(&self, other: &Self) -> bool {
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self.id() == other.id()
|
2020-05-03 01:35:18 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
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|
|
}
|
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|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
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impl<A: Asset> Eq for Handle<A> {}
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2020-05-03 01:35:18 +00:00
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Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
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impl<A: Asset> From<&Handle<A>> for AssetId<A> {
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#[inline]
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fn from(value: &Handle<A>) -> Self {
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value.id()
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}
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}
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impl<A: Asset> From<&Handle<A>> for UntypedAssetId {
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#[inline]
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fn from(value: &Handle<A>) -> Self {
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value.id().into()
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}
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}
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2024-03-28 15:53:26 +00:00
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impl<A: Asset> From<&mut Handle<A>> for AssetId<A> {
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#[inline]
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fn from(value: &mut Handle<A>) -> Self {
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value.id()
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}
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}
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impl<A: Asset> From<&mut Handle<A>> for UntypedAssetId {
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#[inline]
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fn from(value: &mut Handle<A>) -> Self {
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value.id().into()
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}
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}
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Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// An untyped variant of [`Handle`], which internally stores the [`Asset`] type information at runtime
|
|
|
|
/// as a [`TypeId`] instead of encoding it in the compile-time type. This allows handles across [`Asset`] types
|
|
|
|
/// to be stored together and compared.
|
2020-08-09 23:13:04 +00:00
|
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///
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// See [`Handle`] for more information.
|
|
|
|
#[derive(Clone)]
|
|
|
|
pub enum UntypedHandle {
|
|
|
|
Strong(Arc<StrongHandle>),
|
|
|
|
Weak(UntypedAssetId),
|
2020-05-03 01:35:18 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
impl UntypedHandle {
|
|
|
|
/// Returns the [`UntypedAssetId`] for the referenced asset.
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
|
|
|
pub fn id(&self) -> UntypedAssetId {
|
|
|
|
match self {
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Strong(handle) => handle.id,
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Weak(id) => *id,
|
2020-12-03 21:57:36 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// Returns the path if this is (1) a strong handle and (2) the asset has a path
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
|
|
|
pub fn path(&self) -> Option<&AssetPath<'static>> {
|
|
|
|
match self {
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Strong(handle) => handle.path.as_ref(),
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Weak(_) => None,
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// Creates an [`UntypedHandle::Weak`] clone of this [`UntypedHandle`], which will not keep the referenced [`Asset`] alive.
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
|
|
|
pub fn clone_weak(&self) -> UntypedHandle {
|
|
|
|
match self {
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Strong(handle) => UntypedHandle::Weak(handle.id),
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Weak(id) => UntypedHandle::Weak(*id),
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// Returns the [`TypeId`] of the referenced [`Asset`].
|
2023-01-04 23:40:43 +00:00
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
pub fn type_id(&self) -> TypeId {
|
|
|
|
match self {
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Strong(handle) => handle.id.type_id(),
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Weak(id) => id.type_id(),
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
2020-05-03 01:35:18 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// Converts to a typed Handle. This _will not check if the target Handle type matches_.
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
|
|
|
pub fn typed_unchecked<A: Asset>(self) -> Handle<A> {
|
|
|
|
match self {
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Strong(handle) => Handle::Strong(handle),
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Weak(id) => Handle::Weak(id.typed_unchecked::<A>()),
|
2020-05-03 01:35:18 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// Converts to a typed Handle. This will check the type when compiled with debug asserts, but it
|
|
|
|
/// _will not check if the target Handle type matches in release builds_. Use this as an optimization
|
|
|
|
/// when you want some degree of validation at dev-time, but you are also very certain that the type
|
|
|
|
/// actually matches.
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
|
|
|
pub fn typed_debug_checked<A: Asset>(self) -> Handle<A> {
|
|
|
|
debug_assert_eq!(
|
|
|
|
self.type_id(),
|
|
|
|
TypeId::of::<A>(),
|
|
|
|
"The target Handle<A>'s TypeId does not match the TypeId of this UntypedHandle"
|
|
|
|
);
|
|
|
|
match self {
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Strong(handle) => Handle::Strong(handle),
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Weak(id) => Handle::Weak(id.typed_unchecked::<A>()),
|
add `ReflectAsset` and `ReflectHandle` (#5923)
# Objective
![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/22177966/189350194-639a0211-e984-4f73-ae62-0ede44891eb9.png)
^ enable this
Concretely, I need to
- list all handle ids for an asset type
- fetch the asset as `dyn Reflect`, given a `HandleUntyped`
- when encountering a `Handle<T>`, find out what asset type that handle refers to (`T`'s type id) and turn the handle into a `HandleUntyped`
## Solution
- add `ReflectAsset` type containing function pointers for working with assets
```rust
pub struct ReflectAsset {
type_uuid: Uuid,
assets_resource_type_id: TypeId, // TypeId of the `Assets<T>` resource
get: fn(&World, HandleUntyped) -> Option<&dyn Reflect>,
get_mut: fn(&mut World, HandleUntyped) -> Option<&mut dyn Reflect>,
get_unchecked_mut: unsafe fn(&World, HandleUntyped) -> Option<&mut dyn Reflect>,
add: fn(&mut World, &dyn Reflect) -> HandleUntyped,
set: fn(&mut World, HandleUntyped, &dyn Reflect) -> HandleUntyped,
len: fn(&World) -> usize,
ids: for<'w> fn(&'w World) -> Box<dyn Iterator<Item = HandleId> + 'w>,
remove: fn(&mut World, HandleUntyped) -> Option<Box<dyn Reflect>>,
}
```
- add `ReflectHandle` type relating the handle back to the asset type and providing a way to create a `HandleUntyped`
```rust
pub struct ReflectHandle {
type_uuid: Uuid,
asset_type_id: TypeId,
downcast_handle_untyped: fn(&dyn Any) -> Option<HandleUntyped>,
}
```
- add the corresponding `FromType` impls
- add a function `app.register_asset_reflect` which is supposed to be called after `.add_asset` and registers `ReflectAsset` and `ReflectHandle` in the type registry
---
## Changelog
- add `ReflectAsset` and `ReflectHandle` types, which allow code to use reflection to manipulate arbitrary assets without knowing their types at compile time
2022-10-28 20:42:33 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
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|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// Converts to a typed Handle. This will panic if the internal [`TypeId`] does not match the given asset type `A`
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
|
|
|
pub fn typed<A: Asset>(self) -> Handle<A> {
|
Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
|
|
|
let Ok(handle) = self.try_typed() else {
|
|
|
|
panic!(
|
|
|
|
"The target Handle<{}>'s TypeId does not match the TypeId of this UntypedHandle",
|
2024-09-27 00:59:59 +00:00
|
|
|
core::any::type_name::<A>()
|
Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
|
|
|
)
|
|
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
handle
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
/// Converts to a typed Handle. This will panic if the internal [`TypeId`] does not match the given asset type `A`
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
|
|
|
pub fn try_typed<A: Asset>(self) -> Result<Handle<A>, UntypedAssetConversionError> {
|
|
|
|
Handle::try_from(self)
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
/// The "meta transform" for the strong handle. This will only be [`Some`] if the handle is strong and there is a meta transform
|
|
|
|
/// associated with it.
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
|
|
|
pub fn meta_transform(&self) -> Option<&MetaTransform> {
|
|
|
|
match self {
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Strong(handle) => handle.meta_transform.as_ref(),
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Weak(_) => None,
|
|
|
|
}
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
impl PartialEq for UntypedHandle {
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
fn eq(&self, other: &Self) -> bool {
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
self.id() == other.id() && self.type_id() == other.type_id()
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
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|
|
impl Eq for UntypedHandle {}
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2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
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Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
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impl Hash for UntypedHandle {
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#[inline]
|
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fn hash<H: Hasher>(&self, state: &mut H) {
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self.id().hash(state);
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2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
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}
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}
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2024-09-27 00:59:59 +00:00
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impl core::fmt::Debug for UntypedHandle {
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fn fmt(&self, f: &mut core::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> core::fmt::Result {
|
Bevy Asset V2 (#8624)
# Bevy Asset V2 Proposal
## Why Does Bevy Need A New Asset System?
Asset pipelines are a central part of the gamedev process. Bevy's
current asset system is missing a number of features that make it
non-viable for many classes of gamedev. After plenty of discussions and
[a long community feedback
period](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/3972), we've
identified a number missing features:
* **Asset Preprocessing**: it should be possible to "preprocess" /
"compile" / "crunch" assets at "development time" rather than when the
game starts up. This enables offloading expensive work from deployed
apps, faster asset loading, less runtime memory usage, etc.
* **Per-Asset Loader Settings**: Individual assets cannot define their
own loaders that override the defaults. Additionally, they cannot
provide per-asset settings to their loaders. This is a huge limitation,
as many asset types don't provide all information necessary for Bevy
_inside_ the asset. For example, a raw PNG image says nothing about how
it should be sampled (ex: linear vs nearest).
* **Asset `.meta` files**: assets should have configuration files stored
adjacent to the asset in question, which allows the user to configure
asset-type-specific settings. These settings should be accessible during
the pre-processing phase. Modifying a `.meta` file should trigger a
re-processing / re-load of the asset. It should be possible to configure
asset loaders from the meta file.
* **Processed Asset Hot Reloading**: Changes to processed assets (or
their dependencies) should result in re-processing them and re-loading
the results in live Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Dependency Tracking**: The current bevy_asset has no good way
to wait for asset dependencies to load. It punts this as an exercise for
consumers of the loader apis, which is unreasonable and error prone.
There should be easy, ergonomic ways to wait for assets to load and
block some logic on an asset's entire dependency tree loading.
* **Runtime Asset Loading**: it should be (optionally) possible to load
arbitrary assets dynamically at runtime. This necessitates being able to
deploy and run the asset server alongside Bevy Apps on _all platforms_.
For example, we should be able to invoke the shader compiler at runtime,
stream scenes from sources like the internet, etc. To keep deployed
binaries (and startup times) small, the runtime asset server
configuration should be configurable with different settings compared to
the "pre processor asset server".
* **Multiple Backends**: It should be possible to load assets from
arbitrary sources (filesystems, the internet, remote asset serves, etc).
* **Asset Packing**: It should be possible to deploy assets in
compressed "packs", which makes it easier and more efficient to
distribute assets with Bevy Apps.
* **Asset Handoff**: It should be possible to hold a "live" asset
handle, which correlates to runtime data, without actually holding the
asset in memory. Ex: it must be possible to hold a reference to a GPU
mesh generated from a "mesh asset" without keeping the mesh data in CPU
memory
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: Different platforms and app
distributions have different capabilities and requirements. Some
platforms need lower asset resolutions or different asset formats to
operate within the hardware constraints of the platform. It should be
possible to define per-platform asset processing profiles. And it should
be possible to deploy only the assets required for a given platform.
These features have architectural implications that are significant
enough to require a full rewrite. The current Bevy Asset implementation
got us this far, but it can take us no farther. This PR defines a brand
new asset system that implements most of these features, while laying
the foundations for the remaining features to be built.
## Bevy Asset V2
Here is a quick overview of the features introduced in this PR.
* **Asset Preprocessing**: Preprocess assets at development time into
more efficient (and configurable) representations
* **Dependency Aware**: Dependencies required to process an asset are
tracked. If an asset's processed dependency changes, it will be
reprocessed
* **Hot Reprocessing/Reloading**: detect changes to asset source files,
reprocess them if they have changed, and then hot-reload them in Bevy
Apps.
* **Only Process Changes**: Assets are only re-processed when their
source file (or meta file) has changed. This uses hashing and timestamps
to avoid processing assets that haven't changed.
* **Transactional and Reliable**: Uses write-ahead logging (a technique
commonly used by databases) to recover from crashes / forced-exits.
Whenever possible it avoids full-reprocessing / only uncompleted
transactions will be reprocessed. When the processor is running in
parallel with a Bevy App, processor asset writes block Bevy App asset
reads. Reading metadata + asset bytes is guaranteed to be transactional
/ correctly paired.
* **Portable / Run anywhere / Database-free**: The processor does not
rely on an in-memory database (although it uses some database techniques
for reliability). This is important because pretty much all in-memory
databases have unsupported platforms or build complications.
* **Configure Processor Defaults Per File Type**: You can say "use this
processor for all files of this type".
* **Custom Processors**: The `Processor` trait is flexible and
unopinionated. It can be implemented by downstream plugins.
* **LoadAndSave Processors**: Most asset processing scenarios can be
expressed as "run AssetLoader A, save the results using AssetSaver X,
and then load the result using AssetLoader B". For example, load this
png image using `PngImageLoader`, which produces an `Image` asset and
then save it using `CompressedImageSaver` (which also produces an
`Image` asset, but in a compressed format), which takes an `Image` asset
as input. This means if you have an `AssetLoader` for an asset, you are
already half way there! It also means that you can share AssetSavers
across multiple loaders. Because `CompressedImageSaver` accepts Bevy's
generic Image asset as input, it means you can also use it with some
future `JpegImageLoader`.
* **Loader and Saver Settings**: Asset Loaders and Savers can now define
their own settings types, which are passed in as input when an asset is
loaded / saved. Each asset can define its own settings.
* **Asset `.meta` files**: configure asset loaders, their settings,
enable/disable processing, and configure processor settings
* **Runtime Asset Dependency Tracking** Runtime asset dependencies (ex:
if an asset contains a `Handle<Image>`) are tracked by the asset server.
An event is emitted when an asset and all of its dependencies have been
loaded
* **Unprocessed Asset Loading**: Assets do not require preprocessing.
They can be loaded directly. A processed asset is just a "normal" asset
with some extra metadata. Asset Loaders don't need to know or care about
whether or not an asset was processed.
* **Async Asset IO**: Asset readers/writers use async non-blocking
interfaces. Note that because Rust doesn't yet support async traits,
there is a bit of manual Boxing / Future boilerplate. This will
hopefully be removed in the near future when Rust gets async traits.
* **Pluggable Asset Readers and Writers**: Arbitrary asset source
readers/writers are supported, both by the processor and the asset
server.
* **Better Asset Handles**
* **Single Arc Tree**: Asset Handles now use a single arc tree that
represents the lifetime of the asset. This makes their implementation
simpler, more efficient, and allows us to cheaply attach metadata to
handles. Ex: the AssetPath of a handle is now directly accessible on the
handle itself!
* **Const Typed Handles**: typed handles can be constructed in a const
context. No more weird "const untyped converted to typed at runtime"
patterns!
* **Handles and Ids are Smaller / Faster To Hash / Compare**: Typed
`Handle<T>` is now much smaller in memory and `AssetId<T>` is even
smaller.
* **Weak Handle Usage Reduction**: In general Handles are now considered
to be "strong". Bevy features that previously used "weak `Handle<T>`"
have been ported to `AssetId<T>`, which makes it statically clear that
the features do not hold strong handles (while retaining strong type
information). Currently Handle::Weak still exists, but it is very
possible that we can remove that entirely.
* **Efficient / Dense Asset Ids**: Assets now have efficient dense
runtime asset ids, which means we can avoid expensive hash lookups.
Assets are stored in Vecs instead of HashMaps. There are now typed and
untyped ids, which means we no longer need to store dynamic type
information in the ID for typed handles. "AssetPathId" (which was a
nightmare from a performance and correctness standpoint) has been
entirely removed in favor of dense ids (which are retrieved for a path
on load)
* **Direct Asset Loading, with Dependency Tracking**: Assets that are
defined at runtime can still have their dependencies tracked by the
Asset Server (ex: if you create a material at runtime, you can still
wait for its textures to load). This is accomplished via the (currently
optional) "asset dependency visitor" trait. This system can also be used
to define a set of assets to load, then wait for those assets to load.
* **Async folder loading**: Folder loading also uses this system and
immediately returns a handle to the LoadedFolder asset, which means
folder loading no longer blocks on directory traversals.
* **Improved Loader Interface**: Loaders now have a specific "top level
asset type", which makes returning the top-level asset simpler and
statically typed.
* **Basic Image Settings and Processing**: Image assets can now be
processed into the gpu-friendly Basic Universal format. The ImageLoader
now has a setting to define what format the image should be loaded as.
Note that this is just a minimal MVP ... plenty of additional work to do
here. To demo this, enable the `basis-universal` feature and turn on
asset processing.
* **Simpler Audio Play / AudioSink API**: Asset handle providers are
cloneable, which means the Audio resource can mint its own handles. This
means you can now do `let sink_handle = audio.play(music)` instead of
`let sink_handle = audio_sinks.get_handle(audio.play(music))`. Note that
this might still be replaced by
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8424.
**Removed Handle Casting From Engine Features**: Ex: FontAtlases no
longer use casting between handle types
## Using The New Asset System
### Normal Unprocessed Asset Loading
By default the `AssetPlugin` does not use processing. It behaves pretty
much the same way as the old system.
If you are defining a custom asset, first derive `Asset`:
```rust
#[derive(Asset)]
struct Thing {
value: String,
}
```
Initialize the asset:
```rust
app.init_asset:<Thing>()
```
Implement a new `AssetLoader` for it:
```rust
#[derive(Default)]
struct ThingLoader;
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default)]
pub struct ThingSettings {
some_setting: bool,
}
impl AssetLoader for ThingLoader {
type Asset = Thing;
type Settings = ThingSettings;
fn load<'a>(
&'a self,
reader: &'a mut Reader,
settings: &'a ThingSettings,
load_context: &'a mut LoadContext,
) -> BoxedFuture<'a, Result<Thing, anyhow::Error>> {
Box::pin(async move {
let mut bytes = Vec::new();
reader.read_to_end(&mut bytes).await?;
// convert bytes to value somehow
Ok(Thing {
value
})
})
}
fn extensions(&self) -> &[&str] {
&["thing"]
}
}
```
Note that this interface will get much cleaner once Rust gets support
for async traits. `Reader` is an async futures_io::AsyncRead. You can
stream bytes as they come in or read them all into a `Vec<u8>`,
depending on the context. You can use `let handle =
load_context.load(path)` to kick off a dependency load, retrieve a
handle, and register the dependency for the asset.
Then just register the loader in your Bevy app:
```rust
app.init_asset_loader::<ThingLoader>()
```
Now just add your `Thing` asset files into the `assets` folder and load
them like this:
```rust
fn system(asset_server: Res<AssetServer>) {
let handle = Handle<Thing> = asset_server.load("cool.thing");
}
```
You can check load states directly via the asset server:
```rust
if asset_server.load_state(&handle) == LoadState::Loaded { }
```
You can also listen for events:
```rust
fn system(mut events: EventReader<AssetEvent<Thing>>, handle: Res<SomeThingHandle>) {
for event in events.iter() {
if event.is_loaded_with_dependencies(&handle) {
}
}
}
```
Note the new `AssetEvent::LoadedWithDependencies`, which only fires when
the asset is loaded _and_ all dependencies (and their dependencies) have
loaded.
Unlike the old asset system, for a given asset path all `Handle<T>`
values point to the same underlying Arc. This means Handles can cheaply
hold more asset information, such as the AssetPath:
```rust
// prints the AssetPath of the handle
info!("{:?}", handle.path())
```
### Processed Assets
Asset processing can be enabled via the `AssetPlugin`. When developing
Bevy Apps with processed assets, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))
```
This runs the `AssetProcessor` in the background with hot-reloading. It
reads assets from the `assets` folder, processes them, and writes them
to the `.imported_assets` folder. Asset loads in the Bevy App will wait
for a processed version of the asset to become available. If an asset in
the `assets` folder changes, it will be reprocessed and hot-reloaded in
the Bevy App.
When deploying processed Bevy apps, do this:
```rust
app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed()))
```
This does not run the `AssetProcessor` in the background. It behaves
like `AssetPlugin::unprocessed()`, but reads assets from
`.imported_assets`.
When the `AssetProcessor` is running, it will populate sibling `.meta`
files for assets in the `assets` folder. Meta files for assets that do
not have a processor configured look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
This is metadata for an image asset. For example, if you have
`assets/my_sprite.png`, this could be the metadata stored at
`assets/my_sprite.png.meta`. Meta files are totally optional. If no
metadata exists, the default settings will be used.
In short, this file says "load this asset with the ImageLoader and use
the file extension to determine the image type". This type of meta file
is supported in all AssetPlugin modes. If in `Unprocessed` mode, the
asset (with the meta settings) will be loaded directly. If in
`ProcessedDev` mode, the asset file will be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder. The meta will also be copied directly to the
`.imported_assets` folder, but with one addition:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 12415480888597742505,
full_hash: 14344495437905856884,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
),
)
```
`processed_info` contains `hash` (a direct hash of the asset and meta
bytes), `full_hash` (a hash of `hash` and the hashes of all
`process_dependencies`), and `process_dependencies` (the `path` and
`full_hash` of every process_dependency). A "process dependency" is an
asset dependency that is _directly_ used when processing the asset.
Images do not have process dependencies, so this is empty.
When the processor is enabled, you can use the `Process` metadata
config:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Process(
processor: "bevy_asset::processor::process::LoadAndSave<bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader, bevy_render::texture::compressed_image_saver::CompressedImageSaver>",
settings: (
loader_settings: (
format: FromExtension,
),
saver_settings: (
generate_mipmaps: true,
),
),
),
)
```
This configures the asset to use the `LoadAndSave` processor, which runs
an AssetLoader and feeds the result into an AssetSaver (which saves the
given Asset and defines a loader to load it with). (for terseness
LoadAndSave will likely get a shorter/friendlier type name when [Stable
Type Paths](#7184) lands). `LoadAndSave` is likely to be the most common
processor type, but arbitrary processors are supported.
`CompressedImageSaver` saves an `Image` in the Basis Universal format
and configures the ImageLoader to load it as basis universal. The
`AssetProcessor` will read this meta, run it through the LoadAndSave
processor, and write the basis-universal version of the image to
`.imported_assets`. The final metadata will look like this:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
processed_info: Some((
hash: 905599590923828066,
full_hash: 9948823010183819117,
process_dependencies: [],
)),
asset: Load(
loader: "bevy_render::texture::image_loader::ImageLoader",
settings: (
format: Format(Basis),
),
),
)
```
To try basis-universal processing out in Bevy examples, (for example
`sprite.rs`), change `add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)` to
`add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(AssetPlugin::processed_dev()))` and run
with the `basis-universal` feature enabled: `cargo run
--features=basis-universal --example sprite`.
To create a custom processor, there are two main paths:
1. Use the `LoadAndSave` processor with an existing `AssetLoader`.
Implement the `AssetSaver` trait, register the processor using
`asset_processor.register_processor::<LoadAndSave<ImageLoader,
CompressedImageSaver>>(image_saver.into())`.
2. Implement the `Process` trait directly and register it using:
`asset_processor.register_processor(thing_processor)`.
You can configure default processors for file extensions like this:
```rust
asset_processor.set_default_processor::<ThingProcessor>("thing")
```
There is one more metadata type to be aware of:
```rust
(
meta_format_version: "1.0",
asset: Ignore,
)
```
This will ignore the asset during processing / prevent it from being
written to `.imported_assets`.
The AssetProcessor stores a transaction log at `.imported_assets/log`
and uses it to gracefully recover from unexpected stops. This means you
can force-quit the processor (and Bevy Apps running the processor in
parallel) at arbitrary times!
`.imported_assets` is "local state". It should _not_ be checked into
source control. It should also be considered "read only". In practice,
you _can_ modify processed assets and processed metadata if you really
need to test something. But those modifications will not be represented
in the hashes of the assets, so the processed state will be "out of
sync" with the source assets. The processor _will not_ fix this for you.
Either revert the change after you have tested it, or delete the
processed files so they can be re-populated.
## Open Questions
There are a number of open questions to be discussed. We should decide
if they need to be addressed in this PR and if so, how we will address
them:
### Implied Dependencies vs Dependency Enumeration
There are currently two ways to populate asset dependencies:
* **Implied via AssetLoaders**: if an AssetLoader loads an asset (and
retrieves a handle), a dependency is added to the list.
* **Explicit via the optional Asset::visit_dependencies**: if
`server.load_asset(my_asset)` is called, it will call
`my_asset.visit_dependencies`, which will grab dependencies that have
been manually defined for the asset via the Asset trait impl (which can
be derived).
This means that defining explicit dependencies is optional for "loaded
assets". And the list of dependencies is always accurate because loaders
can only produce Handles if they register dependencies. If an asset was
loaded with an AssetLoader, it only uses the implied dependencies. If an
asset was created at runtime and added with
`asset_server.load_asset(MyAsset)`, it will use
`Asset::visit_dependencies`.
However this can create a behavior mismatch between loaded assets and
equivalent "created at runtime" assets if `Assets::visit_dependencies`
doesn't exactly match the dependencies produced by the AssetLoader. This
behavior mismatch can be resolved by completely removing "implied loader
dependencies" and requiring `Asset::visit_dependencies` to supply
dependency data. But this creates two problems:
* It makes defining loaded assets harder and more error prone: Devs must
remember to manually annotate asset dependencies with `#[dependency]`
when deriving `Asset`. For more complicated assets (such as scenes), the
derive likely wouldn't be sufficient and a manual `visit_dependencies`
impl would be required.
* Removes the ability to immediately kick off dependency loads: When
AssetLoaders retrieve a Handle, they also immediately kick off an asset
load for the handle, which means it can start loading in parallel
_before_ the asset finishes loading. For large assets, this could be
significant. (although this could be mitigated for processed assets if
we store dependencies in the processed meta file and load them ahead of
time)
### Eager ProcessorDev Asset Loading
I made a controversial call in the interest of fast startup times ("time
to first pixel") for the "processor dev mode configuration". When
initializing the AssetProcessor, current processed versions of unchanged
assets are yielded immediately, even if their dependencies haven't been
checked yet for reprocessing. This means that
non-current-state-of-filesystem-but-previously-valid assets might be
returned to the App first, then hot-reloaded if/when their dependencies
change and the asset is reprocessed.
Is this behavior desirable? There is largely one alternative: do not
yield an asset from the processor to the app until all of its
dependencies have been checked for changes. In some common cases (load
dependency has not changed since last run) this will increase startup
time. The main question is "by how much" and is that slower startup time
worth it in the interest of only yielding assets that are true to the
current state of the filesystem. Should this be configurable? I'm
starting to think we should only yield an asset after its (historical)
dependencies have been checked for changes + processed as necessary, but
I'm curious what you all think.
### Paths Are Currently The Only Canonical ID / Do We Want Asset UUIDs?
In this implementation AssetPaths are the only canonical asset
identifier (just like the previous Bevy Asset system and Godot). Moving
assets will result in re-scans (and currently reprocessing, although
reprocessing can easily be avoided with some changes). Asset
renames/moves will break code and assets that rely on specific paths,
unless those paths are fixed up.
Do we want / need "stable asset uuids"? Introducing them is very
possible:
1. Generate a UUID and include it in .meta files
2. Support UUID in AssetPath
3. Generate "asset indices" which are loaded on startup and map UUIDs to
paths.
4 (maybe). Consider only supporting UUIDs for processed assets so we can
generate quick-to-load indices instead of scanning meta files.
The main "pro" is that assets referencing UUIDs don't need to be
migrated when a path changes. The main "con" is that UUIDs cannot be
"lazily resolved" like paths. They need a full view of all assets to
answer the question "does this UUID exist". Which means UUIDs require
the AssetProcessor to fully finish startup scans before saying an asset
doesnt exist. And they essentially require asset pre-processing to use
in apps, because scanning all asset metadata files at runtime to resolve
a UUID is not viable for medium-to-large apps. It really requires a
pre-generated UUID index, which must be loaded before querying for
assets.
I personally think this should be investigated in a separate PR. Paths
aren't going anywhere ... _everyone_ uses filesystems (and
filesystem-like apis) to manage their asset source files. I consider
them permanent canonical asset information. Additionally, they behave
well for both processed and unprocessed asset modes. Given that Bevy is
supporting both, this feels like the right canonical ID to start with.
UUIDS (and maybe even other indexed-identifier types) can be added later
as necessary.
### Folder / File Naming Conventions
All asset processing config currently lives in the `.imported_assets`
folder. The processor transaction log is in `.imported_assets/log`.
Processed assets are added to `.imported_assets/Default`, which will
make migrating to processed asset profiles (ex: a
`.imported_assets/Mobile` profile) a non-breaking change. It also allows
us to create top-level files like `.imported_assets/log` without it
being interpreted as an asset. Meta files currently have a `.meta`
suffix. Do we like these names and conventions?
### Should the `AssetPlugin::processed_dev` configuration enable
`watch_for_changes` automatically?
Currently it does (which I think makes sense), but it does make it the
only configuration that enables watch_for_changes by default.
### Discuss on_loaded High Level Interface:
This PR includes a very rough "proof of concept" `on_loaded` system
adapter that uses the `LoadedWithDependencies` event in combination with
`asset_server.load_asset` dependency tracking to support this pattern
```rust
fn main() {
App::new()
.init_asset::<MyAssets>()
.add_systems(Update, on_loaded(create_array_texture))
.run();
}
#[derive(Asset, Clone)]
struct MyAssets {
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_cat: Handle<Image>,
#[dependency]
picture_of_my_other_cat: Handle<Image>,
}
impl FromWorld for ArrayTexture {
fn from_world(world: &mut World) -> Self {
picture_of_my_cat: server.load("meow.png"),
picture_of_my_other_cat: server.load("meeeeeeeow.png"),
}
}
fn spawn_cat(In(my_assets): In<MyAssets>, mut commands: Commands) {
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
commands.spawn(SpriteBundle {
texture: my_assets.picture_of_my_other_cat.clone(),
..default()
});
}
```
The implementation is _very_ rough. And it is currently unsafe because
`bevy_ecs` doesn't expose some internals to do this safely from inside
`bevy_asset`. There are plenty of unanswered questions like:
* "do we add a Loadable" derive? (effectively automate the FromWorld
implementation above)
* Should `MyAssets` even be an Asset? (largely implemented this way
because it elegantly builds on `server.load_asset(MyAsset { .. })`
dependency tracking).
We should think hard about what our ideal API looks like (and if this is
a pattern we want to support). Not necessarily something we need to
solve in this PR. The current `on_loaded` impl should probably be
removed from this PR before merging.
## Clarifying Questions
### What about Assets as Entities?
This Bevy Asset V2 proposal implementation initially stored Assets as
ECS Entities. Instead of `AssetId<T>` + the `Assets<T>` resource it used
`Entity` as the asset id and Asset values were just ECS components.
There are plenty of compelling reasons to do this:
1. Easier to inline assets in Bevy Scenes (as they are "just" normal
entities + components)
2. More flexible queries: use the power of the ECS to filter assets (ex:
`Query<Mesh, With<Tree>>`).
3. Extensible. Users can add arbitrary component data to assets.
4. Things like "component visualization tools" work out of the box to
visualize asset data.
However Assets as Entities has a ton of caveats right now:
* We need to be able to allocate entity ids without a direct World
reference (aka rework id allocator in Entities ... i worked around this
in my prototypes by just pre allocating big chunks of entities)
* We want asset change events in addition to ECS change tracking ... how
do we populate them when mutations can come from anywhere? Do we use
Changed queries? This would require iterating over the change data for
all assets every frame. Is this acceptable or should we implement a new
"event based" component change detection option?
* Reconciling manually created assets with asset-system managed assets
has some nuance (ex: are they "loaded" / do they also have that
component metadata?)
* "how do we handle "static" / default entity handles" (ties in to the
Entity Indices discussion:
https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/discussions/8319). This is necessary
for things like "built in" assets and default handles in things like
SpriteBundle.
* Storing asset information as a component makes it easy to "invalidate"
asset state by removing the component (or forcing modifications).
Ideally we have ways to lock this down (some combination of Rust type
privacy and ECS validation)
In practice, how we store and identify assets is a reasonably
superficial change (porting off of Assets as Entities and implementing
dedicated storage + ids took less than a day). So once we sort out the
remaining challenges the flip should be straightforward. Additionally, I
do still have "Assets as Entities" in my commit history, so we can reuse
that work. I personally think "assets as entities" is a good endgame,
but it also doesn't provide _significant_ value at the moment and it
certainly isn't ready yet with the current state of things.
### Why not Distill?
[Distill](https://github.com/amethyst/distill) is a high quality fully
featured asset system built in Rust. It is very natural to ask "why not
just use Distill?".
It is also worth calling out that for awhile, [we planned on adopting
Distill / I signed off on
it](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/708).
However I think Bevy has a number of constraints that make Distill
adoption suboptimal:
* **Architectural Simplicity:**
* Distill's processor requires an in-memory database (lmdb) and RPC
networked API (using Cap'n Proto). Each of these introduces API
complexity that increases maintenance burden and "code grokability".
Ignoring tests, documentation, and examples, Distill has 24,237 lines of
Rust code (including generated code for RPC + database interactions). If
you ignore generated code, it has 11,499 lines.
* Bevy builds the AssetProcessor and AssetServer using pluggable
AssetReader/AssetWriter Rust traits with simple io interfaces. They do
not necessitate databases or RPC interfaces (although Readers/Writers
could use them if that is desired). Bevy Asset V2 (at the time of
writing this PR) is 5,384 lines of Rust code (ignoring tests,
documentation, and examples). Grain of salt: Distill does have more
features currently (ex: Asset Packing, GUIDS, remote-out-of-process
asset processor). I do plan to implement these features in Bevy Asset V2
and I personally highly doubt they will meaningfully close the 6115
lines-of-code gap.
* This complexity gap (which while illustrated by lines of code, is much
bigger than just that) is noteworthy to me. Bevy should be hackable and
there are pillars of Distill that are very hard to understand and
extend. This is a matter of opinion (and Bevy Asset V2 also has
complicated areas), but I think Bevy Asset V2 is much more approachable
for the average developer.
* Necessary disclaimer: counting lines of code is an extremely rough
complexity metric. Read the code and form your own opinions.
* **Optional Asset Processing:** Not all Bevy Apps (or Bevy App
developers) need / want asset preprocessing. Processing increases the
complexity of the development environment by introducing things like
meta files, imported asset storage, running processors in the
background, waiting for processing to finish, etc. Distill _requires_
preprocessing to work. With Bevy Asset V2 processing is fully opt-in.
The AssetServer isn't directly aware of asset processors at all.
AssetLoaders only care about converting bytes to runtime Assets ... they
don't know or care if the bytes were pre-processed or not. Processing is
"elegantly" (forgive my self-congratulatory phrasing) layered on top and
builds on the existing Asset system primitives.
* **Direct Filesystem Access to Processed Asset State:** Distill stores
processed assets in a database. This makes debugging / inspecting the
processed outputs harder (either requires special tooling to query the
database or they need to be "deployed" to be inspected). Bevy Asset V2,
on the other hand, stores processed assets in the filesystem (by default
... this is configurable). This makes interacting with the processed
state more natural. Note that both Godot and Unity's new asset system
store processed assets in the filesystem.
* **Portability**: Because Distill's processor uses lmdb and RPC
networking, it cannot be run on certain platforms (ex: lmdb is a
non-rust dependency that cannot run on the web, some platforms don't
support running network servers). Bevy should be able to process assets
everywhere (ex: run the Bevy Editor on the web, compile + process
shaders on mobile, etc). Distill does partially mitigate this problem by
supporting "streaming" assets via the RPC protocol, but this is not a
full solve from my perspective. And Bevy Asset V2 can (in theory) also
stream assets (without requiring RPC, although this isn't implemented
yet)
Note that I _do_ still think Distill would be a solid asset system for
Bevy. But I think the approach in this PR is a better solve for Bevy's
specific "asset system requirements".
### Doesn't async-fs just shim requests to "sync" `std::fs`? What is the
point?
"True async file io" has limited / spotty platform support. async-fs
(and the rust async ecosystem generally ... ex Tokio) currently use
async wrappers over std::fs that offload blocking requests to separate
threads. This may feel unsatisfying, but it _does_ still provide value
because it prevents our task pools from blocking on file system
operations (which would prevent progress when there are many tasks to
do, but all threads in a pool are currently blocking on file system
ops).
Additionally, using async APIs for our AssetReaders and AssetWriters
also provides value because we can later add support for "true async
file io" for platforms that support it. _And_ we can implement other
"true async io" asset backends (such as networked asset io).
## Draft TODO
- [x] Fill in missing filesystem event APIs: file removed event (which
is expressed as dangling RenameFrom events in some cases), file/folder
renamed event
- [x] Assets without loaders are not moved to the processed folder. This
breaks things like referenced `.bin` files for GLTFs. This should be
configurable per-non-asset-type.
- [x] Initial implementation of Reflect and FromReflect for Handle. The
"deserialization" parity bar is low here as this only worked with static
UUIDs in the old impl ... this is a non-trivial problem. Either we add a
Handle::AssetPath variant that gets "upgraded" to a strong handle on
scene load or we use a separate AssetRef type for Bevy scenes (which is
converted to a runtime Handle on load). This deserves its own discussion
in a different pr.
- [x] Populate read_asset_bytes hash when run by the processor (a bit of
a special case .. when run by the processor the processed meta will
contain the hash so we don't need to compute it on the spot, but we
don't want/need to read the meta when run by the main AssetServer)
- [x] Delay hot reloading: currently filesystem events are handled
immediately, which creates timing issues in some cases. For example hot
reloading images can sometimes break because the image isn't finished
writing. We should add a delay, likely similar to the [implementation in
this PR](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/8503).
- [x] Port old platform-specific AssetIo implementations to the new
AssetReader interface (currently missing Android and web)
- [x] Resolve on_loaded unsafety (either by removing the API entirely or
removing the unsafe)
- [x] Runtime loader setting overrides
- [x] Remove remaining unwraps that should be error-handled. There are
number of TODOs here
- [x] Pretty AssetPath Display impl
- [x] Document more APIs
- [x] Resolve spurious "reloading because it has changed" events (to
repro run load_gltf with `processed_dev()`)
- [x] load_dependency hot reloading currently only works for processed
assets. If processing is disabled, load_dependency changes are not hot
reloaded.
- [x] Replace AssetInfo dependency load/fail counters with
`loading_dependencies: HashSet<UntypedAssetId>` to prevent reloads from
(potentially) breaking counters. Storing this will also enable
"dependency reloaded" events (see [Next Steps](#next-steps))
- [x] Re-add filesystem watcher cargo feature gate (currently it is not
optional)
- [ ] Migration Guide
- [ ] Changelog
## Followup TODO
- [ ] Replace "eager unchanged processed asset loading" behavior with
"don't returned unchanged processed asset until dependencies have been
checked".
- [ ] Add true `Ignore` AssetAction that does not copy the asset to the
imported_assets folder.
- [ ] Finish "live asset unloading" (ex: free up CPU asset memory after
uploading an image to the GPU), rethink RenderAssets, and port renderer
features. The `Assets` collection uses `Option<T>` for asset storage to
support its removal. (1) the Option might not actually be necessary ...
might be able to just remove from the collection entirely (2) need to
finalize removal apis
- [ ] Try replacing the "channel based" asset id recycling with
something a bit more efficient (ex: we might be able to use raw atomic
ints with some cleverness)
- [ ] Consider adding UUIDs to processed assets (scoped just to helping
identify moved assets ... not exposed to load queries ... see [Next
Steps](#next-steps))
- [ ] Store "last modified" source asset and meta timestamps in
processed meta files to enable skipping expensive hashing when the file
wasn't changed
- [ ] Fix "slow loop" handle drop fix
- [ ] Migrate to TypeName
- [x] Handle "loader preregistration". See #9429
## Next Steps
* **Configurable per-type defaults for AssetMeta**: It should be
possible to add configuration like "all png image meta should default to
using nearest sampling" (currently this hard-coded per-loader/processor
Settings::default() impls). Also see the "Folder Meta" bullet point.
* **Avoid Reprocessing on Asset Renames / Moves**: See the "canonical
asset ids" discussion in [Open Questions](#open-questions) and the
relevant bullet point in [Draft TODO](#draft-todo). Even without
canonical ids, folder renames could avoid reprocessing in some cases.
* **Multiple Asset Sources**: Expand AssetPath to support "asset source
names" and support multiple AssetReaders in the asset server (ex:
`webserver://some_path/image.png` backed by an Http webserver
AssetReader). The "default" asset reader would use normal
`some_path/image.png` paths. Ideally this works in combination with
multiple AssetWatchers for hot-reloading
* **Stable Type Names**: this pr removes the TypeUuid requirement from
assets in favor of `std::any::type_name`. This makes defining assets
easier (no need to generate a new uuid / use weird proc macro syntax).
It also makes reading meta files easier (because things have "friendly
names"). We also use type names for components in scene files. If they
are good enough for components, they are good enough for assets. And
consistency across Bevy pillars is desirable. However,
`std::any::type_name` is not guaranteed to be stable (although in
practice it is). We've developed a [stable type
path](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7184) to resolve this,
which should be adopted when it is ready.
* **Command Line Interface**: It should be possible to run the asset
processor in a separate process from the command line. This will also
require building a network-server-backed AssetReader to communicate
between the app and the processor. We've been planning to build a "bevy
cli" for awhile. This seems like a good excuse to build it.
* **Asset Packing**: This is largely an additive feature, so it made
sense to me to punt this until we've laid the foundations in this PR.
* **Per-Platform Processed Assets**: It should be possible to generate
assets for multiple platforms by supporting multiple "processor
profiles" per asset (ex: compress with format X on PC and Y on iOS). I
think there should probably be arbitrary "profiles" (which can be
separate from actual platforms), which are then assigned to a given
platform when generating the final asset distribution for that platform.
Ex: maybe devs want a "Mobile" profile that is shared between iOS and
Android. Or a "LowEnd" profile shared between web and mobile.
* **Versioning and Migrations**: Assets, Loaders, Savers, and Processors
need to have versions to determine if their schema is valid. If an asset
/ loader version is incompatible with the current version expected at
runtime, the processor should be able to migrate them. I think we should
try using Bevy Reflect for this, as it would allow us to load the old
version as a dynamic Reflect type without actually having the old Rust
type. It would also allow us to define "patches" to migrate between
versions (Bevy Reflect devs are currently working on patching). The
`.meta` file already has its own format version. Migrating that to new
versions should also be possible.
* **Real Copy-on-write AssetPaths**: Rust's actual Cow (clone-on-write
type) currently used by AssetPath can still result in String clones that
aren't actually necessary (cloning an Owned Cow clones the contents).
Bevy's asset system requires cloning AssetPaths in a number of places,
which result in actual clones of the internal Strings. This is not
efficient. AssetPath internals should be reworked to exhibit truer
cow-like-behavior that reduces String clones to the absolute minimum.
* **Consider processor-less processing**: In theory the AssetServer
could run processors "inline" even if the background AssetProcessor is
disabled. If we decide this is actually desirable, we could add this.
But I don't think its a priority in the short or medium term.
* **Pre-emptive dependency loading**: We could encode dependencies in
processed meta files, which could then be used by the Asset Server to
kick of dependency loads as early as possible (prior to starting the
actual asset load). Is this desirable? How much time would this save in
practice?
* **Optimize Processor With UntypedAssetIds**: The processor exclusively
uses AssetPath to identify assets currently. It might be possible to
swap these out for UntypedAssetIds in some places, which are smaller /
cheaper to hash and compare.
* **One to Many Asset Processing**: An asset source file that produces
many assets currently must be processed into a single "processed" asset
source. If labeled assets can be written separately they can each have
their own configured savers _and_ they could be loaded more granularly.
Definitely worth exploring!
* **Automatically Track "Runtime-only" Asset Dependencies**: Right now,
tracking "created at runtime" asset dependencies requires adding them
via `asset_server.load_asset(StandardMaterial::default())`. I think with
some cleverness we could also do this for
`materials.add(StandardMaterial::default())`, making tracking work
"everywhere". There are challenges here relating to change detection /
ensuring the server is made aware of dependency changes. This could be
expensive in some cases.
* **"Dependency Changed" events**: Some assets have runtime artifacts
that need to be re-generated when one of their dependencies change (ex:
regenerate a material's bind group when a Texture needs to change). We
are generating the dependency graph so we can definitely produce these
events. Buuuuut generating these events will have a cost / they could be
high frequency for some assets, so we might want this to be opt-in for
specific cases.
* **Investigate Storing More Information In Handles**: Handles can now
store arbitrary information, which makes it cheaper and easier to
access. How much should we move into them? Canonical asset load states
(via atomics)? (`handle.is_loaded()` would be very cool). Should we
store the entire asset and remove the `Assets<T>` collection?
(`Arc<RwLock<Option<Image>>>`?)
* **Support processing and loading files without extensions**: This is a
pretty arbitrary restriction and could be supported with very minimal
changes.
* **Folder Meta**: It would be nice if we could define per folder
processor configuration defaults (likely in a `.meta` or `.folder_meta`
file). Things like "default to linear filtering for all Images in this
folder".
* **Replace async_broadcast with event-listener?** This might be
approximately drop-in for some uses and it feels more light weight
* **Support Running the AssetProcessor on the Web**: Most of the hard
work is done here, but there are some easy straggling TODOs (make the
transaction log an interface instead of a direct file writer so we can
write a web storage backend, implement an AssetReader/AssetWriter that
reads/writes to something like LocalStorage).
* **Consider identifying and preventing circular dependencies**: This is
especially important for "processor dependencies", as processing will
silently never finish in these cases.
* **Built-in/Inlined Asset Hot Reloading**: This PR regresses
"built-in/inlined" asset hot reloading (previously provided by the
DebugAssetServer). I'm intentionally punting this because I think it can
be cleanly implemented with "multiple asset sources" by registering a
"debug asset source" (ex: `debug://bevy_pbr/src/render/pbr.wgsl` asset
paths) in combination with an AssetWatcher for that asset source and
support for "manually loading pats with asset bytes instead of
AssetReaders". The old DebugAssetServer was quite nasty and I'd love to
avoid that hackery going forward.
* **Investigate ways to remove double-parsing meta files**: Parsing meta
files currently involves parsing once with "minimal" versions of the
meta file to extract the type name of the loader/processor config, then
parsing again to parse the "full" meta. This is suboptimal. We should be
able to define custom deserializers that (1) assume the loader/processor
type name comes first (2) dynamically looks up the loader/processor
registrations to deserialize settings in-line (similar to components in
the bevy scene format). Another alternative: deserialize as dynamic
Reflect objects and then convert.
* **More runtime loading configuration**: Support using the Handle type
as a hint to select an asset loader (instead of relying on AssetPath
extensions)
* **More high level Processor trait implementations**: For example, it
might be worth adding support for arbitrary chains of "asset transforms"
that modify an in-memory asset representation between loading and
saving. (ex: load a Mesh, run a `subdivide_mesh` transform, followed by
a `flip_normals` transform, then save the mesh to an efficient
compressed format).
* **Bevy Scene Handle Deserialization**: (see the relevant [Draft TODO
item](#draft-todo) for context)
* **Explore High Level Load Interfaces**: See [this
discussion](#discuss-on_loaded-high-level-interface) for one prototype.
* **Asset Streaming**: It would be great if we could stream Assets (ex:
stream a long video file piece by piece)
* **ID Exchanging**: In this PR Asset Handles/AssetIds are bigger than
they need to be because they have a Uuid enum variant. If we implement
an "id exchanging" system that trades Uuids for "efficient runtime ids",
we can cut down on the size of AssetIds, making them more efficient.
This has some open design questions, such as how to spawn entities with
"default" handle values (as these wouldn't have access to the exchange
api in the current system).
* **Asset Path Fixup Tooling**: Assets that inline asset paths inside
them will break when an asset moves. The asset system provides the
functionality to detect when paths break. We should build a framework
that enables formats to define "path migrations". This is especially
important for scene files. For editor-generated files, we should also
consider using UUIDs (see other bullet point) to avoid the need to
migrate in these cases.
---------
Co-authored-by: BeastLe9enD <beastle9end@outlook.de>
Co-authored-by: Mike <mike.hsu@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Nicola Papale <nicopap@users.noreply.github.com>
2023-09-07 02:07:27 +00:00
|
|
|
match self {
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Strong(handle) => {
|
|
|
|
write!(
|
|
|
|
f,
|
|
|
|
"StrongHandle{{ type_id: {:?}, id: {:?}, path: {:?} }}",
|
|
|
|
handle.id.type_id(),
|
|
|
|
handle.id.internal(),
|
|
|
|
handle.path
|
|
|
|
)
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Weak(id) => write!(
|
|
|
|
f,
|
|
|
|
"WeakHandle{{ type_id: {:?}, id: {:?} }}",
|
|
|
|
id.type_id(),
|
|
|
|
id.internal()
|
|
|
|
),
|
|
|
|
}
|
2020-10-18 20:48:15 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
impl PartialOrd for UntypedHandle {
|
2024-09-27 00:59:59 +00:00
|
|
|
fn partial_cmp(&self, other: &Self) -> Option<core::cmp::Ordering> {
|
Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
|
|
|
if self.type_id() == other.type_id() {
|
|
|
|
self.id().partial_cmp(&other.id())
|
|
|
|
} else {
|
|
|
|
None
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
impl From<&UntypedHandle> for UntypedAssetId {
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
|
|
|
fn from(value: &UntypedHandle) -> Self {
|
|
|
|
value.id()
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
// Cross Operations
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
impl<A: Asset> PartialEq<UntypedHandle> for Handle<A> {
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
|
|
|
fn eq(&self, other: &UntypedHandle) -> bool {
|
|
|
|
TypeId::of::<A>() == other.type_id() && self.id() == other.id()
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
impl<A: Asset> PartialEq<Handle<A>> for UntypedHandle {
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
|
|
|
fn eq(&self, other: &Handle<A>) -> bool {
|
|
|
|
other.eq(self)
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
impl<A: Asset> PartialOrd<UntypedHandle> for Handle<A> {
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
2024-09-27 00:59:59 +00:00
|
|
|
fn partial_cmp(&self, other: &UntypedHandle) -> Option<core::cmp::Ordering> {
|
Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
|
|
|
if TypeId::of::<A>() != other.type_id() {
|
|
|
|
None
|
|
|
|
} else {
|
|
|
|
self.id().partial_cmp(&other.id())
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
impl<A: Asset> PartialOrd<Handle<A>> for UntypedHandle {
|
|
|
|
#[inline]
|
2024-09-27 00:59:59 +00:00
|
|
|
fn partial_cmp(&self, other: &Handle<A>) -> Option<core::cmp::Ordering> {
|
Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
|
|
|
Some(other.partial_cmp(self)?.reverse())
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
impl<A: Asset> From<Handle<A>> for UntypedHandle {
|
|
|
|
fn from(value: Handle<A>) -> Self {
|
|
|
|
match value {
|
|
|
|
Handle::Strong(handle) => UntypedHandle::Strong(handle),
|
|
|
|
Handle::Weak(id) => UntypedHandle::Weak(id.into()),
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
impl<A: Asset> TryFrom<UntypedHandle> for Handle<A> {
|
|
|
|
type Error = UntypedAssetConversionError;
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
fn try_from(value: UntypedHandle) -> Result<Self, Self::Error> {
|
|
|
|
let found = value.type_id();
|
|
|
|
let expected = TypeId::of::<A>();
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
if found != expected {
|
|
|
|
return Err(UntypedAssetConversionError::TypeIdMismatch { expected, found });
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
match value {
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Strong(handle) => Ok(Handle::Strong(handle)),
|
|
|
|
UntypedHandle::Weak(id) => {
|
|
|
|
let Ok(id) = id.try_into() else {
|
|
|
|
return Err(UntypedAssetConversionError::TypeIdMismatch { expected, found });
|
|
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
Ok(Handle::Weak(id))
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
2024-02-25 15:20:03 +00:00
|
|
|
/// Errors preventing the conversion of to/from an [`UntypedHandle`] and a [`Handle`].
|
2024-12-06 17:03:55 +00:00
|
|
|
#[derive(Error, Debug, PartialEq, Clone)]
|
Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
|
|
|
#[non_exhaustive]
|
|
|
|
pub enum UntypedAssetConversionError {
|
2024-02-25 15:20:03 +00:00
|
|
|
/// Caused when trying to convert an [`UntypedHandle`] into a [`Handle`] of the wrong type.
|
2024-12-06 17:03:55 +00:00
|
|
|
#[error(
|
2024-02-25 15:20:03 +00:00
|
|
|
"This UntypedHandle is for {found:?} and cannot be converted into a Handle<{expected:?}>"
|
Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
|
|
|
)]
|
|
|
|
TypeIdMismatch { expected: TypeId, found: TypeId },
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
#[cfg(test)]
|
|
|
|
mod tests {
|
reflect: implement the unique reflect rfc (#7207)
# Objective
- Implements the [Unique Reflect
RFC](https://github.com/nicopap/rfcs/blob/bevy-reflect-api/rfcs/56-better-reflect.md).
## Solution
- Implements the RFC.
- This implementation differs in some ways from the RFC:
- In the RFC, it was suggested `Reflect: Any` but `PartialReflect:
?Any`. During initial implementation I tried this, but we assume the
`PartialReflect: 'static` in a lot of places and the changes required
crept out of the scope of this PR.
- `PartialReflect::try_into_reflect` originally returned `Option<Box<dyn
Reflect>>` but i changed this to `Result<Box<dyn Reflect>, Box<dyn
PartialReflect>>` since the method takes by value and otherwise there
would be no way to recover the type. `as_full` and `as_full_mut` both
still return `Option<&(mut) dyn Reflect>`.
---
## Changelog
- Added `PartialReflect`.
- `Reflect` is now a subtrait of `PartialReflect`.
- Moved most methods on `Reflect` to the new `PartialReflect`.
- Added `PartialReflect::{as_partial_reflect, as_partial_reflect_mut,
into_partial_reflect}`.
- Added `PartialReflect::{try_as_reflect, try_as_reflect_mut,
try_into_reflect}`.
- Added `<dyn PartialReflect>::{try_downcast_ref, try_downcast_mut,
try_downcast, try_take}` supplementing the methods on `dyn Reflect`.
## Migration Guide
- Most instances of `dyn Reflect` should be changed to `dyn
PartialReflect` which is less restrictive, however trait bounds should
generally stay as `T: Reflect`.
- The new `PartialReflect::{as_partial_reflect, as_partial_reflect_mut,
into_partial_reflect, try_as_reflect, try_as_reflect_mut,
try_into_reflect}` methods as well as `Reflect::{as_reflect,
as_reflect_mut, into_reflect}` will need to be implemented for manual
implementors of `Reflect`.
## Future Work
- This PR is designed to be followed up by another "Unique Reflect Phase
2" that addresses the following points:
- Investigate making serialization revolve around `Reflect` instead of
`PartialReflect`.
- [Remove the `try_*` methods on `dyn PartialReflect` since they are
stop
gaps](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7207#discussion_r1083476050).
- Investigate usages like `ReflectComponent`. In the places they
currently use `PartialReflect`, should they be changed to use `Reflect`?
- Merging this opens the door to lots of reflection features we haven't
been able to implement.
- We could re-add [the `Reflectable`
trait](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/blob/8e3488c88065a94a4f72199587e59341c9b6553d/crates/bevy_reflect/src/reflect.rs#L337-L342)
and make `FromReflect` a requirement to improve [`FromReflect`
ergonomics](https://github.com/bevyengine/rfcs/pull/59). This is
currently not possible because dynamic types cannot sensibly be
`FromReflect`.
- Since this is an alternative to #5772, #5781 would be made cleaner.
---------
Co-authored-by: Alice Cecile <alice.i.cecile@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Gino Valente <49806985+MrGVSV@users.noreply.github.com>
2024-08-12 17:01:41 +00:00
|
|
|
use bevy_reflect::PartialReflect;
|
|
|
|
|
Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
|
|
|
use super::*;
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
type TestAsset = ();
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
const UUID_1: Uuid = Uuid::from_u128(123);
|
|
|
|
const UUID_2: Uuid = Uuid::from_u128(456);
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
/// Simple utility to directly hash a value using a fixed hasher
|
|
|
|
fn hash<T: Hash>(data: &T) -> u64 {
|
|
|
|
let mut hasher = bevy_utils::AHasher::default();
|
|
|
|
data.hash(&mut hasher);
|
|
|
|
hasher.finish()
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
/// Typed and Untyped `Handles` should be equivalent to each other and themselves
|
|
|
|
#[test]
|
|
|
|
fn equality() {
|
|
|
|
let typed = AssetId::<TestAsset>::Uuid { uuid: UUID_1 };
|
|
|
|
let untyped = UntypedAssetId::Uuid {
|
|
|
|
type_id: TypeId::of::<TestAsset>(),
|
|
|
|
uuid: UUID_1,
|
|
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
let typed = Handle::Weak(typed);
|
|
|
|
let untyped = UntypedHandle::Weak(untyped);
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
assert_eq!(
|
|
|
|
Ok(typed.clone()),
|
|
|
|
Handle::<TestAsset>::try_from(untyped.clone())
|
|
|
|
);
|
|
|
|
assert_eq!(UntypedHandle::from(typed.clone()), untyped);
|
|
|
|
assert_eq!(typed, untyped);
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
/// Typed and Untyped `Handles` should be orderable amongst each other and themselves
|
|
|
|
#[allow(clippy::cmp_owned)]
|
|
|
|
#[test]
|
|
|
|
fn ordering() {
|
|
|
|
assert!(UUID_1 < UUID_2);
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
let typed_1 = AssetId::<TestAsset>::Uuid { uuid: UUID_1 };
|
|
|
|
let typed_2 = AssetId::<TestAsset>::Uuid { uuid: UUID_2 };
|
|
|
|
let untyped_1 = UntypedAssetId::Uuid {
|
|
|
|
type_id: TypeId::of::<TestAsset>(),
|
|
|
|
uuid: UUID_1,
|
|
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
let untyped_2 = UntypedAssetId::Uuid {
|
|
|
|
type_id: TypeId::of::<TestAsset>(),
|
|
|
|
uuid: UUID_2,
|
|
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
let typed_1 = Handle::Weak(typed_1);
|
|
|
|
let typed_2 = Handle::Weak(typed_2);
|
|
|
|
let untyped_1 = UntypedHandle::Weak(untyped_1);
|
|
|
|
let untyped_2 = UntypedHandle::Weak(untyped_2);
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
assert!(typed_1 < typed_2);
|
|
|
|
assert!(untyped_1 < untyped_2);
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
assert!(UntypedHandle::from(typed_1.clone()) < untyped_2);
|
|
|
|
assert!(untyped_1 < UntypedHandle::from(typed_2.clone()));
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
assert!(Handle::<TestAsset>::try_from(untyped_1.clone()).unwrap() < typed_2);
|
|
|
|
assert!(typed_1 < Handle::<TestAsset>::try_from(untyped_2.clone()).unwrap());
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
assert!(typed_1 < untyped_2);
|
|
|
|
assert!(untyped_1 < typed_2);
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
/// Typed and Untyped `Handles` should be equivalently hashable to each other and themselves
|
|
|
|
#[test]
|
|
|
|
fn hashing() {
|
|
|
|
let typed = AssetId::<TestAsset>::Uuid { uuid: UUID_1 };
|
|
|
|
let untyped = UntypedAssetId::Uuid {
|
|
|
|
type_id: TypeId::of::<TestAsset>(),
|
|
|
|
uuid: UUID_1,
|
|
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
let typed = Handle::Weak(typed);
|
|
|
|
let untyped = UntypedHandle::Weak(untyped);
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
assert_eq!(
|
|
|
|
hash(&typed),
|
|
|
|
hash(&Handle::<TestAsset>::try_from(untyped.clone()).unwrap())
|
|
|
|
);
|
|
|
|
assert_eq!(hash(&UntypedHandle::from(typed.clone())), hash(&untyped));
|
|
|
|
assert_eq!(hash(&typed), hash(&untyped));
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
/// Typed and Untyped `Handles` should be interchangeable
|
|
|
|
#[test]
|
|
|
|
fn conversion() {
|
|
|
|
let typed = AssetId::<TestAsset>::Uuid { uuid: UUID_1 };
|
|
|
|
let untyped = UntypedAssetId::Uuid {
|
|
|
|
type_id: TypeId::of::<TestAsset>(),
|
|
|
|
uuid: UUID_1,
|
|
|
|
};
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
let typed = Handle::Weak(typed);
|
|
|
|
let untyped = UntypedHandle::Weak(untyped);
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
assert_eq!(typed, Handle::try_from(untyped.clone()).unwrap());
|
|
|
|
assert_eq!(UntypedHandle::from(typed.clone()), untyped);
|
|
|
|
}
|
2024-06-24 20:54:54 +00:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
/// `Reflect::clone_value` should increase the strong count of a strong handle
|
|
|
|
#[test]
|
|
|
|
fn strong_handle_reflect_clone() {
|
|
|
|
use crate::{AssetApp, AssetPlugin, Assets, VisitAssetDependencies};
|
|
|
|
use bevy_app::App;
|
|
|
|
use bevy_reflect::FromReflect;
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
#[derive(Reflect)]
|
|
|
|
struct MyAsset {
|
|
|
|
value: u32,
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
impl Asset for MyAsset {}
|
|
|
|
impl VisitAssetDependencies for MyAsset {
|
|
|
|
fn visit_dependencies(&self, _visit: &mut impl FnMut(UntypedAssetId)) {}
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
let mut app = App::new();
|
|
|
|
app.add_plugins(AssetPlugin::default())
|
|
|
|
.init_asset::<MyAsset>();
|
|
|
|
let mut assets = app.world_mut().resource_mut::<Assets<MyAsset>>();
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
let handle: Handle<MyAsset> = assets.add(MyAsset { value: 1 });
|
|
|
|
match &handle {
|
|
|
|
Handle::Strong(strong) => {
|
|
|
|
assert_eq!(
|
|
|
|
Arc::strong_count(strong),
|
|
|
|
1,
|
|
|
|
"Inserting the asset should result in a strong count of 1"
|
|
|
|
);
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
let reflected: &dyn Reflect = &handle;
|
reflect: implement the unique reflect rfc (#7207)
# Objective
- Implements the [Unique Reflect
RFC](https://github.com/nicopap/rfcs/blob/bevy-reflect-api/rfcs/56-better-reflect.md).
## Solution
- Implements the RFC.
- This implementation differs in some ways from the RFC:
- In the RFC, it was suggested `Reflect: Any` but `PartialReflect:
?Any`. During initial implementation I tried this, but we assume the
`PartialReflect: 'static` in a lot of places and the changes required
crept out of the scope of this PR.
- `PartialReflect::try_into_reflect` originally returned `Option<Box<dyn
Reflect>>` but i changed this to `Result<Box<dyn Reflect>, Box<dyn
PartialReflect>>` since the method takes by value and otherwise there
would be no way to recover the type. `as_full` and `as_full_mut` both
still return `Option<&(mut) dyn Reflect>`.
---
## Changelog
- Added `PartialReflect`.
- `Reflect` is now a subtrait of `PartialReflect`.
- Moved most methods on `Reflect` to the new `PartialReflect`.
- Added `PartialReflect::{as_partial_reflect, as_partial_reflect_mut,
into_partial_reflect}`.
- Added `PartialReflect::{try_as_reflect, try_as_reflect_mut,
try_into_reflect}`.
- Added `<dyn PartialReflect>::{try_downcast_ref, try_downcast_mut,
try_downcast, try_take}` supplementing the methods on `dyn Reflect`.
## Migration Guide
- Most instances of `dyn Reflect` should be changed to `dyn
PartialReflect` which is less restrictive, however trait bounds should
generally stay as `T: Reflect`.
- The new `PartialReflect::{as_partial_reflect, as_partial_reflect_mut,
into_partial_reflect, try_as_reflect, try_as_reflect_mut,
try_into_reflect}` methods as well as `Reflect::{as_reflect,
as_reflect_mut, into_reflect}` will need to be implemented for manual
implementors of `Reflect`.
## Future Work
- This PR is designed to be followed up by another "Unique Reflect Phase
2" that addresses the following points:
- Investigate making serialization revolve around `Reflect` instead of
`PartialReflect`.
- [Remove the `try_*` methods on `dyn PartialReflect` since they are
stop
gaps](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/pull/7207#discussion_r1083476050).
- Investigate usages like `ReflectComponent`. In the places they
currently use `PartialReflect`, should they be changed to use `Reflect`?
- Merging this opens the door to lots of reflection features we haven't
been able to implement.
- We could re-add [the `Reflectable`
trait](https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/blob/8e3488c88065a94a4f72199587e59341c9b6553d/crates/bevy_reflect/src/reflect.rs#L337-L342)
and make `FromReflect` a requirement to improve [`FromReflect`
ergonomics](https://github.com/bevyengine/rfcs/pull/59). This is
currently not possible because dynamic types cannot sensibly be
`FromReflect`.
- Since this is an alternative to #5772, #5781 would be made cleaner.
---------
Co-authored-by: Alice Cecile <alice.i.cecile@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Gino Valente <49806985+MrGVSV@users.noreply.github.com>
2024-08-12 17:01:41 +00:00
|
|
|
let cloned_handle: Box<dyn PartialReflect> = reflected.clone_value();
|
2024-06-24 20:54:54 +00:00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
assert_eq!(
|
|
|
|
Arc::strong_count(strong),
|
|
|
|
2,
|
|
|
|
"Cloning the handle with reflect should increase the strong count to 2"
|
|
|
|
);
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
let from_reflect_handle: Handle<MyAsset> =
|
|
|
|
FromReflect::from_reflect(&*cloned_handle).unwrap();
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
assert_eq!(Arc::strong_count(strong), 3, "Converting the reflected value back to a handle should increase the strong count to 3");
|
|
|
|
assert!(
|
|
|
|
from_reflect_handle.is_strong(),
|
|
|
|
"The cloned handle should still be strong"
|
|
|
|
);
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
_ => panic!("Expected a strong handle"),
|
|
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
}
|
Ensure consistency between Un/Typed `AssetId` and `Handle` (#10628)
# Objective
- Fixes #10629
- `UntypedAssetId` and `AssetId` (along with `UntypedHandle` and
`Handle`) do not hash to the same values when pointing to the same
`Asset`. Additionally, comparison and conversion between these types
does not follow idiomatic Rust standards.
## Solution
- Added new unit tests to validate/document expected behaviour
- Added trait implementations to make working with Un/Typed values more
ergonomic
- Ensured hashing and comparison between Un/Typed values is consistent
- Removed `From` trait implementations that panic, and replaced them
with `TryFrom`
---
## Changelog
- Ensured `Handle::<A>::hash` and `UntypedHandle::hash` will produce the
same value for the same `Asset`
- Added non-panicing `Handle::<A>::try_typed`
- Added `PartialOrd` to `UntypedHandle` to match `Handle<A>` (this will
return `None` for `UntypedHandles` for differing `Asset` types)
- Added `TryFrom<UntypedHandle>` for `Handle<A>`
- Added `From<Handle<A>>` for `UntypedHandle`
- Removed panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations. These are
currently unused within the Bevy codebase, and shouldn't be used
externally, hence removal.
- Added cross-implementations of `PartialEq` and `PartialOrd` for
`UntypedHandle` and `Handle<A>` allowing direct comparison when
`TypeId`'s match.
- Near-identical changes to `AssetId` and `UntypedAssetId`
## Migration Guide
If you relied on any of the panicing `From<Untyped...>` implementations,
simply call the existing `typed` methods instead. Alternatively, use the
new `TryFrom` implementation instead to directly expose possible
mistakes.
## Notes
I've made these changes since `Handle` is such a fundamental type to the
entire `Asset` ecosystem within Bevy, and yet it had pretty unclear
behaviour with no direct testing. The fact that hashing untyped vs typed
versions of the same handle would produce different values is something
I expect to cause a very subtle bug for someone else one day.
I haven't included it in this PR to avoid any controversy, but I also
believe the `typed_unchecked` methods should be removed from these
types, or marked as `unsafe`. The `texture_atlas` example currently uses
it, and I believe it is a bad choice. The performance gained by not
type-checking before conversion would be entirely dwarfed by the act of
actually loading an asset and creating its handle anyway. If an end user
is in a tight loop repeatedly calling `typed_unchecked` on an
`UntypedHandle` for the entire runtime of their application, I think the
small performance drop caused by that safety check is ~~a form of cosmic
justice~~ reasonable.
2023-11-21 01:13:36 +00:00
|
|
|
}
|