How to include ORK source code in IDE while using dll in Unity Project?

emptyhanded

So I've been checking out posts regarding source code on this forums and it is clear that GiL does not recommend using source code directly in a unity project. So I will stick with the dll.

I've extracted the ORK and Makinom source code to separate folders for reference purpose. However I can't seem to get my IDE (VSCode in this case) to recognize these source code so that I can "go to definition" to the extracted source code instead of a decompilation version.

I'm using VSCode and would prefer if there's a way to do it with VSCode so that I can use Gemini or other AI tool to help me understand the code.

I have tried

setting multi-root workspace to include the
using a merged .sln file that references all .csproj files in both my unity project and ORK source file folder,
both.

None of the above worked. The C# Dev Kit Extension in VSCode keep telling me the ORK source code file I opened "The active document is not part of the open workspace. Not all language features will be available." when the multi-root workspace already included path to the ORK source files AND the active .sln file references to all 4 .csproj files from the ORK source files.

Is there a way to do it, or the only way to achieve my purpose is to use OKR source code to replace the dll?

An additional question for making informed decision: what are the downsides of using source code directly, in addition to the following (as I read from other posts):

all previous asset association are gone
update ORK becomes very complex

Especially, will using source code slow down compilation a lot? I'm already using a potato workstation from 8 years ago to develop so would really prefer to avoid a significant speed drop.

Acissathar

I'm not enough of a VS power user to know the answer to your first question (though it sounds super useful without needing to bounce back and forth between VS windows if possible), but for the second half, you can do a mix.

For example, I use Unity as far as I can until I need to go into source, then I bring up the source code in a different editor. I make the changes if needed (even if just some Debug.Log statements) and then re-compile. I grab the updated dlls out of the bin folders and overwrite the dlls in my project. You can use output commands to make this automated too.

This keeps all references, etc. from the original but still lets me "use source" without actually having to use the source code directly and retain the benefits of the dlls. If you do go this route, I highly recommend changing the Version number in the Maki/ORK files to have an identifier so you can quickly tell if you're on your modified version or the default ork. I just add (Acissathar) after the version number.

emptyhanded

Thank you @Acissathar !
I've seen you mentioned this method on discord and I believe it would be very useful when I need to modify the source code. So far I managed to add function without touching GiL's source code (just add my source under the ORK namespace and expand on existing functions, can work together with the ORK dll).

Regarding referencing ORK source code from my unity project script in VSCode, can any other IDE do this job?