Setting up Unity

Unity typically brings out a new version of their software every 2 weeks. You might expect this to cause problems with keeping up to date with the latest version for the exam. To date, Unity doesn't update their exams annually, so the exam and our project relate to Unity 2017.3. Unity will always keep updating and introducing new components and features with their future releases, but the prime fundamentals should remain the same.

This book is designed for users who have been using Unity for at least 2 years, so I'll assume you at least havea free account with them and a copy of Unity installed. If not, here is the license activation guide from their 2017.3 documentation: https://docs.unity3d.com/2017.3/Documentation/Manual/LicensesAndActivation.html

Once you have created a free account, you can now download the Unity Hub. This will hold a reference to the version of Unity you have installed and also our projects.

You can download and install the Unity Hub from here: https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download

Once you have done that, we can grab a free copy of Unity 2017.3

You can download Unity 2017.3 from their archives:

1. Go to https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download/archive.
2. Click on the Unity 2017.x tab
3. Scroll down until you see Unity 2017.3.0, then click on the Unity Hub button to the right of it.
4. Follow the rest of the instructions to download Unity 2017.3.

It's worth noting, at this point, that when going through the installation procedure, you should be sure to have an IDE installed. If you don't, Unity recommends downloading one of two from its 2017 installation menu. It is recommended that you install Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2017 out of the two as MonoDevelop is phased out from the later versions of Unity. All our scripting will take place in this application. The following screenshot shows the recommended IDE selected:

Once you have installed Unity, you can run the Unity Hub program.

Starting our project through Unity Hub

At this point, you have installed Unity 2017.3, registered as a Unity user, and have a shortcut to run the Unity Hub program.

Unity Hub is mainly used to keep a collection of the different versions of Unity installed, as well as a list of the projects that are on your system and in the cloud with Unity's own cloud storage software.

When you run Unity Hub, please make sure you are signed in as a registered user, as discussed in the previous section.

Load up Unity Hub and let's sign in, if you haven't already:

1. The following screenshot shows you where to sign-in on Unity Hub:

1. Once signed in, go to the Projects tab (denoted with 1 in the following screenshot) at the top-left of Unity Hub and select the down arrow next to New (denoted with 2) to pick the version of Unity to run this project, as shown:

1. From the dropdown, you should see a copy of Unity 2017.3, which we installed from the archive link in the previous section. Select Unity 2017.3.

The last screen before the Unity Editor is launched is a selection between two templates:

• 3D: The Unity editor starts in a three-dimensional view.
• 2D: The Unity editor starts in a two-dimensional view.

Let's create our Unity project:

1. Select 3D.
2. Give your project a name. I'm calling mine KillerWave.
3. Add a location where you want the Unity project to be stored.
4. Click Create:

It doesn't really matter which of the templates you pick, as once the Unity editor loads, all that we need to do to change between 2D and 3D is press 2 on our keyboard, or press the 2D button at the top of the Scene window, as in the following screenshot:

After pressing Create, you are presented with the Unity editor.

Next, we will talk about version control and introduce Unity's Collaborate system. Please go through this section, as it's highly likely it will be in your exam.