Mwarray.dll for Unity - How can I use it? - visual-studio

I have a problem with the MWArray.dll which is the original dll library from mathworks compiled from Matlab. This dll works under visual studio but not under unity. The goal was to compile under matlab a simple function mycos which calculates a cosinus and uses it under unity with the second dll MWArray mathworks library.
I made a test under Visual Studio and it works well. I have no problem to read the dll and make a call to the mycos.dll class. I made a typical c# project with two references on MWArray and mycos.
But when I try under unity, by putting the two dll under a plugins folder and configure unity 2018 on .NET 4.0 because the dll are compiled with the .NET framework 4.0.
Unity can read the dll but when running I get an error:
NotImplementedException: The requested feature is not implemented.
System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent (Boolean ifImpersonating)
(at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Security.Principal/WindowsIdentity.cs:166)
If I want to use matlab for a research project which was coded in matlab with advanced high level math functions which going to be difficult to recode under unity with c#. So the easy way is to use compiled package from matlab compiler. So is there someone who did this already?

The solution consists in NOT using MWArray.dll in Unity project because of incompatibility with Mono. Create a Visual Studio project (when creating new select the type "console applicatiion"), it MUST be separated from unity project directory, and use it as an application server; in fact in that app you can use MWArray.dll, remember that you have to configure your project configuration to x64!!! In the Unity project create a client app to communicate with the other server project.

Related

F# VS2019 Windows Forms

I'm learning F# and I'm just trying to build Animate a pendulum program.
Here's the code:
https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Animate_a_pendulum#F.23
As far as I understand, VS 2019 doesn't support WinForms in F# (maybe, I'm wrong), so I have error messages, trying to copy/paste that code:
What should I do?
Thanks a lot !
If you're looking to use Winforms on .NET core, you'll need to do the following in your project:
Open the project file (double-click on the node in Visual Studio)
Change the Sdk to Microsoft.NET.Sdk.WindowsDesktop
Ensure you have this OutputType: <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
Add the following property to the top-level PropertyGroup: <UseWindowsForms>true</UseWindowsForms>
There won't be a visual designer to use, but you should have access to the APIs.
Unfortunately, there is no Winforms designer in Visual Studio 2019 for F# projects of any type, and Winforms can only be easily accessed (as far as I know) in .Net Framework (NOT .NET Core) projects they can be accessed as per #Phillip Carter's answer.
However you can still make Winforms programs easily by manually adding the references to your .NET Framework project, or (more easily) by manually compiling with the F# compiler, fsc.
The Fast Way
The easiest way to do this is simply compile the source code with the F# compiler from a single source file with fsc.exe. The F# compiler will automatically resolve dependencies for things like System.Windows.Forms and a lot of other commonly used namespaces. You can also provide lots of compiler directives for requiring other resources as well.
Example using VSCode, with various extensions:
Another Way
Start a new F# console .NET Framework project (don't pick .NET Core).
Right click on "References" in the Solution Explorer and click "Add Reference..."
Under assemblies, look for "System.Windows.Forms," select it...
And also select "System.Drawing" and then hit OK
Now you have access to both of those namespaces.
Before you run the project in Visual Studio, you should replace
[<STAThread>]
Application.Run( new PendulumForm( Visible=true ) )
with
[<STAThread;EntryPoint>]
let main _ =
Application.Run( new PendulumForm( Visible=true ) )
0
This way you (and VS) know where main actually is. It's not necessary for this small of a program to actually run it, but as your projects get larger VS will complain more about where things are located in your project.

How to create a managed plugin for Unity with Visual Studio Community for Mac

I'm going to create my first managed plugin for Unity (2018.2) using Visual Studio Community for Mac (7.6.11 build 9).
I've read the documentation but I think that the step-by-step instructions are not meant to be followed on Visual Studio Community for Mac.
As you can see in the screenshot below, I've created several projects using each and every library template available.
All of them compiled successfully to a DLL targeting versions of .NET framework that are incompatible with Unity.
The only project I could change the .NET framework version to match Unity's 3.5 is the one based on the Other > .NET > Library.
Everything works fine but I'd like to know if the assumptions, the process and the final result are correct. Can you tell me, please?
I don't know the difference between the "Class" and the "Class Library" option but you're supposed to use the "Class Library" option. This is not the main point of this answer.
Two future issues you haven't solved yet:
1. Referencing Unity's API.
If you ever have to use any Unity library or API in youir plugin such as Vector3, you need to add Unity's UnityEngine.dll to your library settings. If you don't, you will run-time exceptions.
Go to Project --> Add Reference ---> Browse ---> Browse Button
then select <UnityInstallationDirecory>\Editor\Data\Managed\UnityEngine.dll. You can now build your managed plugin. Since you're using Mac, this path is different on your OS. On Mac, this could be /Applications/Unity/Unity.app/Contents/Frameworks/Managed/UnityEngine.dll. You just have to find where UnityEngine.dll is located.
2. Invisible stack trace
With your current setup, if you run into error with your managed plugin, the stack trace won't be there. You won't have the file names and line numbers and this makes is very hard to debug your plugin code.
When you build the project, Visual Studio generates a PDB file instead of an MDB file. Unity can't use this directly. You have to convert the PDB files into MDB files.
From command line, run this:
<UnityInstallationDirecory>\Data\MonoBleedingEdge\lib\mono\4.5\pdb2mdb.exe UnmanagedPlugin.dll
Again, the path might be different on Mac, you just need to find "pdb2mdb.exe" that converts the PDB files into MDB files.
After that, copy the MDB and dll file into the "Assets" folder in your Unity project.

Integrating C/C++ code in Xamarin for iOS

Under Visual Studio 2015, I have integrated Android C++ code into Xamarin and it works as expected. Now, I am trying to do the same for iOS and am running into some basic issues.
I am assuming the integration mechanism is the same for iOS as that of Android in the sense that a shared library (probably .so) is created that one can load using DllImport in C# code.
When I try to add a new C++ project for iOS to my solution, the only option that seems to make sense is Visual C++-->Cross Platform-->iOS-->Shared Library. I added this project type as MyTestShared. This actually ends up creating three projects - MyTestShared.Shared, MyTestShared.iOS, and MyTestShared.Android. Project MyTestShared.iOS already has an external method defined as char* iOSInfo(). However, when I try to add project MyTestShared.iOS as a reference to my MyMainApp.iOS project, I see an error "A reference to MyTestShared.iOS could not be added. An assembly must have a dll or exe extension."
Questions:
For Android C++, it generates exactly one project. Why does it create three projects for iOS C++?
How do I add a reference to MyTestShared.iOS? What is it that I am missing?
I see there is an option to create a static C++ library for iOS. Can I reference it somehow in my C# code?
Regards.

Deploying a project using Visual C++ and the QT plugin for VS2010

I've created an application in C++ using Visual Studio 2010 as my IDE. I used the QT plugin for Visual Studio to create my GUI and also use the VTK and OpenCV libraries. What is the simplest way to deploy my application? I've already tried pasting the DLLs for QT, VTK, and OpenCV in my exe folder and, although this runs on other computers, the formatting and program speed are wildly different than what I get on my computer.
So, you have 2 possible ways:
Static deploy.
Shared deploy.
Description both of them you can find here
As i see the shared deploy is too difficult for you, because you're using heavy libraries.
So, my advice is that satic deploy will be better :)
Please, try to build Qt, libs, and your app static, and we'll see how it will works.

Using MinGW/GCC built DLL in a Visual Studio 2010 C++/CLI project

I have a communication library built on top of Qt and Google Protocol Buffers. It's currently being built with MinGW/GCC on Windows. My goal is to use the same library in C# on .NET, with the help of a thin wrapper on top using C++/CLI (bridging the unmanaged code with managed code).
I tried using the MinGW produced DLL directly in my C++/CLI project, but I keep getting linker errors (cant remember the error codes right now, but something about missing tokens and functions/signatures).
First question is: Should I be able to use the MinGW-produced DLL with the Visual Studio compiler/linker? Or do I need to compile the library again, using only VS compiler for all projects?
If I should be able to use the MinGW-produced DLL directly, how do I reference it in Visual Studio 2010? In project settings it seems to look for *.lib files, but I can't find any .lib files in the output of MinGW/GCC. It does produce *.a files, but it seems like Visual Studio don't handle this kind of file..
I should also mention that both Qt and protobuf are also compiled with MinGW. But I can of course recompile all the parts in VS 2010 if necessary.. Would have been nice to save the recompile time though, since our buildserver already has a working setup using MinGW.
The easiest way to use it would be by recompiling it with Visual Studio. This is when I am assuming C++ types and classes used in the interface you intend to use.
In case you have a C interface to this library you could dynamically load the library via LoadLibrary and use GetProcAddress to access those functions.
However it depends completly on the way how you intend to use the library.

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