Improved workflow
The new Prefab workflows, which are available in Unity 2018.3, allow you to split up Prefabs on a granular level. This gives you greater flexibility, increases your productivity and enables you to work confidently without worrying about making time-consuming errors.
The improvements are based on surveys with more than 150 enterprise customers, numerous interviews, several usability tests and two game jams. The long-term goal has been not only to implement support for nesting, but to rethink the core Prefab workflows so different team members can simultaneously edit Prefabs confidently and efficiently.
Nesting
Greater flexibility
Previously, you were forced to choose between creating large monolithic Prefabs, like buildings, or more granular ones, like pieces of furniture, but you couldn't do both.
Now with support for nested Prefabs, a large building can be made up of many smaller room Prefabs, which in turn can be made up of multiple pieces of furniture Prefabs, and so on.
Productivity booster
This makes it easier for teams of all sizes to:
- Split up Prefabs into multiple entities for greater efficiency
- Reuse any content, from small to large
- Work on different parts of content simultaneously
Prefab Variants
Flexible properties increase efficiency
As a default, a Prefab Variant inherits the objects and properties of the Prefab it is a variant of, but at the same time, you have the possibility both to override those properties and to add additional components and GameObjects. This is similar to the concept of inheritance in object-oriented programming.
For example, if you have a door Prefab, you can create a Variant of it and assign it a different mesh and material to make it look old and broken. Any change made to the base door Prefab will affect the Variant, so for instance you can easily tweak the size of the Collider for both doors by changing the base.
Prefab Mode
Avoid time-consuming mistakes
A cornerstone of the new workflows, Prefab Mode enables you to edit Prefabs in isolation.
Being able to edit an entire Prefab Asset without having to instantiate it in the scene or edit an existing instance means you can avoid mistakes related to accidentally applying overrides in the scene that shouldn't have been applied. Having editing of instances and asset as separate things lets you make your changes with confidence.
Watch our official Unite and GDC talks
Introducing the New Prefab Workflow GDC 2019
In this shorter session, recorded at GDC 2019, we give you a quick introduction about Prefabs in Unity 2019. Technical evangelist Ciro Continisio explains all the major aspects of our new Prefab workflow (for example, Nesting, Variants, and Prefab Isolation Edit mode). He'll also tell you about the new UI/UX elements and the reasoning behind them.
Unite LA 2018 - Introducing the New Prefab Workflow
Seasoned game developer and technical evangelist Ciro Continisio explain all the major aspects of our new Prefab workflow (e.g., Nesting, Variants, Prefab Isolation Edit mode). He'll also tell you about the new UI/UX elements and the reasoning behind them.
Unite LA 2018 - Technical deep dive into the new Prefab system
Take a dive deep into the new prefab features with Unity developer Steen Lund. What's the inside versus outside of a prefab? How does it relate to Prefab mode, overrides, unpacking, and prefab variants? How has the new prefab back-end changed? This session will give you a better understanding of the Prefab system, the pros and cons of various implementation decisions, and some Aha moments working with Prefab nesting.
Unite LA 2018 - Improved Prefab Workflows for UI: The New Way to Work with Prefabs
In this session, Nikoline, user experience designer for Prefabs, will introduce you to Prefab nesting, Prefab mode and Prefab Variants. She will show how to use the Prefab workflows to build a UI in Unity. Learn how and why the Prefab system was changed, how to use the new workflows and tips and resources to get started.
Unite Berlin 2018 - Improved Prefab Workflow
The new improvements to prefab workflows will give you much more flexibility when building projects. Among other things, this video covers editing prefabs in Prefab mode, the ability to nest prefabs, and how to create prefab variants.
Unite Berlin 2018 - Technical Deep Dive into the New Prefab System
Take a dive deep into the new prefab features. What's the inside versus outside of a prefab? How does it relate to Prefab mode, overrides, unpacking, and prefab variants? How has the new prefab back-end changed? This session will give you a better understanding of the Prefab system, the pros and cons of various implementation decisions, and some aha moments working with Prefab nesting.
Unite Berlin 2018 - Roadmap
Dive into Unity's roadmap for future features and enhancements in the 2018 cycle. From our Next-Level Rendering to C# Job System, Machine Learning, new platforms, and much more. You’ll learn when you can expect new features and functionality to be released and also have the opportunity to ask questions.