[NativeCollections] How to copy a regular .C# array into a NativeArray suuuuuper quick using memcpy. its about as fast as its ever gunna get!

NativeMeshTest.cs

using Unity.Collections;
using Unity.Collections.LowLevel.Unsafe;
using Unity.Mathematics;
using UnityEngine;

public class NativeMeshTest : MonoBehaviour
{
	private NativeArray<float3> vertexBuffer;
	private Vector3[] vertexArray;

	// Use this for initialization
	void Start ()
	{
		var mesh = GetComponent<MeshFilter>().mesh;
		
		vertexArray = mesh.vertices; // note: mesh.vertices allocates an Vector3[] - not garbage free! save it for reuse
		vertexBuffer = GetNativeVertexArrays(vertexArray); // copy the array data into a NativeArray. This lets us pass it into Jobs
	
		// some simple work to prove were modifying the arrays
		var copyBuffer = new NativeArray<float3>(vertexBuffer, Allocator.Temp); // Lets make a copy of the native array. this is hella fast!
		int vertexCount = copyBuffer.Length; // for large meshes during deep profiling this could show up in the profiler (a whole 0.04ms on a 1000 vert mesh!), which is weird cos its tiny! figured i might as well cache it, if only to help in editor deep profiling 
		for (int i = 0; i < vertexCount; i++)
		{
			copyBuffer[i] *= 3; // simple modification
		}
		
		SetNativeVertexArray(vertexArray, copyBuffer); // now we have changed the vertex positions stored in our NativeArray, lets apply it back on to the actual mesh. we should see our 3d object grow in size!
		mesh.vertices = vertexArray;
		
		copyBuffer.Dispose(); // clean up the copy now were done with it
	}

	unsafe NativeArray<float3> GetNativeVertexArrays(Vector3[] vertexArray)
	{
		// create a destination NativeArray to hold the vertices
		NativeArray<float3> verts = new NativeArray<float3>(vertexArray.Length, Allocator.Persistent,
			NativeArrayOptions.UninitializedMemory);

		// pin the mesh's vertex buffer in place...
		fixed (void* vertexBufferPointer = vertexArray)
		{
			// ...and use memcpy to copy the Vector3[] into a NativeArray<floar3> without casting. whould be fast!
			UnsafeUtility.MemCpy(NativeArrayUnsafeUtility.GetUnsafeBufferPointerWithoutChecks(verts),
				vertexBufferPointer, vertexArray.Length * (long) UnsafeUtility.SizeOf<float3>());
		}
		// we only hve to fix the .net array in place, the NativeArray is allocated in the C++ side of the engine and
		// wont move arround unexpectedly. We have a pointer to it not a reference! thats basically what fixed does,
		// we create a scope where its 'safe' to get a pointer and directly manipulate the array

		return verts;
	}

	unsafe void SetNativeVertexArray(Vector3[] vertexArray, NativeArray<float3> vertexBuffer)
	{
		// pin the target vertex array and get a pointer to it
		fixed (void* vertexArrayPointer = vertexArray)
		{
			// memcopy the native array over the top
			UnsafeUtility.MemCpy(vertexArrayPointer, NativeArrayUnsafeUtility.GetUnsafeBufferPointerWithoutChecks(vertexBuffer), vertexArray.Length * (long) UnsafeUtility.SizeOf<float3>());
		}
	}

	void Update ()
	{
		// We could modify our cached version of our vertex buffer here, or totally regenerate it procedurally or whatever, skys the limit!
		// instead lets just prove its still valid by drawing it out (badly! really we should also get the triangle index buffer the same way
		// and use that to index the actual triangles in the mesh for drawing. still, shows us the general shape!)
		for (int i = 1; i < vertexBuffer.Length; i++)
		{
			Debug.DrawLine(vertexBuffer[i-1], vertexBuffer[i], Color.red);
		}
	}

	private void OnDestroy()
	{
		// All NativeCollections, including NativeArrays are unmanaged memory - we have to free memory when were done with
		// it ouselves! We used a presistant allocater when we created vertextBuffer so we could keep it around for as
		// long as we want to. We just have to make sure to call dispose at some point, so just before getting destroyed is as
		// good a place as any!
		vertexBuffer.Dispose();
	}
}

z_self_promotion_sorry.md

Always thankful for your support, Lotte💖

Hello Lotte and thank you very much for this!

Could this copy operation become even faster by using mesh.GetNativeVertexBufferPtr() instead of mesh.vertices ?
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Mesh.GetNativeVertexBufferPtr.html

Hello Lotte and thank you very much for this!

Could this copy operation become even faster by using mesh.GetNativeVertexBufferPtr() instead of mesh.vertices ?
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Mesh.GetNativeVertexBufferPtr.html

I'm wondering the same.

Using mesh.GetNativeVertexBufferPtr(...), I haven't quite figured out how to match their layout on the C# side with a struct -- I'm getting a NullReferenceException when I try to access elements in my NativeArray.