Question How much should I use Resources.Load()?

I read that I need to be careful because I think it said all of the Resources will be brought into each scene. If I use Resources to keep a lot of things in, would that be a problem for the average game? I'm specifically things of keep all audio in there. I know that probably wouldn't be recommended, but could I technically get away with it. I just finished a chapter on sound from a book I'm studying and learned that audio clips, especially long ones, can take up a lot of memory...

 

Not the resources themselves, but the indexing table.

I would learn Addressables instead properly and setup assets on the way they should be so they can be loaded and unloaded as needed.
I also would rather click the audio 'streaming' option rather than resources load.

In summary: you should aim zero

Resources.Load()

as hard as you can.

 

The issues related to the indexing table are very overblown, using Resources.Load is fine. We've been using it liberally (although not more than we need) and we haven't had a problem with that aspect even on S***ty dog ass slow mobile devices.

I'm not even sure Unity knows what the problem is, because when they produced a blog post to convince everyone to use asset bundles instead of Resources, there was barely any benefit shown (if at all).

https://blog.unity.com/technology/asset-bundles-vs-resources-a-memory-showdown

This is asset bundles:


This is Resources:



And again asset bundles but now "optimized"


Which one uses less memory?

Employees have also said the wrong things in the past as well.

That said, don't put in it more things than you need. I wouldn't use it for audio really, there are other ways to manage audio related memory that don't involve the resources folder.

Should you have your whole project in Resources? Definitely not. Should you put some assets that you only want to load sometimes in there? Absolutely.

You should use it as much as you need it and not more.

You can also read older discussion on the matter here: https://forum.unity.com/threads/how-to-reduce-enter-play-mode-time.484279/#post-3156006

 

THIS!!! I have used nothing but Resources.Load() in almost every one of my personal games and they run just fine, even on creaky crusty ten-year-old mobile hardware.

The same zombie people shrieking on and on about Resources.Load() being a problem are probably related in some weird and unholy way to those howling about how coroutines are faster than Update (THEY AREN'T!).

In fact, here's my blurb:

Always use

Resources.Load<T>()

, never use

Resources.Load() as T

https://forum.unity.com/threads/resources-load-not-working.1137463/#post-7306567

And the same goes for

Resources.LoadAll<T>()

Generally you want to avoid writing code that is simply waiting to mysteriously fail simply by the future appearance of an identically-named file of a different type.

Maybe this explains why so many people say it is slow:

ALSO: Always put your resources in type-ish subfolders if you use Resources.LoadAll<T>(). As of this writing, if you use Resources.LoadAll<T>("foldername/"), Unity will load ALL FOUND ASSETS at that path into memory, then check each type and only return to you the ones that meet type T. But Unity will have already loaded all the assets it finds in that path, so expect massive performance problems if you don't use subdirectories.

 

I have had only good experiences so far using Resources.Load() and the like. I just would like to understand it better. Do Assets that are in Project folders other than Resources get brought into the final executable game? I'm trying to understand what the consequences would be and why for having too many assets in the Resources folder vs too many assets in general.

 

Everything in the resources gets added to you build regardless of whether you use it in the game.

(same as with asset bundles...)

Stuff in the rest of your folders only get added to the build if there are direct references to it in the scenes you are building.

 

Ok, awesome! Sorry, still trying to grasp some of the basics...

 

Absolutely no need to apologise for anything. And you are asking about an issue that even Unity employees are not clear on, so it's definitely something to ponder about.

In general though, don't go crazy about best practices and trying to pre-emptively prevent problems. As long as you reasonably look into things when you use them, you should be fine. It is inevitable that along the way you'll hit some roadblock that will force you to change your approach and then you will waste a couple of weeks to change the approach, but those are the kinds of things you can't quite avoid, especially as a beginner.

 

Ok, I can follow that advice. Thanks!

 

I'd really like to be able to put all of my prefabs and audio clips in Resources. For one reason or another it seems to help me avoid null references as my program goes through creative changes. But that sounds like it will make the initial load too long. I just wish there was a way to tell Unity which Resources I will be loading for that scene, and have only those added to the "index".

 

Sorry, but what you're saying implies that all of the assets in Resources are loaded at startup, which going by this thread and several others should not be the case.

Yes, the indexing file is created at startup, and can use RAM and cause a lag spike, but all assets are not loaded into RAM.

Can you clarify?

 

An "asset bundle gets loaded" doesn't mean the contents of it are loaded, just that Unity prepares the look-up table for the assets within it.

 

Thanks for the clarification!