How to create new Visual Studio solution outside of Unity?

Hi everyone, I’ve scoured the forums to no avail… on to my question.

So, I’d like to be able to work on scripts for Unity without actually firing up the engine, and going through all the hoops to start a new project. So I have a few questions in relation to Visual Studio integration with Unity. Note, I’ve installed the Unity Editor with my installation of visual studio. Also, I have about a year’s worth of school experience with Visual Studio.

How can I create a new Unity solution in Visual Studio without firing up Unity and starting it from there? When trying add references to Unity libraries, they’re not available for selection when adding references. There’s also no option in Visual Studio to start a new Unity based project. How can I start a Unity Project directly from Visual Studio?

Also, I’d really like to work on scripts from VS Code, but couldn’t find a direct way to get any sort of Unity Intellisense in VS Code. Is there a way to do this? As far as I can tell, Unity doesn’t directly need a full VS solution, correct? It just needs the scripts? Or am I missing something here.

Thank you all for your time. I hope someone can help me with these questions.

You can try this:

  • open a Unity project and its code in VS,
  • go to Project/Export Template…/Project template,
  • use the template in new projects in VS.