If you haven’t heard of Unity Asset Management (UAM), it is a system that helps you manage your game’s assets. The tools available for Unity Asset Management allow you to manage, create, and edit all of your game’s assets in one place. There are a few different types of Assets, and each type has its own unique features and advantages. Here’s an overview of the different types of Assets.
Addressables
The Addressables API is an alternative to the old SyncObject and ScriptObject models used for asset management in Unity. Its asynchronous nature means that it can be executed in any order. Its default behavior is to be asynchronous, but this behavior can be changed if necessary. This article will explain the differences between these two approaches and how to use them together. Listed below are some of the key features of Addressables.
The Addressables Asset System allows developers to load assets either from their own library or from asset bundles. This feature provides high-level reference counting for assets that are loaded in the game. It also has the ability to unload asset bundles once they are no longer in use. The Addressable Asset System provides a visual profiler to help developers monitor performance. The Addressables Asset System also offers a migration path for existing developers.
Bundles
In the current version of Unity, asset bundles can be built in three different ways. The first is known as the Can Change Post Release, for dynamic content that will be downloaded shortly after installation. The second way is known as the Cannot Change Post Release, for content that will never be updated. In this case, you need to create a smaller bundle and use that to keep the file size down. Both methods are beneficial in a variety of situations, but can be a little complicated in some cases.
Once you have imported an asset, you can create another bundle using it. When you are generating a bundle, the name will be the highest message in the bundles contained within it. When defining the bundle, you can move, merge, or delete assets. Similarly, you can rename assets in a new bundle. Once you have merged assets, you can right click them and select ‘Move duplicate’.
Objects
The Unity asset management system allows you to create and manage multiple types of assets in your game. Assets are data-blocks that are used throughout your game, and user presets can be applied to any scene in the game. In addition, you can use these objects to create user interfaces for your game. Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, the asset manager system can also be used to manage your game’s sounds.
This process applies to all Assets, including native assets, which don’t require long conversion processes or re-serialization. File and Local IDs are robust but slow. To solve this issue, Unity maintains a cache(2) of translated GUIDs. Assets marked with an addressable ID are picked up by the Addressable System in the runtime. The Addressable Asset is used in downloadable content. The Asset Management system can also be used to store assets in the cloud.
MonoScript
The Resources.UnloadAsset API can be used to explicitly unload Objects from the Resources folder. This API preserves the GUID, LocalID, and Instance ID of the Objects it has previously loaded. If you do not want to unload an Object, you can manually call this API instead. Objects loaded from the Resources directory retain their Instance ID and File GUID. They may also be explicitly unloaded by calling the Resources.UnloadAsset API. Note that when using unloaded Objects, Mono variables will be automatically loaded.
The Object is stored in a Prefab that contains many Objects. The ScriptableObject data type is an extension of the Object, which is serialized and manipulated in the Unity Editor Inspector window. In order to use a ScriptableObject within Unity, you must first convert the data type to MonoScript. MonoScript is an internal Unity data type. Unlike native code, it does not contain executable code and maintains a reference to a specific script or assembly.
Cache
The Unity Asset Management cache is used for many things, but perhaps one of the most important is to speed up the game. When an asset is loaded into the game, the first time it runs, it takes a long time. That’s because the asset is stored in components of the game object. A cleaner way to fix this is to use Unity Addressables, which gives you much finer control over memory usage. By deleting asset bundles after they have been loaded, you can speed up your game significantly.
The Unity Asset Management cache works by caching the assets for a short time. It’s not permanently stored on the server, but instead is stored in a separate machine for the project. After the project is finished, the Cache Server automatically deletes the Asset from the cache, and recreates it the next time it’s used. This way, the Unity Editor will only download the Asset from the server if it’s needed.
