Creating empty project slow due to packages?

It now takes Unity several minutes to create an empty project on my computer. I believe it's caused by various packages that are pulled in by default, because I see the import dialog importing all these things for quite a while, followed by several re-compiles.

Creating an empty project in 2018.2.0b3 pulls in these packages:

• Analytics Standard Events
• Analytics Library
• In App Purchasing
• com.unity.ads
• TextMesh Pro
• Package Manager UI

I've not used any of these things, beside TextMesh Pro, and not actually planning to do so. It's the "wrong default" for me, especially when preparing a bug-report.

How can I create an empty project that is actually empty?

 

It's not a great solution but you can remove those packages using the Package Manager UI and then you get a manifest.json that looks similar to this:

Code (JavaScript):

1. {
2.   "dependencies": {
3.     "com.unity.ads": "exclude",
4.     "com.unity.standardevents": "exclude",
5.     "com.unity.analytics": "exclude",
6.     "com.unity.purchasing": "exclude"
7.   }
8. }
9.  

You could then create your own "empty template" Unity folder with this manifest that you duplicate when creating bug reports?

It would be very nice if Unity could provide a way of selecting the build-in packages to start a project with. Anyone creating a desktop and/or console game won't need these packages so shouldn't have to pay the import cost of them.

 

Hi @Peter77 ,and @ScottyB

Which project template are you selecting when creating a new project? Have you noticed any specific regression in startup from 2017.3/.4 or 2018.1 compared 2018.2 beta builds? Is this something you notice only once, on first creation/launch of a new beta Editor build or consistently for every new project creation?

In the spirit of full disclosure , the choice to include those packages by default was made primarily for two reasons.

1) As more previous built-in features/services turn into packages we want to keep discoverability of those Editor features/ Unity services on par with before Package Manager UI was available.

2) Release testing - we are still refining are test cases for the various package combinations that can be on/off in a project. (please stay tuned for more updates related to Package Lifecycle and the direction we are heading towards)

The goal is to leverage templates and improve the new project creation flow via the Hub so the experience with Packages will be additive (e.g. only install what's required for a given workflow, platform) and not subtractive as is today. A truly empty project would be part of that but the challenge (while not technical) is defining that baseline 'empty' Unity Editor experience

It would be great to hear more about your workflows and what you would like to see in the future with project templates/creation.

Thanks
Daniel