save more than 40 recent projects

[unitycoder]

some ideas what needs to be done:

• [x] Take unity recent projects from registry (like it does already)
• [x] Load your existing own dictionary or list, of all recent projects (up to 100-200, depending if it starts to get too slow)
• [x] Merge unity registry and full list, can do that because project path is unique, so can check duplicates
• [x] Sort list by date before adding as source (or enable datagrid modified column sort as default)
• [x] Display full merged list (or unity 40 list), depending on your setting
• [x] Add settings checkbox: show only unity registry projects or keep x amount of projects history
• [x] trim list to max length (after sorting by date)
• [x] add new items to preferences list, but when? on datagrid refresh, if added project, or on exit? (and need to filter duplicates)
• [x] duplicate project: backslashes vs forward slashes
• [x] handle moved folders (remove from custom history?, but then if want to have show missing projects..) *they get filtered out most of the time, because on sorting, null modified dates go to last (before trimming project list)
• [x] enabled setting only takes effect after restart app?
• [x] bug: missing project displays target platform, eventhough it hasnt any, and if search, it doesnt display platform *it was sorting issue?

Extras later:

• multi-threading might be needed to scan project properties
• window where user can remove projects from that custom full list (or clear preferences list button)
• Checkbox/Combobox to select which types of projects to display (Hobby, Work, Prototypes? This could be useful to quickly filter out all quick projects (based on folder path))
• OR, user could tag/favorite some projects, that then get added to custom list (always available, even if not listed in registry)
• listbox in settings, to insert unity project root paths (so all folders get scanned and added from those folders, always)

old text current limitation comes from unity, they only save 40 recent project items into registry.

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Unity Technologies\Unity Editor 5.x RecentlyUsedProjectPaths-0 to RecentlyUsedProjectPaths-39

could save them to separate dictionary, project path as index key? but will there be issues merging unity registry recent items, with custom saved list ? (since there will be duplicates, deleted projects, and need to sort by date also)

or manually save into unity registry, with new added item numbers? (but does it mean if you open new project, you need to modify 40+ reg keys to append item as first?)

[unitycoder]

looks like Unity Hub already supports reading more than 40 recent projects, if you manually modify registry to add extra entries, those get listed in Hub (if path is valid):

although it has 40 set as maximum loop value

*seems to be slightly bugged, last item got duplicated after adding more projects to list from hub

[unitycoder]

🎉Jackpot!🎉

listed 158 projects (unity registry entries merged with custom folder directory list), and it wasn't too slow:

[unitycoder]

added in https://github.com/unitycoder/UnityLauncherPro/commit/83b744d2ac018a1dc4a35314107dd3bbd9f15a1b

need to test a bit, if it causes any issues.

[unitycoder]

this is live in the prerelease build https://github.com/unitycoder/UnityLauncherPro/releases/tag/1.0.38

[unitycoder]

hub 3.5 beta now supports +40 projects, https://unity.com/unity-hub/release-notes#350-beta