Programs other than Microsoft visual studio for unity

Are there any free, full version scripting programs that can work in/with unity besides Microsoft products?

I'm using windows, not mac.

 

I don't know if you can still use monodevelop with unity, you could use it for sure, but I don't know about the hook in with unity with plugin/debugging anymore as it's no longer bundled.. it was fairly good imo and some ways better than visual studio, shame it never got the improvements it needed.

Jetbrains Rider, though its not 'free', unlike Jetbrains Intellij which has a community edition and is pretty much same IDE with same 'issues' only for Java.

 

No, but there is an alternative to Visual Studio from Microsoft. Visual Studio Code has the same name as the full IDE but it's not the same product. It's a fancy text editor that can integrate with Unity and provide the same debugging and API autocompletion functionality as a normal IDE. It's extremely fast too. I highly recommend it.

https://code.visualstudio.com/
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/other/unity

Alternatively if you're willing to make a small one-time purchase there is a solution on the Asset Store. Script Inspector 3 provides the same functionality as an IDE but is integrated directly into Unity.

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/visual-scripting/script-inspector-3-3535

You can continue using it but it won't have the full scripting environment functionality that it used to for the very reason you stated. It no longer has the necessary code to hook itself up to Unity. There will be no debugging support at all and I'm fairly certain the API autocompletion won't function either.

 

Thanks guys, still want the whole "free" thing though that does not involve Microsoft. I tried their route and they lied about the "free" licence and started asking for my blood type and if I had any small children. So please no Microsoft stuff.

 

You're going to have to compromise on one of those requirements. You can very easily get free IDEs but all of them will be from Microsoft (Microsoft owns Xamarin now so Mono Develop is Microsoft too). You can very easily avoid Microsoft but none of the alternatives available will be free. Choose one or the other. You can't have both.

 

for what purpose do you want to avoid a product made or owned by Microsoft. Microsoft are the ones that created C# and the .net runtime used by it as a result they make the best free tools for it. Visual Studio Community is free for small teams and VS Code is completely free to use.

Aside from those 2 products the only other good ide i can think of for C# is Rider, but that costs money

 

MIT license too. You can't get much more free than that.

https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/blob/master/LICENSE.txt

 

They didn't lie about anything. Visual Studio Community is free if you're below the license threshold which you most likely are unless you own a mid sized business with multiple employees. However, you still have to use a Microsoft account to access it. VS Code is also free and requires no registration or account.

 

I was going to suggest just writing code in a text editor. But then I realized notepad was also a Microsoft product.

Trying to avoid Mircosoft while working in computers is like trying to avoid Nitrogen while breathing. It might be possible. But its probably not worth the effort.

 

Is the objection here that you don't want a Microsoft account, @aldrnari7635? There are plenty of non-Microsoft programming IDEs. The catch in this particular scenario is that C# is a Microsoft-specific technology.

I'm afraid that if you want something for free you're limiting your options.

 

Get a Jetbrains Rider subscription. Around $9.99 a month and the best code editor for Unity right now IMO.

I know its not free but if you're a programmer you really should be able to spend a little money each month if it makers you more productive.

 

I don't know where you get 9.99 for a Rider, it's more like 5x that here.. and for an editor that has the worst F'n tab bar implementation barring VScode which also has a S*** tab bar implementation.. I wouldn't pay dirt for it.

 

You're most likely looking at the business cost. Individuals pay far less both per month and per year.

https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/buy/#edition=personal

There are discounts for companies that have been in business for less than three years.

https://www.jetbrains.com/shop/eform/startup

There is a fallback perpetual license as soon as you pay for twelve consecutive months.

https://sales.jetbrains.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207240845-What-is-perpetual-fallback-license-

Since Visual Studio Code is open source you can just alter the implementation. It's likely easy too considering it's basically HTML/CSS/JavaScript under the hood with a lightweight browser to run it.

 

Fine, Notepad your life away then...

 

Did you try Sublime Text? I think it can work with C#

 

Your Windows OS is a Microsoft product
C# is a Microsoft product
DirectX 11 is a Microsoft product
.Net Framework is a Microsoft product
Mono is effectively a Microsoft product

You're already waist deep into Microsoft land. I'd just hold your nose and install the "free as in free beer" Visual Studio Code.

 

Notepad is a Microsoft editor.... He'll need to go with vim or something