File locations for asset storage

This may not be in the right forum: please move it as needed.

When I add a sphere to my project, where does that sphere get stored in the project files?

Thanks

Jon

Like the default sphere into a scene? That would get serialised into the scene itself.

Otherwise, your project files is more or less a representation of the file layout on your computer.

All your game’s assets are stored in the Assets/ subfolder from your project.

When you start the project, you are given a mostly-empty Scene asset. When you File > Save that Scene, it becomes a file with your chosen name and the extension .unity is added.

Next to the Scene view, you will see another tab called Hierarchy. Everything you list in the Hierarchy will be saved as an entry in the current Scene’s asset file. So if you made your sphere with GameObject > 3D Object > Sphere, that’s where it will be saved. Any materials or other details you add are saved along with it.

If you imported some other asset, like a spherical mesh model from some other editor application such as Blender, then that asset will also be somewhere in your Assets/ subfolder with whatever original filename you had. For example, MyAmazingSphericalModel.fbx could be such a model. Then if you made your sphere by dragging MyAmazingSphericalModel into the Scene, then your Hierarchy will have an object and the resulting Scene’s asset file will have an invisible link reference to the MyAmazingSphericalModel.fbx as well.