Setting up Mona in Unity
This tutorial will cover how to install the right version of Unity and then open the Mona SDK.
As much as you may use other tools to create your assets, such as Blender, Maya, Rhino, and so on, Unity is the game engine that we use to put all our assets together in one place.
When creating spaces for Mona, we need to set up the space in a certain way so that it will work in a browser. The Mona SDK is used with this in mind and it will also have all of the resources you need in Mona to make an amazing space.
Downloading Unity
The version of Unity is very important to note. Mona uses 2022.3.6 with the Standard Render pipeline, sometimes called the in-built render pipeline.
Go to unity3d.com/get-unity/download and use the ‘Download Unity Hub’ button.
Save the file.
Double-click on the saved file to install Unity Hub.
Open the program once installed.
Installing Unity
Click here to download 2022.3.6 directly into the Unity Hub (after Unity hub has been installed), or go to the Archives to install Unity 2022.3.6.
Make sure to install the WebGL module!
If you do not do this, your space will not work in Mona. If you miss this, you can use Unity Hub to add the module by using the Settings / Add Modules button.
Signing in to Unity
You will need to sign into Unity to use it, as you will need a Unity License. You can use a free Personal License to do so.
Go to the top left of the Unity Hub and select 'Create Account' if you don't have one already, or 'Sign in'.
On the rare occasion that you have issues with signing in and, therefore, being unable to open Unity, you could try making sure your VPN is off and that Unity Hub is allowed through your Firewall before trying to sign in.
Downloading the Mona Template
You must download the Mona SDK to start all spaces for use in Mona.
Download it from Github here.
Download the SDK by pressing 'Code', then 'Download Zip' on the Github page, or cloning the repository. For more information on this, go here.
Starting a new Mona Space
Once you have the required Unity version installed and access to the Mona SDK, you need to unzip the Mona SDK to a new destination folder. This will be the project moving forward. If you want to back up your project, you can just copy and paste this project folder and open the copy to continue working.
Unzip the Mona SDK zip to your preferred location.
Use Unity Hub to open the project by using the 'Open' button at the top right.
Once in the project, use the 'Mona' menu and select 'Add Mona Scenes'.
Right mouse click on the 'Untitled' scene in the hierarchy window and select 'Remove Scene'.
Testing the Space
It is possible to build and test this space in the browser.
Go to the top and press ‘Playground’, it will open file explorer with the Playground files and load a browser at the playground website for you.
Drag your Playable files folder from Explorer onto the Playground input in the browser
Test your first Mona space!
Head to the Getting Started Building doc if you would like a more in depth tutorial on getting started with Mona.
Summary
In this tutorial, we went over installing the right version of Unity, opening the Mona SDK, and doing a quick test of the space in the Mona Playground.
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