Just to echo and contrast some of the thoughts here…
I’ve been a Unity user since 2009 and have to say I really like the new prefab workflow, having used it since 2018.3’s full release. Overall, it’s a really nice way to work on something in isolation and share data between similar object types. It’s saved me a lot of scripting work actually, that seems to be one of the bigger benefits for me. The visual feedback for what’s nested, what’s a variant etc. is really clear and good.
However I do want to +1 the point about not being able to view a prefab in the Inspector. I didn’t realise how much this would be a problem until I started using it in my everyday workflow, and it trips me up every time. I understand there are technical barriers, but if you clever folks could find some kind of solution I think that would be very welcome indeed
I went back to 2018.2 because of the extra click needed to see a prefab in the inspector, I don’t understand why this is necessary, can’t the root of the prefab show in the inspector like it used to and then have an extra button to open the entire prefab in the hierarchy?
Also why can’t prefab instances keep their original names, if I rename a master prefab I don’t want to go through all my scenes just to rename all the instances manually, the name link should never be broken unless changed manually in the scene like everything else about a prefab, I had to write a script just to add that functionality but I really don’t understand why this isn’t the default behavior, I’m thinking not enough people work on large scale projects to understand why this is a problem.
Some basic workflow is so horrible yet they are so basic. This is a proof that Unity do not eat their own dogfood. So disappointing why they don’t care about fixing the fundamental workflow, instead, updating the cosmetics. I would be careless about the font and button backgrounds if they can work on fixing the workflow first.
To be honest, Unity employees should try to learn UE4 for a month as a mendatory and they will understand flaws in their own editor.
We do. As a company, we have teams doing internal productions, and several of us as individuals develop games or other projects in Unity on the side. And it’s not like we don’t know there are issues, we are just also under a lot of constraints that mean we can’t do everything that everyone wants.
I would suggest to keep a constructive and respectful tone, and refrain from making ill-advised assumptions and accusations, if you want to maintain a positive and fruitful relationship with us and other people. And please read the Unity Developer Network Rules .
They are doing this more and more, see the FPS example as a good project they made to dogfood. And they are working on a fix, we just have to be a little patient. Its also very encouraging that they are actively participating in this thread and others to get our opinion, and acting on it.
I have to say I’m very frustrated about how whole thing is because I’m working on large size project I’m fully committed and Unity just doen’t behave with large size project.
I found something really frustrating today. I hope someone can help me.
It’s a shame they stuck this in with the new terrain system, if we want to use the new terrain system we have to get stuck with the new prefab system. which is terrible
The new workflow is kind of fine, but the removed functionality is not acceptable IMHO.
In our project we have hundreds of prefabs with thousands of components that can’t adhere to the new workflow. I have to change a parameter of one of the components on 40 of them. Do I have to seriously place them on the scene? The sidebar that shows the button “Open Prefab” is quite infurating. You have the main panel information about the piece you have selected noot being put to use and you’re forced to double click. But again, that is a minor complaint in comparison to not being able to edit multiple prefabs at once.
So feedback:
Add Alt-Up to leave Prefab Mode. File Explorers use it and you’re not on the project explorer, so there would be a good use. That way the flow doesn’t get that interrupted if you get used to double clicking on the prefab and hitting Alt-Up to leave. It would feel almost natural if you don’t want to implement an Inspector on high level prefabs.
You must add back the functionality to multiple edit high level prefabs and apply them all at the same time. Call it that, call it a button to open all of these prefabs in prefab mode all at the same time and do that from there. Minor level implementations are not important to us, but removing high level functionality that helped with fast refactoring entire projects is not acceptable.
To open all those prefabs can just use the shortcuts, no need to drag them into a scene.
Similar with the closing, just have to read up all the posts to find the answer you look for
Related to your actual issue: you can stay in 2018.2 with your project, depends a lot on your requirements.
If you do move to 2018.3, it will be a world of pain It might have been better to have new prefab system come out with 2019.1 and have improved prefab free 2018.LTS (or what ever long term support is called from them).
But WHEN you move to 2018.3 you can’t stick with your 2018.2 prefab scripts nor with your prefab design flow. The improved prefab changes how you should think about a prefab.
In you example every time you want to change component on 40 prefabs you should investigate to turn the prefab the component is on as a nested prefab or if very small differences between all those 100 prefabs, you need to work with the variants system…
The new system is far from perfect, but nowhere near as bad as you might think. It took me about 3-4 weeks of work with loads of forum posts to get proper understanding of new system and will spend next 3-4 weeks (or more) spreading the knowledge to the team
I think 2018.4 LTS would be better without these prefab changes. HDRP etc. etc. are going through long Preview programs, to only be finalised sometime in 2019, why not prefabs?
I agree with an above poster that 2019.1 is the best place for the new prefab system, so that all of the issues can be worked out over the next year.
The new system is just not intuitive and is a step backwards. I would be very happy to see improvements made once the Unity team are back from their Xmas break though.
While we’re waiting for an official solution, here is a workaround. This inspector overrides the current prefab importer editor, and allows you to see and edit values like before. It even supports multi select much like the regular inspector, and custom editors work nicely too. I also added the Open prefab button at the bottom.
The differences are that editing values causes a reimport and reload, and that the headers are a bit different, though with some more editor scripting you can make this the same as well.
Here is a little demo:
FlakyThunderousAstrangiacoral
Code here, just drop this in an Editor folder. Or use the attached unitypackage.
When I originally installed Unity 4.0 and discovered that nesting in prefabs isn’t supported it was a complete shock for me. So I waited for that feature for all those years. I’ve upgraded my project to 2018.3 as soon as it came out, so I had the time to work with new prefabs. Currently I hate new prefab workflow so much, that I’m willing to abandon the idea of nested prefabs altogether if it means getting back old workflow benefits. New workflow creates need for so much more clicks and actions. So much time is spend opening and closing prefab editor mode. Editing prefabs now not only consumes more time, but more importantly makes whole process much more annoying and unpleasant. It’s like using text editor that displays what you have typed with 1 second delay.
I thought I will get used to it by now, because you do have some ability to edit prefab in the scene and apply those setting using overrides, but I didn’t. And I still feel like old workflow was much more smooth and fast.
Perhaps I need to give it more time. I just recently find out that you can open prefab using “P” key even when child is selected. I definitely should bind it to my mouse and start using it.
Update: I wish P would also save changes and close prefab view. Unfortunately I also noticed that if I move camera using RMB or if I close Prefab Mode by clicking on scene in the top, P no longer opens prefab editor view
I would say RMB and clicking the scene no longer set the prefab as actively selected and that is why P doesn’t work… similar as if you click in the scene arrow up and arrow down no longer work to move up and down hierarchy/project.
I would suggest to go for the double click on the prefab to open if you lost focus on hierarchy or project. There is also a keybinding to close the prefab mode, needs to be configured.
Stage/Enter Prefab Mode <= to enter prefab mode (so can change from the P if you want
Stage/Go Back <= to leave prefab mode (most likely traverse the prefab mode hierarchy backwards if you went down a tree of prefabs, I have noticed in 2018.3 it is currently set to O
Thanks for the info. I did find exit prefab mode keybinding, bind it to my mouse and I’m actively using it. Right now the problem is that when I select prefab in a scene view and hit P, nothing happens. Basically if hierarchy not the last window I clicked P doesn’t work, that’s the problem.
If someone is able to figure it out perhaps it is possible to write a scripts that when you use specific button it could select hierarchy window and trigger open prefab mode function. Unfortunately it’s beyond my skill level. If it was possible to select Hierarchy with a key I could write mouse script to get this results, but it seems that it is not possible to select hierarchy window with keybinding.
And I should do that while convincing everyone in my team to change their workflow too? I should also convince my boss about doing that? Having this kind of inheritance approach at building assets is cool in theory, but creates a rally big barrier of entry to even start to get productive. I shouldn’t be supposed to put many hours of effort because Unity has decided to remove functionality.
I’m very welcome if you can show me some shorcuts that would put all of those in a scene.
Dude, thanks a lot !
We just upgraded because this new version fixed a bug we had and couldn’t really work around and now this …
We’re consistently checking prefabs, comparing, editing and whatnot. It’s not possible for us to keep doing that with the current version of Unity.
I really hope the solution you provide (or anything that allows prefab Inspector editing from the Project window) will get officially integrated into the next version.
Thanks for the time saving.
It might have been better to have new prefab system come out with 2019.1 and have improved prefab free 2018.LTS (or what ever long term support is called from them).
