I published this article some time ago and Unity environment changed a lot. I wouldn’t recommend this path nowadays. Just download Visual Studio Community, switch default Unity IDE and enjoy very smooth integration.
First things first — I’m not an experienced game developer. I just started my journey with Unity not long time ago and this article is a result of my early explorations that can be useful for newcomers.
As a day to day front end developer I spend majority of the time in HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Jumping from one territory to a completely new environment is a fantastic experience but comes with lots of difficulties. My biggest issue on early Unity expedition wasn’t a C#, it wasn’t a convoluted interface, nor a crazy amount of 3D vector math. It was a MonoDevelop — the default IDE that Unity comes with and works smoothly out of the box. Lack of my favorite shortcuts, snippets system and absence of core functionalities that I use hundreds times a day. Visual Studio Code served me well for last few months and I couldn’t stand writing a single line of code without it. After a while it turned up that VSCode can be linked with Unity to take an advantage of all the things that it is best at. Let’s go through the whole process step by step.
Visual Studio Code and C# extension #
When I get build from Unity for Mac OS X and run the game on Mac OSX, I get ERROR: Initialize engine version: 2017.3.0f3 (a9f86dcd79df) GfxDevice: creating device client; threaded=1 2018-02-07 12:42:57.410 btm936 Color LCD preferred device: Intel HD Graphics 5000 (high power). Drag it into the Mac 512pt 1x box. Build and run the app to see the icon in the Dock menu. If you still see the default app icon, quit the HelloWorld app, go back to Xcode and choose Clean Build Folder from the Product menu, then run the app again. Build problem, missing variables 1 Answer Unity build Complete size does not match app size 0 Answers When Opening Application Build, Opens for a Split Second then Closes Before the Window of the Application Even Pops Up (Mac OS Sierra) 1 Answer.
You can download VSCode from Microsoft website for free. Installation process is very straight forward. Out of the box it doesn’t support a language used by Unity — it can be easily solved by installing C# extension from official marketplace.
In the theory Unity works with three scripting languages — C#, JavaScript and Python-like Boo. Ditching Boo has been announced long time ago and the same thing has been recently revealed about the future of Javascript-like UnityScript. C# is the future of this platform — much nicer ecosystem, tooling support and the bright future full of powerful features that wouldn’t be possible in the other language. If you have never worked with C# you don’t have to worry — official documentation is a fantastic place to get you running.
Unity and it’s external script editor #
Despite the time that it takes to download, Unity set up isn’t scary. I just would like to point your attention to the step where you can choose addition components that are going to be added during the installation process. As we are aiming to use it with Visual Studio Code, you can un-check MonoDevelop from the list of add-ons.
Now you can go to the Unity settings and change your “External Script Editor” to Visual Studio Code.
Install .NET SKD #
Command Line Interface for the .NET Software Development Kit is something that we need. Download the latest version of the installer from Microsoft website and follow the installation guide.
Brew and Mono #
Mono is the last ingredient that we need to install to have a smooth integration with VSCode OmniSharp. The easiest way is to download it from Homebrew. If you don’t have it installed on your machine, you live your life wrong! Visit a website to the missing package manager for macOS and follow the installation guide. Now the only thing that you need to run is…
VSCode + Unity = <3 #
There seem to be a lot of steps but actual the whole setup takes just a few minutes. You can now enjoy smooth integration of Unity and your favourite code editor.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.comments powered by Disqus-->Unity is a game engine that enables you to develop games in C#. This walkthrough shows how to get started developing and debugging Unity games using Visual Studio for Mac and the Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity extension alongside the Unity environment.
Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity is a free extension, installed with Visual Studio for Mac. It enables Unity developers to take advantage of the productivity features of Visual Studio for Mac, including excellent IntelliSense support, debugging features, and more.
Objectives
- Learn about Unity development with Visual Studio for Mac
Prerequisites
- Visual Studio for Mac (https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/mac)
- Unity 5.6.1 Personal Edition or higher (https://store.unity.com, requires a unity.com account to run)
Intended Audience
This lab is intended for developers who are familiar with C#, although deep experience is not required.
Task 1: Creating a basic Unity project
Mac Os List
Launch Unity. Sign in if requested.
Click New.
Set the Project name to 'UnityLab' and select 3D. Click Create project.
You're now looking at the default Unity interface. It has the scene hierarchy with game objects on the left, a 3D view of the blank scene shown in the middle, a project files pane on the bottom, and inspector and services on the right. Of course, there's a lot more to it than that, but those are few of the more important components.
For developers new to Unity, everything that runs in your app will exist within the context of a scene. A scene file is a single file that contains all sorts of metadata about the resources used in the project for the current scene and its properties. When you package your app for a platform, the resulting app will end up being a collection of one or more scenes, plus any platform-dependent code you add. You can have as many scenes as desired in a project.
The new scene just has a camera and a directional light in it. A scene requires a camera for anything to be visible and an Audio Listener for anything to be audible. These components are attached to a GameObject.
Select the Main Camera object from the Hierarchy pane.
Select the Inspector pane from the right side of the window to review its properties. Camera properties include transform information, background, projection type, field of view, and so on. An Audio Listener component was also added by default, which essentially renders scene audio from a virtual microphone attached to the camera.
Select the Directional Light object. This provides light to the scene so that components like shaders know how to render objects.
Use the Inspector to see that it includes common lighting properties including type, color, intensity, shadow type, and so on.
It is important to point out that projects in Unity are a little different from their Visual Studio for Mac counterparts. In the Project tab on the bottom, right-click the Assets folder and select Reveal in Finder.
Projects contain Assets, Library, ProjectSettings, and Temp folders as you can see. However, the only one that shows up in the interface is the Assets folder. The Library folder is the local cache for imported assets; it holds all metadata for assets. The ProjectSettings folder stores settings you can configure. The Temp folder is used for temporary files from Mono and Unity during the build process. There is also a solution file that you can open in Visual Studio for Mac (UnityLab.sln here).
Close the Finder window and return to Unity.
The Assets folder contains all your assets-art, code, audio, etc. It's empty now, but every single file you bring into your project goes here. This is always the top-level folder in the Unity Editor. But always add and remove files via the Unity interface (or Visual Studio for Mac) and never through the file system directly.
The GameObject is central to development in Unity as almost everything derives from that type, including models, lights, particle systems, and so on. Add a new Cube object to the scene via the GameObject > 3D Object > Cube menu.
Take a quick look at the properties of the new GameObject and see that it has a name, tag, layer, and transform. These properties are common to all GameObjects. In addition, several components were attached to the Cube to provide needed functionality including mesh filter, box collider, and renderer.
Rename the Cube object, which has the name 'Cube' by default, to 'Enemy'. Make sure to press Enter to save the change. This will be the enemy cube in our simple game.
Add another Cube object to the scene using the same process as above, and name this one 'Player'.
Tag the player object 'Player' as well (see Tag drop-down control just under name field). We'll use this in the enemy script to help locate the player game object.
In the Scene view, move the player object away from the enemy object along the Z axis using the mouse. You can move along the Z axis by selecting and dragging the cube by its red panel toward the blue line. Since the cube lives in 3D space, but can only be dragged in 2D each time, the axis on which you drag is especially important.
Move the cube downward and to the right along the axis. This updates the Transform.Position property in the Inspector. Be sure to drag to a location similarly to what's shown here to make later steps easier in the lab.
Now you can add some code to drive the enemy logic so that it pursues the player. Right-click the Assets folder in the Project pad and select Create > C# Script.
Name the new C# script 'EnemyAI'.
To attach scripts to game objects drag the newly created script onto the Enemy object in the Hierarchy pane. Now that object will use behaviors from this script.
Select File > Save Scenes to save the current scene. Name it 'MyScene'.
Task 2: Working with Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity
The best way to edit C# code is to use Visual Studio for Mac. You can configure Unity to use Visual Studio for Mac as its default handler. Select Unity > Preferences.
Select the External Tools tab. From the External Script Editor dropdown, select Browse and select Applications/Visual Studio.app. Alternatively, if there's already a Visual Studio option, just select that.
Unity is now configured to use Visual Studio for Mac for script editing. Close the Unity Preferences dialog.
Double-click EnemyAI.cs to open it in Visual Studio for Mac.
The Visual Studio solution is straightforward. It contains an Assets folder (the same one from Finder) and the EnemyAI.cs script created earlier. In more sophisticated projects, the hierarchy will likely look different than what you see in Unity.
EnemyAI.cs is open in the editor. The initial script just contains stubs for the Start and Update methods.
Replace the initial enemy code with the code below.
Take a quick look at the simple enemy behavior that is defined here. In the Start method, we get a reference to the player object (by its tag), as well as its transform. In the Update method, which is called every frame, the enemy will move towards the player object. The keywords and names use color coding to make it easier to understand the codebase in Visual Studio for Mac.
Save the changes to the enemy script in Visual Studio for Mac.
Task 3: Debugging the Unity project
Set a breakpoint on the first line of code in the Start method. You can either click in the editor margin at the target line or place cursor on the line and press F9.
Click the Start Debugging button or press F5. This will build the project and attach it to Unity for debugging.
Return to Unity and click the Run button to start the game.
The breakpoint should be hit and you can now use the Visual Studio for Mac debugging tools.
From the Locals pad, locate the this pointer, which references an EnemyAI object. Expand the reference and see that you can browse the associated members like Speed.
Remove the breakpoint from the Start method the same way it was added-by either clicking it in the margin or selecting the line and press F9.
Press F10 to step over the first line of code that finds the Player game object using a tag as parameter.
Hover the mouse cursor over the player variable within the code editor window to view its associated members. You can even expand the overlay to view child properties.
Press F5 or press the Run button to continue execution. Return to Unity to see the enemy cube repeatedly approach the player cube. You may need to adjust the camera if it's not visible.
Switch back to Visual Studio for Mac and set a breakpoint on the first line of the Update method. It should be hit immediately.
Suppose the speed is too fast and we want to test the impact of the change without restarting the app. Locate the Speed variable within the Autos or Locals window and then change it to '10' and press Enter.
Remove the breakpoint and press F5 to resume execution.
Return to Unity to view the running application. The enemy cube is now moving at a fifth of the original speed.
Stop the Unity app by clicking the Play button again.
Return to Visual Studio for Mac. Stop the debugging session by clicking the Stop button.
Task 4: Exploring Unity features in Visual Studio for Mac
Os Build Information
Visual Studio for Mac provides quick access to Unity documentation within the code editor. Place the cursor somewhere on the Vector3 symbol within the Update method and press ⌘ Command + '.
A new browser window opens to the documentation for Vector3. Close the browser window when satisfied.
Visual Studio for Mac also provides some helpers to quickly create Unity behavior classes. From Solution Explorer, right-click Assets and select Add > New MonoBehaviour.
The newly created class provides stubs for the Start and Update methods. After the closing brace of the Update method, start typing 'onmouseup'. As you type, notice that Visual Studio's IntelliSense quickly zeros in on the method you're planning to implement. Select it from the provided autocomplete list. It will fill out a method stub for you, including any parameters.
Inside the OnMouseUp method, type 'base.' to see all of the base methods available to call. You can also explore the different overloads of each function using the paging option in the top-right corner of the IntelliSense flyout.
Visual Studio for Mac also enables you to easily define new shaders. From Solution Explorer, right-click Assets and select Add > New Shader.
The shader file format gets full color and font treatment to make it easier to read and understand.
Return to Unity. You'll see that since Visual Studio for Mac works with the same project system, changes made in either place are automatically synchronized with the other. Now it's easy to always use the best tool for the task.
Summary
Unity Mac Build Support
In this lab, you've learned how to get started creating a game with Unity and Visual Studio for Mac. See https://unity3d.com/learn to learn more about Unity.