Setup

Install Unity

The next 3 chapters are a condensed summary of the Unity Essentials tutorials.

Unity Hub and Unity Editor

The Unity Hub is a standalone application that streamlines the way you navigate, download, and manage your Unity projects and installations. The Unity Editor is the application where you’ll build 3D or 2D worlds and create your interactive applications.

Note

Usually, you start a code editor like Visual Studio and then you open your project files. Here, it is the opposite: from the Unity Hub, you open a project which then launches the editor.

License

The Unity Personal Plan is a free offering from Unity Technologies designed for individual developers, students, and small teams. Here is a list of current plans and pricing.

Install

Go to Unity Download page: https://unity.com/download

Choose: download for Windows (or Mac)

Launch the UnityHubSetup installer

Ask to install Unity V6 LTS

Then, run Unity Hub

Select the Installs section on the left. Then, left click on the gear to select Add modules

On the Add modules page, select the available options under DEV TOOLS:

On Windows, select Visual Studio

On Mac, select Visual Studio Code

Creating a blank project

Create a folder project on your desktop

Run Unity HUB

Click on New Project

From the new interface, choose:

Universal 3D

Project name

Project Folder

Click Create Project

Wait 5 minutes :)

The interface opens with an empty project:

Play mode

Run a project

Notice that you are in a work area where people edit scene and objects.

To run the game, click on the Play button at the top of the interface:

Avertissement

The main window in Play mode is called Game, whereas in Edit mode, the workspace window is called Scene.

To exit Play mode, click on the stop button:

Play mode tint

Windows only

To help you distinguish Play mode from the editor interface, it is possible to adapt Play mode background color.

From the main menu, select Edit > Preferences.

In the left menu, select Colors.

Change Playmode tint color.

Enter Play mode to test the new tint:

Choose a color that is distinctive enough without reducing the legibility of the text.

Avertissement

It’s a tint, not a color: the tint color behaves like a plastic filter placed on top of the interface. So, choose a color close to white or this will darken the overall interface.

Dev Tools for Windows

Visual Studio

Install Visual Studio Community 2022 (not Visual Studio Code which is a lightweight version of VS2022).

https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/fr/downloads/

It can take 1 or 2 hours of download.

If already installed, go to: Help > Check for updates.

In you Windows Launchbar, type: « Visual Studio installer » and run the package manager of Visual Studio 2022.

Click on Modify button.

Find and select: « Game Development with Unity »

Then click on the Install/Modify button on the lower right.

Set Visual Studio as Unity’s default editor:

In Unity, go to Edit > Preferences | External Tools

Select Visual Studio as External Script Editor.

Unity

In Unity: open up Windows > Packages.

Set VS Code as Unity’s default editor:

In Unity, go to Edit > Preferences | External Tools

Select Visual Studio Code as External Script Editor.

Click on the button « Regenerate Project Files » to generate useful extra information for VS.

In Unity: open up Windows > Packages.

Make sure the Visual Studio Editor package is upgraded to 2.0.20 or above.

Check

Edit a script

At the bottom, in the Project Window, Navigate through: Assets > Scenes

Right click on Scenes icon:

In the context window, select Create > Scripting > MonoBehaviour Script

Name the script Test (F2)

Double click the script icon to open it in Visual Studio

Project window

In Visual Studio, please check that the Project window has been populated:

Intellisense

When starting to type, the editor should list different options:

List members functions

Parameter Info

Autocomplete Word

In the Update() function, type: « Debug. »

You should see intellisense hint:

Avertissement

If project window and intellisense do not work correctly, please ask for help because the pipeline between Unity and VS is not working correctly.

Dev Tools for MAC

Note

Visual Studio 2022 is no more available for Mac. You have to use VS Code instead, which is also a great code assistant but it does not offer Debug functionalities.

VScode

Install Visual Studio code (VS Code)

If already installed please check for update: Help > check for update

Install the Unity for VS Code extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace.

Run Visual Studio Code

Click on the Extensions Manager Button on the left:

Write « Unity » in the search bar and click on the « install » button.

Unity

In Unity: open up Windows > Packages.

Make sure the Visual Studio Editor package is upgraded to 2.0.20 or above.

Set VS Code as Unity’s default editor:

In Unity, go to Edit > Preferences | External Tools

Select Visual Studio Code as External Script Editor.

When you edit script, you have quick info when you move your cursor on Unity’s object:

Color management

In Unity, to give an object a color, you have to:

Create a material

Choose that material’s color

Assign it to the object

To avoid creating a material for every new color, we’re adding a tool to Unity that creates diffuse materials for the most common colors.

In the assets folder, right click and create a MonoBehaviour Script
Rename it « ColorMaterials »
Double click on the script icon to open it in you script editor
Copy paste the following code

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEditor;

public class GenerateMaterials
{
        [MenuItem("Tools/Generate 32 Materials")]
        public static void Go()
        {
                string folderPath = "Assets/SolidColorMaterials/";
                if (!AssetDatabase.IsValidFolder(folderPath))
                        AssetDatabase.CreateFolder("Assets", "SolidColorMaterials");

                string[] colorNames = new string[]
                {
                        "1Red", "1Cherry", "1Blush", "1Salmon", "1Peach",
                        "2Orange", "2Gold", "2Amber", "2Lemon", "2Khaki",
                        "3Green", "3Lime", "3Teal", "3Olive", "3Mint",
                        "4Blue", "4Aqua", "4Cyan", "4Sky", "4Navy",
                        "5Purple", "5Lilac", "5Fuschia", "5Plum", "5Indigo",
                        "6White", "6Black", "6Gray", "6Beige", "6Ivory", "6Silver", "6Slate"
                };

                string[] colorHexes = new string[]
                {
                        "#FF0000", "#DC143C", "#FF1493", "#FA8072", "#F08080",
                        "#FFA500", "#FFD700", "#FF8C00", "#FFFFE0", "#F0E68C",
                        "#008000", "#00FF00", "#008080", "#808000", "#98FB98",
                        "#0000FF", "#00FFFF", "#00CED1", "#87CEEB", "#000080",
                        "#800080", "#C8A2C8", "#FF00FF", "#EE82EE", "#4B0082",
                        "#FFFFFF", "#000000", "#808080", "#F5F5DC", "#FFFFF0", "#C0C0C0", "#708090"
                };

                Shader litShader = Shader.Find("Universal Render Pipeline/Lit");

                for (int i = 0; i < colorNames.Length; i++)
                {
                        Color color;
                        if (ColorUtility.TryParseHtmlString(colorHexes[i], out color))
                        {
                                Material mat = new Material(litShader);
                                mat.SetColor("_BaseColor", color);
                                AssetDatabase.CreateAsset(mat, folderPath + colorNames[i] + ".mat");
                        }
                 }

                AssetDatabase.SaveAssets();
                AssetDatabase.Refresh();
                Debug.Log("Materials have been generated in " + folderPath);
        }
}

Note

The directive [MenuItem(« Tools/Generate 32 Materials »)] adds a new entry to the Tools menu. The for loop iterates to create a material, assigns it a name and the corresponding color, and then adds it to the current assets folder.

In the Project window, navigate to Assets > SolidColorMaterials
- You should find a list of preconfigured materials organized by hue:

Desktop Manager (Win)

–optional–

In order to keep your desktop organized, consider setting up a desktop manager. This way you can:

Have one background image per virtual desktop

Organize your icons differently on each desktop

Share all your apps between different desktops

This year, we test: Dexpot

After installation, you can find a small icon in the system tray (in the lower right, near the windows clock).

Right click on this icon to open configuration menu:

Select Settings > General

Select the number of desktops you want (3 or 4 may be sufficient)

Select

Start with Windows

Hide splash screen

Select Settings > General

Select Customize Desktop Icons

Select Customize Desktop Background

Click on the button : « Advanced »

Select : « Create a separate folder for each desktop »

Select : « Use original desktop folder for desktop 1 »

This way, if you decide to remove this app, desktop 1 will remain the main desktop.

Now the desktop manager is working. You can configure different backgrounds if you want:

Select Configure desktops

To change desktop, just use : ALT+1, ALT+2…