Table of Contents

Native AOT

Intermediate

C# and other languages from the .NET ecosystem are compiled into Common Intermediate Language (CIL), which can't be executed by a computer directly. Instead, it requires an additional piece of software called the .NET Runtime, which uses a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler to translate it into native machine code.

This approach has it's benefits and drawbacks:

  • 🟩 Your code can run on any platform supported by the .NET Runtime
  • 🟩 Some high-level language features require it to work (e.g. reflections)
  • 🟩 Compiled projects take up less disk space
  • 🟥 Some platforms do not support it (mainly iOS and consoles)
  • 🟥 Creates additional overhead, which can slightly decrease performance in some cases
  • 🟥 Requires a user to install additional software (unless the app is made to be self contained)

An alternative to this is to use Native Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) compilation to skip the CIL entirely, creating a native program. Doing this can decrease startup time and in some cases slightly improve performance, but comes at the cost of all previously listed benefits of a standard JIT compiled .NET application.

Preparation

Before enabling Native AOT, you will have to make sure your project can support it.

  1. Make sure that additional libraries your project is using support Native AOT.
  2. Make sure your project doesn't use reflections.
  3. Make sure your project doesn't use any other Native AOT incompatible features.

Enable Native AOT in a project

  1. Locate the .csproj file of the platform package you want to enable Native AOT for (e.g. MyGame.Windows.csproj).

  2. Add the following line to the PropertyGroup:

    <PublishAot>true</PublishAot>

Further reading

For more information about native AOT development with .NET, read the Microsoft article.

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