wave8-baker-dependency-registration

Unity DOTS incremental baking misses changes when Bakers read external assets via raw Unity APIs without calling DependsOn. You must explicitly register ScriptableObjects and non-serialized components as dependencies to invalidate and re-bake correctly.

Fix stale baked SubScene data by calling DependsOn inside your Baker for child components obtained through raw GetComponent calls or child traversal. This registers the external component reads so Unity re-triggers the bake automatically.

Use DependsOn in a Unity DOTS Baker when consuming referenced ScriptableObjects, textures, or components obtained through raw Unity API calls rather than direct serialized fields. Direct serialized field reads are tracked automatically and do not require explicit registration.

Common incremental baking anti-patterns include relying on non-tracked reads like child traversal or raw GetComponent calls without DependsOn. Omitting explicit dependency registration for external assets leaves previously baked entity data stale until a manual reimport.

Direct serialized field access in a Baker does not require explicit dependency tracking because Unity handles automatic tracking for Baker API accesses. You only need DependsOn for external assets and non-serialized component reads.