Difficulties to extend the SDK due to tight accessors

[PitouGames]

Hello,
I wanted to create a ManagedNetworkList and a ManagedNetworkArray, which works like the NetworkList but allows to store managed objects that implement the INetworkSerializable interface.

My issue is that some functions and properties used in your NetworkList are internal, so I can't use them from my script:

• NetworkManager.BehaviourUpdater
• NetworkBehaviourUpdater.AddForUpdate
• NetworkVariableSerialization.Write
• NetworkVariableSerialization.Read

In the codegen, only types used in NetworkVariable and NetworkList are processed:
https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/com.unity.netcode.gameobjects/blob/b5b8edae4af1aba810bf07efc7f300c2d28a2623/com.unity.netcode.gameobjects/Editor/CodeGen/NetworkBehaviourILPP.cs#L1149C25-L1149C25

You can try to move the NetworkList outside of the package folder and you will see the problem I had.

I ended up having the simplest solution: add those new ManagedNetworkList and ManagedNetworkArray directly in my fork.

I also wanted to make my own NetworkBehaviourReference<T> struct where T is a derived type of the referenced NetworkBehaviour.
NetworkObject.GetNetworkBehaviourAtOrderIndex() was needed but it's internal...

Is there anything preventing those function to be public? Could you "Unrestrict" the codegen?
Do you have any recommendations to extend the SDK?

[PitouGames]

This issue is similar to the newer issue #2686.
Some of my remarks are addressed in #2694. Thanks @ShadauxCat! See #2686 (comment)

Just the remaining functions I quoted to be made public (if possible, otherwise please propose alternatives), and it will be perfect!

[ShadauxCat]

@PitouGames I just updated that PR to add a protected method in NetworkVariableBase, MarkNetworkBehaviourDirty(), that will call that method on NetworkBehaviourUpdater. (Doing it this way lets us be a little more agile for the future and gives us more flexibility to change the implementation of that later on if we update the internal architecture.)

[PitouGames]

Thanks!

I think there is now just the method NetworkObject.GetNetworkBehaviourAtOrderIndex() that is internal and I would like to be public. The idea is to create a custom NetworkBehaviourReference<T> struct.
Since it's just a getter, I don't see any issue for it to be public (it just would need to add it to the documentation).