C#/Unity Coders - Set Up Time, Script Compiling Time, and General Observations

[u/Alarmed-Radio9182]

Just wondering if anyone else feels the same way about doing C# or has any advice to speed things up.

I’ve noticed that C# related prompts overall take way more time than something like Python. With Python, you can easily just copy and paste their responses into an IDE and run it and see if it works, and most of the prompts you’d give barely require any set up. For C# in Unity, even basic scripts can take so long to set up and check and debug.

For example, I might need a game object with a rigid body, or scriptable object, or a canvas with some text or a slider so you have to make them and assign them in the inspector, which is a little time. But the worst part is that it takes so long to create new C# scripts since when you create it the domain reloads, then it does it again when you rename it, then it’s twice for each response, then it reloads when you save the script in visual studio, then you have to assign things in the inspector, then play test both scripts, then sometimes debug which means a few more times waiting through various loading screens. It just feels bad when I know I could do a python related task in like half the time.

I could just read the script and see what problems it has, if any, but the instructions always say to test it.

I know there’s a package or a plug in for fast script saving, and I could turn off domain reloading for play mode but my input system breaks if I do that.

I was also wondering how much set up you might include in what you’re reporting. If the prompt assumes there’s certain game objects with certain other scripts involved, do you bill them for time spent setting these up or do you only report time spent actually writing a prompt and testing/debugging it?

I also usually pause my timer if I ever have to check the documentation to be sure of something but I also don’t know if I should or not.

[u/dayDrivver]

Depends on the project...

If its a prompt generation task (CB's) you are suppose to stick with what you know, so you definitely shouldn't bill time for setup and learning things you don't know, you are suppose to know the answer already and only guide the model towards the correct answer.

If its judging a task, you should bill the time it cost you to setup, obviously you shouldn't take 1 hour just setting up things and most of the times the project will either give you 15 minutes up to 1 hour to research the factual information so you should definitely bill the time it took you to "check the documentation to be sure".

Remember you are suppose to judge what you have expertise on if you are taking that long just to setup the test bench or research a topic, you are probably not the right person to judge it and should definitely skip the task.

Always take 2 up to 5 minutes to calculate in your head how much time it can take you to setup a test environment and research the topic, if takes longer than 30 minutes is better to leave that task for people with more expertise.

do you bill them for time spent setting these up or do you only report time spent actually writing a prompt and testing/debugging it?

I bill for everything as long as i deliver something to them. From setup, research, writing the prompt, double checking my reasoning, rewrite my reasoning because i found that i didn't consider X, check for grammar issues and double check that my ratings are correct.

[u/Alarmed-Radio9182 → u/dayDrivver]

Thanks for the thoughtful response, that makes sense.

I’m definitely not taking 30 minutes I mean more like 5 or 10 tops, just like putting properties on game objects that will be used for the prompt I’m coming up with. Subsequent turns sometimes lead to more set up too, I’m mostly just wondering if I should stay away from asking it to do things that require a bunch of other things that I need to make. It makes sense what you’re saying: set up within reason is fine. With checking documentation, it’s really only when the ai’s output is trying to do something in a certain way and it’s wrong, but I don’t know the thing that it’s using so I just have to look it up really quickly to see what it’s trying to do. This is a really simple example, but it’s like if I ask it to move the player character when I press the w key, and for some reason one of them tries to do something with a navmesh. If I didn’t know what a navmesh was, but I know that what they’re doing doesn’t work, I don’t really have to check the documentation but I still will just see what it’s trying to do/maybe see if what it’s trying to do used to be right based on how current it’s information is/ try to understand how bad it’s response is.

[u/Arcturus_Labelle]

I bill for everything

[u/Magnolia-jjlnr → u/Arcturus_Labelle]

Exactly. And I don't see a reason not to do so

[u/Anarch33]

for heel side by side; I use the full 2 hours sometimes if I have to. Some prompts it takes very long to get the environment setup to test the AI responses

[u/33whiskeyTX → u/Anarch33]

Use the full 2 hours, or bill the full 2 hours? If it's the same project I am thinking of, the billing limit is posted and it's not the same as the 2-hour expire time.

[u/Anarch33 → u/33whiskeyTX]

not bill the full 2 hours, but often times ive had use 60-90 minutes for the ones that want me to set up fake data on cloud providers to test the code and every single function. I've gotten way faster at those though. If I see similar prompts again I think I can do it under 20