Creating a new project in Unity
To start a new project in Unity the first thing you need to do is download the Unity Engine. Go to Unity website https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download where you will have 2 choices to choose from. You can choose your download version which includes premium plans, or you can choose to download Unity Hub.
I recommend downloading Unity Hub because it allows you to choose which Unity engine version you want to download or work with easier, especially if you want to work with a version that has Long Term Support (LTS) over the most recent versions that will have the latest features but not fully tested. LTS is recommended if you’re in production or close to releasing your application. While, non-LTS versions are recommended if you’re just starting production, or you want to use the new features. Also, it will be much easier to manage your projects from the hub compared to navigating through your hard drive.
When you download the Unity Hub, you will have a screen that looks like the following:
In the Hub’s window on the left, you can click on Projects, Learn Unity, Community, and Installs. Projects and Installs are the 2 we will work with most. We will see the list of projects that you worked on in the middle of the screen when clicked on. If you click on Installs, you will choose which version to download from the “Add” button. It will install that version and open the Unity editor automatically. The screen will look as follows:
Also, from Installs you can uninstall different versions of Unity from your computer that you no longer need by clicking on the 3 dots and select “Uninstall”.
Back on the Hub’s main window, you will have 2 other options to choose from called Add and New. Add will allow you to open a previous project that you worked on stored on your hard drive or another storage area and manage it from the Hub. While New gives you 2 options to choose from to open a project.
When you click on the word “New”, it will create a project using the Unity version that you have set as the default version. Here’s an example of a new project’s default shown:
Now to change the default version, click on the drop-down menu arrow to see the menu with a list of Unity versions installed on your computer like this.
Choose any one to make it the default version you would like to work with. After you click on the version you want, it will automatically open up a new project window with the version chosen changed at the top.
Inside the create project window, you will name your project an appropriate name. Select the location where the project will be saved. Pick the template you will create your project in whether it’s 2D or 3D. There’s no actual difference between the two except for the type of objects you want to use in your scene or what type of camera you’re using. If you choose to make your application in 2.5D, best to choose 3D and change the camera’s angle.
The last 2 choices are for making your applications in high-definition resolution using HDRP or URP render pipelines.
Next time we will look quickly at the Unity editor. Until then everybody.
