FYI: We are currently investigating different options for showing the root GameObject in the Inspector for Prefab Assets.
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Thats great to hear, thanks! We will probably postpone updating until this is added, because right now it just adds too much to our workflow.
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Thanks for the consideration. It will be very important for us too.
While you are revisiting, is it possible to have prefab editing in a separate custom window(like Mesh Preview window) instead of replacing the scene view? It’s really weird that it has to work in scene view and you might want to see how the changes in the prefab affect the scene while editing. Right now to see the changes, you will have to go back and forth between each edit and it seems pretty annoying.
While you are editing in the custom window, you can lock the prefab so that you can only save it from the custom window or there may be some better ways.
Thanks
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Also I think it’s time to release some educational material on the subject, why is it a bad idea to hide problems with assets in prefabs (scene editing) and why it is more beneficial having properly set up prefab-hierarchy instead of mass editing countless different prefabs.
It seems people could use the information.
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This would be fantastic! To be able to see the changes in the normal scene view, plus a separate prefab-specific window. It would be the best of both worlds.
I think to use Unity well, you need at least two monitors, and I’m even considering adding a third small one for the team.
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Please see the FAQ:
https://discussions.unity.com/t/724829
Why do’t you simply add an auto open prefab option for the project prefabs selection. It would do the job and it doesn’t make sense to show an empty inspector window anyway.
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There are many reasons to select a Prefab without wanting to open it. You might want to duplicate or delete it, look at the visual preview, or make a Prefab Variant from it.
However, you can open a Prefab Asset simply by double-clicking on it or pressing P.
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That’s good to know, thanks. 
I just came here to ask, how do I edit multiple prefabs? I have a set of 50 nearly identical prefabs that I want to change one thing on the collider for. Do I really need to double-click, change the setting, then save each and every one? And what about the next thing I want to add later? I have to do it all again?
This is one thing that got impacted by the new back-end design changes. When you want to edit a lot of objects, your best bet is to instantiate them all, select all the instances, multi-edit those, and choose Apply All in the Overrides dropdown. We added support for using the Overrides dropdown with multi-editing specifically to make sure this is at least possible.
Is this what you referring to?
It feels like a dejavue happened ~10 years ago. In a nutshell, the question was, “why is Prefab workflow so inconvenient?” The answer was, “it is deliberately designed inconvenient so that user doesn’t make mistake by accident”
Wow! It took ~10 years to get here but it hardly changed. What a lame excuse. If a user makes a mistake, he will have to learn but Unity needs to stop this nonsense. Have you seen how UE Blueprint works? They have a custom editor, works isolated and I haven’t heard user complaining making a mistake.
You can lock prefab down when you are in prefab editing mode. If the prefab is in the scene with changes, it will display a warning that any changes to prefab will overwrite the changes in the scene. If the user doesn’t want to overwrite the changes, he will first have to save the changes before going into the edit mode.
PLEASE SUPPORT MORE CUSTOM EDITORS AND DON’T PUT EVERYTHING INTO A SINGLE WINDOW!
I’m really sick and tired of going back and forth.
Thanks.
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I guess just making sure the root gameobject of the prefab is by default the thing shown in inspector on click will make old and new people happy (+ multi edit the root prefab)
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i hated nested prefabs. i used to be able to load a bunch of shit in my scene, adjust something on the main asset and everything would update accordingly. now I have to go to every single instance of the asset to change it? and I can’t disable it? who thought this was a good idea?
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Weird, this should work in 2018.3 as before.
Maybe your prefabs in the scene have some overridden values?
I’m guessing the other way around. I think he has a ton of separated prefabs with the same stuff on them instead of the one prefab root with a lot of overrides (so he wouldn’t use the multi-edit for the not overridden values but he would edit the value on the base prefab).
Is there a specific reason why Unity didn’t make nested prefabs an additional thing, instead of replacing a whole workflow and in some parts making it worse?
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Is there a way to CLOSE the Asset again, or do we really have to click on that tiny “<” in the Hierarchy (or the nearly as tiny, inconveniently placed “Scenes” in the Scene view) every time?
In the preferences you can set up a shortcut key for “Stage > Go Back”.
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No, this was a reply to the question “is it possible to have prefab editing in a separate custom window” and I was referring to the FAQ entry
Can we get the ability to simultaneously have a Scene view in Prefab Mode and one that shows the scene(s)?
This is a common request and something that has been much on our minds. The functionality couldn’t make it for the initial release but we’d love to look into it for a future release.
With regard to the text you quoted:
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.
This text is comparing Prefab Mode to editing Prefab instances, not Prefab Assets. And if you do prefer to edit via Prefab instances, you can still do that via Apply All in the overrides window and the other apply options. This is completely separate from the discussion about editing Prefab Assets.
I’m not sure which inconvenience you’re talking about here.
With the Prefabs in 2018.3 we put the Apply All button inside the Overrides window where you can see what’s overridden. This could be argued to be slightly more inconvenient but it’s to avoid the kind of mistakes you mention. We’ve had very positive feedback about this; it has solve many of the anxieties that many people had with using Apply before.
We also let you edit Prefabs in Prefab Mode. If you’re comparing this to editing Prefabs in a separate window, then I’m not sure I understand why the current Prefab Mode is more inconvenient than that? But in any case like I quoted above, being able to open Prefab Mode in a separate window is something we would have liked to do; it was just out of scope.
If it’s about the issue with not being able to edit Prefab Assets directly in the Inspector, then the argument for that is not that it’s a design decision, but that it was due to technical implementation details, like the FAQ states. And like Mads wrote in this very thread:
This wouldn’t even be needed since changes in the scene are done as overrides and are merged with changes you make to the asset. I don’t know why you think it was a deliberate design decision to not allow you to have both open at the same time; please reread the FAQ again.
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