Installing Unity 2021 and Getting Started with Game Development

Installing Unity with Unity Hub

Unity Hub is a small piece of software to install before installing Unity. It centralizes the management of all our Unity projects and installations.

1. Go to https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download and download and install Unity Hub.
2. With Unity Hub open, switch to the Installs tab from the left-hand menu and select “ADD”.
3. Select the latest version of Unity and install it.

Creating a new project

Launch the Unity Hub application to start a new project. If you have a Unity account, go ahead and sign-in; if not, create one.

Now, set up a new project by selecting the arrow icon next to the NEW tab at the top-right.

Choose your Unity version and set the following fields:

1. Project Name: Provide the name of the project.
2. Location: Wherever you’d like the project to be saved.
3. Template: Select the 2D template for building a 2D game or 3D template for 3D games and hit CREATE.

Navigating the Unity Editor

When the new project finishes initializing, we will see the glorious Unity Editor! The important tabs(panels) are marked in the following picture:

Le’s look at each of these panels in more detail:

1. The Toolbar panel is the topmost part of the Unity Editor. From here, we can manipulate objects (far-left button group) and play and pause the game (center buttons). The rightmost button group contains Unity Services, layer masks, and layout scheme features.
2. The Hierarchy window shows every item currently in the game scene. In the starter project, this is just the default camera and directional light, but when we create our own prototype environment, this window will start to get filled in.
3. The Scene and Game views are the most visual aspects of the editor. In the Scene view, we can arrange and move our 2D and 3D objects. When we hit the play button, the Game view will take over, rendering the Scene view and any programmed interactions.
4. The Inspector window is the one-stop-shop for viewing and editing the properties of the objects.
5. The Project window holds every asset that is currently in the project. This is a representation of the project’s files and folders.
6. The Console panel is where any output we want our scripts to print will show up. From here on out, if we talk about the console or debug output, this panel is where it will be displayed.

More productive editor layout

We can save the layout of the tabs and windows to standardize our work environment. The layout menu can be found in the upper right corner of Unity Editor.

We can customize our layout of views by click-dragging the Tab of any view to one of the several locations. Dropping a Tab in the Tab area of an existing window will add the Tab beside any existing Tabs. Alternatively, dropping aTab in any Dock Zone will add the View in a new window.

Tabs can also be detached from the main editor window and arranged into their own floating editor windows. Floating Windows can contain arrangements of views and tabs just like the main editor window.

Follow the below steps to customize the default layout to a professional layout:

Step1: Select “Tall” option from the layout drop down menu.

Step2: Click — drag the Game tab to snap below the Scene view as shown below.

Step3: Select “One Column Layout” from the Project panel.

Step4: Go to the window menu from the toolbar panel, and select “Console” under General options as shown below.

Step5: Click — drag the Console Tab next to the Game Tab.

Step6: This layout can be saved and restored at anytime. Select Save Layout option from the layout dropdown menu, and provide a custom name to save the layout.

These modifications to the default layout helps us to view how the changes made in our Scene view reflects in the Game view. It also ensures that everything we do in the scene is sensible in perspective to our game.