Official Dedicated Server sub-target support

Dedicated Server sub-target support

We are excited to share that the Unity Build Automation team has officially launched support for building Dedicated Server applications for Windows targets.

The Dedicated Server is a desktop sub-target that optimizes server build efficiency by automatically stripping unnecessary assets and code during project builds. This results in space and processing efficiency, making it more cost-effective for server operators to run server applications created with Unity.

The feature is available through our API and dashboard only for Windows Standalone Desktop targets using Unity version 2021.3.x or newer, built on a Windows OS builder. However, you can expect support for Linux and Mac Standalone Desktop targets in the coming months.

Building a Dedicated Server sub-target

To enable the feature for your build target on the UBA dashboard, create a new Windows target, select a Unity version option that matches 2021.3 or newer and select Windows as the Builder operating system (OS) in the Basic Settings tab. Finally, go to the Advanced Settings tab and check the Enable dedicated server option.

To enable the feature using our API, you can set the build target's property

settings.advanced.unity.editorUserBuildSettings.standaloneBuildSubtarget=“Server”

- if your sub-target is not a Dedicated Server, you don't need to set this property, as it is set to “Player” by default - refer to the Unity Manual for more details about this option: https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/StandaloneBuildSubtarget.html

It is important to note that the headless mode is still supported for Unity version 2021 and older.

 

Support for Linux and Mac dedicated servers is now live, see the details here: https://forum.unity.com/threads/dedicated-server-sub-target-support-for-linux-mac.1488540/