Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Why?
There are a huge number of packages made available in this tab.
Packages
are just what they sound like: they are a little parcel of assets that include
information on how these assets may (or may not) be tied together.
Packages are a great way of moving certain types of assets (especially
objects that have scripts draped on them) from project to project.
Beginning Unity users often simply click all the packages. “I might need
them sometime,” they say. And this could be true, they might be needed
sometime, but until they are used, there is a tremendous performance price
that is paid. Whenever a new script is made or changed, Unity recompiles all
the scripts that are within the Assets folder. So if there are 50 or 100 scripts
that were imported as part of these other packages that aren't used, Unity
will have to take a look at them every time script editor is touched. Popping
in and out of the script editor is a very common occurrence, and these slow
compile times can really start to add up. Additionally, by keeping the project
clean you ensure that you don't have some rogue script floating around
your project that is affecting your project in ways you don't know about.
Having said all that, we do know that we will be using the Character
Controllers that come shipped with Unity (custom controllers can be built,
but the included ones are sophisticated and powerful so we will restrain
ourselves from reinventing the wheel and roll with the ones provided). So,
now is a perfect time to include them.
If later we decide that we need the contents of other packages (which we
will), we can always import them at a later time (which we also will do in
the process of the tutorials).
About the New Project File
So what's happening now? Unity will chug along for a minute before presenting
the Unity assembly interface. What Unity is doing is unpackaging the packages
you've selected, as well as a few other packages of data, and putting them in
some folders it will create on the hard drive. In the OS, look at the newly created
Incursion-Unity folder, and find that it contains three folders: Assets, Library,
and Temp. Generally, don't mess with the Library or Temp folders. The Assets
folder though is where we will be doing much of our work.
Importing Items Paradigm
Don't actually import anything right this minute, because it's important to
understand how we will interact with this new project file. The way to import
assets into Unity is to (in the OS,
not
in Unity) find the
Assets
folder within
the project folder. Then, using the OS, just drag the things Unity should
access into the Assets folder. When a new model, texture, sound, or movie is
placed there, Unity recognizes something new and acts on it—it attempts to
understand the file and always attempts to import it. What this means is the
