Great move from Unity, Dark Mode is now free in the recent update for 2020.1 and 2019.3 LTS

https://unity3d.com/unity/whats-new/2020.1.2
https://unity3d.com/unity/whats-new/2019.4.8

Editor: Dark Theme editor preference is now available to all users

Great move. I updated and opened the editor (2020.1) and it defaults to dark mode. Sorry if I pre-empted an announcement, go ahead and delete this if I did.

 

What we will fight about now?

 

The splash screen being forced to be shown in games created with Personal edition, which has done nothing but devalue the brand.

 

Great news indeed. It's just odd that it's bound to a specific Unity version as opposed to the license itself.

Splash screen customization?

 

The dark theme being too dark!

 

Getting it back ported to older releases.

 

Wonderful

 

Hate to say it, but yeah.

I normally wouldn't mind the splash screen if it weren't for the negative reputation it gained from being associated with thousands of low-quality mobile games & asset flips filled with ads just to make a quick buck, despite the fact that tons of fantastic games have been made with Unity, like Subnautica, Cuphead, Ori and the Blind Forest, D.R.O.N.E, etc. However, some people either are unaware or just overlook those. As soon as they see the Unity logo, they immediately turn the other way.

Unity's high-level of accessibility & popularity is a double-edged sword.
Still, I can understand if they don't plan on removing the splash screen, and it won't stop me from continuing my own projects with the personal license.

 

Making it a plus/pro-only feature again, the way it is meant to be?

 

Changing their names into "Light" and "Dark"; for now they are still called "Personal" and "Professional".

 

Unity should now take a hint from games and introduce a reflective gold theme that will look really really REALLY ugly but be exclusive to Plus and Pro.

Pro users should also get access to the platinum theme.

And Enterprise users should get the secret VIP theme, whose looks are a mystery.

 

Finally, thanks a lot!

 

Now to wait for all the devs not using source control to flood the forums with complaints that upgrading Unity broke their project

 

Don't give them ideas...

In the meantime, what about a dark theme FOR THE FORUMS???

 

Looking forward to seeing this in the next 2020.2 alpha (today? tomorrow?) ..hopefully! I don't mind the light theme but it's nice to have another option.

 

Right, I mean we wouldn't want people to know about the secret theme they alrea-

I MEAN, WHAT SECRET THEME? HAHAHAHA! NOTHING TO SEE HERE FOLKS!

 

Me too... a20 is one week late; I hope they managed to fix the awful fps drop I have in it so that I can use it and enjoy the dark theme.

 

Good move!

 

Spoiler

You're legally obligated to use mystery color theme if you use VIP

 

Ah, the ol'

Spoiler

ketchup and mustard

school of design

 

I think they can just go with a gold skin for paid tiers.

 

Thanks, Unity!

Editor: Dark Theme editor preference is now available to all users

To activate the dark mode go to
Edit > Preferences > General > Editor Theme > Professional

Looks like you do not need a professional subscription license.



@neginfinity and here a white one

Spoiler

 

A very big thank you to Unity! Whoever pushed this through deserves a medal..

and a custom Unity cup..

 

As a brand manager, i agree! Association with low quality games isn't good for the brand. Let's hope they change it the future. It would be preferrable to everyone if they gave quality games a discount in the subscription for displaying "Made With Unity" splashscreens.

 

Hey, I want one!

 

Unity release 2019.4.8 includes a dark interface. The font is not white and is light gray. I use a 4K monitor so after switching to dark mode since there is no custom font color or making the font bold, I need to scale up the UI Scaling to 125%. But in the Game tab, my game looks little and has a 25% margin around it. Is there some workaround?
Solution: increase your contrast brightness or better the backlight of the TV or monitor. Before changing to 125%, close the Game tab. When you restart Unity, opening the Game tab should be fine

 

Like this? Sorry just finishing my coffee...

Spoiler: CUP!

 

Looked this thread up as soon as I opened the new update! Thank you Unity! No more eye strain and messing with hex code to save my eyeballs! Yaaaay!

 

I had to come here to make sure this wasn't some sort of bug I was so shocked haha

 

Anyone else feeling this is all so anti-climactic?

 

My eyes are very grateful. Now I dont have such a high variation of brightness when switching between the IDE and Unity

 

You have to admit, it would be really weird for them to pretend this was a big deal in the year 2020 Anno Domini (or Common Era, whichever you prefer.)

 

They don’t need to pretend it’s a big deal. The old Unity would have done a little mea culpa, maybe self deprecating say “look this is something our customers have been asking for for a long time and we think it’s the right decision, here ya go, sorry it took so long.” Or maybe somehow make a joke out of their long indecision (anyone remember the mustache man marketing for unity 5? That Unity is long gone).

The new Unity could never admit such a thing, or be anything less than absolutely serious. Since they can’t justify marketing this they are just gonna slide it through without comment? It’s just so weird.

 

Finally! I almost didn't believe when I saw this on changelog!

 

I had occasion to use 2019.4.8f1 earlier today - looks great! Thanks, whoever at Unity got this to happen. Now if only 2020.2.0a20 would happen.. a19 is so 2 weeks ago

 

Recently, there was a package that allowed loading an external dark theme, using features from the new UI.
I bet the argument was won by someone saying dark mode is now available for free externally AND a potential source of waves of future bug reports. Keeping it Pro-only would only have only wasted more money than it was worth, I guess.

Anyways, that's still a very welcome change. It should have its own Youtube trailer!

 

I created that package (enhancer) a few months ago and all I can tell you is that the initial reaction from Unity was shipping a quick fix to disable my hack... so I suppose we will never know what happened afterwards and whether or not the existence of my package helped a little bit to win the argument, but anyway I am happy to see they made the right decision.

 

It's definitely a change driven by community demand, although I think they made the actual decision a long time ago.

Back in October last year the official Unity twitter account responded to a direct question about this and strongly hinted that this was happening in 2020, we just didn't know when:

"...at the moment the dark theme is available with Plus and Pro subscriptions – but keep an eye out for an update on this topic in 2020 "

 

This is great, but I wish that they would allow dark mode on earlier versions of Unity. I'm using 2019.2.11f1 and do not wish to update to the new flat UI as it is harder for me to use, but in order to use the dark theme I would need to do so.

 

You say "2019.3 LTS", but it seems to be 2019.4 and up in what they call "2019 LTS".

 

i was waititing for this

 

What does the new UI look like? I'm on 2019.3 and don't remember a change.

 

Thank you so much, Unity! S2

 

Well, so this means that plus subscription is now just basically paying 40$ a month to remove the unity logo from the splash screen. It is quite a funny situation for the company to charge its users for the ability to hide any association with the unity brand. (i know about 200k limit increase)

 

'Twas a typo, apologies.

 

This is a great improvement. I have always thought the dark theme looked nicer and that Unity should always put their best foot forward in that regard. Who ever made this change does deserve a pat on the back or something.

 

Dark theme default in 2020.2.a21! Thanks Unity!

 

Will that look somewhat like this? :

Pretty cool!

 

Hey but anyone checked out Unreal 5?

It looks awesome!