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Serialization

Symbol Obfuscation modifies the names of various metadata. Unity's built-in serialization mechanisms like MonoBehaviour, ScriptableObject, and JsonUtility heavily depend on metadata name information, so without special handling, these functions will not work properly after symbol obfuscation.

Special Support for Unity Built-in Serialization​

Obfuz is deeply integrated with Unity workflows and provides special handling for Unity's serialization mechanisms:

  • Will not obfuscate type names and namespaces of MonoBehaviour, ScriptableObject, and types marked with [Serializable] attribute
  • Will not obfuscate serialized fields of the above types, including private fields marked with [SerializedField] attribute
  • Will not obfuscate non-static public properties of the above types, but public static and non-public properties will still be obfuscated
  • Will not obfuscate enum item names of enum types marked with [Serializable] attribute
  • Will not obfuscate event functions with special purposes like Awake, Start in MonoBehavior

However, Obfuz does not handle UnityEvent fields on scene objects, so if callback functions for UnityEvent type fields are set in the Inspector, symbol obfuscation for these functions needs to be disabled, otherwise runtime errors of not finding callback functions will occur.

Special Support for Third-party Serialization Libraries like Newtonsoft.Json​

Adding the [Serializable] attribute to types that need serialization has the following effects:

  • Type names, namespaces, public non-static fields, and public non-static member properties will not be obfuscated.
  • Enum item names of enum types will not be obfuscated

This default setting already satisfies most cases. If other requirements exist, symbol obfuscation for related metadata needs to be disabled.

Disable Symbol Obfuscation for Metadata​

There are several ways:

  1. Configure disabling Symbol Obfus Pass for certain metadata in Obfuscation Pass.
  2. Configure disabling symbol obfuscation for certain metadata in the rule files of Symbol Obfuscation.
  3. Add [ObfuzIgnore] attribute to metadata that needs to disable symbol obfuscation in code, see documentation Obfuz CustomAttributes.