Getting started with Unity

Install unity hub

Downloading and installing Unity could not be any easier these days. Go to https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download and download the Unity Hub.

Once Unity Hub is downloaded and installed you can open it up. Now that it’s open you will most probably be asked to sign in or create an account. I would advise making an account and selecting the personal membership type. This is free to use and you can also still publish games using this membership, up until your games/company starts to make £100,000. This also makes it easier to save the assets you find in the store for easy access in the future.

Install a version of unity

Now that we have signed into the Unity Hub we now need to install a version of Unity. I would always recommend that you choose the latest stable version of Unity. These are the versions with (LTS) next to them, LTS means long-term support. You can see below that I have two versions already installed and that I need to update my 2020 version to the LTS, which has only been released recently.

You can also install any previous version of Unity you like by going to https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download/archive where you can pick and choose which version you want. These versions will not show up in Unity Hub.

Once you have picked your version, you will then need to select the modules that you require, I always add in the Android and iOS modules as this adds the latest packages. This will also install Visual Studio community which I would recommend as your Unity script editor. See my previous article about linking Unity and VS once they’re both installed, https://danielkirwan.medium.com/connecting-unity-to-visual-studio-a7528072785e.

Now we need to create a Unity project. We do this by clicking on the projects tab in Unity Hub, then click new and select the version of Unity that you want to use. We now need to select the project type that we want to make, I am making a 3D project, we need to give the project a name and also a destination for the project to be saved.

Getting a better workflow through Unity's layout

You can use the default Unity layout for your projects but I would recommend changing it as in the Gif below. This will maximise your workflow as it gives you the space needed for the necessary windows you will use most often.

1. First, you will click on the layout button in the top right of the screen. This will give you different options to choose from. Select Tall and your layout will change.
2. I then make a couple more changes to the layout to give me a better view of the project.
3. First, I would move the game window to be below the scene view. To do this you click the game window tab and drag it. This will allow you to place it anywhere you want and Unity will try and auto place the window. I recommend placing it below so that when you’re moving objects in the scene view you will see what those changes look like in the game window.
4. Next is to have a window that can be the most important part of your workflow, and that is the console. This is where you will show any of your debug messages and where any errors that are detected will show.
5. Next is saving your layout so that you can instantly have this view again in your other projects. Click on the tab that should now say Tall and click save layout, give your layout a name and you’re done.

I hope that this small Unity introduction was useful. Look out for more tutorials coming soon.