I’d go further and say it has become a real poop sandwich, especially with unwanted crappo packages we don’t want or ask for, yet we must wait for Unity to download, compile, etc.
This horrible product decision is actively screwing Unity’s newest users, who I’m sure often just give up.
Here’s how I create new projects, which is a horribly convoluted and fragile process, but because I’m familiar it works every time:
- create a project folder
- create folders under it for Assets, ProjectSettings and Packages
- put the following manifest.json into Packages.
Tell hub to open it.
An ULTRA-stripped down crapware-free manifest.json file:
{
"dependencies": {
"com.unity.package-manager-ui": "2.0.8",
"com.unity.modules.ai": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.animation": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.assetbundle": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.audio": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.cloth": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.director": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.imageconversion": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.imgui": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.jsonserialize": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.particlesystem": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.physics": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.physics2d": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.screencapture": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.terrain": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.terrainphysics": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.tilemap": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.ui": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.uielements": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.umbra": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.unityanalytics": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.unitywebrequest": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.unitywebrequestassetbundle": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.unitywebrequestaudio": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.unitywebrequesttexture": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.unitywebrequestwww": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.vehicles": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.video": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.vr": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.wind": "1.0.0",
"com.unity.modules.xr": "1.0.0"
}
}
You would likely edit the above manifest.json as you decide you do or do not want various packages. Here’s more of my mad feverish scribblings on this infuriating process:
Extra unwanted packages in new projects (collab, testing, rider and other junk):
https://discussions.unity.com/t/846703/2
Another way is to make a project and avoid all this noise is to create the project, then as soon as you see the files appear, FORCE-STOP (hard-kill) Unity (with the Activity Manager or Task Manager), then go hand-edit the Packages/manifest.json file as outlined in the above, then reopen Unity.