2023-client-build-scripting

[drew-512]

Currently, the Unity client is built by hand and is overdue for automated builds via make.

The suggested approach is to enhance arc-utils.py with all the functionality and appropriate cli calls -- and to then just invoke what's needed using make build +abc in the Makefile. So other than python cli invocation, most of the time and work is learning the Unity app by cli.

Long term, we will have 5 make build invocations, one for each OS we support. Good news -- 4 of 5 are working and tested on macOS, but they are currently done by hand in Unity, not by cli.

• on macOS:
  • make build osx
  • make build ios
• on Windows:
  • make build win
• on both macOS and Windows:
  • make build linux
  • make build android

Since building for linux and android is nearly identical on macOS vs Windows, they are basically "free" for us to support on Windows. So the work is really about learning invoking Unity from command line and dealing with the lurking nuances of Windows. A good friend in this world is suggesting we using MinGW to use for Windows, which seems to be a huge win.

It would be a bonus to get all 5 on macOS, but that is not expected since things like Windows signatures require a trove of cli utilities to pull that off.

Useful info:

• https://github.com/shana/open-unity
• Assets/Plugins/AVProVideo/Editor/Scripts/PostProcessingBuild*.cs
• Assets/Plugins/Vuplex/WebView/iOS/Editor/iOSBuildScipt.cs

[drew-512]

make osx, implemented, mostly stable
make ios, implemented, mostly stable
make android, implemented, ready to test
make linux, ready to test, not buildable
make windows, partly implemented, not buildable