GameCult/Aetheria
Watch
9
0
Fork
You've already forked Aetheria
 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions
Aetheria/docs/unity-daemon-development.md
Meta Vens 152db9e744 Launch Terminus through daemon-owned Hangar
2026-08-08 08:45:14 +01:00

5.3 KiB
Raw Blame History

Unity daemon development

Open Aetheria.Unity in Unity and choose Aetheria > Daemon Development. This is the interactive development path. The released-package witness remains the automated integration proof and is not required for ordinary iteration.

Build daemon explicitly builds Aetheria.State.Daemon in bin/Debug/net10.0. Reimport state & build also replaces the isolated development state under Aetheria.Unity/Build. Start daemon launches the already-prepared Debug apphost immediately; it never performs a build. The editor owns the daemon process, its PID, and its output streams. The generic EveUnity client connects directly to the daemon's local CultMesh endpoint. Odin is not part of this path.

The named daemon apphost is launched with both system .NET runtime-root variables pinned explicitly rather than inheriting Unity's embedded runtime environment. This keeps .NET 10 host resolution deterministic while preserving the Aetheria.State.Daemon process identity used for ownership, Rider attach, and domain-reload reattachment.

The daemon lifecycle is independent of Unity Play Mode. Play never builds, starts, restarts, or stops the daemon. Entering Play connects a generic client; leaving Play drops that client while the authoritative daemon remains alive and ready for the next connection.

Starting the daemon does not create, load, or step a game world. It starts the typed state boundary and CultMesh transport in ready mode and publishes the aetheria.hangar Eve surface. The Hangar exposes the canonical saved loadout and typed equip/remove operations. Launch commits a Terminus deployment from the current Hangar revision and creates its run; Continue selects the existing deployed Terminus checkpoint without creating a replacement run. Typed mode selection chooses authority and policy; a committed deployment/admission creates session state through the applicable provider or Arena server. Only that activation boundary opens simulation persistence and starts the fixed simulation clock. When the last playable-world subscription is withdrawn, the daemon commits the final public frame and matching private Ymir checkpoint, releases the active physics world, and returns to ready. A dropped client therefore leaves the daemon and saved world alive without making Unity Play Mode a lifecycle authority.

The editor connects through the daemon's cultnet+tcp control endpoint. The advertised session then selects the dedicated content and QUIC realtime planes; the editor bootstrap does not choose those planes or retain an RUDP fallback.

The launcher displays and passes the exact source dependency roots used for the Debug daemon build. CultLib prefers the active CultLib-codex-cultmesh-reliability checkout, then CultLib-release, and finally the canonical CultLib sibling. Ymir still prefers the active Ymir-aetheria-integration sibling checkout and falls back to the canonical Ymir sibling when that integration checkout is absent. This prevents an older sibling assembly from impersonating the daemon being debugged.

Normal loop

  1. Press Build daemon after changing daemon code. Use Reimport state & build only when the isolated development state must be replaced.
  2. Press Start daemon and wait for the window to report the live endpoint.
  3. Enter Unity Play Mode. The generic client mounts aetheria.hangar.
  4. Configure the saved loadout, then choose Launch for a new Terminus run or Continue for the currently deployed saved run. The same mounted Eve surface becomes the gameplay composition after activation.
  5. Use Unity Pause to submit the advertised simulation.pause action to the daemon. Unity unpause submits simulation.rate.realtime.
  6. While paused, use Advance one step to commit exactly one fixed daemon simulation step.
  7. Stop or restart the daemon explicitly from the same window.

Unity's editor clock is never gameplay authority. The pause and step controls are ordinary advertised Eve operations accepted by the daemon. If the active game mode does not advertise its simulation clock, the window reports that contract failure instead of locally freezing world truth.

Rider

The window displays the actual Aetheria.State.Daemon process ID. Press Copy daemon PID, then in Rider choose Run > Attach to Process and select that PID. Open daemon source opens Aetheria.State.Daemon/Program.cs through Unity's configured external editor. The launched process uses Debug assemblies from the current checkout, so breakpoints bind to the code being run.

Hitting a Rider breakpoint suspends the authoritative daemon process. The Unity client continues to display its last committed generation until execution resumes; it does not simulate through the breakpoint.

Files

  • State: Aetheria.Unity/Build/aetheria-unity-dev.cc
  • Daemon stdout: Aetheria.Unity/Build/DaemonDevelopment/daemon.log
  • Daemon stderr: Aetheria.Unity/Build/DaemonDevelopment/daemon.error.log
  • Preparation logs: Aetheria.Unity/Build/DaemonDevelopment/launcher*.log

Reimport state & build deletes only the isolated development .cc file, its .cultmesh (or legacy .records) sidecar, and the matching daemon-private .ymir.cc journal store before importing it again. It does not touch GameData, the source catalog, or another witness/run state.