MonoBehaviour export as Json

[mikuhl-dev]

It would be so cool to be able to export MonoBehaviours as Json, making it easier to sort through data.

[TheLounger]

I did some work on adding JSON support to AssetStudio for TextAsset. Still isn't finished and requires some more testing. I created basic parent/child-based logic for creating hierarchies, but it's still in an early stage, creates very verbose output and may not even be the best way to do it.

The structure

public class ScriptNode
{
    public string name;
    public string type;
    public object value;
    public List<ScriptNode> children;

    public ScriptNode this[string childName] => children?.Single((ScriptNode c) => c.name == childName);
    public ScriptNode this[int childIndex] => children?.ElementAt(childIndex);

    public ScriptNode()
    public ScriptNode(string type, string name, object value = null)
    public ScriptNode(object typeInstance, string name, bool useInstanceValue = true, object value = null)

    public ScriptNode AddChildNode(object typeInstance, string name, bool useInstanceValue = true, object value = null)
    public ScriptNode AddChildNode(string type, string name, object value = null)
    public ScriptNode AddChildNode(ScriptNode node)

    public string ToJson(Formatting formatting = Formatting.Indented, JsonSerializerSettings settings = null)
    public override string ToString()
}

Example MonoBehaviour

public class DisplayObject : MonoBehaviour
{
    public GameObject gameObj;
    public int childIndex;
    public bool hasMasks;
}

MonoBehaviour asset JSON output

{
  "name": "m_MonoBehaviour",
  "type": "AssetStudio.MonoBehaviour",
  "children": [
    {
      "name": "m_GameObject",
      "type": "AssetStudio.PPtr`1[AssetStudio.GameObject]",
      "children": [
        {
          "name": "m_FileID",
          "type": "System.Int32",
          "value": 0
        },
        {
          "name": "m_PathID",
          "type": "System.Int64",
          "value": 4641
        },
        {
          "name": "m_Enabled",
          "type": "System.Byte",
          "value": 1
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "m_Script",
      "type": "AssetStudio.PPtr`1[AssetStudio.MonoScript]",
      "children": [
        {
          "name": "m_FileID",
          "type": "System.Int32",
          "value": 0
        },
        {
          "name": "m_PathID",
          "type": "System.Int64",
          "value": 3311
        },
        {
          "name": "m_Name",
          "type": "System.String",
          "value": ""
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "gameObj",
      "type": "AssetStudio.PPtr`1[UnityEngine.GameObject]",
      "children": [
        {
          "name": "m_FileID",
          "type": "System.Int32",
          "value": 0
        },
        {
          "name": "m_PathID",
          "type": "System.Int64",
          "value": 4641
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "childIndex",
      "type": "System.Int32",
      "value": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "hasMasks",
      "type": "System.Boolean",
      "value": false
    }
  ]
}

Examples of how the hierarchy is built
(inside AssetStudio's script dumper loop)

if (typeSig.FullName == "System.String")
{
    parentNode.AddChildNode(typeDef.FullName, name, reader.ReadAlignedString());
    return;
}

...

if (depth != -1 && IsAssignFromUnityObject(typeDef))
{
    var pptr = new PPtr<Object>(reader);
    var node = parentNode.AddChildNode($"AssetStudio.PPtr`1[{typeDef.FullName}]", name);
    node.AddChildNode(pptr.m_FileID, nameof(pptr.m_FileID));
    node.AddChildNode(pptr.m_PathID, nameof(pptr.m_PathID));
    return;
}

It's still using types that AssetStudio is seeing at runtime, instead of Unity runtime types it probably should be showing. I'm not sure if children ought to be removed and only use value. It is important however that it is as versatile as possible and simple to parse by other apps.

Using the JSON text would be as simple as deserializing it/casting it into the ScriptNode class.

using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader("MonoBehaviour.json"))
using (JsonReader reader = new JsonTextReader(sr))
{
    ScriptNode root = new JsonSerializer().Deserialize<ScriptNode>(reader);

    Console.WriteLine(root["hasMasks"].value);

    ScriptNode pathId = root["gameObj"]["m_PathID"];
    Console.WriteLine($"{pathId.type} {pathId.name}: {pathId.value}");
}

False
System.Int64 m_PathID: 4641

Comments, suggestions? 😄

[Perfare]

@MichaelPriebe @TheLounger I refactored the parsing part of MonoBehaviour, I think it is now almost perfect and can output json.