Runtime checks
The next part of the method creates an object array, stores the value of the x field of Vector3 in a local, then boxes the
local and adds it to the array at index zero. Here is the generated C++ code (with some annotations):
// Create a new single-dimension, zero-based object array
ObjectU5BU5D_t4* L_0 = ((ObjectU5BU5D_t4*)SZArrayNew(ObjectU5BU5D_t4_il2cpp_TypeInfo_var, 3));
// Store the Vector3::x field in a local
float L_1 = (__this->___x_1);
float L_2 = L_1;
// Box the float instance, since it is a value type.
Object_t * L_3 = Box(InitializedTypeInfo(&Single_t264_il2cpp_TypeInfo), &L_2);
// Here are three important runtime checks
NullCheck(L_0);
IL2CPP_ARRAY_BOUNDS_CHECK(L_0, 0);
ArrayElementTypeCheck (L_0, L_3);
// Store the boxed value in the array at index 0
*((Object_t **)(Object_t **)SZArrayLdElema(L_0, 0)) = (Object_t *)L_3;
The three runtime checks are not present in the IL code, but are instead injected by il2cpp.exe.
- The NullCheck code will throw a NullReferenceException if the value of the array is null.
- The IL2CPP_ARRAY_BOUNDS_CHECK code will throw an IndexOutOfRangeException if the array index is not correct.
- The ArrayElementTypeCheck code will thrown an ArrayTypeMismatchException if the type of the element being added to the array is not correct.
These three runtime checks are all guarantees provided by the .NET virtual machine. Rather than injecting code,
the Mono scripting backend uses platform specific signaling mechanism to handle these same runtime checks. For IL2CPP,
we wanted to be more platform agnostic and support platforms like WebGL, where there is no platform-specific signaling
mechanism, so il2cpp.exe injects these checks.
Do these runtime checks cause performance problems though? In most cases, we’ve not seen any adverse impact on performance
and they provide the benefits and safety which are required by the .NET virtual machine. In a few specific cases though,
we are seeing these checks lead to degraded performance, especially in tight loops. We’re working on a way now to
allow managed code to be annotated to remove these runtime checks when il2cpp.exe generates C++ code. Stay tuned on this one.
