Working with Projects

A project is an independent entity that contains all the data on your application content organized in a set of directories. The .project file containing metadata is associated with the project.

Before starting to create new projects you should have an SDK installed. Once you have the required version of the SDK, you can create a new project as follows:

1. Open the Projects tab in the SDK browser.

   

2. Click Create New. The new project creation window will be opened.
3. Define the name of the project, choose a path to store project files, specify the SDK and UNIGINE Engine build to be used.
   Notice

   You can choose the Development or Release build of UNIGINE Engine:

   • The Development build includes additional features that can be useful for project's development (Microprofile, etc.)
   • The Release build allows checking the final performance of the application.

   

   The project will be created in the <project path>/<unigine_project> folder.
4. Specify the required application and general settings.
5. Specify the add-ons to be added (optional).
6. Click Create New Project. The project will appear in the projects list.

   

Application Settings#

General Settings#

Add-Ons#

To add an existing project to the browser:

1. Click Add Existing in the Projects tab.

   

2. In the file dialog window that opens, specify the path to the project folder and click Import Project. The project will appear in the projects list.

   

Projects that require upgrade are marked with the Upgrade available label:

To upgrade your project to the newest installed version of UNIGINE SDK:

1. Click this label or Other Actions -> Configure Project. The following form will open:

   

2. Choose the newest installed version of the SDK and click Update Configuration.
3. Specify a path to the backup folder into which the original project will be copied. Leave Migrate Content checked and click Upgrade Project.

   

There are several options of running a project with default settings:

• Run the project without the loaded editor by clicking Run.

  

• Run the project with the loaded editor by clicking Edit Content.

  

You can also use launchers created by default in the project folder:

• launch_debug — the launcher of the project's debug version.
• launch_editor — the launcher of the project's with the loaded editor.
• launch_release — the launcher of the project's release version.
• launcher — the startup file for the launcher that provides a GUI to configure application options and run the application. This launcher can be customized and used in the release version of your project. To create a project with the launcher, check the GUI-based settings configurator box in the project's creation window.

There are also several options of running project with custom settings:

• Run the project without the loaded editor by clicking an ellipsis under the Run button:

  

  In the Customize Run Options form that opens, set the required values and click Run.
• Run the project with the loaded editor by clicking an ellipsis under the Edit Content button:

  

  In the Customize UnigineEditor Options form that opens, set the required values and click Edit.

Customize Run Options#

Customize UnigineEditor Options#

To open the project for editing:

• On Windows, click Edit Code:

  

  The project will be opened for editing in an associated tool. To change a tool, click an ellipsis under Edit Code. By default, the following form will open:

  

  Choose Custom in the drop-down list and specify a path to a custom tool (e.g. IDE or editor) with required arguments:

  

• On Linux, click Open folder and then edit code in an associated tool:

  

See the articles in the Programming Overview section to learn how to edit the opened project.

To create the release build of the project:

1. Click Other Actions.

   

2. Click Assemble project. The following form will open.

   

3. Specify the required settings (see below) and click Assemble.

By default, the final build includes the following:

• data/.runtimes folder with all its contents
• guids.db file stored in the data folder
• Source assets from the data folder with valid *.meta files, that have no generated runtime files
  Notice

  *.meta files of such assets aren't included in the final build.
• *.umount files (mount points) that refer to external directories
  Notice

  • Keep files in the external directories unchanged to avoid issues in the assembled project.
  • Only a reference to the mounted folder shall be included in the final build, not its contents.
  If you exclude *.umount files, the referenced content won't be available in the final build, and the project will be invalid.

The source/ and bin/ folders, the *.project and *.cache files, and launchers are excluded from the final build by default.

Assembling Settings#

When clicking the Other Actions button, the following form opens:

When clicking Other Actions -> Configure Project, the following form opens:

Via this form, you can change settings of an existing project: the UNIGINE Engine build used for the project, the version of the release application, the coordinates precision, and the general settings. This option should also be used when you need to upgrade the existing project to the newest SDK version.

Moreover, you can restore the project's files that were corrupted, missed, or mistakenly modified. For this, you should leave settings in the form unchanged and press the Update Configuration button. In this case, the following files of the project will be restored (they will be copied from the SDK):

• Binaries
• core.ung, editor.ung and scripts.ung
• Launchers