Unity build systems: internal vs gradle

Question

I cannot find anywhere what are the differences between internal and gradle. (I can find info about gradle, but unfortunately not about internal)

Can someone write pros

Answer 1

Gradle is an Android build system which automates a number of build processes. This automation means that many common build errors are less likely to occur. Most notably in Unity, it reduces the method reference count in DEX (Dalvik Executable format) files, meaning that you are less likely to come across DEX limit problems. However, due to the differences between Gradle and the default Unity Android build system, some existing projects may be hard to convert to Gradle.

You can either build the output package (APK) using the Gradle build system in Unity, or export the Gradle project and build it in an external tool (such as Android Studio).

To learn more, see Gradle’s resources on Getting Started with Gradle for Android Build. Internal Build is old system that used by unity technology to build the apk file The Internal build system creates an APK by invoking Android SDK utilities in a specific order. Unity automatically performs a number of steps to create the APK, including:

• Preparing and building the Unity Assets
• Compiling scripts
• Processing the plug-ins
• Splitting the resources into the parts that go to the APK and the OBB, if Split Application Binary is selected
• Building the Android resources using the AAPT utility
• Generating the Android manifest and merging the library manifests into it
• Compiling the Java code into the Dalvik Executable format (DEX)
• Building the IL2CPP library, if IL2CPP Scripting Backend is selected
• Building and optimizing the APK and OBB packages

For more information about OBB files, see Unity documentation on OBB Support. For more information about the Android Manifest, see Unity Android Manifest documentation.