More Productive Editor Layout in Unity
Welcome to Unity!
Above is your default layout, call each section what you like: panel, window, tab, view.
Section 1 is the HIERARCHY. Here you’ll find all game objects in the current scene of your project. A project can have multiple scenes.
Section 2 are the SCENE & GAME view panels.
The SCENE view is your interactive window for the active scene. You can manipulate objects, characters, cameras, lights, any and everything in the scene.
The GAME View is your CAMERA view. This is what your players will experience.
Section 3 is INSPECTOR panel. Here is where you can view & edit properties of each object in the hierarchy.
Section 4 are the PROJECT and CONSOLE panels.
The PROJECT panel contains all files in the project: game objects, materials, sounds, scripts, etc.
The CONSOLE panel will shows errors, warnings and other messages generated by Unity. These maybe messages you create to check logic or messages sent by Unity when that logic is not as you intended.
The are many other panels, windows, views you can add and depending on your project you may have a dozen more open — hopefully on a large and numerous monitors!
Like many, most or maybe every student of GameDevHQ, we’re immediately taught to change the default screen layout from default to the GDHQ “Professional Layout”. I changed mine and have kept it since. It’s good and it works!
The easiest way to begin altering the layout into the GDHQ Pro layout is to change the default layout to TALL … in the upper right corner make that change.
Having changed the default view to TALL your View (minus objects in the scene) should be similar:
Right Click the PROJECT Tab and change from Two Column to One Column.
Click and drag the GAME tab so it detaches and is in the lower half of the Scene Tab:
Let go and you should now have the view below.
(Occasionally the panels misbehave and go a little wonky so you may now have your Game Panel plopped in the middle of your Scene Panel. Just click and hold the GAME tab and drag and wait for it to SNAP into its position.)
The CONSOLE tab is missing. It is an essential panel so let’s add it back in order to finish off our Pro layout.
Click WINDOW => GENERAL => CONSOLE
The CONSOLE panel will open in the middle, like the GAME panel was moved, click the CONSOLE tab and drag and drop it beside the SCENE tab. Click back onto the SCENE tab so that it’s selected.
Now let’s SAVE this view.
Return to the upper right layout which reads TALL, Click Tall, SAVE LAYOUT and give it a name, mine is GDHQ Pro, click SAVE and you’re good to go.
