Unity Basics 1. The Unity Interface

1. The Unity Interface

Editor views

  • Manual: Unity’s Interface
  • Views
    • Hierarchy window
    • Scene view
    • Game view
    • Inspector window
    • Project window
    • Console
  • Views can be rearranged by dragging & dropping
  • Try out different layouts from the top right “Layouts” dropdown menu

Hierarchy window

  • Manual: Hierarchy
  • Shows the list of GameObjects in a scene
  • Double click to show object in Scene view
  • GameObjects can be nested
    • Parent-child hierarchy!
  • Add new GameObjects: RMB + choose from list

the scene view

Scene view

  • Manual: Scene view navigation
    • Maximize view: Shift +Spacebar
    • Move: MMB
    • Orbit: ALT+LMB
    • Zoom: roll MMB / ALT+RMB
    • Rotate camera: RMB
    • Flythrough: hold RMB, fly with WASD + Q/E
  • The Scene Gizmo
    • “the axis thingy on the top right”
    • Axis cones: change view to that axis
    • Center cube: change between perspective & isometric view
  • Manual: Scene view camera

Shortcuts for scene & hierarchy

  • CTRL+Z + CTRL+Y undo & redo
  • CTRL+C + CTRL+V copy & paste
  • CTRL+D duplicate
  • F: center camera on selected object
    • Helps e.g., if camera zooms in too large increments
    • Press twice to follow the object
  • Tip: Select camera and press CTRL+SHIFT+F to align camera view with the Scene window viewpoint

QWERTY Tools

  • Used for manipulating existing stuff
  • Activating the tool changes the LMB behaviour
  • Navigation shortcuts still available in other tools!
  • In move/rotate/scale, you can use the red, green and blue shapes to manipulate x,y,z axes, respectively
  • The tools:
    • Q: View Tool (navigate)
    • W: Move Tool
      • the squares in the center: move along a plane
    • E: Rotate Tool
    • R: Scale Tool
    • Those were the most important ones, but there’re also…
    • T: Rect Tool
      • Alternative Scale Tool
    • Y: Move+Rotate+Scale multitool
  • Different tools have different tool handles
    • Move tool has arrows, rotate tool has arcs, etc.

Tool handle orientation

  • Let’s consider these two important settings:

    1. Tool handle position (Pivot / Center)

    • For multiple selected GameObjects, center sets the tool handle to the “average” center of the GameObjects. For a parent GameObject with children, it shows the average of parent + its children
    • pivot sets the tool handle to the last selected GameObject when multiple are selected, and shows the actual location of a parent GameObject
    • Note: If you want to rotate a child GameObject according to its parent’s position, set to pivot
  1. Tool handle rotation (Local / Global)
    • Scene has a global coordinate system, and all GameObjects have their local coordinate systems
    • Global setting shows the tool handle rotated always along the global coordinate system
    • Local setting shows the tool handle rotated along the local coordinates.
    • Note: To move GameObjects according to their local x,y,z axes, set to local (global by default)

Inspector window

  • Manual: Inspector
  • GameObject properties
    • Active (the checkbox)
    • Name
    • Tag
    • Layer
  • Inspector shows what components does a game object have
  • Components can be turned off
  • UI tips:
    • drag variable to change value
    • hover over variable name to show info

Game view

  • Manual: Game view
  • Simulates what your final rendered game will look like through your Scene Cameras
  • Play & pause buttons
  • When game is running, you can still manipulate the values in the Inspector
    • A nice way to mess around and find the right values for variables
    • But… changes made during the play mode do not persist!
    • Protip: Go to Edit > Preferences > Colors and change the play mode tint to red.
  • To make play mode bigger, change Play focused to Play maximized
  • Fullscreen play is supported on Unity 2022 versions.

Project window

  • Manual: Project window
  • List of Assets & Packages in your projects
  • Assets
    • Scenes
    • Prefabricated game objects (prefabs)
    • Materials
    • Graphics, Sound effects, Music…
  • Packages
    • Additional code & assets installed from the Unity Package Registry

Console window

  • Manual: Console window
  • Error messages
  • Debug messages
  • Other messages
  • Helpful options:
    • Clear (remove old messages)
    • Collapse (don’t repeat duplicate messages)
    • $\vdots$ > Log Entry > 1 Line (show only one line per message)

Toolbar

Searching

  • Manual: Searching in the Editor
  • You can search for a component by its name in the Scene or Hierarchy view search bar.
  • To find references to a given component, right click the component top bar in Inspector and select Find References In Scene.
  • To find references to a given asset, right click the asset in Project view and select Find References In Scene.

Reading