Feedback Lack of "Preferred" in Unity Hub 2.0, main "New" should create project in preferred version

Why was preferred removed?

Sometimes you have to update multiple projects to a certain unity version that isn't the latest, and having to click cancel when opening because Unity decided to remove the preferred version setting and you have to click cancel and manually choose is a nuisance...

 

I will often pick a stable or previous version as my "preferred" but then need to sometimes grab the latest to load up project examples from Github, etc.. The latest is often not the best default.

Unity should not run on an always-update principle which the lack of preferred seems to be promoting. It's not an OS or other software, it's a development environment. It's not always good to update projects while working on a production game. Latest Unity releases are far from perfect and there are now a lot of experimental aspects to 2019.x

So yes, I believe it is good practice / necessity to be able to set a preferred version.

Otherwise, it's partially defeating the point of LTS release and it seems a downgrade of the Hub too. Unless I'm mistaken and there's some other added functionality (such as keeping projects on major | point versions by default) to replace preferred?

 

Preferred Setting has been essential for me as I work on a large number of legacy projects and sometimes will use them as a basis for a new project and don't want to risk starting in a newer version of Unity.

I would very much like to see it return.

 

Awesome, man!
You could to add a option to delete old projects, rename too. That's my idea.

 

At the very least, please just add a prompt when it isn't clear which version of Unity a project should be opened in.

• Creating a new project? Prompt me for which version to use. Don't assume I want to start a new project in 2019.2.0b1.
• Opening a project which uses a version of Unity which isn't installed? Prompt me for which version to use. Don't assume I want to open it in 2019.2.0b1.

 

Same here, "Preferred" version was a very important feature!

 

Please restore the preferred version selection!

 

Indeed, why was preferred removed? I agree with the sentiment that removing it promotes Unity running on an always-update principle, but I thought this wasn't even the case considering the different update streams we have now (otherwise what is the point of having them?).

Forgive me if the reason has been stated somewhere, I just haven't found it and I thought if it should be anywhere it should be in the accompanying update notes...

 

Crossposted from https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-hub-v2-0-0-default-editor-removal.680869/

We have some bash scripts (on Mac) that used the 'defaultEditor.json' data to create handy symlinks to the default editor's installed documentation and path to the UnityYAMLMerge tool. This helped to avoid having to manually update bookmarks and locate paths to the merge tool within source control apps like SourceTree and Plastic etc. after every Editor update.

Is there a way to expose some data for the latest version or something to help with this minor inconvenience?

 

The preferred version was a dumb hack. Instead of doing the correct thing, the 2.0 Hub version still has a preferred version, but instead of that being something the user can set, it's the current install with the latest numerical value.

Which is like... why? @joeksy, what issue did you think that the preferred version had that "the latest version" doesn't have?

Here's an illustration of the current situation:

 

I completely agree that the preferred version isn't needed. It was a kinda clumsy way to handle what version to open by default it.

I think it's bad to have a default version. The ideal way these things would work is:
- Click "New": Get a menu for creating a new project that includes version selection
- Click a project where the correct version is installed: Open that project in that version
- Click a project where the correct version is not installed: Open a menu that asks what you want to do.
- Change the value of the version dropdown: Write the new version to projectversion.txt

None of these should in any way have a certain Unity version prefered because you don't know what Unity version we need.

In that way I could handle the version I want to use for a project in a comfortable way. Right now it's all special menus and unintuitive dropdowns.

We might want to use LTS over Tech. We probably want to use Tech over Beta/Alpha. We might need to create a bug repro, in which case the version is important. There's tons of good reasons to not use the latest version for projects.

I swear, most of the bad decisions the Hub team makes comes back to not understanding that we want to chose the version we want to use. Choosing the version is one of the core reasons why the Hub exists. I keep getting baffled that you don't understand this.

 

I don't think "preferred version" is necessary or useful. The current UX isn't great though. I largely agree with Baste:
- Make "NEW" a simple button and have version selection on the create project screen. The current design is more complicated for no good reason.
- DON'T default to Alpha or Beta versions... latest available final release is fine if it's easy to change via a dropdown
- Don't have the warning icon (which is just annoying TBH) for projects that don't have their Unity version available. Just ask to select version on launch, and you can default to the closest match if the same major version is available (so a 2019.1.f1 project could default to 2019.1.f3)

Overall I don't see this as a big issue, but maybe others create new projects a lot more frequently than I do? Even if I were to create many new projects the version I use for each would be a case-by-case basis... some latest stable, some beta if looking at upcoming features etc. "Preferred" doesn't make sense for me.

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Urghhhh.... I just went and set versions for all projects with missing Unity installs, then when switching back to Hub it's lost all those settings so the annoying warning icons are right back. Maybe the selected version only saves if you open the project?

 

What I'm saying is that the dropdown is tiny, uncomfortable, and hard to navigate:



It would be much better to just have the new button, and then put the version decision in here:



In the current UX, you've spread the decisions about how to make a new project over two screens, and the project selection dropdown is not very comfortable to use (small text, lots of scrolling, hard-to-distinguish version names due to looking similar, etc.).

If you put the version selector in the create new version menu, you could also make it a lot better by giving it space for nesting minor versions inside of major ones.

This is not what I'm describing. The message is disconnected, requires us to take action in a different place. Instead of this:



I want something like this, just not ugly:



In essence; don't tell me what actions I need to take in other places, make the actions directly available to me.

See @Huacanacha's post; the current behaviour is very, very confusing. Leaving it for the Editor to handle is no good, because the Editor does arbitrary and stupid things. Upgrading the version of a project has always included this little panic of "did it actually write to projectversion.txt, or will I have to spend tomorrow going through merge conflict hell". If you just had that dropdown write to projectversion, it'd be a much better, less confusing world.

 

The newest one might be installed to try testing with new functionality but user might prefer some version until the newest are more stable

For simple example. 2019 is still not really stable. Many preview package cannot be used because it not approved. I have install it to look and see what it changed but don't want to create new project with it yet

 

It also seems like some people simply don't understand the current implementation.

 

Yeah, the UI is just confusing and annoying as it is. Baste's suggestions would be nice. The Hub V1 didn't feel as kludgy as V2.

Why can't there be a setting to

• toggle using a preferred version
• option to set the desired preferred version to latest, latest of a certain major version, or custom
• a toggle to include betas

Then everyone can work with the HUB how they want.

Also for the love of all that is holy, can we have a link (or even better a built-in display) to the changelogs next to the install buttons? It's the first thing I look at before installing because I'm wary of installing the newest versions and want to know what relevant things got fixed to see if it's worth it; doubly so because the Hub wants to force me to the latest...

 

Hi guys,

I have problem opening the lastest version. No matter what I do, I always end up loading unity 2019.1.7f1 even if I open unity directly from 2019.3.1

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

 

Because I have 10 versions of Unity [no joke] installed for asset testing and comparability purposes and having to be extra careful to examine what Unity version I'm opening and then having to use another drop down to get to where I wanna get is a pain in the behind.

AND I don't want to default to starting projects in beta and alpha installs.

Please bring back "Preferred'. You have slowed me down tremendously with it's removal.

 

I'm having similar issues to those above, would love to be able to open projects with preferred Unity version please.

 

Please, be considerate with beginners like me. It's simple, try to play the RPG Kit tutorial. You can't because it's supported only on 2019.2, so, you have to uninstall all newer versions ! Makes no senseat all to not being able to choose AT LEAST on the learn tab the version to open! edit: The RPG Kit seems not functional... it says 2019.4 is required but onlt 19.2 is supported.

 

I think prefered version is a very useful feature, even if there is a version selector in the new project window, having a default is useful to avoid mistakes. I tend to open my normal projects with a specific version all the time. It makes it much easier to handle when working on several devices that have synchronized copies of the project. But I may also want to check out new functionality from time to time. Bleeding edge can be interesting, but not my default choice.

That aside I have experienced that it does not always use the latest version, sometimes it picks another one. The only way to tell is the small text in the window title of the new project window, which is not very obvious.

 

I don't understand this decision. Sometimes it's just necessary to create a new project using an older version.

 

This all makes way more sense from a UI/UX perspective then the minimalist interpretation that currently exists that is only confusing.

Three times yesterday i launched a new project with the wrong version because i kept expecting to be asked what version to use. I eventually just gave up. I hadn't realized that the new button had this hidden drop down menu to select the version.

Sometimes an explicit UI is more useful than a minimal one. All you UI/UX guys need to get off this minimalism diet. Its killing usability.

 

I have 2019 installed for a current project and 2020 installed for a new project. Why is it when I create a new project for prototyping, it defaults to 2019? If there's no rhyme nor reason to which version will be used, as others state, the New button should be replaced with the drop-down. It's not that big a deal having to select a version for a new project - I'd have wasted far less time having to select my Unity version for every new project I ever make than searching what's going on and finding out how to pick a version to use for new projects!!