Asset loading is a mess

[ow-mods]

Asset loading is a mess

[misternebula]

For example, here is the image loading I used for Marshmallow :

Used like this
image = ImageUtilities.LoadImage(Main.helper.Manifest.ModFolderPath + "clouds_cap.png");

[misternebula]

• Meshes : Can still use ObjImporter
• Textures : Can be simplified (see above)
• Audio : Unity has no built in methods for audio loading, so WWW has to be used (or something better?)

[misternebula]

Basically I want to try removing the OnLoaded stuff that you have to do, and make it just return the wanted asset. However, maybe co-routines are the best option, as they won't hang the program while loading... then again, loading images and meshes should only take a short amount of time (and mods shouldn't really be loading in massive mesh files - that's what asset bundles are for!)

[amazingalek]

[amazingalek]

Good comments 👍
Some thoughts:

• It's important that loading assets happen in separate threads, as otherwise the game would freeze. Coroutines are one way of doing that.
• Why return textures as part of a gameobject instead of directly? I think I did it that way so the texture would survive when changing scenes - notice the gameobject runs DontDestroyOnLoad().

I agree asset loading deserves an overhaul. We could create an entirely new asset loading project (start from scratch) and deprecate the old one. That'd give us a lot of freedom to re-think it.