Introduction to Unity

This tutorial goes over how to get around Unity if this is your first time using it.

Unity Windows and Panels

The Scene View

The scene view in Unity is the visual representation of your experience where you can manipulate assets and customize its layout according to your preference.

The Project Window

The Project window in Unity contains all your assets and necessary components and access pre-made Mona assets from the _MonaAssets folder to add to your scene or of you accidentally delete them.

The Hierarchy Window

This is where assets in the scene are organized, and for Mona Spaces to function properly, they require a specific structure with three scenes (Space, Artifacts, and Portals) and their respective parent assets. Any assets not nested under these three parent assets can cause issues.

The Inspector Window

The Inspector Window is where you will be able to modify asset parameters. Different assets offer different elements to modify.

The Game Window

The game window is usually not used in Mona, as you require a Camera to use it. We do not recommend adding a camera as it will overide the player camera in the Mona experience.

The Console Window

The Console in Unity is primarily used for programming and troubleshooting purposes, although custom code is not supported, it can help identify and resolve issues with building spaces.

Miscellaneous Windows

The Animation and Animator windows are useful if you are looking at animating assets and can be found under Window / Animation at the top left.

Lighting window (Optional)

This is used for lightmapping and can be found under Window / Rendering.

Package Manager (Optional)

This can be found under Window / Package Manager. This is used if you need to install any packages from the Unity Registry, or assets you have purchased from the Unity Store. Due to compatibility and licensing issues, it is generally not recommended to use assets from the store, but if you have all your bases covered, it is possible.

  • Left Click - Select object.

  • Hold Left Click - Select box (selects assets that are enclosed inside the box by default).

  • Middle Click - Pan scene.

  • Left click + Alt or Right Click - Orbit scene / asset.

  • Middle Scroll or Alt-Right Click + move mouse left or up/right or down - Zoom in/out.

  • At the top right of the Scene view, you have the gizmo to shift to different axes. Click on the centre white square, to shift between orthographic and perspective modes.

  • Perspective mode - WASD Keys to fly around the space. Holding shift will let you fly faster.

  • Orthographic mode - WASD Keys to affect the clipping of the space.

Adding Assets

Drag and drop assets from the Project Window into the Hierarchy or the Scene itself. It is a good habit to drop assets into the correct location in the Hierarchy (such as under the Space, Artifacts, or Portals parent object.

Transform tools

The View, Position, Rotate, and Scale buttons can be found at the top left.

The Rect Tool works much like a 2D scale tool, even on 3D assets.

The Transform tool with all Position, Rotate, and Scale tools.

At the top left you can select if the transform is applied to the 'Pivot' or 'Centre' of the selected asset. You can also choose the 'Global' or 'Local' approach. Global has the transform based on the world, whereas local bases the transforms on the object itself.

Viewport tools

You can hide, show, or resize the gizmos in your space. You can do that at the top right of the Scene window.

Showing your assets in shaded, wireframe, and shaded wireframe modes is possible at the top right.

Hotkeys

  • Q - View Tool.

  • W - Position Tool.

  • E - Rotation Tool.

  • R - Scale Tool.

  • T - Rect Tool.

  • Y - Position/Rotation/Scale Tool.

  • F - Focus on the currently selected asset.

  • Ctrl - Snap position/rotation/scale. These amounts can be edited using the Edit menu / Grid and Snap Settings.

  • V - Vertex selection. This allows you to position assets accurately based on vertices. This is fantastic for modular assets.

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