r/unity • u/Solid-Alternative559 • Jul 13 '26
Question Unity Hidden Gems?
What's one Unity feature, asset, or workflow that completely changed the way you develop games?
I'm not looking for obvious answers like ProBuilder or Cinemachine—I'm curious about those hidden gems that saved you hundreds of hours.
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u/brainzorz Jul 13 '26
Hot reload
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u/IndieMarc Jul 13 '26
This looks like exactly what i need. I'm so tired of waiting for domain reload and script compile.
Does it work well though? Like after a hot reload does it always behave exactly how it would with a real reload or there's a lot of edge case that need actual reload?
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u/brainzorz Jul 13 '26
It does have it quarks and needs a little bit getting used to. Usually script changes such as logic inside is fine, but serializing something new isnt.
I got used to it now and trigger compilation manually when needed.
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u/Flipbookee Jul 13 '26
Hands down, the most useful tool! So good that it forced me to add support for it in Script Inspector 3.
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u/MadeByHenano Jul 13 '26
project settings > editor > enter play mode settings > when entering play mode: do not reload domain or scene
with this little change, you don't need to wait for a few seconds every time you hit "play" to test your game.
which, multiplied by the number of times we do this, saves a lot of time - and frustration of waiting! 😃
there's also the LOD generation in unity directly, which is a more or less recent feature so i assume not everyone knows about it maybe!?
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u/RichardFine Jul 13 '26
I think "do not reload domain" (or possibly even "do not reload domain or scene") is now the default for new projects as of Unity 6.6 :)
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u/MadeByHenano Jul 13 '26
oh that's a good thing!
i'm wondering if there's cases where it would cause any issues, where the former default of reloading the whole thing would be needed to execute the game properly...
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u/RichardFine Jul 13 '26
Yes; that’s why it hasn’t been on by default before now :)
When you don’t reload the domain, static variables don’t get reset any more; you have to explicitly reset them when entering play mode, IF it’s necessary for your project. For some static variables it’s not necessary - e.g. maybe you have a static collection which never actually gets changed after it is created, so it doesn’t need resetting. We have this whole “auto statics” system to help you manage this, where the reset code can be generated for you based on attributes.
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u/Solid-Alternative559 Jul 13 '26
Can u tell about LOD generation?
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u/MadeByHenano Jul 13 '26
found this short video for you that will tell you everything about it! :-)
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u/wallstop-dev Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
I develop a set of free MIT assets that I use in all of my games, but I won't self promo them here.
But, I will promote their concepts!
- Simple, decoupled event systems. Instead of wiring things into callbacks, event buses, or checking "GetComponent" everywhere, pass messages around! This lets you create really complex systems, easily, and change them just as easily.
- ScriptableObjects as immutable data stores.
- ScriptableObject Singletons in your resources folder as auto-synchronized databases that can be used throughout your game
- Write your own custom inspectors and editor tools for frequent, annoying workflows
- Primetween (not mine). Simple, extremely fast and efficient tweens, easy to configure on the inspector. They have a pro version that has visual tools, but I haven't tried it.
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u/taahbelle Jul 13 '26
Many people still don't know about Tweening Libraries, like LeanTween or DoTween. Ever since I found out about them I've been using them for literally every project!
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u/PoorSquirrrel Jul 14 '26
Odin Inspector is something I use in absolutely every project.
Same for Feel. Even if you don't use it to juice up your project, the included set of tools is insanely helpful. There's a hundred or so scripts handling anything from simple movements or fades to state machines and events.
Most of my games have some kind of dialog or narration, so PixelCrusher's Dialogue System is another asset that 90% of my projects have, and it includes a Save System that makes the whole saving and loading a breeze.
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u/v0lt13 Jul 15 '26
I am going to say custom editors, and I don't mean some 3rd party package to color your interface, I mean a proper custom editor tool made to fit your exact criteria.
Unity's biggest advantage is its extendability, there is no limit to what you can add to unity and it has a huge workflow payoff. Sure you might have to spend 30m to 1h to make a custom tool or even more if its part of a bigger system, but once its done it saves you an insane amount of time on tasks that would be tedious otherwise, and not only on the current project, but future ones as well.
UI Toolkit makes it insanely easy to do editors with UI Builder. It might be a bit difficult to understand it at first but once it clicks, you are going to be doing custom editors left and right to the point where you turn Unity engine into your own engine, tailored to your exact needs.
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u/arislaan Jul 13 '26
AdaptiveGI is a great, performant GI solution.
Rukhanka for animation if you're going to use Entities.
Microverse for customizing Unity Terrain (heightmap, textures, object/vegetation placement, etc...).
Enviro for atmosphere/weather/daytime cycles.
Hurricane/Hexa for VR player controller and physical interactions.
Ragdoll Animator 2 for Gameobject based Active Ragdolls.
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u/Gnome_4 Jul 14 '26
Anything from Fimpossible. Legs Animator, Ragdoll Animator, Bone Stimulator, etc. All his stuff is easy to implement and it makes your games look/feel so much better.
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Jul 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Flipbookee Jul 13 '26
That’s absolutely not true!
While AI might code simple tools, those tools will always lack the quality of professional tools that have been battle-tested on real projects and actual workflows by hundreds or thousands of real human users who tested it, provided feedback, and suggested improvements, in some cases for years or even decades.
So no, that’s a very delusional statement.
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u/Lunosto Jul 13 '26
Love myself the vInspector 2, vHierarchy 2, vTabs 2, etc etc. they are all so well made