Official Package Manager updates in 2020.1 beta

It is looks like very small step forward and it is good thanks

One thing that looks bad is package that consume 2 lines instead of single line
Another is absence of groups
Third is another package statuses Preview is good but what is preview? Is it Alpha or is it Prototype, when package will be in Alpha, Beta. RC and finally release state?

Big scroll say that this UI somewhat bad and it is hard to find something in it. Group by category like 2D... may help.

For now we actually dont see any bug fix(hot fix) for package.
If package has stable version that is buggy, then UT ship new version with fixes but that new version is in preview and many versions with fixes after it in preview too.

So it looks like we very strongly pushed to use preview versions because Verified version is buggy and these bugs never fixed in stable verified version, Only in new previews. Good sample of this is Addressables package. Verified version is 1.1.10 but it is very buggy and actually I dont advise to use it in prodution. We end up on version 5.1 that way more stable but it in preview.

I propose you to create standard for package versioning that will push package devs to explicitly state status of package, updates, fixes and new versions.

e.g. you have semantic versioning major.minor.bugfix

use major version 0 [0.5.1] to indicate that package in prototype stage and can be dropped or redone in another way
use major version >= 1 [1.0.1 a] to indicate that package in a way to ship that major version and never change major version until dropping support for package.

use minor version to indicate new feature release for version
use bugfix version to indicate that it is just new bugfixes inside

use postfix to indicate state of release:
a - alpha - features somewhat work and will not be changed but very buggy. no documentation
b - beta - features mostly stable but have some bugs inside. most docs is ready
rc - release candidate - features and docs considered final and go through final testing stages
r - final release - stable product

In my opinion Stable version like [1.1.10 r] must become stable [1.1.11 r] after bug fixes. or in special cases can be shipped as rc [1.1.11 rc] just to indicate that additional testing needded and then become release [1.1.11 r] when tests actually passed.

New features can start from alpha stage like [1.2.0 a] to indicate new feature set and status of completeness, then [1.2.0 b] [1.2.0 rc] and finally [1.2.0 r]. May be allow to not release version and create new one like
[1.2.0 a] -> [1.3.4 a] -> [1.4.1 b] -> [1.5.8 a] -> [1.5.12 b] -> [1.5.18 rc] -> [1.5.20 r]

Major version must be changed only in package want do drop support for some LTS Unity version or just create absolutely new version of package with new basement. So there is moment when devs support few package version in time bugfixing and may be adding new features to version 1 while actively developing version 2.

 

They are not the changes I was waiting for, but thanks for working on refining it.

Each line item in the package manager takes up double the space now.

I wrote my first impressions here:

Package manager 2020.20a9


I will repeat some of those points here to keep them all in this feedback list

My first priority when using package manager is importing assets from the asset store.

Things I need for that to work smooth:

• Load the whole list and keep it in memory.
• Keep the old line spacing height. ( I can see double the amount of assets at one time. )
• Make search more snappy ( search from memory not from the server )
• Let me decide in settings if I want pagination or not
• Let me add labels inside the package manager so I can organise by label.

The preview package in use warning is not really helping me import assets faster, it's just telling me what I already know.

Thanks for the updates!

 

I agree with the sentiments above. I expect the current list of pacakges to double over the next couple of years as unity brings out more packages and replaces old ones with new ones (the asset bundle browser package is a good example) and that's not even including scoped registry packages and embedded packages teams will use for a project.

I've written several packages myself and I've noticed that there's several extra fields in the package.json schema that even existing unity packages are using like category but they're not taken advantage of when it comes to searching or filtering packages in the window, making it harder to find what you're looking for.

All in all, these changes are very much welcome but we still have a ways to go!

 

@LeonhardP, the preview thing is applied to all packages (included custom package) using "preview" as the pre-release identifier?

 

The list of packages is now harder to look at because each line is no longer just the package name

 

^ This

 

Also echoing @Lars-Steenhoff. Thanks but this is not a solution to any of the problems your users are experiencing on a daily basis. And it actually creates or aggravates existing issues.

Are there any plans to address the feedback your users have been attempting to provide to you @LeonhardP ? The many ongoing issues with the PM that affect “My assets”? Any of the search issues? Labelling issues? Extensive issues experienced by those with many assets? (10 minutes and 40 seconds elapse between the time I click on sort by Update and when the UI updates itself to show me the new versions). Or UX horrors like the sort filter? Or... god forbid... the ability to know which assets users have imported in their project and what version it was that was imported?

 

@LeonhardP ...

- Text Mesh Pro and Terrain Tools packages are in Preview and hence give your users the big yellow warning in the package list (and also at the top of the editor, in case your users are not very bright). These packages are both v3.x.x and yet have always been in preview, even when going up major versions. What does that tell us?

- when the big green Verified label appears next to a package, does that mean “verified for the version of Unity I have open” or does it actually mean it’s “verified for a version of Unity I may or may not be using”?

 

Please add an option to remove this button permanently. I guess it's not enough that the Titlebar shows in all caps "PREVIEW PACKAGES IN USE"? Having to hide it every time I restart Unity is getting annoying and it's pretty distracting to leave up.

 

Here is a bit of feedback regarding the new "Preview Packages in Use" button...



I would like to understand the reason behind adding this button, can you explain that?

It seems the only new information, that wasn't available before, is the new "Why am I seeing this?" link, which opens:

https://docs.unity3d.com/2020.1/Documentation/Manual/pack-preview.html

1) Why do you ask to not use preview packages? Is this causing too much QA cases?

2) If you want people to understand the implications of preview packages, I'm sure this button is not helping. You should add the preview disclaimer to every preview package inside the package manager window instead. And you actually did this, so you already believe the button is useless too.



3) If you want people to read the preview disclaimer, you should probably change it to a warning and move it above the description.

4) Yellow text on bright background is uncomfortable to read, but maybe that's on purpose.

 

Hi Daniel,

you mentioned:
"Unfortunately, the .unitypackage format from the Asset Store doesn't allow us to track which Assets are installed in project like we can with the newer UPM format"

I have thought about this and in a given project I could solve this by using the labels as follows:

• I will give all the assets imported into the project the label with the ( project name )
• Now its much easier to narrow down any updates and keep track of them ( I could also label the version number)

Its good to hear the labels will be able to be assigned inside the editor

Thanks for reverting the line height

 

Some UX horrors are going on there..
Maybe you guys should start giving the design part to the UX/UI team, instead of leaving it to the programmers?

 

@Lars-Steenhoff i used to do that hack when it was still possible. It’s one step removed from using a pen and paper. I’d rather a proper fix, as I know you and thousands of other users would too.

Hi Daniel. Thanks for your reply. Some more questions for you! Some rhetorical , some genuine.

1. Is your UX team concerned that “update” for “In project” = “import” for “My Assets” (with “update” meaning something completely different there?)

2. When I import an asset in My Assets, is it technically possible for the editor to include the package name and version number in the .meta files associated to that package? And if so, would it also be technically possible for the editor to read from the meta files to not only let me know which version of the package I have imported but also to let me “remove” the package (as is the case with Unity packages)?

3. Why does the PM suddenly know if an asset store package is in my project straight after I’ve clicked on import? Because in that “Import Unity Package” pop up confirmation window, the PM tells me precisely which files will change at my end, which have been deleted (at your end but not mine - no option for that) and which are new. That’s especially weird if, as you say, “ the .unitypackage format from the Asset Store doesn't allow us to track which Assets are installed in project”.

4. When you did your tests with “thousands” of Assets Store assets, did those assets eat up all of your laptop’s hard drive space or did you do what many users do and follow the hack suggested by @Schubkraft... seven years ago ? As a real-life user, I’ve symlinked my asset store download folder to an external hard drive. And were your assets downloaded onto your machine or kept in the cloud? Did you test on various machines, operating systems and network bandwidths? In other words, did your tests use such a real-life scenario? As an aside, it would be nice to simply give us the option of whether or not we want to clog up our hard drives.

5. Is there anything at your end that would justify a difference in time between when the PM is able to sort packages by update time and when the PM is able to display the actual new version and “Update” link (which as mentioned above, many new users would assume means the same as the In Project “update”)? Because I can guarantee you that is what is happening to me. The wait is anywhere between a couple of minutes and 12 minutes. I’m using Unity 2020.1 and 2020.2 on OS X Catalina, with a recent MacBook Pro.

6. If Unity packages are “verified” for the version of Unity I’m using, why is URP 7 showing up as verified in 2020.1 and 2020.2 then? Because according to the URP team, it’s intended for 2019.3... hence my confusion.

7. Do you ever do User Acceptance Testing before a release? And if so, are the “users” the actual programmers, as per @Neonage ’s comment, or real-life users? And if you actually do any UAT, how many users figured out right away whether they should click on “Sort: Update date [up arrow]” or “Sort: Update date [down arrow]” when you presented them with the scenario “as a user I want to sort my assets with the most recently updated ones on top”? Amusingly, “update” in “update date” has a 3rd meaning and doesn’t refer to whether the package was imported in the project nor If it was updated in my asset-store folder; it refers to whether it was updated (or simply had its description updated) on Unity’s asset store server.

 

@willgoldstone This is not your area but would love answers to any of these questions.

 

Yes good points, I would prefer a working version control for my assets too, but while thats not happening yet, the labels will save my sanity.

 

In response to my previous feedback...

While you're at the Package Manager to move the preview disclaimer above the package description, as I described in the post above, can you also get rid of the "More..." button?

If you move the preview disclaimer above the preview, you don't have to be afraid anymore it would move out of sight and you can just display the entire description text again. This avoids one click to read the description.

 

Took me forever to figure out that the "Show Preview Packages" option has been moved to that new "warning drop down." Not sure what else to call that thing.

 

Hi.

Here is an example of what I think is easier to read and more efficient if you're still working on it.


1) I'd also ad an option to get favorites and have them showing on top of the list. Have those follow us in every project for every version of Unity. For both the packages and the asset store.

2) Beyond favorites, an option to make a package/asset getting installed with new projects like you do for TextMesh pro for example.

2b) Vice versa, an option to remove some of the default packages we don't use. A temporary option would be to have an exposed default "manifest.json" we can edit. Long term solution would be to have it store in the cloud so it works on every user/company computers.

3) An option to be able to select multiple packages and install them all at once so we're not stuck on the computer doing that one by one. Apply that to the store so it would automatically download and import. If conflict with present asset in the project, memorize that file, put it last on the list as a new package and proceed ignoring it so we can manually deal with it later without stopping massive installs.

4) Icons on the Left side would be welcome, especially on the asset store. Since it's already loading images and have thumbnails for the store, they'd be useful to quickly identify assets we might not remember the name of.

5) I agree with what have been said about the Asset Store. The default window only displays 25 of my 445 assets: it doesn't even go past the letter A. Just load the full list right away. If it takes time, have unity memorize it and add a refresh button. Also an option for favorites.

I hope that helps. Thanks for the updates.

 

@DanielTG Thanks for your reply. UT seems to be improving noticeably this year when it comes to spending the time to respond to users.

Comments on your reply...

1. Might be worth separating the Package Manager into 2 then, if the functionality is so different? Otherwise, if for internal political reasons you're not able to do that, perhaps consider adding "upgrade" to "import" and "update". So the UPM would have "import" and "upgrade" and My Assets would have "download", "update" (aka "upgrade on drive but not in project") and "import/upgrade" while we wait for a full-fledged "upgrade [in project]" Also the UPM could have a "downgrade" instead of the current situation (eg. currently when going from Cinemachine 2.6 to 2.5 the button reads "update to 2.5").

2 & 3. "The .meta files inside the .unitypackage were not intended to represent metadata for the package but the individual assets is my understanding". Who cares what the intention was? If as point 1 indicates, My Assets is nowhere near being able to replicate the functionality of the UPM then tap into this as a short term fix. ie. If the meta files inside the unity package relate to the individual assets but also include a package name and version number, then what more data do you need for My Assets to know if a package (or part thereof) currently exists in a project? You can then add a "remove" button to the My Assets options.

4 & 5. Maybe test with the workaround I mentioned, then! Ideally though, give us the option of where to store these files. This is what other applications do. My 10+ minute wait is not a regression by the way. It used to take me close to an hour before the asset store was ditched from the editor. I can point you to the long threads complaining about this... if you're ever short on user vitriol? So 10+ minutes is a definite improvement. A bit more effort at your end and perhaps the 2-3 second mark can be reached. By the way, I'm curious to know how long it takes for updates to show up on your test-machines, for situations when users have 1200+ assets. And if it's 2-3 seconds I'd be curious to know why a symlink adds 10 minutes delay at my end, were that to be the culprit.

6. "For example using 2020.1 beta 8 I can see URP 8.0.x is the now verified version" I can see that too... now that it's just been changed! However 7.x was the verified package for 2020.1 and 2020.2 up until very recently, which to me implied that verified packages were not matched to an editor version.

7. As a 2020.2a user I'm already doing testing for you, so yes am interested in continuing that in a slightly more formalised capacity if that's an option!

8. (Bonus comment ) Sometimes I'll upgrade a package and then, after the fact, receive a red warning telling me that it won't work because I'm missing the dependencies. Packages can only be upgraded one a time so there is no way around this and I need to spend the time to write down the version numbers of dependencies to make sure I get these right. And the dependencies themselves might have dependencies. A mess. Is there a reason why the Package Manager can't tell me from the get-go "Would you like to also install/update the following dependencies, which are required by the package you are about to install"? That might even save the editor from having to re-import my assets multiple times.

9. (What the heck) I really really think the UPM should be separated from My Assets and moved to the Hub, where you could also provide more templates (including ones that come with basics like TMP and Cinemachine). You'd kill 2 birds with one stone then, as people would no longer be able to complain about the Hub being essentially useless.

 

I haven't read the complete forum so my apologies if this feedback is redundant.

1. Can we get rid of the more... button? We have scroll fields, no need to overthink it.
2. Can we get package groups: foldouts that packages are stored in? 2D would store all the 2D packages, Rendering would cover things like URP and everything that comes along with it. Obviously the line becomes a bit blurry for some (does Hybrid Renderer go under "Rendering" or "DOTS"?) This inconvenience could be eased by reflecting the groups on the Unity packages page and would still be easier for newcomers. Plus, looking for something that could be in 2 different groups is still better than looking in between everything, and the search feature hasn't gone anywhere.
2+. You can also put a favorites group at the top, from @Marc-Saubion suggestion

 

This is fantastic.

 

reading text eg. "installed x.x.x-preview.xx" and package title in package list is a bit more difficult please scale it a bit

 

I just wanted to throw my hat in the ring. I TRIED to like the new UI/UX. But I simply can't. The icons under the package name not only double the package line height (as mentioned many times above), but they also seem to get lost in the package names.. If they were colour-coded, then I guess that would help, but the last incarnation of the UI/UX was significantly easier to read and use. Sorry guys, that's a big NO from me.

 

@VOTRUBEC no for me too 2019.3 had better package manager. they should make some small changes to old one instead

 

And what about the relationship of Packages and Asset Packages (.unitypackage)? Should we pack our assets (materials, models, textures, animations, etc) as Packages now and store on GitHub/GitLab? Or should we pack them as Asset Packages and publish only on Unity Asset Store?

Should we do both?

Is there any plans to Unity ditch out Asset Packages in favor of Packages only?

Thanks!

 

It seems you missed my feedback:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/package-manager-updates-in-2020-1-beta.883390/#post-5860492

https://forum.unity.com/threads/package-manager-updates-in-2020-1-beta.883390/#post-5891678

Any chance you share some thoughts on my feedback?

 

I don't know if this "Preview Packages in Use" button/notification is useful or not; I just want to be able to dismiss it once and for all. Thank you.

https://forum.unity.com/threads/202...notification-in-tool-bar.926507/#post-6066296

 

Same request as @APSchmidt / etc. At the very least the button could stay dismissed until a new preview package was installed. Right now it's super distracting and I'm tired of dismissing it every time I restart the editor.

 

How do I display the list in two lines?
It's very hard to see it now, it's only on one line
(For example, `Timeli...` or `U...`.)

 

^ Make the window bigger?
And I see no reason why timeline is not displayed in full, there is plenty of space

 

Full screen but no change



My enveronment:
Unity 2020.1.0b16.4139
Windows 10 Pro 2004
Display 3840 x 2160 px, Scaling 150%

 

yea that is not right

 

Did you enlarge the list column by dragging its right border?

​

 

yes but no change...

 

Definitely a misconception.

 

Seems like a bug

 

Does having "preview" displayed twice, in the same row, make sense?

 

No it does not make sense, it should be truncated from the package name

 

I'd rather have it truncated from the package manager. Some package versions go from 1.0.0-preview.3 to 1.0.0-preview.4 which is still important information for developers. Plus... why did we 'ever' need a big yellow button saying preview in the first place?

I do see the appeal in using colors to clarify information, but then I think @Marc-Saubion did it best:

 

Yes little icons show all the important info too

 

Hello. I changed the OS Scalling and I found that the package names are displayed correctly at 100% and 200%. At 125% and 175%, it looks like the image I put up before. The problem may only occur when the scaling is not an integer multiple.

 

Since the asset store integration has been completely removed, how are we meant to know that an asset or plugin has an update? The filter option is missing (although the others that I've never, ever used are all present.)

Am I just missing it? I see options for "Download" and "Import".
There's an area for the date it was last updated, but that's really not helpful.

 

Can't see any filter for "Update available" or the "Favorites" button???

 

How do I get a listing of package updates in 2020?

 

Why there is still no ability to multiselect packages and remove them all at once and why there no button for opening manifest file? I think i'm already lost month of my life by navigating to the project packages folder every time when i need manifest

 

If the "Packages: In Project" actually showed all the packages/assets in my project, instead of just the Unity packages in my project, it would be a giant leap forward in functionality for me.

 

It actually does this in my project. Every package I installed through the Package Manager, no matter the vendor, is shown there.



Using Unity 2019.4.9f1.