VS Code setup

What is Visual Studio Code?

• VS Code (or just VSC) is a popular open source text editor / IDE (integrated development environment) by Microsoft
• Very extensible by extensions
• Has many language-specific features like Omnisharp for C#

Visual Studio Code is not Visual Studio

• Visual Studio is an older, bulkier IDE, also by Microsoft
  • it has more features!
• Visual Studio Code is quite new, relatively lightweight
  • originally scarce in features
  • more popular in web development
• Both are used for Unity development
• We'll be using VS Code on this course
  • Note: VS Code Unity Debug Extension has been recently deprecated
  • We don't need the extension on this course, but it's good to know

VS Code installation

• During installation, check these two options:
  

Logging into VS Code

• You can log in with your GitHub account to VS Code in the Accounts tab
• Then, by turning on Settings sync, your user-defined settings are carried over to whichever computer you're working on
  

Unity side setup

• Include the Visual Studio Editor Package in your projects
  • If you removed it, you can add it in Window > Package Manager
  • Historical note: Yes, it says Visual Studio Editor, without the "Code". Previously, the Visual Studio Code Editor package was used; as of 2023, it is considered a legacy package.
• Set VS Code as your Unity default editor
  • Edit > Preferences > External Tools > External Script Editor
  • You might have to click the Regenerate project files button to get all features working

VS Code side setup

• Install the prerequisities for code completion & other niceness
  • You need to install these applications:
    • .NET Core SDK
      • Remember to reboot your computer after installing
    • .NET Framework 4.7.1 Developer Pack
      • Be sure to download the Developer pack, not Runtime!!
        • Note: In Windows, it's not shown as "developer pack" but as "targeting pack"

• Also, install these VS Code extensions:
  • Unity
    • This is a new extension marked preview as of 2023!
  • C#
  • Unity code snippets (Todo: is this needed anymore?)
• Open the project folder in VS Code
  • Either by opening the folder from File Explorer context menu (Open with Code)
  • Or in VS Code File > Open Folder...

Omnisharp

• Omnisharp is a set of tools that makes programming C# easier
• After the previous procedure, VS code should have Omnisharp enabled
  • Number of references are shown on top of every variable & class
    
  • You can hover over a method name to see details
    
    • argument types, return types, method overloads...
• error: Could not locate ms build instance to register with Omnisharp
  • download Build tools for Visual Studio 2022 here

Omnisharp troubleshooting

• Sometimes Omnisharp stops working. Here's something you can try to fix it:

1. Check that .NET is installed by running dotnet in the VS code terminal
2. In Unity: Edit > Preferences > External tools > Regenerate Project Files
3. In Unity: Open VS Code with Assets > Open C# Project
4. In VS Code: CTRL+SHIFT+P > Omnisharp: Restart Omnisharp
5. In VS Code: Add this line inside the curly braces to the configuration file .vscode/settings.json:

   "omnisharp.useModernNet": false
   

Extra: Other extensions

• Marp for VS Code

  • If you want to read these slides inside VS Code

  • After installation, open this .md file from the course repository

  • Click the Open preview to the side button

    

• GitLens & Git Graph (See Git basics)