China's localized Unity Hub for a better local experiences

Using the word "Victim" might seem a bit over-exaggerated, but it's not far from the truth.

Yes, the Chinese version of Unity Hub might already be announced, but whether there is a Chinese version is not the point. I'm perfectly fine with a Chinese version even though I don't use it. The point is: by detecting the IP address when downloading the Hub, you are literally forcing every user in China to use the Chinese version of the Hub unless they have a non-China IP address. There is no option for user in China to choose which version they would like to use. Also, the two versions look almost identical, even the Chinese version displays an English UI, which is very misleading.

I'm kinda glad that Unity clarifies in this post that there IS actually a Chinese version, but I hope Unity can at least give the user in China an option to use the global version, instead of arbitrarily assuming that all Chinese developers like to use the "China version".

Now about the download speed, it is simply not true that the Chinese version have better download speed. I use the global version of Unity Hub and the download speed is still extremely fast (in my case, 40MB/s, installs Unity in less than 5 minutes) even I'm in China. Also, it takes way longer for the latest Unity version to appear in the China version of the Hub after it's announced in Unity's website. And if you happen to have a VPN, which a lot of my fellow developers use, you simply cannot use the Hub when the VPN is on, because it only connects to the servers in China. So my recommendation is to Not use the Chinese version of Unity Hub unless the company or studio you are working in requires you to do so. The global version is much better.

 

Thanks for clarifying. @RichardYang-at-Unity3D does the China-only Hub also apply to Hong Kong based developers? And does this version also require access to user keystrokes from other applications? I think further reassurances wouldn't hurt. ;-)

Also, I'm curious though as to why other countries don't also have their own version of the hub, for faster downloads? And who was it at Unity that thought the rest of the world would not want a community tab in the Hub? I've seen more than one request for just that in these forums. :-/

 

After opening Unity Hub when visiting China, it has force updated itself to the Chinese version of Unity Hub and I'm not sure how I can change back while I am here and avoid it happening again? I don't want this. It seems like it doesn't have access to the newest editor versions either. @AdamLiu Are you getting international Unity Hub changing itself to the Chinese version automatically too? @RichardYang-at-Unity3D Is there a solution here? Help appreciated since this seems ridiculous honestly.

 

No, my Unity Hub isn't changing itself to the Chinese version. Your best bet would be using a VPN and redownload the Hub from Unity's global website, and only update the Hub while your VPN is on.

 

No worries, I'll check it out. Thanks for your help and raising some awareness on this issue.

 

Im living in China and i dont read chinese.
IP based autmation sucks and not giving a backup solution for the devs who have even a subscription like me for unity is very unprofessional.
Seems unity just has the "extra features" backdoors and other gov malware in it as China versions have alot of those extra features due to no privacy rights.
Paying customers have the right to get the version they deserve and not the one the IP gives you.
Very disappointing move UNITY.

 

Not all developer lives in China is Chinese and needs Chinese version.
Why not give developer the right of choosing?!
I think "victim" is a accurate word.

 

I started my project using the global version, then moved to china.

While working in china I made an upgrade, without knowing about chinese versions. Sneaky Unity somehow made sure i got the chinese version (despite always being connected to a VPN) which ruined my project. I could not build my game, but was not sure of the reason why. I have spent the last 2 days removing and re installing unity versions trying to fix this problem.

After wiping my whole laptop and reinstalling windows ( since the chinese verison had done something so that I could no longer install any more versions), I downloaded unity again and Sneaky Unity this time made sure I had the crappy chinese hub too. I still had no idea at this point as there is nothing that tells you you are downloading a chinese version.


The crappy chinese hub;

1. does not load the sign in if you are connected to a VPN. This took me many hours to figure out and it just shown a blank screen.

2. FORCES me to add a chinese phone number to my account! I cannot log in or get past this screen.

3. Someone says it records our keystrokes?? Why? How can we be sure this data isnt being sent to the CCP?

No matter what I try, unity makes sure I can only download the crappy chinese version so I cant get round this.

There MUST be a way to download the normal functioning version of unity.

 

As a Chinese, I don't think this has anything to do with CCP. Unity requires the permission to record the keyboard and screen only on Macs with OS X Catalina or later, because starting from Catalina third party apps that require certain keyboard-related accessbility features must ask for users permission explicitly.

Anyway, I can feel the pain, mate ---- you have experienced what I experienced back then. To get rid of the Chinese version, you can try the following steps:
1. Uninstall Unity and Unity hub, just regular uninstall should be enough.
2. Make sure you connect your VPN and make sure the selected VPN server is not inside China (by checking your IP address if necessary).
3. Download and install the Unity Hub from the global site of Unity. (It should be https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download)
4. Launch the Hub, and confirm that you have installed the global version of the Hub. (The Chinese version has a Community tab that has content displayed in Chinese, but I might be wrong. It also has several "Special for Chinese" versions in the add Unity version list. The global version at the moment has a Community tab as well but shoud be displayed in English and a "Beta" note. Now this one is Unity's fault that you cannot distinguish the Global or Chinese version easily).
5. Now download Unity from the Hub. It should give you the global versions of Unity.
If the above steps doesnot work, try downloading the full installation disk image from Unity's global site.
Hope it helps.

 

Thanks for your reply, I tried most of those steps but the unity site sees through the VPN somehow?They are really making sure than the global version is not available to people in china!

 

The experience of Chinese is very awful. It doesn't download the latest version of Unity editor, and push you Chinese ad.

Please give user choice.

 

Add now it requires my phone number sometime when I running game. I have many bad guesses about this.

 

before unityhub2.3.0, the Chinese 'special' versions were listed on the top, global versions were listed normally, that's good enough, I don't understand why you made such a change
这就是传说中的“正版受害者”

 

I try to reinstall UnityHub from the global website
- Uninstall UnityHub
- Delete ~/AppData/Roaming/UnityHub
- Downloaded UnityHubSetup from the global website using a non-China IP, the file size is 52886128 bytes and md5 is e92a0981744198c1b5789ff215215bbd
- Reinstall UnityHub and launch UnityHub
- Check ~/AppData/Roaming/UnityHub/cloudConfig.json, the file still point to China server

Am I doing anything wrong?

 

At present, when downloading the new Unity, there are no options or tips directly, it is the version that is treated differently.

 

To be honest, this is already intentionally disgusting

 

Unity won't solve the problem, and they release the Chinese version of unity and the global version. You can only go to the global website https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download/archive-to select unity hub download to solve this problem.

Here's an answer to that question, and of course they're saying they're going to keep it up to date, and we can treat it as a joke.
https://forum.unity.com/threads/chinas-localized-unity-hub-for-a-better-local-experiences.761597/#post-5609392

 

Unity but the location

 

I find a alternative way. Just click download archive and choose a edition. Click green unity hub, then you will get latest version. I tested it before but failed so I thought unity blocked this way. It turns out I'm wrong.

 

We want the optional location version!

 

Unity: "Ok, we will fix that bug next"

 

I found that the Unity Hub does not use the system proxy, so even if you have a proxy setting in your system, you still should force the Hub to use your proxy. I already have installed global version of Hub. But the download page is different when I force proxy or not. Maybe the download Page in Hub is a webpage. I don' t know.

But the thing I can be sure of is I may be the victim of genuine software!

 

I have to re-enter my account password every day, I have to watch the SMS to enter the verification code, I have to update the license manually every day. I feel like I'm a prisoner.

Why license only excute one day?

What did I do wrong?Why are you do that?

 

Thank you, @AdamLiu ! This has slowly been driving me insane, for as long as I can remember. Unity used to "just work" so well, even in China, but slowly over the past few years it's gotten worse and worse. I'd resigned myself to having to constantly back out of QR and WeChat logins hunting for the email login option, Chinese versions of the community tabs, AssetStore purchases that wouldn't work because my VPN was on, Hub licensing that expires daily, etc. Recently however, I went to install a version of 2019.3, and parts of the editor were in Chinese, without me even installing the language pack.

I've had enough, lol.

Please Unity -- for the love of god -- give us an easy way to use the international versions of Hub, the editor, etc. when we are working in the mainland.

EDIT: @RichardYang-at-Unity3D Is there any way to get through the Unity Application Consent Window via email login, without having to link a phone number or scan a QR code? I'm able to get through to the email login form (eventually), but when I submit it the window reloads back to the form requesting a phone number.

 

My current work around this nonsense is running an old version of unity hub, its glitchy and you need to keep renewing your license and avoiding updates but it works.

 

I believe that right now there is only one version of Unity Hub - there isn't a separate "Global" or "Chinese" version anymore. Now it is entirely based on your IP address to decide what you get in the Unity Hub. If you'are using a IP located in China, you will get the Unity versions including the "Chinese Version", otherwise you will not see those versions. This only makes it harder to distinguish whether you are using the "Global list" or the "Chinese list", which matters a lot because the Chinese verison of the Installation list doesn't update to the latest Unity versions in time - it's usually several versions behind. And that, is a complete joke.

 

Just use a VPN when lauching the hub will be fine.

 

Y

You are not alone. I came across the same issue.

 

Unityhub2.3.1 has been released, but the version issue still exists, we need the old style that lastest offical version can be downloaded!

 

Well done, Chinese marketers. I have to watch unrelated AD before doing anything now.

 

I have noticed the same version (without c!) in Chinese Hub is different with international version. Which brings chaos to team collaborations.

 

Now they bring up this popup EVERY TIME I entered the play mode. Unity is becoming an adware sadly. They treat creators as casual consumers. Considering switch to godot.

 

The Unity Shanghai is making Unity Great Again，just like the ‘King of Omniscience’.

At least， remove the ADs.

 

We don't need the unity China Special Edition, we need the unity International Sync Edition.

 

Still no comment on this from Unity? We NEED a way to download the global version.

 

We NEED a way to download the global version.

 

These tips are my workarounds for now:

1. Download global version of Unity Hub with VPN. Be sure hiding your DNS

2. Do not upgrade in global Unity Hub. It will bring you latest Chinese Unity Hub, which contains ads


3. To prevent global Unity Hub downloading Unity Editor with Chinese registry, you may use direct link in release note page

 

Fun story: I first downloaded unity hub in Europe. Then I spent 6 month in Vietnam, updated unity hub (unknowingly to the Chinese version) and went back to Europe. Now I am stuck with the Chinese version while I never put a feet in China proper... I tried reinstalling everything a few times, but I still end up with the Chinese version. I cannot download the latest versions of the editor (as accessing the servers in China is a mess from Europe) and collaborating on projects is now a mess. I feel like I am flagged somewhere as a Chinese user. I wish there was an easy way to revert back to be a global user.

 

That sounds super worrying. You should report this to security journalists at Ars Technica or the Intercept if you don’t get a satisfactory answer back from Unity soon.

 

Unity Hub version 2.3.2 is the key point. I'm able to get this global version from https://public-cdn.cloud.unity3d.com/hub/prod/UnityHubSetup.exe now. Not sure why, I was always getting the Chinese version 2.3.8 from the same link even I'm from Singapore. Thanks for your help.

 

I want to ask if Hong Kong IP address will download China version of Unity Hub and Unity itself?

 

To determine your location, in most cases website uses ip range. So if your internet provider(ISP) picks Hong Kong ip for you, you will get the global hub in return. Barely heard that Hong Kong ISPs hand out mainland china ips.
But heard about some Vietnamese ISP once purchases services from mainland... This may be the reason for the

---
9.9.20 yesterday, unity hub 2.4.0 official releases, to some extent. For the user currently located in mainland, they only get the prompts about 2.3.11, which was released days ago. This is no good.

 

Having some people use the Global version and some use the Chinese version makes it really annoying with version control as certain files constantly get changed depending on if the Chinese or the Global version is in the repository.

packages-lock.json


ProjectVersion.txt (others have mentioned this)


I'm fairly sure this one is related too as I can't find any documentation on Slogan Image/Slogan Height. If it isn't I would love to know what it is though. As it only seems to be something that is added from the Chinese version.
ProjectSettings.asset


Can I suggest that you make some sort of Chinese only overrides that are only read/modified by the Chinese version if those settings are indeed unique to the Chinese version.

 

Maybe I'm miss understanding, but wouldn't that mean it's the same problem but just more obvious to see that it's actually a different version?

Once again I might be not understanding the solution but I think the problem will remain.

The problem is not that I want the project to reimport and be different, I just want the differences in the unity versions to be self contained so that if it only exists in the Chinese version that the Global version doesn't even know it exists. So for the ProjectSettings.asset for example. There would be a ProjectSettings_Chinese.asset that contains all the project settings that are specific to the Chinese version. For the ProjectVersion.txt you could do the same thing and have a ProjectVersion_Chinese.txt. That way version control won't get messed up when some members of our team us the Global version and some members use the Chinese version. Obviously you would want to make sure the base version matches between Global and Chinese, but as it stands it's just a bunch of modified files that's just useless noise when trying to find what has actually changed.

 

Just to give an update.

Now on 2019.4.15 it has all the same issues but you can tell that some people are using the Chinese version 2019.4.15f1c1 and some people the Global version 2019.4.15f1.


So my assumption was right about nothing really being different, it's just more clear as to what the problem is (if you know that c1 at the end of a version means Chinese version).

What I really want is for people to be working on both the Global and Chinese version at the same time and all of the files that need to be in source control SHOULD BE THE SAME. If something is specific to the Chinese version, put it in it's own Chinese specific file. To me it seems like the Chinese features should be a package, it would get rid of nearly all these issues.