Will Unity Hub Become Forced In the Future?

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It's such a vast improvement to the existing situation I'm not really sure why people would not want to adopt it.

 

I doubt it'll be the same way.

 

There's really no evidence that Unity Hub is similar to Unreal Launcher's (agreed) unprofessional bloatyness. It would be silly to expect them to actually confirm that their intention is to increase the bloat of the hub anyway.

The only similarity between the two today is that they can both launch their editor(s), however Unity's offering is significantly more streamlined in comparison to Unreal's system.

Hub is for Opening existing projects, Creating new projects and selecting versions to do those two things with. That's pretty much it. UL does way more and has a much larger scope that has lead to undesirable bloat.

 

The primary reason Hub exists is because it was very cumbersome to install and manage different Unity versions and projects. Time will tell, but I doubt it will bloat.

 

Because some people work in a team, where every person must use the same Unity version.

Having 20 people install the same version via HUB by hand, is more error prone than just one person downloading the correct setup files and use these for deployment.

 

I work in a team, and it feels like an improvement to us. Now instead of managing all these different versions and not being sure which install to run - the Hub does it for us. It's less error prone this way.

 

I really don't want the hub. Hope it's not mandatory. Control freak signing out.

 

I can’t imagine it being mandatory. The apps a still separate and somehow combining them can’t be of any benefit. It’s a nice convenience when it works.

 

Can't see it becoming mandatory soon, but I've used both Unity Hub and Unity only, and here's my thoughts:

I think it's fantastic, and not bloaty at all. You know how in normal Unity, you launch Unity, then click on your project? In Unity Hub, it's the exact same, no extra steps. You launch Unity Hub, then click on your project. You can even access the Learn tab, just like in normal Unity. The only difference is that it's a separate app, and you can manage your Unity versions from there.

Personally, I don't see it as bloaty because... well, it's basically exactly the same. No extra steps. Just additional functionality. That's unlike the Epic Launcher, where they keep all their games, mods, engine and marketplace in the same launcher. I don't see Unity selling games soon though, so I don't think that will happen.

But hey, maybe you just like downloading Unity from your browser instead of from a hub! That works too, I don't mind or judge.

 

I never had any problem with UE4 Launcher and i find it lore more practical than having to uninstall and download a Unity version and install it.
With a launcher you know what games uses what version, you can install , update or uninstall any version any time, it's very simple to manage your 3D engines and game versions this way.

 

For now, I am not bought into Hub, so I keep away as well.
I may get convinced at some point, but as of yet, don't see for me personal significant benefits.

 

I love the Hub. We always have 3 versions of Unity installed, Production version, dev version and migration version.

Right now production is on 2017.3.x something, dont remember, dev is on 2017.4.9 and migration version is on 2018.2.5

Before the Hub this was a pain

 

Epic has one major distinction from Unity. They have software products other than just their engine. Unity only has Unity.

 

The reason I don't use it because it makes the path to unity variable per version instead of constant so context menu, which should be built in anwY is broke each ver

 

I use it as an easy way to manage installs, but I launch the app normally. I’ve had some weird application focus issues if I launch from the hub.

 

Today is the first time i've heard about the Hub, will it act as an updater for Unity as well. I hate dowloading the whole package every patch.

 

I hope not.

I haven't even tried it because I haven't seen managing Unity installs as a problem needing a solution. I deal with a few different versions, launch the correct version, open project, done. I'm sure the situation can be more complex for other people though.

 

My issue with Hub is a complete lack of caring about resource usage. For what it does, it's completely out of line and until/if they fix that, hell no I don't want it on my system.

 

That and the asset store. Its not unusual for Unity to push the asset store in unwelcome places.

 

I suppose, It will be like Steam with equivalent goal. In the end, their are business.

 

For my current project this is very much the case. I don't want the hub right now because it would be an extra thing and an extra step with little benefit. (I assume it could be handy when we're trialling a Unity update.)

The last team I worked in, however, often had multiple projects on the go at once, each started in a different version of Unity. Back then we'd have loved something like the Hub. I'd also love it if I were doing contract work right now, for the same reason.

Having it there as an option is great. I agree with the sentiment that I don't want it to become a bloated advertising space. I'm not overly concerned about whether or not it becomes mandatory as long as it's nice and light.

 

Any decent size development team has their own software library you install stuff from. Having employees download direct from vendors always ends up being problematic. Tools like Hub just add more things that can go wrong, which people like me that are usually in charge of this kind of thing end up having to spend time on to unravel mistakes.

Which is why for even relatively small teams, I create our own library.

 

Once you add hundreds of devs, sure.

For a team of half a dozen or so, Unity Hub is ideal.

 

The projectversion file is versioned by git so you will get a prompt if you are on the wrong version.

 

Indeed, and in the event someone does manage to make hash of things (it would require some effort to do that), you can just roll back thier changes. With the added benefit of giving them crap for it for years to come!

 

Yepp And if they by mistake go from 2017 to 2018 the hundreds of changed files should be a clue not to commit

edit: I always get amazed by how many that "cowboy commit". Just commit without checking the changes. I check every file in most cases. And I even revert changed lines that have no impact to remove some noise if I later go back and look at the git log.

 

It's not about opening the project with the wrong version.

I was saying, if you need to deploy the same development environment to 20 different people, it's easier to have a tech person to prepare all the required setup files, store them on your server and people must install from there. This ensures everybody on the team uses the same configuration which was approved by that tech guy.

 

I worked at a bank, all software was approved by the IT department than repacked and distributed. I remember the Chrome version being one year behind the version on the net. It was even a bug in the version we had that I had to work around, it was fixed in the online version

Yeah, maybe Hub is not for enterprise sized business. We are two devs works perfect and since we always have 3 versions installed of Unity and we are quick on the ball to update its really nice to have the tool.

They could do like nuget that you can define your own source for the tool, so IT can manage their own Unity repo

 

The benefits kick in even with relatively small teams. Team size amplifies the value but generally I create our own library after the 2nd to 3rd hire. You could quibble over exactly where the break even point is, but it's not nearly as much as you think.

 

What exactly is the use case where you foresee it creating more issues than it solves?

It's specifically intended for when you need multiple versions of Unity installed anyway, right? So we're already talking about cases where having a single, fixed version to install isn't enough.

I do agree with maintaining your own library being a good idea, I just don't think that's solving the same problems that Hub is meant to solve.

 

Before hub we managed it ourself, made sure to install Unity to named locatin like Unity54 etc. It was a pain. And LTS release almost every week so its alot of updates these days

 

Hub manages multiple versions with way more complexity then is needed as it also has other goals. Lots of vendors have tools like Hub and most of the time they just don't provide the value given that they are constantly sitting there sucking up resources. Hub specifically I doubt they will fix that given the underlying tech.

It uses it's own decision process for how things are updated and where it puts them. Maybe you want patches to override the last patch, maybe you don't. Maybe you want that sometimes based on internal reasons. Maybe you want a naming scheme that is completely different, to make it obvious which unity version goes with what internal project. Plus it doesn't let you customize installations.

I have nothing against hub per say other then it's resource usage. It just doesn't provide a lot of value for professionals that already use Unity. From everything I have seen it's more focused on new users.

 

Yupp, maintaining 3 versions of the game is something all new users are doing

 

Hub is ridiculously easy to use. I'm not really seeing any of the arguments about it on that front holding any weight.

 

I think their focus was more on easily linking Unity versions to projects.

 

Which is a requirement if you are maintaining alot of versions. It must be a god send for Asset store artists that need to support everything from Unity 5.x to 2018.x

 

So I just downloaded it and tried it. Its great.

I do a lot of freelancing for random clients. Normally the clients determine what version of Unity a project is in.

My previous workflow was "Open the launcher --> Realize I opened the wrong launcher --> Locate the correct launcher --> Launch the project".

My current workflow is "Open Unity hub --> Launch the project".

It saves me about 15 seconds of frustration on each project. I have limited reserves of frustration available, I prefer to save it for useful work.

 

And back to the maintenance for IT people thing, as the fellow who used to do that maintenance I'd have liked something to handle getting this to happen nicely.

Yes, by the sounds if it Hub would have necessitated a change in some processes. But it also would have removed the problems that forced us to put those processes in place to begin with. That's a win.

 

I didn't like the idea of Hub... until I actually started using it. Now I use it all the time and find it simplifies managing my multiple projects/installs. I only wish I could designate specific install folders when it downloads Unity releases. (or maybe I can and just missed the setting?)

 

Thanks @superpig I meant I would like to be given the choice of where to install when/everytime I download a new version. But I'm probably alone in wanting that. It's just my control-freak tendencies chaffing against the automation/convenience Hub provides. Overall I think Hub is great.

 

I've been using it for a couple of months and I really like it, as how other have said it makes managing versions and opening projects way easier. The only thing I wish we could do with it is download older version of Unity since I really like the option that it includes when you download a version from the hub for adding components.

(I don't mean old like Unity 4 or any other non supported version, but the ones that you could download once like 2017.3, 2018.2.1, etc.)

 

As someone who has to deal with 3-4 versions of unity for various projects from several teams for his day job, it's a godsend. I've done a lot of build engineering with unity for previous work in the past and having to juggle that was an actual pain point.

For my day job we have the following versions:
* Our team's main product is still on 5.5.2. We're in the process of migrating it to 2017.4.X as soon as our current main push is done.
* The UX design team is on 2017.3, and all of their sample asset packages are in that version.
* One of our other product teams that I sometimes interface with is on 2017.2, they'll be migrating to 2017.4 later.
* R&D is already on 2018.2, and I'm on the same with my nights and weekends game project.

If you're a contractor with multiple clients on different versions the problem is even worse.

I do see the concern other users have and hope the hub stays just a hub for projects, however.

 

Christ the hub is a PITA. Constantly wanting to be updated and now shoving utterly useless junk in my face.

Did Unity just get some funding from LEGO by any chance? I assume there's a reason Unity is now pushing irrelevant junk to my desktop?

 

That's a necropost.

Your experience does not match mine. Dealing with multiple unity versions is now extremely easy. Click and forget pretty much.

 

This

I was someone who was somewhat against using the Hub, and I pretty much avoided the entire 2019.x release cycle because of it. But I reluctantly ended up liking the thing in the end.

My only cautionary advice is to avoid installing any Hub beta test version on a machine you need to actually get work done.

 

Wow, it's been 3 years since Unity Hub has been out? Time flies!