Unity - Manual: Package states and lifecycle

Unity Manual

Language : English

Unity 6.1 Beta User Manual
- Documentation versions
- Offline documentation
- Trademarks and terms of use
What's new in Unity
- New in Unity 6
- New in Unity 6 Preview
- New in Unity 2023.2
- New in Unity 2023.1
Install and upgrade
- Install Unity
- Deploy Unity across your enterprise
  - Enable Unity installation by standard users (Windows)
  - Use Unity through web proxies
- Licenses and activation
- Upgrade Unity
The Editor interface
- The Project window
- The Scene view
  - Overlays
  - Scene view grid snapping
  - Pick and select GameObjects in the Scene view
  - Position GameObjects
  - Scene view navigation
  - Scene view Camera
  - Control a camera in first person
  - Scene visibility
  - Scene view Draw Modes and View Options overlays
  - Gizmos menu
  - Scene view context menu
  - Custom Editor tools
- The Game view
- Device Simulator
  - Device Simulator introduction
  - The Simulator view
  - Simulated classes
  - Adding a device
  - Extending the device simulator
- The Hierarchy window
- The Inspector window
  - Manage the Inspector window
  - Inspect items
  - Focus an Inspector window
  - Assign icons to inspected items
  - Manage components and their values
- The Toolbar
- The status bar
- The Background Tasks window
- Console window
- Additional windows
- Undo
- Search in the Editor
- Customizing your workspace
- Preferences
- Shortcuts Manager
- Project Settings
  - Use the Project Settings window
  - Audio
  - Editor
  - Graphics
  - Package Manager
  - Physics
  - Physics 2D reference
  - Player
    - Splash Image Player settings
  - Preset Manager
  - Quality settings tab reference
  - Script Execution Order settings
  - Tags and Layers
  - Time
  - UI Toolkit project settings
  - Version Control
- 2D and 3D mode settings
- Save your work
- Editor analytics
- Troubleshoot the Editor
- Unity Search
  - Search usage
  - Search tables
  - Search Providers
  - Search expressions
    - Functions reference
  - Creating a custom Search Provider
Packages and feature sets
- Unity's Package Manager
- Packages
- Creating custom packages
- Feature sets
Assets and media
- Asset workflow
- Importing assets
  - Importing assets simultaneously
- Caching assets
- Supported Asset Types
- Asset Metadata
- The Asset Database
- Reserved folder name reference
- Import Activity window
- Presets
  - Supporting presets
  - Applying default presets to Assets by folder
- AssetBundles
- Scripting with Assets
- Asset packages
- Archives
- Optimizing assets
  - Asset Loading Profiler module
  - Asset loading metrics
- Unity's Asset Store
3D game development
- 2D or 3D projects
- 3D game development quickstart guide
  - Creating a 3D game
- Advanced best practice guides
2D game development
- Introduction to 2D
- Get started with 2D game development
- 2D renderer sorting
- Sprites
- Tilemaps in Unity
- 2D physics
- 2D game development in URP
  - 2D lighting in URP
  - Precise pixel scaling and rotation via the Pixel Perfect Camera in URP
XR
- Overview
- XR project set up
- Run an XR application
- XR graphics
- XR audio
  - Audio spatializers in XR
- Unity XR SDK
Multiplayer
- Unity multiplayer overview
- Use the Multiplayer Center
Platform development
- Cross-platform features and considerations
- Android
- Dedicated Server
- Embedded systems
- iOS
- Linux
- macOS
- tvOS
- Universal Windows Platform
- visionOS
- Web
- Windows
GameObjects
- Introduction to GameObjects
- GameObject fundamentals
- Primitive and placeholder objects
  - Types of 2D primitive GameObjects
- Components
- Models
  - Creating models outside of Unity
  - Importing models into Unity
- Meshes
- Prefabs
- Constraints
Scenes
- Introduction to scenes
- Creating, loading, and saving Scenes
- Work with multiple scenes in Unity
- Scene Templates
- Layers
- Tags
- Text-based Scene files
Cameras
- Introduction to cameras
- The camera view
- Using multiple cameras
- Changing resolution scale
  - Introduction to changing resolution scale
  - Dynamic Resolution
- Excluding hidden objects with occlusion culling
- Simulating real-world cameras with Physical Cameras
- Camera output
- Cameras in URP
- Cameras in the Built-In Render Pipeline
  - Set the camera background with Clear Flags in the Built-In Render Pipeline
  - Camera Inspector window reference for the Built-In Render Pipeline
- Troubleshooting cameras
World building
- Sky
- Terrain
- Terrain Tools package
Physics
- Built-in 3D Physics
Input
- Mobile Keyboard
- Unity XR Input
- Legacy Input
  - Input Manager
  - Mobile device input
- IME in Unity
UI systems
- Comparison of UI systems in Unity
- UI Toolkit
- Unity UI
- Immediate Mode GUI (IMGUI)
Animation
- Mecanim Animation system
- Legacy Animation system
  - Legacy Animation component
Audio
- Audio overview
- Audio files
- Tracker Modules
- Audio Mixer
- Native audio plug-in SDK
- Audio playlist randomization
- Audio Profiler module
- Ambisonic Audio
  - Develop an ambisonic audio decoder
- Audio Reference
Video and cutscenes
- Video sources
- Video Player
- Video Profiler module
Lighting
- Introduction to lighting
- Light sources
- Direct and indirect lighting
- Shadows
- Reflections
- Lighting in URP
- Lighting in the Built-In Render Pipeline
- Optimize lighting in the Built-In Render Pipeline
- Lighting reference
Materials and shaders
- Materials
- Prebuilt materials and shaders
- Custom textures
- Custom shaders
- Color and High Dynamic Range (HDR)
  - Color spaces
  - High dynamic range (HDR)
Visual effects
- Particle effects
- Decals
- Lens flares
- Light halos
  - Create and configure a halo light effect
  - Halo component reference
- Lines and trails
  - Rendering lines
  - Rendering trails
- Visual Effect Graph
Render pipelines
- Introduction to render pipelines
- Scriptable Render Pipeline fundamentals
- Choosing a render pipeline
- Rendering paths in Unity
- Using the Universal Render Pipeline
- Using the High Definition Render Pipeline
- Using the Built-In Render Pipeline
Post-processing
- Introduction to post-processing
- Post-processing effect availability reference
- Post-processing and full-screen effects in URP
Programming in Unity
- Get started with programming in Unity
- Environment and tools
- Object-oriented development
- Compilation and code reload
- Code optimization
  - Asynchronous programming with the Awaitable class
  - Job system
- Debugging and diagnostics
Optimization
- Memory in Unity
- Unity Profiler
- Profiling tools
  - Analyzing profiler traces
- Understanding optimization in Unity
- Graphics performance and profiling
Building and publishing
- Build profiles
- Incremental build pipeline
- Visual Studio C# integration
- RenderDoc integration
- Version control
- Command-line arguments
Unity Services
- Unity IAP
Troubleshooting
Glossary


Birth (A)	While the package developer creates the package, it’s in the Custom state. When it’s ready for Unity users to test it and provide feedback, a package enters the Experimental state. Unity doesn’t support experimental packages and doesn’t guarantee that experimental packages will be fully released and verified to be safe to use in production until they enter the release track. Experimental packages either use `0` as the major part of their version or the `-exp.#` suffix on the patch part of their version. For example, `mypackage@0.1.2` or `mypackage@1.2.3-exp.1`.
Release track	When a package passes quality testing and contains no experimental features or functionality (including dependencies on experimental packages), it enters the Pre-release state, which is on the release track. Unity fully supports packages on the release track and commits to officially releasing them by the end of the current LTS cycle (for example, 2021.3) at the latest. For a list of pre-release packages available for this version, refer to Pre-release packages. Unity’s release management only grants a package the Released status after it passes several testing stages and validation procedures, which also include checks for appropriate documentation, changelog, and license files. Packages in this state never use non-numeric suffixes as part of their version. For a list of released packages available for this version, refer to Released packages. If the package developer updates or changes a released package, that package might return to another state depending on the severity:
		Type of change:	New state:	Version bump:
	(B)	Major API change that breaks an API	Experimental	`1.2.3` => `2.0.0-exp`
	(C)	Minor API change that doesn’t break the API but affects usage	Pre-release	`1.2.3` => `1.3.0-pre`
	(D)	Bug fixes, trivial changes, and documentation updates typical of patch updates	Released (same state)	`1.2.3` => `1.2.4`
Death (E)	Packages that reach their end of life are no longer supported in Editors where they’re marked Deprecated. Avoid using packages in a Deprecated state because they might be nonfunctional or unsafe. For more information, refer to Deprecated packages. Some experimental packages go directly to the deprecated state without passing through the release cycle track.