Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

Feedback Option to show/hide Alpha/Beta Installs

Discussion in 'Unity Hub' started by amisner2k, Jun 11, 2019.

  1. amisner2k

    amisner2k

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2017
    Posts:
    43
    So I recently had quite the ordeal that I need to basically tell a story to explain. Here's the gist though: There should be an option to show/hide Alpha/Beta Installs in the Add Unity Version popup modal that appears when going to add a new Unity Editor install.

    I had a case where I was notified in the Unity Editor that a new version was available. I closed the editor, opened Unity Hub, went to the Installs tab, clicked Add, clicked the first item in the list (since it's most recent). Turns out I accidentally installed an Alpha version for 2019.3 (2019.3.0a2 to be exact). I didn't even realize I went from .1 to .3 as the numbers kinda blur together after a while. I happily set my existing project to use the new version I installed. I was informed that I would be upgrading the project but the popup doesn't warn you that you're upgrading to an Alpha. I did notice the "Alpha" tag in the actual tiled list of Installs but I was still under the impression that I didn't actually install an Alpha version and l thought this "Alpha" was a different kind of Alpha (I don't know what I was thinking, I was just confused). The "Alpha" tag should probably be a more eye-catching warning color (like orange) so it really stands out.

    Anyway, I start using the editor and Shader Graph and start realizing more buggy behavior than usual, but thought nothing of it. Finished my work for the day. Did more work the next day and found even more bugs using Shader Graph and seeing constant errors in the Console. I thought, wow this new version has a lot of bugs, wth is going on in the QA department. I got increasingly frustrated. This whole time I'm just completely unaware that I'm actually using an alpha version (where bugs are expected).

    Anyway, long story short, the process for upgrading Unity versions (which starts with the popup notification in the Editor itself needs to be improved and streamlined for production users like myself who are in a hurry and not interested in testing alpha or beta releases.

    Ideally, the "New Version Notification" popup in the Editor should basically have a one-click install button on it that will automatically close the Editor, launch the install for the next stable version (the version that the popup actually shows), then relaunch the newly installed Editor version with your project.

    The whole thing should be a one-click process (because we're going from one stable version to another) no need to make the user jump through a myriad of hoops just to start using the new stable version.
     
  2. dgoyette

    dgoyette

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2016
    Posts:
    4,193
    I came here to make a similar suggestion, so I'll just +1 and add to yours.

    For reference, here's what it currently looks like when you look at Installs in Unity Hub:

    upload_2019-6-11_11-23-8.png

    It's very strange to have non-official releases not only in the list, but featured at the top of the list. The Alpha release is even selected by default.

    I don't know what it's like when you're first installing Unity these days, but it seems that making it really easy for uninformed user to use an Alpha version of the product will be bad for everyone. (New user encounters bugs only found in the Alpha, no one knows how to fix their issue since it's just an Alpha bug, new user quits in frustration...)

    So yeah, ideally Alpha and Beta releases would be in their own section, very clearly labeled. If that's hard, maybe adjust the sort order so they're not on top? And don't pre-select the Alpha release...

    Even more ideally, break the releases out by their Major and Minor build versions. I did something similar as the OP once when I went to install 2019.1.4, and without noticing installed 2018.4 instead. With all the version numbers kind of looking similar, it would be nice to group them to make that a bit more obvious.
     
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2019
    TonyLi, codestage and amisner2k like this.
  3. amisner2k

    amisner2k

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2017
    Posts:
    43
    Thanks for adding that screenshot, @dgoyette. I'm glad I'm not the only one who was affected by this! I appreciate your post. :)
     
    codestage likes this.
  4. codestage

    codestage

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2012
    Posts:
    1,931
    As an Asset Store Publisher, I really would appreciate if alpha and beta Unity version would be hidden or moved to the bottom by default in the Hub's Add Unity Version window.

    The problem is, many customers do install alphas or betas and sometimes they are not aware it's unstable Unity version which do change often and have breaking changes which are not worth supporting in the assets since they can not survive whole cycle till release.

    This does leads to the general confusion, bad reviews or often support request and bad experience in Unity in general.
     
  5. codestage

    codestage

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2012
    Posts:
    1,931
    Just to let you know, it was implemented in latest Unity hub updates:

    upload_2019-7-12_0-1-29.png
     
    amisner2k and LeoRH like this.
  6. LeoRH

    LeoRH

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2019
    Posts:
    1
    yes look's a nice implement because i use Alpha and i don't even know it was like a beta because on before version all version show in the same place so i think it doesn't matter if i chose that latest Alpha and i see maybe have bugs because some unity objets like camara don't apear like their lost texture i don't know if i touch something but i unistall it and install official to see if the problem solve but i don't know if i can use the proyect i create in the Alpha maybe i start with a new template
     
  7. dgoyette

    dgoyette

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2016
    Posts:
    4,193
    You're missing a few periods and commas there, but I think you question is, how can you take your project you opened in 2019.3 Alpha and open it in 2019.1. The official answer is that you can't. You should expect that the project won't work properly if opened in an earlier version of Unity. Unofficially, you can try changing the unity version associated with the project, and see what happens, but you should expect a potentially large number of issues doing this.

    So, probably just chalk it up as a loss, and start a new project in 2019.1. You can always copy over any scripts/c# code you wrote, so then you'd just need to remake the scenes and prefabs.
     
  8. amisner2k

    amisner2k

    Joined:
    Jan 9, 2017
    Posts:
    43
    Just noticed this myself when opening the Hub today and installing the new version. This is a great improvement and even better than my suggestion of showing/hiding. This solves the problem beautifully. Thanks Unity Hub devs!