Loading normally versus Async

Excuse me if there is a post about this already -- I was unable to find it.

What is the true difference between loading a scene normally versus loading it asynchronously? Is the latter done on a separate thread?

 

pretty much

Loading normally means the game stops rendering or doing anything while the load goes on.

Async means that the game will continue processing while the load occurs.

You use the 'Async' method to be able to animate some loading screen while you load.

 

One important note about both methods, is that only the Loading part of the scene is done Async. After that part is done, Unity uses the main thread to activate the loaded scene(s) which can result (especially in editor, builds are better) in a slight freeze/hiccup.